Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb, and this is the
Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow
Speaker 2: Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time.
Speaker 2: This is going to be another special Omnibus episode, this
Speaker 2: time collecting the four most recent Marvel Comics creatures, monsters
Speaker 2: characters that I've profiled here on the show. So buckle
Speaker 2: in because first up, we're going to consider Swarm. I'd
Speaker 2: like to briefly return to the world of Marvel Comics
Speaker 2: to discuss a rather unique supervillain, Swarm, as described in
Speaker 2: the book Monsters Creatures of the Marvel Universe, explored by
Speaker 2: Kelly Knox. Swarm is just your average former Nazi scientist
Speaker 2: and acupuncturists consume owned by a swarm of radioactive bees
Speaker 2: at a meteorite crash, transforming him into a sentient swarm
Speaker 2: of bees. He manifests as a man shaped swarm with
Speaker 2: stylish purple gloves and a ragged purple cape. The character
Speaker 2: dates back to nineteen seventy seven, created by Bill Mantillo
Speaker 2: and John Byrne in the pages of the Champions and
Speaker 2: I think it's safe to assume that this one was
Speaker 2: inspired by the old suit of bees stunt as well
Speaker 2: as the curious properties of you social bees, because that's
Speaker 2: the really interesting thing about the whole proposition here. The
Speaker 2: former Fritz von Meyer, again now known as Swarm, is
Speaker 2: said to exert control over the bees, and his consciousness
Speaker 2: is shared among the thousands of bees that make up
Speaker 2: his bee bod. It's a fantastic concept, but it also
Speaker 2: touches on the fact that bees do exert a form
Speaker 2: of emergence intelligence and are often discussed as a super
Speaker 2: organism and as a cognitive entity. Swarms exhibit properties that
Speaker 2: are not shared by the individual organism, but are rather
Speaker 2: exhibited by the larger group, such as the ability of
Speaker 2: a beehive to thermoregulate. Is pointed out by a Cadame
Speaker 2: at All in of Biofilms and Beehives, published in the
Speaker 2: journal Biofilm in twenty twenty two. When temperatures drop, bees
Speaker 2: move in closer to better share their heat with adult
Speaker 2: bees on the outside, shivering to reduce additional heat, and
Speaker 2: then moving into the interior of the mass to warm
Speaker 2: younger bees that lack the ability. As the title of
Speaker 2: the paper implies the authors compare bee swarms to biofilms,
Speaker 2: multicellular communities of bacteria or fungi. Marvel Swarm kind of
Speaker 2: stands as an attempt to take the inhuman intelligence of
Speaker 2: bees and put it in a human wrapping, something that
Speaker 2: is fantastic and certainly fun, but in a strange way
Speaker 2: a little easier to fathom. While it's impossible to truly
Speaker 2: know what it is to be another organism, much less
Speaker 2: a honey bee or a swarm of honey bees, fantastic
Speaker 2: treatments such as swarm allow us to imagine our way
Speaker 2: a little bit closer to the reality. All right, Next
Speaker 2: on the list, puff Adder. I recently picked up a
Speaker 2: kind of ragged copy of the Official Handbook of the
Speaker 2: Marvel Universe, Master Edition from I believe nineteen ninety, though
Speaker 2: this also might have been a reprint from years later.
Speaker 2: I'm not entirely certain, but it's filled with various Marvel characters,
Speaker 2: from the famous to the obscure, each with profile data
Speaker 2: and standardized character illustrations in this kind of glorious retro style.
Speaker 2: Amid all the capes and tights, and there are a
Speaker 2: lot of tights, there are some gloriously weird entries in
Speaker 2: the book. There's the spiky faced skeleton man terror Ink,
Speaker 2: with his ability to steal limbs and attach them to
Speaker 2: his own body. I was also fascinated by Quasu Modo
Speaker 2: or Quasi Motivational destruct Organism. He is a super powered
Speaker 2: cyborg hunchback, and presumably he's quite motivational. But in this episode,
Speaker 2: I want to focus in on the villain puff Adder
Speaker 2: real name Gordo Freeley and apparently a native of Atlanta. Physically,
Speaker 2: he appears to be a very large, muscular man in
Speaker 2: a snake costume. He is a mutant in the Marvel comics,
Speaker 2: with the ability to engorge his entire epidermis with blood,
Speaker 2: thus making himself appear more powerful and menacing. Now, he's
Speaker 2: already a very capable fighter with enhanced strength, but it's
Speaker 2: curious that his mutant ability doesn't seem to actually boost
Speaker 2: his fighting power in the way that many other mutant
Speaker 2: powers do. Instead, it just allows him to better bluff
Speaker 2: and better intimidate. Oh and he also has another weapon,
Speaker 2: a noxious gas canister in the mouth like cowl of
Speaker 2: his snake mask. His namesake is, of course, the puff
Speaker 2: At or Snake consisting of several species native to Africa
Speaker 2: in parts of the Saudi Arabian Peninsula. The snake in
Speaker 2: question is able to puff itself up to look larger
Speaker 2: as a predator deterrent, and it does this by inflating
Speaker 2: its body with air and then hissing loudly. And like
Speaker 2: the Marvel character, the snake can also back up that threat.
Speaker 2: It packs a powerful venomous bite, and the force of
Speaker 2: its strikes alone is enough to kill small prey. Various
Speaker 2: natural world creatures make themselves look bigger as a defensive
Speaker 2: or mating display. Some the imposturing or the manipulation of
Speaker 2: fur or feathers, while others actually inflate tissues with air, water,
Speaker 2: or blood. These actions also frequently enhance the colors or
Speaker 2: patterns of such a display as well. While Gordo's mutant
Speaker 2: ability may appear at first to buck the general theme
Speaker 2: we see in comic book Superpowers, it's certainly in keeping
Speaker 2: with actual real world involved adaptations. There is a survival
Speaker 2: advance in not actually having to fight a predator or competitor,
Speaker 2: and the same holds true with not having to fight
Speaker 2: every X man or avenger you encounter. On the pages
Speaker 2: of Marvel Comics. All right, it's ted time, because next
Speaker 2: we have man Thing. Let us return to the pages
Speaker 2: of Marvel Comics to consider a true monster. Man Thing.
Speaker 2: It's not to be confused with DC's swamp Thing, but
Speaker 2: he stands as something of his spiritual twin sibling. So
Speaker 2: both man Thing and swamp Thing are hybrid swamp based
Speaker 2: humanoids created through an explosive collision of humanity, mad science,
Speaker 2: and swamp water. Both characters hit the comics for the
Speaker 2: first time in nineteen seventy one. However, most commentators see
Speaker 2: to see it merely as coincidence and point to various
Speaker 2: differences in the characters. Plus Marvel's walking swamp creature The
Speaker 2: Heap predates both of them, dating back to the early
Speaker 2: nineteen forties, as does the muck monster It from Street
Speaker 2: and Smith Comics. Still, these various swamp beings become linked.
Speaker 2: They have a kinship, and you'll even find a panel
Speaker 2: in Alan Moore's swamp Thing run visually suggesting kinship between
Speaker 2: swamp Thing, man Thing, the Heap, and others. But I've
Speaker 2: already talked about swamp Thing on the Monster Fact, so
Speaker 2: let's get serious about man Thing. As pointed out by
Speaker 2: Kelly Knox in the book Monsters Creatures of the Marvel Universe.
Speaker 2: Man Thing started off with a human scientist named Ted Sallas. Now,
Speaker 2: like a lot of Marvel comic books, scientists, Ted worked
Speaker 2: on super soldier serums, at least until enemies tried to
Speaker 2: take it from him. Ted then injected himself with the
Speaker 2: serum and acidentally wrecked his car in the Everglades and
Speaker 2: was also exposed to extra dimensional forces in the process.
Speaker 2: So what emerged from the swamp was neither man nor Thing,
Speaker 2: but Manthing, a humanoid swamp creature that would become the
Speaker 2: guardian of the Nexus of Reality, where science and magic converge.
Speaker 2: Man Thing boasts incredible strength and can throw down with
Speaker 2: the toughest of physical opponents, but some of his most
Speaker 2: impressive powers are due to his empathy. Man Thing is
Speaker 2: so empathic that negative emotions in others can cause him
Speaker 2: physical pain and distress, especially when he senses fear. This
Speaker 2: will also cause him to lash out violently at individuals
Speaker 2: in the throes of fear and lay his burning hands
Speaker 2: upon them. Man Thing's burning hands are a fascinating superpower,
Speaker 2: brought to life most wonderfully in the twenty twenty two
Speaker 2: MCU Werewolf by Night Special, which captures it as a
Speaker 2: kind of holy fire that in sinnenerates Ted's victims. On
Speaker 2: one level, this seems to be just another version of
Speaker 2: various magical tales in which creatures feed off of fear
Speaker 2: or sense fear in others, as if it is an
Speaker 2: actual energy or a quantifiable substance. Man Thing's abilities, however,
Speaker 2: are frequently explained in terms of chemistry. NOx attributes his
Speaker 2: burning touch to chemicals in man Thing's body and sumeric
Speaker 2: and wallace in marvel anatomy. The authors here presume that
Speaker 2: this chemical secretion is something akin to sulphuric acid, that
Speaker 2: it's excreted through man Thing's pores. I suppose we might
Speaker 2: compare this ability to these self defensive secretions of various
Speaker 2: natural world organisms, and given man Things plant based physiology,
Speaker 2: we have to acknowledge that certain plants do secrete acidic
Speaker 2: substances through their roots, in some cases to dissolve rocky
Speaker 2: soil and in other cases to eradicate competition. But what
Speaker 2: about this notion that a monster like man Thing, or
Speaker 2: even ant natural world organism can quote sense fear. It's
Speaker 2: a common trope but is there anything to it. Certainly
Speaker 2: there is no true sixth sense for fear in which
Speaker 2: humans or other animals can tap into an otherwise invisible
Speaker 2: video game fear meter. Fear, like other human defined emotional states,
Speaker 2: is hard to quantify in animals and subject to human
Speaker 2: testing bias, as Ralph Adolf's discussed in the twenty thirteen
Speaker 2: Current Biology article The Biology of Fear. Some argue that
Speaker 2: fear is a mere psychological construct and something we can't
Speaker 2: apply to animals as we cannot truly know their minds.
Speaker 2: On the other hand, neuroimaging and rodents would seem to
Speaker 2: reveal a clear fear network in their brains at all.
Speaker 2: Stressed a distinction to be made between the conscious human
Speaker 2: feeling of being afraid and fear as a functional state
Speaker 2: of an organism. This state exists in relation to fear
Speaker 2: inducing stimuli, which for humans releast can be in the
Speaker 2: present past or in imagined future, and induces fearful behavior.
Speaker 2: Fear in both cognition and behavior is largely adaptive, and
Speaker 2: it's because fear can help us survive, though of course
Speaker 2: all of this can become maladaptive as well. Now. Man
Speaker 2: Thing's relation to fear is interesting in light of all this.
Speaker 2: He acutely fears the effects of another organism's fear, but
Speaker 2: the source of his own emotional distress in this scenario
Speaker 2: is not the fear inducing stimuli that caused the original distress,
Speaker 2: but the distressed organism itself, which he may then incinerate
Speaker 2: with his burning hands due to a fear response chemical
Speaker 2: secretion in his own body. So there's a lot to
Speaker 2: unpact there. But hey, still a pretty great swamp monster
Speaker 2: and I'm always down for a cool swamp monster. Finally,
Speaker 2: let us explore the curious skin of Colossus. I've been
Speaker 2: plowing through old episodes of The X Men, the animated
Speaker 2: series from the nineties with my son in anticipation of
Speaker 2: eventually diving into the X Men ninety seven series. This
Speaker 2: show is a lot of fun, packs a lot of
Speaker 2: nostalgia for me, and leads to some interesting conversations with
Speaker 2: my son about the various themes. Some of our favorite
Speaker 2: characters include Rogue and Wolverine, but Colossus is always a
Speaker 2: treat as well. If you're not familiar with this particular mutant,
Speaker 2: we're talking about Russian X Men Peter resputant An already
Speaker 2: intimidatingly muscular man who is able at will to assume
Speaker 2: an impenetrable steel form. Sometimes, as in his Marvel dot
Speaker 2: Com profile, Colossus's transformation is said to convert his entire
Speaker 2: body into an organic steel like substance. The transformation is
Speaker 2: interpreted as something that occurs only at the dermal level,
Speaker 2: so only at the skin level. Either way, the transformation
Speaker 2: generally looks as if a segmented stainless steel coating flows
Speaker 2: over his entire body. We're going to approach it here
Speaker 2: as a dermal transformation because the idea of a full
Speaker 2: body transformation leaves us less room to wonder over the
Speaker 2: scientific details of the feet. But just the idea alone
Speaker 2: has always been a captivating one, because here is Peter Resputen,
Speaker 2: a powerful but peaceful man who would far rather pursue
Speaker 2: art than conflict, but who for the greater good can
Speaker 2: literally grow the thickest, most impenetrable skin imaginable to throw
Speaker 2: down against adversity. For Colossus, this might mean the grasping
Speaker 2: tentacles of Omega Red, always a favorite of mine, or
Speaker 2: the machinations of the Shadow King. Once the threat is
Speaker 2: dealt with, Peter reverts to his normal form and continues
Speaker 2: on in his peaceful creative pursuits. Lynn Ween and Dave
Speaker 2: Cockrum created Colosses back in nineteen seventy five, and he
Speaker 2: remains a popular character to this day. So how might
Speaker 2: we think about Colossus from a scientific and biological standpoint?
Speaker 2: Turning once more to marvel anatomy by Mark Sumerac and
Speaker 2: Daniel Wallace, the authors here discuss his ability in terms
Speaker 2: of a transmutation of his dermal layers or skin, into
Speaker 2: an organic steel, with his underlying body retaining its flesh
Speaker 2: and blood form. Their explanation details a process by which
Speaker 2: each individual's skin cell draws on metallic extra dimensional mass
Speaker 2: to become an activated organic steel cell. So, in other words,
Speaker 2: each cell of Colossus's dermal layer coats itself in biological
Speaker 2: metallic material, and this translates into the transformation of the
Speaker 2: entire epiderma, but at the cellular level. Thus, his mobility
Speaker 2: is not compromised, and his already incredible baseline strength no
Speaker 2: doubt helps out as well. Now, by this explanation, we
Speaker 2: may not be dealing exactly with something like steel shutters
Speaker 2: from nowhere flowing over his entire body, but that metallic
Speaker 2: cellular coding has to come from somewhere if we're to
Speaker 2: adhere to the law of conservation of mass, and the
Speaker 2: answer they provide is that the ability draws on another
Speaker 2: spatial dimension. That's where the metal comes from. And okay,
Speaker 2: that works for me. Now. I also ran across an
Speaker 2: excellent twenty eighteen paper in the journal Advances in Physiology
Speaker 2: Education titled the Physiology of Impenetrable Skin Colossus of the
Speaker 2: x Men by Barry W. Fitzgerald. His whole point is
Speaker 2: the Colossus is a great example of how a fictional
Speaker 2: character can promote multidisciplinary scientific discussion in a classroom. Now,
Speaker 2: I'm not going to summarize everything Atzgerald has to say,
Speaker 2: but he makes some great points about Colossus and thermoregulation. Basically,
Speaker 2: we have to think about what human skin does for
Speaker 2: the body and how that might be impacted by a
Speaker 2: shift into a steel form. One key area of concern
Speaker 2: is thermoregulation of body temperature, which the skin plays a
Speaker 2: role in via such responses as vasodilation, vassal constriction, and
Speaker 2: of course sweating. Can Colossus his steel skin do any
Speaker 2: of this well? The author here contends that his body's
Speaker 2: ability to thermo regulate would be severely impacted via this
Speaker 2: steel or organic steel, or otherwise metal coating, and specifically,
Speaker 2: during a heated battle, he would simply overheat. He wouldn't
Speaker 2: be much good battling the Juggernaut if he passes out
Speaker 2: from overheating just a few minutes into the struggle. Fitzgerald
Speaker 2: isn't here to yuck everyone's young, though, with science he
Speaker 2: presents a possible path forward. Perhaps he says Colossus's organic
Speaker 2: steel skin is actually graphene due to its protective capability
Speaker 2: and its biocompatibility. It's carbon after all, like we are,
Speaker 2: and it's super thin, consisting of a single layer of
Speaker 2: atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice nanostructure. This biographene honeycomb
Speaker 2: lattice layer hypothesis would therefore solve a number of the
Speaker 2: key problems with Peter's mutant power, from thermoregulation to mass conservation.
Speaker 2: The layer would swiftly form via protein folding and self assembly,
Speaker 2: and bam, Colossus is ready for action. I highly recommend
Speaker 2: checking out Fitzgerald's paper here of the topic interest you
Speaker 2: in or out of the classroom, because hey, presumably Colossus
Speaker 2: is headed back into theaters and back into action this
Speaker 2: summer in the next Deadpool movie. So it's a perfect
Speaker 2: time to embrace both science and mutant powers. All right, everyone,
Speaker 2: thanks for tuning in to this omnibus episode of The
Speaker 2: Monster Fact. Monster Fact or the Artifact or an Amalia Stupendium,
Speaker 2: publishes each week a short form episode from Stuff to
Speaker 2: Blow Your Mind. If you have any suggestions for future
Speaker 2: episodes of the Monster Fact, including other possibilities for Marvel
Speaker 2: comics or other comic lines, just write in I'd love
Speaker 2: to hear from you. As always, you can email us
Speaker 2: at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
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