WEBVTT - The Monstrefact: Ice Cream Mutants of Marvel Comics

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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<v Speaker 2>Hi, my name is Robert Lamman. This is the Monster Fact,

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<v Speaker 2>a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind

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<v Speaker 2>focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. In

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<v Speaker 2>considering superpowered comic book characters, we all love to wonder

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<v Speaker 2>what it might be like to fly through the air,

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<v Speaker 2>to shoot laser beams from our eyeballs, or turn invisible.

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<v Speaker 2>Which superpower would we prefer? What does our choice say

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<v Speaker 2>about us as people? How might we change our own

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<v Speaker 2>lives if not the world, if we had these powers.

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<v Speaker 2>We also love to ponder the curse slash blessing dynamics

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<v Speaker 2>of certain superhero abilities, such as the power draining touch

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<v Speaker 2>of X Men's rogue in many other examples where great

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<v Speaker 2>power is achieved but something else is lost. However, we

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<v Speaker 2>also can help but ponder some of the more useless

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<v Speaker 2>seeming superpowers out there, and two of the best examples

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<v Speaker 2>from Marvel Comics concerned the power of ice cream. First,

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<v Speaker 2>there is ice cream that's spelled like eye scream. This

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<v Speaker 2>character was created by Alan Cooperberg in nineteen eighty three

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<v Speaker 2>as a mutant antagonist of the X Men. His superpower

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<v Speaker 2>the ability to transform his body himself into any flavor

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<v Speaker 2>of ice cream. He's a clear cut comedic villain, to

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<v Speaker 2>be sure, as his signature power does him little to

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<v Speaker 2>no good in his vendetta against the X Men, and

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<v Speaker 2>then they're soft Serve. Created by Bob Quinn in twenty

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<v Speaker 2>twenty one, she's a mutant citizen of the island of

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<v Speaker 2>Krakoa with the power to poop or otherwise excrete any

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<v Speaker 2>flavor of ice cream. She's essentially a background character with

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<v Speaker 2>obvious comedic intent, reminding us that not every mutant ability

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<v Speaker 2>is useful, desired, or certainly Omega level. One character transmutes

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<v Speaker 2>their own body into a sweet, frozen dairy treat, while

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<v Speaker 2>the other excretes it, either as a byproduct of digestion

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<v Speaker 2>or as some other sort of more mystical or extra

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<v Speaker 2>dimensional process. In either case, it does really feel almost alchemical,

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<v Speaker 2>doesn't it. While not as valuable as gold, ice cream

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<v Speaker 2>is certainly novel and almost otherworldly. It's clearly a food,

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<v Speaker 2>but doesn't really feel like a food, does it. It's

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<v Speaker 2>like some sort of mystical manna or pure emotion that

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<v Speaker 2>has phase shifted into a frozen treat that we can

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<v Speaker 2>eat again. Both of these characters were clearly created with

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<v Speaker 2>comedy in the forefront, but they somehow both feel on

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<v Speaker 2>the very cusp of profundity and honestly have trouble working

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<v Speaker 2>out exactly why. I think on one level, I am

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<v Speaker 2>reminded of the line from poet Wallace Stevens, the only

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<v Speaker 2>Emperor is the Emperor of ice cream, invoked in a

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<v Speaker 2>poem of sinister cold sweets dished out at a funeral

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<v Speaker 2>or awake. So maybe it's this poetic connection that stirs

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<v Speaker 2>these feelings when I'm considering ice cream and soft surf.

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<v Speaker 2>Wallace dances lyrically with the idea of sweet treats and death,

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<v Speaker 2>while these characters are a dance between surreal comedy and

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<v Speaker 2>body heart and the hyper desirable properties of ice cream

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<v Speaker 2>itself somehow confuses everything. Again, I'm not exactly sure what

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<v Speaker 2>to make of it, but I'd love to hear what

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<v Speaker 2>you have to say, what your insight is on ice

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<v Speaker 2>cream based superpowers, and hey, maybe there are some other

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<v Speaker 2>ice cream based superheroes out there within the Marvel universe

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<v Speaker 2>or in some of the other comic universes that you

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<v Speaker 2>can share with me. Tune in for additional episodes of

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<v Speaker 2>The Monster Fact, The Artifact, or Animalius to Pendium each week.

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<v Speaker 2>As always, you can email us at conduct at stuff

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<v Speaker 2>to Blow your Mind dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio.

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