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 in non mythical creatures, ideas and monsters.
Speaker 2: In time, We're going to continue our look at various
Speaker 2: monsters from Marvel comics in this episode. Though today's pick
Speaker 2: is probably better described as a human mutant. It's none
Speaker 2: other than Raven Darkholme aka Mystique, the blueskinned, red haired
Speaker 2: shape shifter whose various affiliations have cast her at times
Speaker 2: as a supervillain and other times as an antihero in
Speaker 2: the Marvel universe. Created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cochran
Speaker 2: back in nineteen seventy eight, she has a long history
Speaker 2: in various X Men media. Mystique's most obvious mutant power is,
Speaker 2: of course, her ability to alter her appearance and morphology,
Speaker 2: taking on the likeness of anyone in her path, often
Speaker 2: in order to carry out dastardly plots and assassinations. In
Speaker 2: the excellent book Marvel Anatomy by Mark Sumarac and Daniel Wallace,
Speaker 2: with illustrations by Jonah Loebe, the authors point out that
Speaker 2: her shape changing occurs at a molecular level, enabling her
Speaker 2: to even reproduce the semblance of clothing and additional appendages
Speaker 2: as needed to enhance a disguise or to aid in combat.
Speaker 2: She is, in short, the ultimate infiltrator and the ultimate deceiver.
Speaker 2: Now on the shape shifting front, attempting to compare her
Speaker 2: to the natural world's own shape shifting expert, the mimic octopus.
Speaker 2: But I've discussed that particular species on the monster fact already,
Speaker 2: And besides, I was even more intrigued by something else
Speaker 2: that the authors mentioned concerning mystiquees abilities so advance is
Speaker 2: her ability to manipulate her own form. She can actually
Speaker 2: move vital internal organs around within her body to avoid
Speaker 2: fatal injuries. Now, this would seem to include sliding her
Speaker 2: heart out of position and into say her upper thigh,
Speaker 2: or squeezing her brain down partially into her neck or
Speaker 2: perhaps even into her arm. Thus, coupled with accelerated healing,
Speaker 2: she can plot to evade certain death blows, either in
Speaker 2: disguise or out of it, and this has fooled her
Speaker 2: would be killers many times over the years. This ability
Speaker 2: really intrigued me. I was asking myself, are there species
Speaker 2: in the natural world that can match or exceed this?
Speaker 2: And I suppose it depends on how you choose to
Speaker 2: compare it. Certainly we can think of various amorphous bodies
Speaker 2: and start there. We can also think about metamorphosis. During metamorphosis,
Speaker 2: most of a caterpillar's brain is broken down and ultimately
Speaker 2: rebuilt into its adult form, which is one of nature's
Speaker 2: stunning shape shifting feats. But this is almost too extreme
Speaker 2: to compare to Mystique's shell game of sensitive organs. We've
Speaker 2: already discussed the shrew's ability to shrink their brains during
Speaker 2: the winter, though they don't exactly reposition them. However, during pregnancy,
Speaker 2: a mother's organs will shift to accommodate the growing fetus.
Speaker 2: The heart in particular is shifted during human pregnancy, though
Speaker 2: the exact details vary depending on the individual. Beauterus grows,
Speaker 2: elevating the diaphragm and pushing the heart upward and kind
Speaker 2: of to the left. It may also push it forward
Speaker 2: a little. While the heart itself does not enlarge, the
Speaker 2: shift in position can lead to a misdiagnosis of an
Speaker 2: enlarged heart. Likewise, the resulting distortions, and the detectable sounds
Speaker 2: of the heart may require further analysis by a specialist.
Speaker 2: So that's one perfectly natural way that the human body
Speaker 2: can and does go moving its heart around. It's not
Speaker 2: as extreme as the exploits of a human mutant from
Speaker 2: the Marvel Universe, but it's still absolutely amazing. One final
Speaker 2: note on Mystique is that, according to Sumarak and Wallace,
Speaker 2: her cellular manipulation of her own body actually rejuvenates her
Speaker 2: cells with each transformation, vastly extending her lifespan or even
Speaker 2: providing her a form of biological immortality. While rare and
Speaker 2: still very much an area of interest and exploration for
Speaker 2: natural world scientists, we seem to see something similar in
Speaker 2: certain varieties of jellyfish and plenarian flatworms, though we always
Speaker 2: have to remember there's a difference between what is likely
Speaker 2: under ideal lab conditions and what is likely given the
Speaker 2: challenges of the wild. Mystique has already lived a long life,
Speaker 2: but the Marvel universe is a dangerous place much like
Speaker 2: the natural world, and she's made no shortage of enemies
Speaker 2: over the years. But it would be a mistake to
Speaker 2: underestimate her abilities. There will be even more Marvel Monsters
Speaker 2: in the weeks ahead, with a particularly slippery one lined
Speaker 2: up for next week, so don't miss that. You can
Speaker 2: tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact each week,
Speaker 2: and as always, you can email us at contact at
Speaker 2: stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
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