WEBVTT - The Monstrefact: Marvel’s Ulvar the Giant

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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 Lamban. This is the Monster Fact,

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

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<v Speaker 2>focusing in nonithical creatures, ideas and monsters and time. The

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<v Speaker 2>Marvel Comics universe is full of giant monster conquerors with

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<v Speaker 2>crazy powers, and yet a giant by the name of

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<v Speaker 2>Ulivar manages to stand out. A creation of stan Lee,

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<v Speaker 2>Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby from a nineteen sixty edition

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<v Speaker 2>of Journey into Mystery. The story, as recounted in Monsters

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<v Speaker 2>Creatures of the Marvel Universe explored by Kelly Knox, actually

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<v Speaker 2>begins with another giant alien conqueror, Gigantes, the Atlantean, who

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<v Speaker 2>arises from his undersea kingdom to lay claim to coastal

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<v Speaker 2>San Diego and also presumably the world. After poking around

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<v Speaker 2>the surface world for a bit staking out the claim,

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<v Speaker 2>if you will, Gagantis returns to the waters to report

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<v Speaker 2>back home to Atlantis, and here he encounters an even taller,

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<v Speaker 2>even more intimidating giant standing in the ocean. It is Oulvar.

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<v Speaker 2>Oulvar stands a good thousand feet or three hundred and

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<v Speaker 2>four point eight meters tall and absolutely towers over the

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<v Speaker 2>puny Atlantean far beneath him. In a booming voice, it

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<v Speaker 2>proclaims that Earth is now the property of the planet

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<v Speaker 2>Centaurus too, so hands off. This, of course, leaves Gagantis

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<v Speaker 2>with no other option but to return home to the

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<v Speaker 2>ocean depths in defeat. It's only then in the comic

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<v Speaker 2>that it's revealed that Oulvar is not an alien conqueror

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<v Speaker 2>at all, but a giant decoy built by humans to

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<v Speaker 2>scare away there would be conquerors. The illustrations in Knox's

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<v Speaker 2>book revealed that Oulvar was atomic powered and commanded from

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<v Speaker 2>a central control room inside the body. Yet this is

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<v Speaker 2>not a fighting robot like your mecha godzillas or your vultrons. No,

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<v Speaker 2>Olvar was nothing but a highly successful technological bluff. Later

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<v Speaker 2>we learned that Olivar was eventually dismantled, so complete was

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<v Speaker 2>his victory, and his head now rests on the ocean floor.

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<v Speaker 2>Now I love this story the moment I read it.

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<v Speaker 2>Such a ridiculous twist, but I was at a loss

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<v Speaker 2>as how to really tie it into anything on the

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<v Speaker 2>monster fact aside from decoys and scarecrows. Which we may

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<v Speaker 2>come back to this Halloween on stuff to blow your mind.

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<v Speaker 2>But then I heard the story of Italian fishermen and

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<v Speaker 2>conservationist Paolo Fancioli, as detailed in a twenty twenty Guardian

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<v Speaker 2>story by Giorgio Giglioni. Italian law already banned environmentally destructive

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<v Speaker 2>trawling nets in its waters. In Tuscan, authorities took to

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<v Speaker 2>dropping blocks of concrete on the seafloor to dis disrupt

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<v Speaker 2>the nets of illegal trawlers, but Foncioli and others noticed

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<v Speaker 2>that these were space too far apart to make much

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<v Speaker 2>difference with permission. He began to sink more blocks of stone,

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<v Speaker 2>but decided to take things in a more artistic direction.

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<v Speaker 2>A local quarry donated one hundred blocks of granite, and

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<v Speaker 2>local artists volunteered to shape them into stone guardians that

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<v Speaker 2>now occupy an underwater sculpture garden to both deteri illegal fissures,

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<v Speaker 2>but also to attract scuba diving tourists like Oulivar. They

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<v Speaker 2>serve as stone guardians on the seafloor, though they're a

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<v Speaker 2>direct physical deterrent rather than a communicative one. Now another

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<v Speaker 2>possible connection to make with the real world. In Ulvar.

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<v Speaker 2>Here would be the concept of using artistic creations, such

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<v Speaker 2>as sculpture, to warn future generations about radioactive sites. The

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<v Speaker 2>landscape of Thorn's concept by architect Michael Brill, proposed in

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<v Speaker 2>nineteen ninety three, is one of the more evocative of

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<v Speaker 2>these proposed for the US Department of Energy report for

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<v Speaker 2>the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant or WIPP. It envisioned a

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<v Speaker 2>series of jagged concrete thorns emerging from the ground of

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<v Speaker 2>a radioactive site. This was one of several proposed long

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<v Speaker 2>term nuclear waste warning messages from the nineteen ninety three

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<v Speaker 2>Sandia National Laboratories report that included other threatening works of

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<v Speaker 2>stone or earth, but no giant aliens, at least with

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<v Speaker 2>the fictional Ulvar example. Humans knew who to direct the

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<v Speaker 2>message at Gigantis, the Atlantean in the comics. They'd already

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<v Speaker 2>met him, It'd seen him around the surface world. But

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<v Speaker 2>creating a non linguistic message for human beings ten thousand

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<v Speaker 2>years in the future is another matter altogether. Finally, Ulvar

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<v Speaker 2>can be thought of as a kind of tongue in

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<v Speaker 2>cheek opposite to the pioneer plaque that would be later

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<v Speaker 2>placed on board the nineteen seventy two Pioneer ten nineteen

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<v Speaker 2>seventy three Pioneer eleven spacecraft, serving as a kind of

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<v Speaker 2>time came, but also potentially as a message to alien beings.

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<v Speaker 2>This is what we are, and here is what we were.

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<v Speaker 2>All of our's message, however, is simply, don't mess with us.

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<v Speaker 2>We're a thousand foot tall monsters. Tune in for additional

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<v Speaker 2>episodes of The Monster Fact each week. As always, you

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<v Speaker 2>can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your

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<v Speaker 2>Mind dot com.

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

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