WEBVTT - The Monstrefact Omnibus: Monsters 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 Lamb and this is the

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<v Speaker 2>Monster Fact omnibus. That's right. In this special episode of

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<v Speaker 2>The Monster Fact, please enjoy the first five episodes about

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<v Speaker 2>monsters and monster adjacent entities from the Marvel Comics universe.

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<v Speaker 2>And I say the first five because I think I'm

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<v Speaker 2>going to dip back into the Marvel universe in the

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<v Speaker 2>weeks or months ahead, so feel free to send suggestions

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<v Speaker 2>of popular and well known intrigues or more obscure entities

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<v Speaker 2>from Marvel Comics or other comics for that matter. We'll

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<v Speaker 2>probably dip back into DC and others in the future

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<v Speaker 2>as well. So up first, let's consider the mummies of

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<v Speaker 2>Marvel Comics. First up is Nakantu, the Living Mummy, created

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<v Speaker 2>by Steve Gerber and Rich Buckler for supernatural thriller back

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<v Speaker 2>in nineteen seventy three. The story goes that Nikantu was

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<v Speaker 2>a North African tribesman who, after capture by the Egyptians,

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<v Speaker 2>led her a vault, but was ultimately embalmed, alive and

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<v Speaker 2>sealed in a tomb by an evil priest. Three thousand

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<v Speaker 2>years later, he awakens in modern times, first as a

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<v Speaker 2>rampaging monster and ultimately as a monstrous hero who fights

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<v Speaker 2>alongside the likes of Morbius, the Living Vampire, Werewolf by

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<v Speaker 2>Night Man, Than and others as part of the Legion

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<v Speaker 2>of Monsters. In addition to his mystic senses, the Living

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<v Speaker 2>Mummy also boasts incredible strength, which isn't surprising given that

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<v Speaker 2>Marvel dot Com lists him at a height of seven

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<v Speaker 2>foot six or about two hundred and thirty two centimeters.

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<v Speaker 2>That's two inches taller than Andre the Giants build height.

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<v Speaker 2>You might guess then that Nakhan to the Living Mummy

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<v Speaker 2>is the tallest mummy in the Marvel universe, and you

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<v Speaker 2>would be dead wrong. Allow me to introduce you to Gomdola, who,

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<v Speaker 2>like Nikantu, looks like your standard bandage wrapped on dead

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<v Speaker 2>horror movie mummy, only he's roughly the size of King Kong. Yes,

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<v Speaker 2>Gomdola is a true giant mummy. He first rampaged in

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<v Speaker 2>the pages of Journey into Mystery back in nineteen sixty

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<v Speaker 2>and is credited by Marvel dot Com to the legendary

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<v Speaker 2>Jack Kirby and Dick Ayres. One of the books I

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<v Speaker 2>source for this series is monsters creatures of the Marvel

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<v Speaker 2>Universe explored by Kelly Knox. Knox lists Gomdola at a

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<v Speaker 2>height of up to sixty feet or eighteen meters, and

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<v Speaker 2>describes his awakening in a modern Egyptian museum, his subsequent rampage,

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<v Speaker 2>his pursuit by Interpole, his worship by cultists, and eventually

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<v Speaker 2>his battles with the Fantastic Four. The secret to his

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<v Speaker 2>great size, however, is that he's not a mummified human,

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<v Speaker 2>but an evil robot from another planet that terrorized ancient

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<v Speaker 2>Egypt before being deactivated and stuck away in a tomb.

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<v Speaker 2>Like a lot of classic curvy monsters, Gomdola is an

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<v Speaker 2>only big and physically powerful, he also has other crazy

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<v Speaker 2>powers like levitation and telekinesis. So at this point you

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<v Speaker 2>might be wondering, fine, given all of this, exactly how

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<v Speaker 2>tall is the tallest mummy actually unearthed in real life?

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<v Speaker 2>The answer would seem to be Third Dynasty Pharaoh Sonicate

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<v Speaker 2>during the third millennium BCE. By today's height standards, and

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<v Speaker 2>certainly by Marvel comic standards, he wasn't too terribly tall,

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<v Speaker 2>only one hundred and eighty seven centimeters or about six

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<v Speaker 2>foot one and a half, but for the time period,

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<v Speaker 2>based on what we know from skeletal evidence, he was

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<v Speaker 2>considerably taller than average. As discussed in the twenty seventeen

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<v Speaker 2>paper Oldest Case of Gigantism Assessment of the alleged Remains

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<v Speaker 2>of Sonicate, King of Ancient Egypt, published in The Lancet,

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<v Speaker 2>he is still the oldest known paleo pathological case of gigantism.

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<v Speaker 2>The authors Galassi at All indicate that skull measurements, photos,

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<v Speaker 2>bone data, and other measurements suggests gigantism and possibly acromagaly

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<v Speaker 2>in the facial features, though regressed through age. In analysis

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<v Speaker 2>of his physical and royal stature, the authors write the

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<v Speaker 2>following quote. The fact that he was buried with honors

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<v Speaker 2>in an elite Mastaba tomb after reaching adulthood suggests that

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<v Speaker 2>gigantism at the time was probably not associated with social margination.

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<v Speaker 2>While short people were much preferred in ancient Egypt, especially

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<v Speaker 2>in the early Dynastic period, we have no records that

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<v Speaker 2>very tall people had any special social preference or disadvantage.

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<v Speaker 2>Sonicut was originally unearthed in nineteen oh one, so it

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<v Speaker 2>seems to possible that his discovery and subsequent writings about

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<v Speaker 2>his discovery or treatments of this general theme and other

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<v Speaker 2>works might have influenced the creation of these two Marvel mummies,

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<v Speaker 2>but I couldn't find any definitive mention of it. And

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<v Speaker 2>we also have to consider the influence of things like

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<v Speaker 2>the widespread hoax of the Cardiff Giant mixed with just

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<v Speaker 2>a little good old fashioned mummy mania. Now, to come

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<v Speaker 2>back to Nakantu, the Living Mummy and Gomdola, I have

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<v Speaker 2>to point out that, as far as I can tell,

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<v Speaker 2>these two never faced off against each other. Comic fans,

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<v Speaker 2>if I'm wrong, please write in and let me know. Also,

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<v Speaker 2>to date, neither Mummy has crossed over into the MCU

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<v Speaker 2>or other Marvel movies, but we can only imagine that

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<v Speaker 2>they are both out there waiting, sleeping, anticipating their release.

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<v Speaker 2>All right, now, let's move on into the world of mutants,

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<v Speaker 2>with Mystique going to continue our look at various monsters

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<v Speaker 2>from Marvel comics in this episode. Though today's pick is

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<v Speaker 2>probably better described as a human mutant. It's none other

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<v Speaker 2>than Raven Darkholme aka Mystique, the blueskinned, red haired shape shifter,

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<v Speaker 2>whose various affiliations have cast her at times as a

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<v Speaker 2>supervillain and other times as an anti hero in the

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<v Speaker 2>Marvel universe, created by Chris Claremont and Dave cockrum back

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<v Speaker 2>in nineteen seventy eight. She has a long history in

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<v Speaker 2>various X Men media. Mystique's most obvious mutant power is,

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<v Speaker 2>of course, her ability to alter her appearance and morphology,

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<v Speaker 2>taking on the likeness of anyone in her path, often

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<v Speaker 2>in order to carry out dastardly plots and assassinations. In

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<v Speaker 2>the excellent book Marvel Anatomy by Mark Sumarak and Daniel

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<v Speaker 2>Wallace with illustrations by Jonah Lowe, the authors point out

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<v Speaker 2>out that her shape changing occurs at a molecular level,

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<v Speaker 2>enabling her to even reproduce the semblance of clothing and

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<v Speaker 2>additional appendages as needed to enhance a disguise or to

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<v Speaker 2>aid in combat. She is, in short, the ultimate infiltrator

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<v Speaker 2>and the ultimate deceiver. Now on the shape shifting front,

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<v Speaker 2>attempting to compare her to the natural world's own shape

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<v Speaker 2>shifting expert, the mimic octopus. But I've discussed that particular

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<v Speaker 2>species on the Monster fact already, and besides, I was

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<v Speaker 2>even more intrigued by something else that the authors mention

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<v Speaker 2>concerning Mystique's abilities so advance is her ability to manipulate

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<v Speaker 2>her own form. She can actually move vital internal organs

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<v Speaker 2>around within her body to avoid fatal injuries. Now, this

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<v Speaker 2>would seem to include sliding her heart out of position

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<v Speaker 2>and into say her upper thigh, or squeezing her brain

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<v Speaker 2>down into her net or partially into her neck, or

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<v Speaker 2>perhaps even into her arm. Thus, coupled with accelerated healing,

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<v Speaker 2>she can plot to evade certain death blows, either in

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<v Speaker 2>disguise or out of it, and this has fooled her

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<v Speaker 2>would be killers many times over the years. This ability

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<v Speaker 2>really intrigued me. I was asking myself, are there species

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<v Speaker 2>in the natural world that can match or exceed this?

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<v Speaker 2>And I suppose it depends on how you choose to

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<v Speaker 2>compare it. Certainly we can think of various amorphous bodies

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<v Speaker 2>and start there. We can also think about metamorphosis. During metamorphosis,

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<v Speaker 2>most of a caterpillar's brain is broken down and ultimately

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<v Speaker 2>rebuilt into its adult form, which is one of nature's

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<v Speaker 2>stunning shape shifting feats. But this is almost too extreme

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<v Speaker 2>to compare the Mystique's shell game of sensitive organs We've

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<v Speaker 2>already discussed the shrew's ability to shrink their brains during

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<v Speaker 2>the winter, though they don't exactly reposition them. However, during pregnancy,

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<v Speaker 2>a mother's orgles will shift to accommodate the growing fetus.

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<v Speaker 2>The heart in particular is shifted during human pregnancy, though

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<v Speaker 2>the exact details vary depending on the individual. Beauterus grows,

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<v Speaker 2>elevating the diaphragm and pushing the heart upward and kind

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<v Speaker 2>of to the left. It may also push it forward

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<v Speaker 2>a little. While the heart itself does not enlarge, the

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<v Speaker 2>shift in position can lead to a misdiagnosis of an

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<v Speaker 2>enlarged heart. Likewise, the resulting distortions and the detectable sounds

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<v Speaker 2>of the heart may require further analysis by a specialist.

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<v Speaker 2>So that's one perfectly natural way that the human body

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<v Speaker 2>can and does go moving its heart around. It's not

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<v Speaker 2>as extreme as the exploits of a human mutant from

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<v Speaker 2>the Marvel Universe, but it's still absolutely amazing. One final

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<v Speaker 2>note on mystique is that, according to Sumarak and Wallace,

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<v Speaker 2>her cellular manipulation of her own body actually rejuvenates her

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<v Speaker 2>cells with each transformation, vastly extending her lifespan, or even

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<v Speaker 2>providing her a form of biological immortality. While rare and

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<v Speaker 2>still very much an area of interest and exploration for

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<v Speaker 2>natural world scientists, we seem to see something similar in

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<v Speaker 2>certain varieties of jellyfish and plenarian flatworms, though we always

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<v Speaker 2>have to remember there's a difference between what is likely

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<v Speaker 2>under ideal lab conditions and what is likely given the

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<v Speaker 2>challenges of the wild. Mystique has already lived a long life,

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<v Speaker 2>but the Marvel universe is a dangerous place much like

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<v Speaker 2>the natural world, and she's made no shortage of enemies

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<v Speaker 2>over the years, but it would be a mistake to

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<v Speaker 2>underestimate her abilities. Up next, please destroy your other cards

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<v Speaker 2>here and add plus two power for each destroyed, because

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<v Speaker 2>we're going to be talking about the symbiits now. For

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<v Speaker 2>those of us less familiar with the intricacies of the

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<v Speaker 2>Marvel Universe, such as familiarity primarily through various films and

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<v Speaker 2>the ninety Spider Man cartoon, the basic origin story is

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<v Speaker 2>pretty straightforward. Here, Spider Man acquires a new black and

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<v Speaker 2>white costume from space that turns out to be a

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<v Speaker 2>kind of sentient alien ooze. It flows over him becomes

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<v Speaker 2>his new costume. It gives him enhance stabilities, but it

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<v Speaker 2>also becomes clear that the alien symbiant is slowly taking over.

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<v Speaker 2>Once successfully rejected, the alien suit finds a new host

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<v Speaker 2>in Eddie Brock, giving birth to the villain and ultimately

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<v Speaker 2>anti hero Venom. Initially introduced in the mid nineteen eighties,

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<v Speaker 2>the lore and legacy of the alien symbiant suit would

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<v Speaker 2>continue to grow in Marvel comics, eventually encompassing multiple Clintar

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<v Speaker 2>symbiants as they would come to be known, such as Carnage,

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<v Speaker 2>as well as a fleshed out origin story. They are

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<v Speaker 2>the ancient bioweapons of a dark stellar deity known as Knoll,

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<v Speaker 2>the King in Black, overthrown but not killed by his

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<v Speaker 2>own slimy creations. In ages past, Venom stands out as

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<v Speaker 2>the prime example of a Clintar symbiant merged with a

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<v Speaker 2>human being, while the case of Spider Man wearing the

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<v Speaker 2>alien suit suggests more of an exosymbiant, a layer of

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<v Speaker 2>living ooze that acts as a kind of organic power armor.

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<v Speaker 2>Venom is merged with host Eddie Brock. Ultimately, at a

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<v Speaker 2>cellular level, it flows over him, encompassing him in a

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<v Speaker 2>powerful artifice of pseudopods and muscles. This would be exosymbiosis,

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<v Speaker 2>but it also surges inside him, which would be endosymbiosis.

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<v Speaker 2>In a similar way, Venom's chaotic offspring carnage manages to

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<v Speaker 2>merge with host Cletus Cassidy's very blood. In the natural world,

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<v Speaker 2>symbiosis is a complex topic. At times, it can be

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<v Speaker 2>tricky to determine just where parasitism ends in some form

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<v Speaker 2>of mutualism or commensalism begins. A parasitic relationship between two

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<v Speaker 2>organisms can evolve into mutualism over time, for instance, with

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<v Speaker 2>a one sided relationship becoming something more balanced. But symbiosis

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<v Speaker 2>on its own need not benefit both organisms to be

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<v Speaker 2>symbiotic in nature. A twenty eighteen Yale study by Shapiro

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<v Speaker 2>and Turner published in the journal Evolution explored mutualistic relationships

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<v Speaker 2>between bacteria and viruses that were seemingly once parasitic in nature.

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<v Speaker 2>They found that these changes could evolve in either direction

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<v Speaker 2>in as little as twenty generations. The paper discusses parasitism

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<v Speaker 2>and mutualism as both being on the quote unquote symbiotic spectrum,

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<v Speaker 2>which is perhaps a term worth keeping in mind when

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<v Speaker 2>considering the Clintars of Marvel comics. Some view the Clintars

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<v Speaker 2>as parasites, others as symbiotic enhancements. Certainly they can be

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<v Speaker 2>either in the eye of the beholder, but the exact

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<v Speaker 2>balance of the change they bring to a host can

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<v Speaker 2>certainly adjust over time, as we see with Venom. Or Certainly,

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<v Speaker 2>this relationship could simply evolve over the vast expanse of

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<v Speaker 2>time since the King in Black first brought them into

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<v Speaker 2>the cosmos. Venom, the alien costume, and the various symbiants

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<v Speaker 2>are the creation of multiple Marvel artists and illustrators, but

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<v Speaker 2>the basic idea arises out of the zeitgeist of the

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<v Speaker 2>mid nineteen eighties, and various assessments have linked the entity

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<v Speaker 2>to various social and public health issues of the nineteen

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<v Speaker 2>eighties in compelling ways. From a purely scientific point of view,

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<v Speaker 2>beyond the mere treatment of symbiosis, Venom and his fellow

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<v Speaker 2>Clintars would also be examples of a kind of pan

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<v Speaker 2>spermic symbiosis. After all, the origin of the alien suit

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<v Speaker 2>is somewhere in outer space. Right. On one hand, even

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<v Speaker 2>a highly adaptive symbiotic organism just might not be able

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<v Speaker 2>to join with an extraterrestrial mode of life. The attempt

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<v Speaker 2>could simply be ineffective, or it could be catastrophic. On

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<v Speaker 2>the other hand, if one leans fully into the fringes

0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:11.800
<v Speaker 2>of panspermia hypothesis, then maybe maybe we'd have enough in common.

0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:15.280
<v Speaker 2>But again we're drifting into the unknown and the unprovable here,

0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:18.760
<v Speaker 2>especially since life on Earth is the only model of

0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:22.960
<v Speaker 2>life we know. But the Symbiants of Marvel are ultimately

0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:28.000
<v Speaker 2>less concerned with science and more concerned with power, identity,

0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:32.480
<v Speaker 2>and will, and also with lashing tendrils of ooze. Of course,

0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:46.600
<v Speaker 2>now onto a classic Marvel superhero, the Thing from the

0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:51.880
<v Speaker 2>Fantastic Four. So far in this series of episodes on

0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:56.880
<v Speaker 2>the Monsters of Marvel Comics, we've discussed mummies, mystique, and

0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:02.080
<v Speaker 2>the Symbiants, but now it's Coloperant. We're of course talking

0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:06.200
<v Speaker 2>about Ben Grimm, a human test pilot transformed into an

0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:11.720
<v Speaker 2>orange rock skin superbruiser by cosmic rays. The other humans

0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:16.200
<v Speaker 2>aboard the experimental spaceship would become Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman

0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:20.160
<v Speaker 2>and human Torch, and of course now we're talking about

0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:25.760
<v Speaker 2>the Thing all together. They're the Fantastic Four. Grim's skin

0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:29.960
<v Speaker 2>is encased in plates of stone reminiscent of the epidermal

0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:34.680
<v Speaker 2>scales or scoots found on various birds and reptiles, but

0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:38.680
<v Speaker 2>more importantly for our discussions here on a few mammals,

0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:44.200
<v Speaker 2>namely the extant armadillo and the extinct glyptodot. Though with

0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.520
<v Speaker 2>Marbles the Thing, these plates are not keratin, but some

0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:51.200
<v Speaker 2>form of indestructible rock. It's the perfect body armour for

0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:55.000
<v Speaker 2>the sort of superhero who regularly throws down with the

0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:59.840
<v Speaker 2>likes of Doctor Doom, Frankenstein's Monster, and The Incredible Hulk.

0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:03.680
<v Speaker 2>But I didn't decide to do this episode on the

0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:09.399
<v Speaker 2>Thing based purely on Ben Grimm's rocky skin. It was

0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:12.680
<v Speaker 2>actually his fingers that attracted me to the big luck.

0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:15.879
<v Speaker 2>I don't think I'd ever noticed this myself before. But

0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:20.119
<v Speaker 2>while human Grim of course had five digits on each hand,

0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:24.280
<v Speaker 2>thing has only four, you know, like Mickey Mouse or

0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:27.600
<v Speaker 2>a character on The Simpsons. In the excellent book Marvel

0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:31.639
<v Speaker 2>Anatomy by Mark Sumerek and Daniel Wallace with illustrations by

0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:35.119
<v Speaker 2>Jonah Loebe, the authors point out that on occasion, special

0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:39.720
<v Speaker 2>circumstances allowed Grim to retain his human form, including all

0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:43.080
<v Speaker 2>four original fingers, only to lose one in the transformation

0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:47.639
<v Speaker 2>back to the thing. The authors and illustrator here speculate

0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:51.960
<v Speaker 2>that beneath his armor plating, his ring and pinky fingers

0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:55.000
<v Speaker 2>are fused together into a single digit, and that X

0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:58.680
<v Speaker 2>ray imagery would reveal all the bones of two fingers

0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:02.960
<v Speaker 2>in things outer most digit. I love this detail, but

0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:06.520
<v Speaker 2>of course, what does it mean? Perhaps nothing, but it's

0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:10.159
<v Speaker 2>interesting to note that most of us non superheroes can't

0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:13.159
<v Speaker 2>move our pinky finger without also moving our ring finger,

0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:16.040
<v Speaker 2>and the reason for this is that the nerves for

0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:20.040
<v Speaker 2>these digits are intertwined. Perhaps this anatomical fact has something

0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:24.119
<v Speaker 2>to do with things tetradactyly. It makes it harder for

0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:27.439
<v Speaker 2>Grim to use normal devices, but perhaps the fused finger

0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:32.920
<v Speaker 2>aids him in grappling monsters and hurling debris during superhero battles.

0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:37.840
<v Speaker 2>A natural world form of this fusing, known as syndactyly,

0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:41.439
<v Speaker 2>occurs infrequently in humans, but is a common feature of

0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:45.159
<v Speaker 2>some organisms, such as the Siamang, a primate native to

0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:49.720
<v Speaker 2>Sumatra in the Melee Peninsula. They have naturally occurring webbing

0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:52.639
<v Speaker 2>between their second and third toes, and sometimes the fourth

0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:55.879
<v Speaker 2>and fifth toes are also webbed together as well. The

0:18:55.920 --> 0:19:00.600
<v Speaker 2>purpose of syndactyly in the cimang, however, remains elusive, as

0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:03.680
<v Speaker 2>pointed out by Weisbecker and Nielsen in a two thousand

0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:08.040
<v Speaker 2>and eight article published in BMC Evolutionary Biology. Past hypotheses

0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:11.879
<v Speaker 2>have explored the possibility that the webbed digits are adaptive

0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:15.760
<v Speaker 2>for the creatures are boreal lifestyle, or for use in grooming,

0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:19.159
<v Speaker 2>but the authors find these hypotheses unconvincing and stress that

0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:22.119
<v Speaker 2>it might not be a functional adaptive trait at all.

0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:27.800
<v Speaker 2>A true explanation remains elusive. Things fingers are not merely webbed, however,

0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:31.760
<v Speaker 2>but tightly fused into a single digit reminiscent of, say,

0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:36.080
<v Speaker 2>a whale's flipper, so the comparison is perhaps less than illuminating.

0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:39.920
<v Speaker 2>We might well compare it, however, to cases of complex

0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:44.080
<v Speaker 2>syndactally in the natural world, in which the bones are

0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:48.480
<v Speaker 2>fused together as well as the flesh. The kangaroo is

0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:51.880
<v Speaker 2>a great example of this, with its middle toes fused together.

0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:56.879
<v Speaker 2>According to John Simons in the twenty thirteen book Kangaroo Quote,

0:19:56.960 --> 0:19:59.280
<v Speaker 2>this seems to have been driven by a change from

0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:03.600
<v Speaker 2>tree dwelling to ground dwelling. But is now marvelously adapted

0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:08.359
<v Speaker 2>for hopping. By the way, connecting to our core stuffed

0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:10.320
<v Speaker 2>to blow your mind episodes on the Horse, you might

0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:14.399
<v Speaker 2>find it interesting to know that the extinct short faced kangaroo,

0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:21.400
<v Speaker 2>including the giant Procoptodon, actually evolved to feature hoofed single

0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:26.719
<v Speaker 2>digits on their toes as well. With the thing. However, Hmmm,

0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:29.520
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna have to stand by my own hypothesis regarding

0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:33.600
<v Speaker 2>the fused digits that somehow this is aiding Ben Grimm

0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:36.080
<v Speaker 2>in clabbering time. But I would love to hear from

0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:40.480
<v Speaker 2>anyone out there if you have a hypothesis regarding the

0:20:40.680 --> 0:20:47.560
<v Speaker 2>curious hands of the thing. Finally, let's consider one last

0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:53.960
<v Speaker 2>weird entry with Ulvar the Giant. The Marvel Comics universe

0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:58.399
<v Speaker 2>is full of giant monster conquerors with crazy powers, and

0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:01.560
<v Speaker 2>yet a giant by the name of Ulvar manages to

0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:04.960
<v Speaker 2>stand out. A creation of stan Lee, Larry Lieber and

0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:09.120
<v Speaker 2>Jack Kirby from a nineteen sixty edition of Journey into Mystery,

0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:14.199
<v Speaker 2>The story, as recounted in Monsters Creatures of the Marvel

0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:18.640
<v Speaker 2>Universe explored by Kelly Knox, actually begins with another giant

0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:24.280
<v Speaker 2>alien conqueror Gagants, the Atlantean who arises from his undersea

0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:29.439
<v Speaker 2>kingdom to lay claim to coastal San Diego and also

0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:33.040
<v Speaker 2>presumably the world. After poking around the surface world for

0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:36.680
<v Speaker 2>a bit staking out the claim, if you will, Gagantis

0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:41.280
<v Speaker 2>returns to the waters to report back home to Atlantis,

0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:45.159
<v Speaker 2>and here he encounters an even taller, even more intimidating

0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:50.240
<v Speaker 2>giant standing in the ocean. It is Oulvar. Oulvar stands

0:21:50.280 --> 0:21:53.359
<v Speaker 2>a good thousand feet or three hundred and four point

0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:57.720
<v Speaker 2>eight meters tall, and absolutely towers over the puny Atlantean

0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:01.040
<v Speaker 2>far beneath him. In a booming voice, it proclaims that

0:22:01.119 --> 0:22:04.200
<v Speaker 2>Earth is now the property of the planet Centaurus too,

0:22:04.320 --> 0:22:07.679
<v Speaker 2>so hands off. This, of course, leaves Gagantis with no

0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:10.760
<v Speaker 2>other option but to return home to the ocean depths

0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:15.040
<v Speaker 2>in defeat. It's only then in the comic that it's

0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:19.200
<v Speaker 2>revealed that Olvar is not an alien conqueror at all,

0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:23.200
<v Speaker 2>but a giant decoy built by humans to scare away

0:22:23.600 --> 0:22:28.280
<v Speaker 2>there would be conquerors. The illustrations in Knox's book revealed

0:22:28.280 --> 0:22:31.320
<v Speaker 2>that Olvar was atomic powered and commanded from a central

0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:34.800
<v Speaker 2>control room inside the body. Yet this is not a

0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:38.720
<v Speaker 2>fighting robot like your mecha godzillas or your voltrons. No,

0:22:39.080 --> 0:22:44.320
<v Speaker 2>Olvar was nothing but a highly successful technological bluff. Later

0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:47.760
<v Speaker 2>we learned that Olivar was eventually dismantled, so complete was

0:22:47.800 --> 0:22:51.520
<v Speaker 2>his victory, and his head now rests on the ocean floor.

0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:54.199
<v Speaker 2>Now I love this story the moment I read it,

0:22:54.280 --> 0:22:56.960
<v Speaker 2>such a ridiculous twist, but I was at a loss

0:22:57.000 --> 0:22:59.240
<v Speaker 2>as how to really tie it into anything on the

0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:03.080
<v Speaker 2>monster fact, aside from decoys and scarecrows, which we may

0:23:03.119 --> 0:23:05.679
<v Speaker 2>come back to this Halloween and stuff to blow your mind.

0:23:06.320 --> 0:23:09.760
<v Speaker 2>But then I heard the story of Italian fishermen and

0:23:09.840 --> 0:23:15.560
<v Speaker 2>conservationist Paolo Fancioli, as detailed in a twenty twenty Guardian

0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:21.840
<v Speaker 2>story by Giorgio Giglioni. Italian law already banned environmentally destructive

0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:25.320
<v Speaker 2>trawling nets in its waters, and Tuscan authorities took to

0:23:25.400 --> 0:23:29.280
<v Speaker 2>dropping blocks of concrete on the seafloor to disrupt the

0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:34.320
<v Speaker 2>nets of illegal trawlers, but Fancioli and others noticed that

0:23:34.359 --> 0:23:37.240
<v Speaker 2>these were spaced too far apart to make much difference

0:23:37.800 --> 0:23:40.760
<v Speaker 2>with permission. He began to sink more blocks of stone,

0:23:41.119 --> 0:23:44.320
<v Speaker 2>but decided to take things in a more artistic direction.

0:23:44.960 --> 0:23:48.080
<v Speaker 2>A local quarry donated one hundred blocks of granite, and

0:23:48.160 --> 0:23:51.600
<v Speaker 2>local artists volunteered to shape them into stone guardians that

0:23:51.720 --> 0:23:56.600
<v Speaker 2>now occupy an underwater sculpture garden to both deterillegal fissures,

0:23:56.880 --> 0:24:00.800
<v Speaker 2>but also to attract scuba diving tourists. Like Ulvar, they

0:24:00.840 --> 0:24:03.919
<v Speaker 2>serve as stone guardians on the seafloor, though they're a

0:24:04.040 --> 0:24:08.680
<v Speaker 2>direct physical deterrent rather than a communicative one. Now another

0:24:08.720 --> 0:24:12.359
<v Speaker 2>possible connection to make with the real world and Ulvar

0:24:12.480 --> 0:24:15.800
<v Speaker 2>here would be the concept of using artistic creations such

0:24:15.800 --> 0:24:21.159
<v Speaker 2>as sculpture to warn future generations about radioactive sites. The

0:24:21.240 --> 0:24:25.520
<v Speaker 2>Landscape of Thorn's concept by architect Michael Brill, proposed in

0:24:25.600 --> 0:24:28.440
<v Speaker 2>nineteen ninety three, is one of the more evocative of these.

0:24:28.840 --> 0:24:31.600
<v Speaker 2>Proposed for the US Department of Energy report for the

0:24:31.680 --> 0:24:36.639
<v Speaker 2>Waste Isolation Pilot Plant or WIPP. It envisioned a series

0:24:36.680 --> 0:24:39.399
<v Speaker 2>of jagged concrete thorns emerging from the ground of a

0:24:39.480 --> 0:24:43.720
<v Speaker 2>radioactive site. This was one of several proposed long term

0:24:43.920 --> 0:24:48.600
<v Speaker 2>nuclear waste warning messages from the nineteen ninety three Sandia

0:24:48.920 --> 0:24:53.080
<v Speaker 2>National Laboratories report that included other threatening works of stone

0:24:53.280 --> 0:24:57.679
<v Speaker 2>or earth, but no giant aliens at least with the

0:24:57.680 --> 0:25:00.920
<v Speaker 2>fictional Ulvar example, humans knew who Tod direct the message

0:25:00.920 --> 0:25:05.359
<v Speaker 2>at Gagantis, the Atlantean in the comics. They'd already met him,

0:25:05.359 --> 0:25:08.679
<v Speaker 2>they'd seen him around the surface world. But creating a

0:25:08.800 --> 0:25:12.320
<v Speaker 2>non linguistic message for human beings ten thousand years in

0:25:12.359 --> 0:25:16.720
<v Speaker 2>the future is another matter altogether. Finally, Oulvar can be

0:25:16.760 --> 0:25:19.040
<v Speaker 2>thought of as a kind of tongue in cheek opposite

0:25:19.200 --> 0:25:22.280
<v Speaker 2>to the Pioneer plaque. It would be later placed on

0:25:22.320 --> 0:25:25.119
<v Speaker 2>board the nineteen seventy two Pioneer ten and nineteen seventy

0:25:25.119 --> 0:25:29.680
<v Speaker 2>three Pioneer eleven spacecraft, serving as a kind of time capsule,

0:25:29.800 --> 0:25:33.720
<v Speaker 2>but also potentially as a message to alien beings, this

0:25:33.760 --> 0:25:36.080
<v Speaker 2>is what we are, and here is what we were.

0:25:36.920 --> 0:25:40.640
<v Speaker 2>Olvar's message, however, is simply, don't mess with us. We're

0:25:40.640 --> 0:25:46.560
<v Speaker 2>one thousand foot tall monsters. Tune in for additional episodes

0:25:46.600 --> 0:25:49.120
<v Speaker 2>of The Monster Fact each week. As always. You can

0:25:49.160 --> 0:25:52.080
<v Speaker 2>email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind

0:25:52.760 --> 0:26:01.560
<v Speaker 2>dot com.

0:26:01.760 --> 0:26:04.919
<v Speaker 1>Stuffed Blow your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For more

0:26:04.960 --> 0:26:08.720
<v Speaker 1>podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

0:26:08.760 --> 0:26:10.479
<v Speaker 1>wherever you listen to your favorite shows.