May 13, 2026 • 22 mins
In this special omnibus episode, Robert discusses Galactus, Lady Deathstrike, Squirrel Girl and the Quasi-Motivational Destruct Organism of Marvel Comics.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hey, Welcome to the Monster Fact Omnibus. My name is
Robert Lamb. This is going to be another one of
these episodes where we play a little catchup and we
take in this case, four separate past Monster Fact entries
and we cobble them all together in one episode. This
is going to be audio only because the period of
(00:29):
time that we're covering here includes both the Netflix video
and pre Netflix Video era, so I think two or
video two or audio, so they're just all going to
be audio. So these are going to be four more
entries from the Marvel universe. I can't quite get enough
of the Marvel universe in terms of its weirdness, characters
(00:50):
I've never heard of, as well as characters that are
quite beloved by myself and other comic book fans, video
game fans, film fans, and so forth. So moving forward,
if you would like to hear Monster Fact entries on
additional Marvel characters, creatures, and so forth, write in give
me your suggestions. Likewise, for other comics, DC comics, I've
(01:12):
done some of those in the past. Outside of Marvel
and DC. I'm also happy to dive into those worlds
as well. Alright, without further ado, let's jump into an
episode that I recorded, I believe last summer. This is
going to be a discussion of the cosmic villain Galactus.
(01:38):
If you've seen the new MCU film The Fantastic Four
First Steps, then you've finally experienced a proper cinematic treatment
of Galactus, the iconic devour of worlds for Marvel Comics,
created in nineteen sixty six by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
This titanic space god predates the Big Bang. He survived
(02:00):
the great collapse of the previous universe and entered into
our own, hatching from the cosmic egg. His god like
abilities come via the power cosmic, which he sustains through
the consumption of entire worlds. And yet Galactus is a
lot more complex than your typical Earth destroying elder god.
While definitely an existential threat and a perpetrator of untold megadeaths,
(02:24):
Galactus does not consume worlds with malice, as the latest
MCU film accurately depicts. He himself is a slave to
his own insatiable hunger, but is lawful and honorable, standing
by the letter of pacts made for the survival of
various planets and such. While he's certainly a villain and
a monster by many measurements, he is also beyond good
(02:46):
and evil, a natural force that dwarfs everything he encounters.
Sometimes he even acts in ways that might cast him
as an antiher. In the Fantastic Four First Steps, Galactus
is as close to his Silver Age glory as we
could hope for. A giant humanoid being in purple armor
and a great hat that might best be described as
(03:08):
a papal miter with cosmic horns. English character actor Ralph
Ineson provides his voice and likeness. The presentation is delightfully
over the top, as it should be. But the entire
Galactus scenario, in which a ravenous cosmic power sends its
harbingers out in search of worlds and civilizations to dine on,
(03:28):
actually isn't entirely the domain of comic book science fiction.
Humans have wrestled with the Fermi paradox for seventy five
years now. If other intelligent life forms exist in the universe,
perhaps even in some abundance, then why haven't we encountered them,
heard of them, seen any signs of them? Why is
the universe so silent. Hypothesized solutions vary from the possibility
(03:51):
that Earth really is a rare commodity in the cosmos
to the idea that we exist in a sort of
space zoo or nature reserve. But while the latter concept
entails benign alien beings that intentionally leave us alone, the
dark Forest hypothesis paints a bleaker picture. Name for the
two thousand and eight Lucisian novel of the same name,
(04:12):
the dark Forest hypothesis states that the rest of the
universe is quiet because its various intelligent, technologically advanced civilizations
are understandably afraid. They remain unheard and unseen because they
know to raise their voices or in any way broadcast
their presence could attract the unwonted attention of dangerous, even
(04:33):
more powerful forces. This could be threats known to exist,
or merely threats likely to exist and therefore worth remaining
silent for. And this is where we get to the
possibility of if not an actual galactus, then something close
enough to terrify us, something that hungers and sends its
seekers and heralds far across the sprawl of stars in
(04:53):
search of civilized worlds to harvest. First, let's think about
that hunger galactus must consume worlds. This we know the
idea is far from ridiculous when we consider it the
Kardashev scale, which sorts potential civilizations by how much power
they can harvest. Type one the energy of an entire planet,
Type two the energy of an entire star, Type three
(05:15):
the energy of an entire galaxy. Certainly, by type three
we are contemplating galactus level power, and it certainly puts
forms of planet and star harvesting or even consumption into consideration,
both in terms of what we can imagine, such as
the use of a Dyson sphere to enclose a star
and collect the sum total of its energy output, and
(05:36):
means that we can't even fathom yet. After all, we're
not even a type one civilization on the Kardashev scale.
Some of the aims and abilities of a type three
civilization or even a Type two may simply exist outside
of our context, and this leads us to another Fermi
paradox solution hypothesis, the Berserker hypothesis, also known as the
(05:57):
Deadly Probe scenario, name, by the way, stems from the
nineteen sixty seven Fred Saberhagen novel. The concept here is
that the cosmos seems silent because thus far all other
sufficiently advanced intelligent forms of life have been destroyed by
deadly seekert probes, self replicating destroyers that are even now
(06:17):
on their way to decimate Earth as well. In teasing
this hypothesis apart, some have argued that humanity would have
surely been discovered and eradicated already if this were the
status quo in the galaxy. However, if we've not yet
met the criteria for extermination, or if there's some hope
of passing a civilizational test that ensures our survival yish,
(06:39):
then perhaps the sword of Damocles merely hangs above all
of our heads, entirely dependent on how we conduct ourselves
or how solid the latest season of Single Female Lawyer
happens to be. Obviously, there are numerous ways to dissect
this hypothesis, ranging from just considering the toll such self
replicating machines might take on the galaxies available mass over time.
(07:02):
This would potentially spell a kind of gray goo apocalypse
on a cosmic scale, as well as issues of detection
or lack of detection here in our local neighborhood. Naturally,
the idea has been explored in various Sci Fi treatments,
often as a means to explore our collective values as
a species, our hopes and our fears that something else
(07:22):
out there shares those values in either its dark or
light extremes. And we see this with Galactus as well,
that a herald is sent to judge us, save or
condemn us based on our merits or the merits of
those who stand as shining examples of what we aspire
to be. And in this we're reminded that Galactus is
(07:44):
a comic book take on the divine, a god who
sits in judgment, echoing a very long standing note in
human myth making, such as in the Bible, and God
said unto Noah, the end of all flesh has come
before me, for the earth filled with violence through them,
And behold, I will destroy them with the earth. In
(08:05):
the Bagava Ghita, I am time grown old, to destroy
the world, embarked on the course of world annihilation. Except
for yourself. None of these will survive. Of these warriors
arrayed in opposite armies. And in Marvel comics, your planet
is now marked for death. Your world will be consumed
(08:26):
by the devour. There is nothing you can do to
stop him, for he is a universal force, as essential
as the stars. Hold your loved ones close, and speak
the words you've been afraid to speak. All right, For
our next entry, we are going to discuss Lady death Strike,
(08:49):
Wolverine enemy. Lady death Strike has long been one of
my favorite characters in X Men comics. While I was
never much of a comic book reader as a kid,
I of course encountered her on X Men, the animated
series and in the nineteen ninety four video game Wolverine
Adamantium Rage. A decade later, Kelly Hugh played a modified
(09:09):
version of Lady death Strike in the film X two.
The character's physical appearance is that of a Japanese woman
with long, reddish hair, a form fitting samurai inspired costume,
and long, razor sharp adamantium talons that extend from hands
that are themselves sometimes depicted as relatively human, other times oversized, elongated,
(09:31):
and truly monstrous. Her biography makes things even more complicated, however,
born Uriko Oyama, Lady death Strike's father, is said to
have originated the adamantium skeletal bonding process. That so famously
enhanced wolverine Death Strike, however, obtained her own adamantium claws
and bones after her father's death. In the Mojo verse,
(09:53):
this is where the character Spiral not only gave her
the full adamantium treatment, but also transformed her into a
full blown cyborg. As such, depictions of Lady death Strike
often include circuit like glyphs on her skin and other
cybernetic flourishous So coming back to her monstrous hands. Part
of this is the fact that she can extend her
(10:14):
forearms via her cybernetic enhancements. But we also might conjecture
that additional musculature in the hands and forearms is simply
necessary to house the additional retractable adamantium talons, and, perhaps
more to the point, the muscles or some sort of
cybernetic mechanisms to retract and deploy them. Now, perhaps unwittingly,
(10:36):
her monstrous hands make Lady death Strike comparable to various
traditions in folklore and legend in which a demon takes
on the form of a beautiful woman but is betrayed
by monstrous hands or feet. This clues in central characters
or heroes to the demonic nature of the individual. More directly, however,
(10:56):
she certainly fits the fem fatale profile. There what aspects
of her appearance in history that would almost allow her
to take her place alongside certain feminine yokai and yuri
in Japanese traditions, so various ghosts and vengeful ghosts. This
sometimes have a combination of the monstrous and the feminine. However,
it is unavoidable that while Asian comic book artists and
(11:17):
writers have subsequently depicted and developed the character, Lady death
Strike originates as a Western take on the Asian fem
fetale trope. Connections have been drawn between her signature nails
and decorative Chinese nail guards worn during the Ming Dynasty. Also,
I was reminded of Lady death Strike during a recent
viewing of the nineteen eighty three Hong Kong horror film
(11:39):
The Boxer's Omen, which features a resurrected sorceress who wears
decorative nail covers and also appears with elongated forearms that
turn out to be animate skeleton hands. Her profile in
one scene, in particular, feels very Lady death Strike. Though
the Marvel character of Yuriko Oyama introduced the same year,
(12:00):
wouldn't take on the full mantle of Lady death Strike
and the various characteristics that we associate with her until
nineteen eighty six in Uncanny X Men number two five.
Might her creators have found some level of influence in
the Boxer z omen or merely in related imagery and ideas.
I've found nothing concrete on this matter, so maybe I'm
(12:20):
drawing a connection here where there isn't one. Lady death
Strike continues to slice up the pages of Marvel comics
as both villain and anti hero, and she recently showed
back up in twenty twenty four's Deadpool and Wolverine as
a minor, almost easter egg character, but it was still
fun to see once more. She was not fully cyborg,
but she certainly embodied some of the features that have
(12:42):
made her such a popular character over the years. All Right,
it's time to discuss I think one of the more
(13:03):
whimsical superheroes in the Marvel universe. Let's talk about squirrel Girl.
Longtime listeners to Stuff to Blow your mind know that
we have an enduring fascination with squirrels, particularly the Eastern
gray squirrel, because these are the creatures I observe every day,
and I constantly find myself either just taking them for
(13:26):
granted or just suddenly recognizing how weird and fierce they are.
They're such survivors, and the same could be said for
Marvel's Squirrel Girl. At first glance, you might think this
particular superhero is just here for acute pose and a
few laughs, and yeah, she's totally down for all of that.
But since her creation in the early nineties by Will
(13:48):
Murray and Steve did Go, Squirrel Girl has scored victories
against such iconic villains as Ultron, Galactus, Doctor Doom, and Thanos. Okay,
so what are her powers, you might be wondering if
you're not familiar with the character already. Well, first of all,
it's important to note that Squirrel Girl is not technically
a mutant, but rather a typical Canadian girl who just
(14:10):
gradually began to exhibit an amazing ability to communicate with
squirrels and developed various squirrel like physical abilities, as pointed
out by Mark Sumrec and Daniel Wallace in the excellent
book marvel Anatomy. She boasts large incisors and rugged climbing claws,
both attributes of the real world furry grappling hooks that
(14:30):
we call squirrels. She also boasts a full fluffy squirrel tail,
which I assume offers a number of benefits enjoyed by
her namesake, balance, shade communication, and locomotion assistance while leaping, falling, landing,
or swimming. Sumeric and Wallace put her vertical jumping ability
at thirty feet or more than nine meters, which feels
(14:52):
like a decent scaling up of squirrel leaping ability. How
high could we leap if we had the leaping ability
of a squirrel? I think that's a accurate The one
head scratcher, however, is that squirrel girl also boasts extendable
bone knuckle spikes. They extend wolverine style through the back
of her palms, jutting out just above her knuckles, enabling
(15:15):
her to punch and carve through wood as well as
through ultron drones. Obviously, rule of cool applies here, and
the bone knuckle spikes are indeed cool, no doubt about it,
but they do seem kind of unnecessary if we're comparing
her to squirrels. Actual squirrels don't have them because they
can handle all their woodworking and robot thrashing with teeth
and claws alone for natural world analogs to squirrel Girl's
(15:39):
knuckle spikes or Wolverine's famous claws for that matter, we
have to leave the mammal world behind and head into
the amphibian world. First, we can look to the hairy
frog or Tricobatracos robustus, which can break its own toe
bones and extend them through the flesh as makeshift defensive claws,
which may later retract, allowing flesh to heal back over again.
(16:02):
Male autumn frogs or Babina subaspera also boast a different
form of retractable spike that extends from under the thumb.
Both of these species are commonly compared to the fictional Wolverine,
though his namesake animal also makes do with just teeth
and finger claws alone, no extendable or retractable clause required. Now,
(16:25):
I know there are frog based superheroes and super villains
in the Marvel world, but do any of them have
extendable horror clause? I don't think that they do, at
least not yet, so I do put the question out
there for any of you comic book fans, and especially
in of you hardcore Marvel geeks, if you have an
(16:45):
answer to this question right in, I would love to
hear from you. All right, let's go ahead and end
this episode out with the most recent Marvel Monster fact
entry that I did. This is also one of the
weirder ones. It is the Quasi Motivational Destruct Organism or
quasi Moto. Let's dive right in today I want to
(17:11):
cover one of the weirder Marvel Comics characters to jump
out of the pages the Official Handbook of the Marvel
Universe Master Edition. I have a used copy of this
book from the nineteen nineties, and it contains all of
your more popular X Men and Avengers, along with some
real weirdos, like today's selection. The Quasi Motivational Destruct Organism,
(17:32):
also known as Quasimoto. Yes, this supervillain, who first appeared
in the pages of the Fantastic Four back in nineteen
sixty six, is essentially a super science take on Quasimodo,
the Hunchback of Notre Dame from the eighteen thirty one
Victor Hugo novel, though the character's appearance seems mostly based
(17:53):
to my eye, on the version played by Charles Lawton
in the nineteen thirties film adaptation. In Hugo's tale, Quasimoto
is a cathedral bell ringer suffering from severe gyphosis an
excessive convex curvature of the spine. The Quasi Motivational Destruct
Organism's nature, however, is a bit more convoluted. As Marvel
(18:15):
dot Com tells it, he was originally a sentient computer
developed by the supervillain the Mad Thinker. This sentient computer
desire to human form, but its creator cruelly refused it. Eventually,
the Silver Surfer steps in, takes pity on the suffering computer,
and uses his power cosmic to grant the computer's wishes. However,
(18:37):
the Quasi Motivational Destruct Organism would prove the twisted vulcan
to the Silver Surfer's physical perfection. He looks like a
stereotypical hunchback of Notre Dame, but with a metallic skin
or a metal suit. You know, sort of the Silver
Surfer body, except it is the hunchback of Notre Dame's body.
We're told he is a pseudo organic an android possessed
(19:00):
of immense physical smashing power, but due to his computer origin,
his brain is also able to process information and make
calculations with vastly improved speed and accuracy. Yet despite this,
he's not your standard super strong, super smart, gimme god
cosmic bad guy. We get a lot of those in
comic book stories from this era. No, we're told his
(19:24):
actual intelligence is more that of a baseline human intelligence,
and that his biggest weakness is his lack of creativity. Now,
I don't think stan Lee and Jack Kirby were necessarily
trying to be all that prophetic with this particular supervillain.
What you see is kind of what you get with
the quasi motivational destruct organism. Yet at the same time,
(19:47):
beyond the space quasimotive gimmick, there is a reasonable amount
of Miltonian depth here to the plight between the created
and the creator. And then there's this interesting detail about
computer enhancementulations are lightning fast, but his intelligence is actually
more again human baseline, and there is something lacking in
(20:07):
his ability to think with true creativity. It's interesting to
ponder this. Given our current state of AI and computer enhancement,
we can observe that computer form we're building around ourselves,
thinking for us, writing for us, expressing ourselves, and representing
our souls to each other through the artifice of large
(20:28):
language models and so forth, silver fleshed on the outside,
but perhaps somewhat compressed on the inside, bent under the
weight of the machine and undergoing atrification. And what's more,
there's this fear that I've seen express that our actual
ability to express ourselves, and indeed our actual self isn't
(20:49):
good enough without the trappings of the machine, a kind
of self fulfilling prophecy, as the interface between human and
AI has largely fallen short of the creative partnership we
were promised. Way to go, Matt Thinkers. All right, there
you have it. Now I'm going to have to move
(21:10):
on to some all new Marvel creatures, Marvel characters and
so forth to discuss here in the Monster Fact Again.
If you have recommendations, write in thanks as always to
the excellent JJ Possway for producing the Monster Fact as
well as the Artifact and Animelius to Pendium. You can
find these episodes generally every Wednesday in the Stuff to
(21:30):
Blow your Mind podcast feed and wherever you get that
feed and be it audio or if you get it
in video form, just make sure that you throw some
stars some thumbs up our way. Subscribe or whatever the
case may be. All that engagement helps the show out
and helps ensure that we get to keep pumping this
content out to you. And if you would like to
(21:53):
email us with recommendations for the future, you can reach
out to us at contact at stuff to Blow your
Mind dot com.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Stuffed Blow your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hey, Welcome to the Monster Fact Omnibus. My name is
Robert Lamb. This is going to be another one of
these episodes where we play a little catchup and we
take in this case, four separate past Monster Fact entries
and we cobble them all together in one episode. This
is going to be audio only because the period of
(00:29):
time that we're covering here includes both the Netflix video
and pre Netflix Video era, so I think two or
video two or audio, so they're just all going to
be audio. So these are going to be four more
entries from the Marvel universe. I can't quite get enough
of the Marvel universe in terms of its weirdness, characters
(00:50):
I've never heard of, as well as characters that are
quite beloved by myself and other comic book fans, video
game fans, film fans, and so forth. So moving forward,
if you would like to hear Monster Fact entries on
additional Marvel characters, creatures, and so forth, write in give
me your suggestions. Likewise, for other comics, DC comics, I've
(01:12):
done some of those in the past. Outside of Marvel
and DC. I'm also happy to dive into those worlds
as well. Alright, without further ado, let's jump into an
episode that I recorded, I believe last summer. This is
going to be a discussion of the cosmic villain Galactus.
(01:38):
If you've seen the new MCU film The Fantastic Four
First Steps, then you've finally experienced a proper cinematic treatment
of Galactus, the iconic devour of worlds for Marvel Comics,
created in nineteen sixty six by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
This titanic space god predates the Big Bang. He survived
(02:00):
the great collapse of the previous universe and entered into
our own, hatching from the cosmic egg. His god like
abilities come via the power cosmic, which he sustains through
the consumption of entire worlds. And yet Galactus is a
lot more complex than your typical Earth destroying elder god.
While definitely an existential threat and a perpetrator of untold megadeaths,
(02:24):
Galactus does not consume worlds with malice, as the latest
MCU film accurately depicts. He himself is a slave to
his own insatiable hunger, but is lawful and honorable, standing
by the letter of pacts made for the survival of
various planets and such. While he's certainly a villain and
a monster by many measurements, he is also beyond good
(02:46):
and evil, a natural force that dwarfs everything he encounters.
Sometimes he even acts in ways that might cast him
as an antiher. In the Fantastic Four First Steps, Galactus
is as close to his Silver Age glory as we
could hope for. A giant humanoid being in purple armor
and a great hat that might best be described as
(03:08):
a papal miter with cosmic horns. English character actor Ralph
Ineson provides his voice and likeness. The presentation is delightfully
over the top, as it should be. But the entire
Galactus scenario, in which a ravenous cosmic power sends its
harbingers out in search of worlds and civilizations to dine on,
(03:28):
actually isn't entirely the domain of comic book science fiction.
Humans have wrestled with the Fermi paradox for seventy five
years now. If other intelligent life forms exist in the universe,
perhaps even in some abundance, then why haven't we encountered them,
heard of them, seen any signs of them? Why is
the universe so silent. Hypothesized solutions vary from the possibility
(03:51):
that Earth really is a rare commodity in the cosmos
to the idea that we exist in a sort of
space zoo or nature reserve. But while the latter concept
entails benign alien beings that intentionally leave us alone, the
dark Forest hypothesis paints a bleaker picture. Name for the
two thousand and eight Lucisian novel of the same name,
(04:12):
the dark Forest hypothesis states that the rest of the
universe is quiet because its various intelligent, technologically advanced civilizations
are understandably afraid. They remain unheard and unseen because they
know to raise their voices or in any way broadcast
their presence could attract the unwonted attention of dangerous, even
(04:33):
more powerful forces. This could be threats known to exist,
or merely threats likely to exist and therefore worth remaining
silent for. And this is where we get to the
possibility of if not an actual galactus, then something close
enough to terrify us, something that hungers and sends its
seekers and heralds far across the sprawl of stars in
(04:53):
search of civilized worlds to harvest. First, let's think about
that hunger galactus must consume worlds. This we know the
idea is far from ridiculous when we consider it the
Kardashev scale, which sorts potential civilizations by how much power
they can harvest. Type one the energy of an entire planet,
Type two the energy of an entire star, Type three
(05:15):
the energy of an entire galaxy. Certainly, by type three
we are contemplating galactus level power, and it certainly puts
forms of planet and star harvesting or even consumption into consideration,
both in terms of what we can imagine, such as
the use of a Dyson sphere to enclose a star
and collect the sum total of its energy output, and
(05:36):
means that we can't even fathom yet. After all, we're
not even a type one civilization on the Kardashev scale.
Some of the aims and abilities of a type three
civilization or even a Type two may simply exist outside
of our context, and this leads us to another Fermi
paradox solution hypothesis, the Berserker hypothesis, also known as the
(05:57):
Deadly Probe scenario, name, by the way, stems from the
nineteen sixty seven Fred Saberhagen novel. The concept here is
that the cosmos seems silent because thus far all other
sufficiently advanced intelligent forms of life have been destroyed by
deadly seekert probes, self replicating destroyers that are even now
(06:17):
on their way to decimate Earth as well. In teasing
this hypothesis apart, some have argued that humanity would have
surely been discovered and eradicated already if this were the
status quo in the galaxy. However, if we've not yet
met the criteria for extermination, or if there's some hope
of passing a civilizational test that ensures our survival yish,
(06:39):
then perhaps the sword of Damocles merely hangs above all
of our heads, entirely dependent on how we conduct ourselves
or how solid the latest season of Single Female Lawyer
happens to be. Obviously, there are numerous ways to dissect
this hypothesis, ranging from just considering the toll such self
replicating machines might take on the galaxies available mass over time.
(07:02):
This would potentially spell a kind of gray goo apocalypse
on a cosmic scale, as well as issues of detection
or lack of detection here in our local neighborhood. Naturally,
the idea has been explored in various Sci Fi treatments,
often as a means to explore our collective values as
a species, our hopes and our fears that something else
(07:22):
out there shares those values in either its dark or
light extremes. And we see this with Galactus as well,
that a herald is sent to judge us, save or
condemn us based on our merits or the merits of
those who stand as shining examples of what we aspire
to be. And in this we're reminded that Galactus is
(07:44):
a comic book take on the divine, a god who
sits in judgment, echoing a very long standing note in
human myth making, such as in the Bible, and God
said unto Noah, the end of all flesh has come
before me, for the earth filled with violence through them,
And behold, I will destroy them with the earth. In
(08:05):
the Bagava Ghita, I am time grown old, to destroy
the world, embarked on the course of world annihilation. Except
for yourself. None of these will survive. Of these warriors
arrayed in opposite armies. And in Marvel comics, your planet
is now marked for death. Your world will be consumed
(08:26):
by the devour. There is nothing you can do to
stop him, for he is a universal force, as essential
as the stars. Hold your loved ones close, and speak
the words you've been afraid to speak. All right, For
our next entry, we are going to discuss Lady death Strike,
(08:49):
Wolverine enemy. Lady death Strike has long been one of
my favorite characters in X Men comics. While I was
never much of a comic book reader as a kid,
I of course encountered her on X Men, the animated
series and in the nineteen ninety four video game Wolverine
Adamantium Rage. A decade later, Kelly Hugh played a modified
(09:09):
version of Lady death Strike in the film X two.
The character's physical appearance is that of a Japanese woman
with long, reddish hair, a form fitting samurai inspired costume,
and long, razor sharp adamantium talons that extend from hands
that are themselves sometimes depicted as relatively human, other times oversized, elongated,
(09:31):
and truly monstrous. Her biography makes things even more complicated, however,
born Uriko Oyama, Lady death Strike's father, is said to
have originated the adamantium skeletal bonding process. That so famously
enhanced wolverine Death Strike, however, obtained her own adamantium claws
and bones after her father's death. In the Mojo verse,
(09:53):
this is where the character Spiral not only gave her
the full adamantium treatment, but also transformed her into a
full blown cyborg. As such, depictions of Lady death Strike
often include circuit like glyphs on her skin and other
cybernetic flourishous So coming back to her monstrous hands. Part
of this is the fact that she can extend her
(10:14):
forearms via her cybernetic enhancements. But we also might conjecture
that additional musculature in the hands and forearms is simply
necessary to house the additional retractable adamantium talons, and, perhaps
more to the point, the muscles or some sort of
cybernetic mechanisms to retract and deploy them. Now, perhaps unwittingly,
(10:36):
her monstrous hands make Lady death Strike comparable to various
traditions in folklore and legend in which a demon takes
on the form of a beautiful woman but is betrayed
by monstrous hands or feet. This clues in central characters
or heroes to the demonic nature of the individual. More directly, however,
(10:56):
she certainly fits the fem fatale profile. There what aspects
of her appearance in history that would almost allow her
to take her place alongside certain feminine yokai and yuri
in Japanese traditions, so various ghosts and vengeful ghosts. This
sometimes have a combination of the monstrous and the feminine. However,
it is unavoidable that while Asian comic book artists and
(11:17):
writers have subsequently depicted and developed the character, Lady death
Strike originates as a Western take on the Asian fem
fetale trope. Connections have been drawn between her signature nails
and decorative Chinese nail guards worn during the Ming Dynasty. Also,
I was reminded of Lady death Strike during a recent
viewing of the nineteen eighty three Hong Kong horror film
(11:39):
The Boxer's Omen, which features a resurrected sorceress who wears
decorative nail covers and also appears with elongated forearms that
turn out to be animate skeleton hands. Her profile in
one scene, in particular, feels very Lady death Strike. Though
the Marvel character of Yuriko Oyama introduced the same year,
(12:00):
wouldn't take on the full mantle of Lady death Strike
and the various characteristics that we associate with her until
nineteen eighty six in Uncanny X Men number two five.
Might her creators have found some level of influence in
the Boxer z omen or merely in related imagery and ideas.
I've found nothing concrete on this matter, so maybe I'm
(12:20):
drawing a connection here where there isn't one. Lady death
Strike continues to slice up the pages of Marvel comics
as both villain and anti hero, and she recently showed
back up in twenty twenty four's Deadpool and Wolverine as
a minor, almost easter egg character, but it was still
fun to see once more. She was not fully cyborg,
but she certainly embodied some of the features that have
(12:42):
made her such a popular character over the years. All Right,
it's time to discuss I think one of the more
(13:03):
whimsical superheroes in the Marvel universe. Let's talk about squirrel Girl.
Longtime listeners to Stuff to Blow your mind know that
we have an enduring fascination with squirrels, particularly the Eastern
gray squirrel, because these are the creatures I observe every day,
and I constantly find myself either just taking them for
(13:26):
granted or just suddenly recognizing how weird and fierce they are.
They're such survivors, and the same could be said for
Marvel's Squirrel Girl. At first glance, you might think this
particular superhero is just here for acute pose and a
few laughs, and yeah, she's totally down for all of that.
But since her creation in the early nineties by Will
(13:48):
Murray and Steve did Go, Squirrel Girl has scored victories
against such iconic villains as Ultron, Galactus, Doctor Doom, and Thanos. Okay,
so what are her powers, you might be wondering if
you're not familiar with the character already. Well, first of all,
it's important to note that Squirrel Girl is not technically
a mutant, but rather a typical Canadian girl who just
(14:10):
gradually began to exhibit an amazing ability to communicate with
squirrels and developed various squirrel like physical abilities, as pointed
out by Mark Sumrec and Daniel Wallace in the excellent
book marvel Anatomy. She boasts large incisors and rugged climbing claws,
both attributes of the real world furry grappling hooks that
(14:30):
we call squirrels. She also boasts a full fluffy squirrel tail,
which I assume offers a number of benefits enjoyed by
her namesake, balance, shade communication, and locomotion assistance while leaping, falling, landing,
or swimming. Sumeric and Wallace put her vertical jumping ability
at thirty feet or more than nine meters, which feels
(14:52):
like a decent scaling up of squirrel leaping ability. How
high could we leap if we had the leaping ability
of a squirrel? I think that's a accurate The one
head scratcher, however, is that squirrel girl also boasts extendable
bone knuckle spikes. They extend wolverine style through the back
of her palms, jutting out just above her knuckles, enabling
(15:15):
her to punch and carve through wood as well as
through ultron drones. Obviously, rule of cool applies here, and
the bone knuckle spikes are indeed cool, no doubt about it,
but they do seem kind of unnecessary if we're comparing
her to squirrels. Actual squirrels don't have them because they
can handle all their woodworking and robot thrashing with teeth
and claws alone for natural world analogs to squirrel Girl's
(15:39):
knuckle spikes or Wolverine's famous claws for that matter, we
have to leave the mammal world behind and head into
the amphibian world. First, we can look to the hairy
frog or Tricobatracos robustus, which can break its own toe
bones and extend them through the flesh as makeshift defensive claws,
which may later retract, allowing flesh to heal back over again.
(16:02):
Male autumn frogs or Babina subaspera also boast a different
form of retractable spike that extends from under the thumb.
Both of these species are commonly compared to the fictional Wolverine,
though his namesake animal also makes do with just teeth
and finger claws alone, no extendable or retractable clause required. Now,
(16:25):
I know there are frog based superheroes and super villains
in the Marvel world, but do any of them have
extendable horror clause? I don't think that they do, at
least not yet, so I do put the question out
there for any of you comic book fans, and especially
in of you hardcore Marvel geeks, if you have an
(16:45):
answer to this question right in, I would love to
hear from you. All right, let's go ahead and end
this episode out with the most recent Marvel Monster fact
entry that I did. This is also one of the
weirder ones. It is the Quasi Motivational Destruct Organism or
quasi Moto. Let's dive right in today I want to
(17:11):
cover one of the weirder Marvel Comics characters to jump
out of the pages the Official Handbook of the Marvel
Universe Master Edition. I have a used copy of this
book from the nineteen nineties, and it contains all of
your more popular X Men and Avengers, along with some
real weirdos, like today's selection. The Quasi Motivational Destruct Organism,
(17:32):
also known as Quasimoto. Yes, this supervillain, who first appeared
in the pages of the Fantastic Four back in nineteen
sixty six, is essentially a super science take on Quasimodo,
the Hunchback of Notre Dame from the eighteen thirty one
Victor Hugo novel, though the character's appearance seems mostly based
(17:53):
to my eye, on the version played by Charles Lawton
in the nineteen thirties film adaptation. In Hugo's tale, Quasimoto
is a cathedral bell ringer suffering from severe gyphosis an
excessive convex curvature of the spine. The Quasi Motivational Destruct
Organism's nature, however, is a bit more convoluted. As Marvel
(18:15):
dot Com tells it, he was originally a sentient computer
developed by the supervillain the Mad Thinker. This sentient computer
desire to human form, but its creator cruelly refused it. Eventually,
the Silver Surfer steps in, takes pity on the suffering computer,
and uses his power cosmic to grant the computer's wishes. However,
(18:37):
the Quasi Motivational Destruct Organism would prove the twisted vulcan
to the Silver Surfer's physical perfection. He looks like a
stereotypical hunchback of Notre Dame, but with a metallic skin
or a metal suit. You know, sort of the Silver
Surfer body, except it is the hunchback of Notre Dame's body.
We're told he is a pseudo organic an android possessed
(19:00):
of immense physical smashing power, but due to his computer origin,
his brain is also able to process information and make
calculations with vastly improved speed and accuracy. Yet despite this,
he's not your standard super strong, super smart, gimme god
cosmic bad guy. We get a lot of those in
comic book stories from this era. No, we're told his
(19:24):
actual intelligence is more that of a baseline human intelligence,
and that his biggest weakness is his lack of creativity. Now,
I don't think stan Lee and Jack Kirby were necessarily
trying to be all that prophetic with this particular supervillain.
What you see is kind of what you get with
the quasi motivational destruct organism. Yet at the same time,
(19:47):
beyond the space quasimotive gimmick, there is a reasonable amount
of Miltonian depth here to the plight between the created
and the creator. And then there's this interesting detail about
computer enhancementulations are lightning fast, but his intelligence is actually
more again human baseline, and there is something lacking in
(20:07):
his ability to think with true creativity. It's interesting to
ponder this. Given our current state of AI and computer enhancement,
we can observe that computer form we're building around ourselves,
thinking for us, writing for us, expressing ourselves, and representing
our souls to each other through the artifice of large
(20:28):
language models and so forth, silver fleshed on the outside,
but perhaps somewhat compressed on the inside, bent under the
weight of the machine and undergoing atrification. And what's more,
there's this fear that I've seen express that our actual
ability to express ourselves, and indeed our actual self isn't
(20:49):
good enough without the trappings of the machine, a kind
of self fulfilling prophecy, as the interface between human and
AI has largely fallen short of the creative partnership we
were promised. Way to go, Matt Thinkers. All right, there
you have it. Now I'm going to have to move
(21:10):
on to some all new Marvel creatures, Marvel characters and
so forth to discuss here in the Monster Fact Again.
If you have recommendations, write in thanks as always to
the excellent JJ Possway for producing the Monster Fact as
well as the Artifact and Animelius to Pendium. You can
find these episodes generally every Wednesday in the Stuff to
(21:30):
Blow your Mind podcast feed and wherever you get that
feed and be it audio or if you get it
in video form, just make sure that you throw some
stars some thumbs up our way. Subscribe or whatever the
case may be. All that engagement helps the show out
and helps ensure that we get to keep pumping this
content out to you. And if you would like to
(21:53):
email us with recommendations for the future, you can reach
out to us at contact at stuff to Blow your
Mind dot com.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
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