Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie can Smith. I'm welcome to Steff
Speaker 1: when ever told you objection of iHeart Radio, And welcome
Speaker 1: to another sub sub sub sub segment, Fictional Women around
Speaker 1: the World. I hash to say I deliberated for a
Speaker 1: long time about who we were going to talk about
Speaker 1: for this one. I wanted to do Storm from X Men.
Speaker 1: But when I tell you that that should probably be
Speaker 1: a whole episode, that should probably be Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I was drowning in research, like I've already done half
Speaker 1: the research, and I was like, no, I can't do
Speaker 1: it as an episode. I loved that character as a kid,
Speaker 1: and I really want to talk about her. We never
Speaker 1: want to not talk about something that is a lot
Speaker 1: more work. But it was just too much work for
Speaker 1: me to get this done in a timely and respectful
Speaker 1: manner to that character. So yeah, so then we need
Speaker 1: to do one soon on her. I yes, I would
Speaker 1: love to. I was fascinated by what I was reading,
Speaker 1: but it was just like two in depth. I was
Speaker 1: going to have to look into a lot of other stuff,
Speaker 1: but I went with Monica Rambo and I am I
Speaker 1: am focusing on the MCU, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, version.
Speaker 1: I'll talk about her in the comics a little bit,
Speaker 1: but I am focusing on that one because The Marvels
Speaker 1: did just come out on streaming not currently a sponsor
Speaker 1: on Disney Plus, and I texted you about it because
Speaker 1: I've found it really interesting that and you can go
Speaker 1: back and listen to our episode on Nya DaCosta who's
Speaker 1: the director of that, for more on this. But I
Speaker 1: found it really interesting how many people were acting like
Speaker 1: they'd never heard of it before been in theaters, and
Speaker 1: they were a lot of them liked it, And I
Speaker 1: was like, uh huh, so that I just find that
Speaker 1: very interesting. But I thought in honor of that, we
Speaker 1: could kind of talk about this character, Monica Rambo, who
Speaker 1: is one of the three main characters in that movie.
Speaker 1: But that being said, there are going to be spoilers
Speaker 1: to The Marvels and WandaVision. I would say, like, we're
Speaker 1: not going to go to in depth, but they're like
Speaker 1: huge spoilers, if that makes sense. Yeah, like just just
Speaker 1: in general, the fact is a huge spoiler, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: So if you haven't seen it, maybe hold off on
Speaker 1: this one until you have, or if you don't care,
Speaker 1: come along for the ride. You know, yeah, so standard
Speaker 1: Marvel disclaimer. We are, as I said, focusing mainly on
Speaker 1: the MCU version here. A lot of these things are
Speaker 1: going through retcoms, which means they go back and they
Speaker 1: kind of change the history of a character. I read
Speaker 1: a very interesting article about that recently, about whether that
Speaker 1: is a good or bad thing that is happening so much.
Speaker 1: But today we are talking about Captain Monica Rambo, who's
Speaker 1: a PhD, played in the MCU by Tiana Paris and
Speaker 1: Ta Kira Acbar as an adult. This character was first
Speaker 1: introduced in the comics in nineteen eighty two. First created
Speaker 1: by Roger Stern and Joan Romita Junior, this character was
Speaker 1: originally designed to look like actress and actress star Pam Greer,
Speaker 1: but the design changed along the line. John Reminia Junior said,
Speaker 1: I just took some reference on Pam Greer because I
Speaker 1: always loved her, and at the last moment somebody said that, well,
Speaker 1: we need to use this woman here because they thought
Speaker 1: maybe Pam Greer wasn't as good looking as the model
Speaker 1: they found. It was fine because by the time she
Speaker 1: got done by other artists, it ended up looking like
Speaker 1: the generic black character. Anyway, so this was an interesting Yeah,
Speaker 1: this was a really interesting back and forth that you
Speaker 1: can read about this character. But I thought that was
Speaker 1: a very telling thing. It was like Bam Greer and
Speaker 1: they were like, okay, we'll just go back and back
Speaker 1: and forth. She this character got her first solo comic
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two called Photon But okay, in the
Speaker 1: MCU she's the daughter of Maria Rambo. Also, this first
Speaker 1: time I put together that their last name sounds like Rambo,
Speaker 1: and I like the Sylvester Saloon. You didn't, you, Samantha,
Speaker 1: I didn't. I was just like, Rambo sounds so beautiful. Anyway, Okay,
Speaker 1: it was. Her mother was a pilot and best friend
Speaker 1: of Carol Danvers, who was later Captain Marvel, and she
Speaker 1: called Monica, called her aunt Carol, Auntie Carol. Carol calls
Speaker 1: her Lieutenant Trouble. When reports of danvers death reach Monica,
Speaker 1: Monica refuses to believe them. Six years later, thanks to
Speaker 1: space time continuum stuff, Carol shows up and she's thrilled
Speaker 1: to learn Monica's thrilled to learn that Carol has powers,
Speaker 1: and Monica it kind of helps convince her mom to
Speaker 1: join up with Carol to protect refugees of the Scroll
Speaker 1: from the creed, and I don't really have time to
Speaker 1: go into the whole thing. You can watch Captain Marvel,
Speaker 1: or you can listen to different podcasts, but you know,
Speaker 1: it's a whole thing. Monica helps Carol choose the colors
Speaker 1: for her superhero outfit. Danvers goes to space to keep
Speaker 1: the peace. Monica's mam Maria founds this thing called SWORGE,
Speaker 1: which stands for a Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division,
Speaker 1: which is a division that Monica later joined. As an adult,
Speaker 1: she went into astronaut training and was the subject of
Speaker 1: stories in newspapers. And then during the Snap, which is
Speaker 1: when Banos snapped and then half of the population of
Speaker 1: the entire universe just faded from existence became ashes, Monica
Speaker 1: was snapped out while accompanying her mom to her cancer treatments,
Speaker 1: and she, along with all the others that disappeared and
Speaker 1: the Snap, returned five years later, only to find that
Speaker 1: her mother had died of cancer while she had been gone.
Speaker 1: As she was waiting through her grief, she was put
Speaker 1: on assignment for the Westview Crisis, which is what happened
Speaker 1: in Wanda Vision. That was that whole thing. Basically, Wanda
Speaker 1: Maxima Off aka Scarlet Witch, and you can see the
Speaker 1: episode we did on her with Joey had created a
Speaker 1: sort of sitcom bubble to shield herself and the pain
Speaker 1: of all that she had lost, including vision, her love, Vision,
Speaker 1: and her two kids. But it also involved subjugating the
Speaker 1: residence of Westview, and it turned out she had been
Speaker 1: manipulated by someone named Agatha who's getting her own show,
Speaker 1: who wanted her Wild Magic wanted Scarlet, which is wild Magic.
Speaker 1: Monica crosses the ever growing Hex'es barriers several times to
Speaker 1: try to reach Wanda and save the residence, and it
Speaker 1: causes her cells to be rewritten and it grants her
Speaker 1: superpowered abilities, so she is able to eventually reach Wanda
Speaker 1: and connect with her over their grief. Here's a quote.
Speaker 1: I lost the person closest to me too. The worst
Speaker 1: thing I can think of has already happened to me,
Speaker 1: and I can't change it, I can't undo it. I
Speaker 1: can't control this pain anymore, and I don't think I
Speaker 1: want to, because it's my truth. And she was very
Speaker 1: determined to help Wanda. She was very empathetic with her.
Speaker 1: She was the one that was always fighting, like, you know,
Speaker 1: something else is going on here. We shouldn't just like
Speaker 1: kill her. Monica is then recruited by a scroll instructed
Speaker 1: by Nick Fury to join Saber Strategic Aerospace, Biophysics and
Speaker 1: Exilinguistic Response. A couple of years later, she is tapped
Speaker 1: to investigate the Universal Neural Teleportation Network, and doing so,
Speaker 1: her powers are entangled with that of Captain Marvel slash
Speaker 1: Carrol Danvers and Kamalakan Miss Marvel. The entanglement means that
Speaker 1: whenever one of them uses their powers, they swap powers.
Speaker 1: Monica and Carol finally talk about why Carol left and
Speaker 1: why I hurt Monica about Maria's death, and they start
Speaker 1: to heal their relationship. A lot of stuff happens and
Speaker 1: in order to mend to potentially really bad reality destroying
Speaker 1: rupturing jump point. And I'm aware that for some of
Speaker 1: you this is all like what are you saying? It
Speaker 1: makes sense if you watch it, you know, maybe don't
Speaker 1: think that too hard, but it makes sense. But Monica
Speaker 1: crosses to the other side of the jump point and
Speaker 1: closes it, and she wakes up in an alternate reality
Speaker 1: where her mom is alive and it's X Men. That's
Speaker 1: the spoiler. That's the spoiler. Yeah, the X Men universe.
Speaker 1: So we've talked about it before. I really liked the movie.
Speaker 1: I liked that they had to learn to depend on
Speaker 1: each other and work in tandem when their powers were switching.
Speaker 1: I really liked that. I thought they were all pretty
Speaker 1: well developed in different characters, and I liked that when
Speaker 1: it comes to Monica specifically, there was a running joke
Speaker 1: in the movie and in general in the comics about
Speaker 1: her superhero name because she's gone by Spectrum, Pulsar, fots
Speaker 1: On and Captain Marvel. So Kamala Khan was always trying
Speaker 1: to like, maybe you should be this or what about this,
Speaker 1: and Monica's like, no, I'm not so her powers. I
Speaker 1: do love when Carol gets back and she's like, when
Speaker 1: did you get powers? And what's going on here? And
Speaker 1: Monica says, I walked through the radiation shielding barrier of
Speaker 1: a witches hex and now I can manipulate and see
Speaker 1: all wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Okay, yes, and we
Speaker 1: are talking about the MCU right now. But just to note,
Speaker 1: in the comics, she was the first female Captain Marvel
Speaker 1: and the first black woman to join the Avengers officially,
Speaker 1: and she has appeared on the lot of list. She's
Speaker 1: very well liked by critics and fans. From Nick Hemming
Speaker 1: at Luper, here's a quote. Few understand just how monumental
Speaker 1: her contributions to the Marvel universe truly are, nor how
Speaker 1: massive her character potential remains decades after her debut as
Speaker 1: a character. Her impressive energy manipulating powers make her an
Speaker 1: alpha level threat, while her strong leadership and sarcastic wit
Speaker 1: make her a fan favorite. This is the untold truth
Speaker 1: of Marvel's all too often forgotten Avenger Monica Rambo. So yeah,
Speaker 1: interested to see what happens next with her? Yeah, and
Speaker 1: maybe we'll come back and do more on this whole thing,
Speaker 1: because we do have a lot of thoughts. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what I have to say for now. Thank you
Speaker 1: for sharing. I'm still hold on to the whole Rambo
Speaker 1: that you didn't know. I did not know it. I
Speaker 1: can't believe I didn't put that together. I think I
Speaker 1: was thinking of my French brain like Bo means beautiful. Whatever.
Speaker 1: These comic book episodes always stress me out, but they're fun.
Speaker 1: But it's just like so much stuff to navigate through.
Speaker 1: But if I've forgotten anything or if I get anything wrong,
Speaker 1: please let me know. And if you have any suggestions
Speaker 1: for upcoming episodes, you can email us at Steph at
Speaker 1: mediamomstuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You can find us on
Speaker 1: Twitter at mom step podcast or on Instagram and TikTok
Speaker 1: at stuff I've Never Told You. We have a tea
Speaker 1: public store and we have a book where we do
Speaker 1: talk about a lot of comics and women in comics.
Speaker 1: You can get where we get your books things as
Speaker 1: always too our super producer Christine, our executive producer Maya,
Speaker 1: and our contributor Joey. Thank you and thanks to you
Speaker 1: for listening. Steffan Never Told Me is production of by
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