Transcript: Fantastic 4 series: Episode 40: Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards): Stretching:

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EP 40: Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards): Stretching
What would it actually take for a human body to stretch like Mr. Fantastic? Maria Dowell, MD joins us to explore the fascinating, terrifying, and biologically implausible science of stretching.

Transcript:

joe: [00:00:00] Hey, welcome back to the Rabbit Hole of Research down here in the basement studio hanging out. We’re bringing you the last of the Fantastic four Super series. This is, we’ll be covering all things stretchy,

nick: very stretchy

joe: Mr.

Fantastic. Himself. Himself. We are almost crewed up. You have me, Joe.

nick: You got Nick.

joe: got

nick: We’ve got Nick.

We got the foot of Georgia here.

joe: We’ve got,

I don’t know what that means, but

nick: she stretched away.

joe: she stretched away. I get it. Oh, I get it.

maria: and she left her foot.

nick: Yeah. She just, wanted to act like she was Still here.

joe: And we have our special guest.

nick: Wait. Hello there.

maria: Hello.

Hi, I’m Maria Dowell. I’m a pulmonologist at Northwestern and Laurie Children’s.

joe: Awesome. There we go. So people have been asking for someone to keep us sharp and on point with anatomy, and here we are. We deliver [00:01:00] on Reed Richard. Mr. Fantastic.

Just a little background if you’ve been following the series or if you’re new, the Fantastic four are fictional superhero team created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

First appearing in Fantastic Four, number one in 1961 from Marvel Comics. They were considered Marvel’s first superhero team of the modern era and help establish the more human, flawed and family driven style that defined Marvel storytelling. And a little more at sci-fi as we learned from some of our guests.

As I said, this is the fourth in the series, so episode 37 we had Nick Linsky. Talking about Sue Storm and invisibility, episode 38. We had Jonathan Mayberry talking about Ben Grime, the thing and strong skin. Episode 39. We had Dr. David Pincus, Johnny Storm, human Torch, spontaneous Combustion, and now we’ll be talking about Mr.

Fantastic Reed. Richard himself, [00:02:00]

the man of The fan, the group leader. He’s a scientific genius who can stretch his body into incredible shapes and lengths. He’s also a reckless scientist. He took his team and flew them into the cosmic

nick: I think reckless is a little bit of a

maria: experimental,

nick: them

maria: adventurous.

joe: But okay, we’ll touch this again ’cause I’m always a little like consent there because he just said, get in the ship, we’re gonna go check out some cosmic rays. And I don’t think he explained what could happen, but we usually open with a

definition, a little grounding open. And so I’ll do that, and then we get into it.

I do have a list, but this one here. So what does it mean to stretch in science? Stretching is a form of mechanical deformation. When a material is pulled beyond its original length, storing or dissipating energy in the process, and biology, stretching is dy. Stretching is the dynamic response of living tissues like muscle skin and connective fibers to tension [00:03:00] driven by proteins like elastin and collagen that determine whether a body snaps back or gives way.

But stretching is more than physical. It’s metaphorical and fiction. Stretchable characters like Mr. Fantastic Elastic girl, plastic man turn flexibility into superpower, embodying, adaptability, resilience, and transformation. They just don’t change shape. They change meaning. And today on this episode, we’re going to try and understand the biology and the science behind one of comic’s.

Most hand W Powers.

nick: hand wa

maria: I know.

nick: Whoa.

joe: Whoa. One of the most hand wa on powers.

nick: I don’t You say that every

joe: episode? No, I And this one,

every

nick: every

episode you’re like,

this

has an unreasonable

level of

handwaving.

joe: This one is up there.

nick: I don’t know about that, Joe.

maria: Human torch is not hand wm.

joe: Oh, I didn’t say it wasn’t that I,

maria: Oh, I, see.

Okay. I’m saying this is probably even, this might be more than the human torch

Okay. It’s on the spectrum.

joe: on the spectrum. It’s on the spectrum, yeah. And we actually I thought about it and I didn’t think about [00:04:00] the list, but I think we went in order of probably hand wa

real, realization, the hand waving on from percentage wise, I think invisibility, we probably can make someone invisible, mechanically or whatever.

There’s a path and we do that with materials. Strong skin. I think we talked about a few things. the human torch, was just a episode

nick: We were able to prove that to be able,

joe: we did, we got to some workable

nick: I think we’re gonna come to the same

joe: I don’t know.

nick: dunno. And

joe: We’ll

nick: gonna be like, wow, this is the most

probable

one out of all of ’em.

joe: I just think from a biological standpoint the reason is that with the human torch, what we did there was limit it to just the outer surface of a skin and separate that from internal organs.

So we didn’t have to figure out all the biology of making him completely heat resistant, just so that was nice. Here in this case, the same thing with the thing. He’s really just got the rocky exterior. So once again, that’s an external, there’s challenges, but [00:05:00] you go, okay, that’s external. But this one here, I think you have not only skin changing, you have internal organ structure.

Muscle bone. We have a lot of rigid structures. And Maria, here it’s just a lot of systems to

overcome.

E especially as fantastical as he appears in the comics where he’s not stretching just a few feet. He’s stretching, tens of

maria: He’s stretching.

He’s

splaying

out. he’s doing all sorts of

motions.

I was, thinking

about this and I

stretched,

my mind to

to

say,

When they

got raid,

whatever we’re calling that. I was thinking of the stretching as

The opposite

of

the strong skin. Right. Like whatever

happened To

the

collagen

and elastin and things that make up,

That or allow us to be stretchy or make up that structure.

It changed the

dynamic. Right.

And then I thought wait, his bone stretch,

his

organ stretch. All those things you said is cartilage stretches.

So

[00:06:00] what’s the common theme? One of the common things is collagen, right? We know That, and so maybe something cool

And mutated

happened to his collagen

in the opposite

direction.

Of the thick.

tough, thick

skin. right? So that’s one thing. But then I thought, how does he control it, it’s a balance. And You have collagen, you have elastin. and So thick skin guy has,

More collagen, less elastin and

maybe

Mr. Fantastic has

more elastin,

and less collagen or something.

I don’t know. What was The weird

mutation that happened,

joe: or mutations. Because you, I think you hit on a point and for all of, I think a lot of superheroes, they’re neurological control. You would have to almost reorganize to have that ability to at demand, stretch out and then recall and then have.

The nerve

maria: and why doesn’t it hurt? Because you guys, brought that up

with

why doesn’t it hurt?

When you know,

you’re,

your, you’re bumping against the tough skin,

thing Or your [00:07:00] back. Right.

joe: the human fla, we talked about the human tor with Johnny and

The pain receptors and things like that, like what happened there.

nick: Your body mutated to Be against that. Like, all right, We’re cool with this pain. like This, our nerve endings have changed.

joe: Yeah, yeah, I mean it’s but structures like bone are anti flex. Their design is

not

to be flexible. Is that, because of their content,

maria: right?

Again, it’s a balance,

right? They’re designed to be, to maintain structure,

But They do have some flexibility,

joe: but how much is flexibility? What’s our movement like? I’ve seen bones.

maria: Mine is not much

but Mr. Fantastic. It’s a lot.

joe: A lot. Yeah. But then would you be able to stand and walk if you had like rubbery bones, because then what, so I guess rubber, let’s say that you stretch, that means that you have an addition of some sort of mass, right? Because now you’re elongating and so you’re thin. You can do it two ways. One, you can get thinner and redistribute [00:08:00] cellular material or you add quickly and I guess so if he’s stretching is the bone.

Stretching with

it. Like it’s this, it’s a growth kind of thing.

maria: So you’re asking is he maintaining? mass?

joe: He

maintains strength, so you have to maintain ma mass. We have to, I think, assume that because he is still physically strong because if you stretch your arm out, it, you would lose, ’cause of the way the muscles overlap

and Yeah.

maria: If you stretch ’em too far. they can’t

contract properly. But he’s not normal.

joe: Yeah. But

maria: He’s got super normal.

joe: We gotta explain it how’s, what’s super normal. That’s hand w

maria: That’s hand

waving. Wow.

nick: I feel like,

she’s bringing good points here. And you’re trying to

maria: neuron stretch. If his neuron stretches then his

skeletal muscle can

joe: you could have, so or so.

nick: I feel like it would be weird if just skin stretched like,

maria: oh no, it’s everything. Yeah, it’s

joe: gotta be everything.

nick: You,

can’t just have. Loose skin fingers flapping [00:09:00] around

joe: Or maybe the timing, in the comics and animated and even the movies. It’s a very rapid response.

Maybe after he stretches out, it takes, he is gotta wheel it in to reform,

maria: but he’s in control he

can not, be stretchy and

look. perfectly fine And then he can flip a

switch. Do you think

that has anything to do with his level of intelligence? ’cause he’s super

smart.

joe: maybe you’re saying maybe you already had

nick: I feel like most superheroes do have a certain level of intelligence, to Control their powers Because so much of it. is, Johnny, with his being able to turn his flame

on mis invisible with her invisibility in force fields, it’s all very brain power based.

maria: And there’s precedent for that. Right.

The mind,

gut

access.

the,

nick: Oh, I feel like there are things now that some

people can do, but other people can’t because it’s just, all right, I’m able to control this part of my body. I’ve seen people be able to move their ears. That’s weird. But

joe: yeah,

maria: And There’s some people with really stretchy

skin.

For genetic conditions,

nick: Wait, you can move your ears. [00:10:00] What?

joe: I can, yeah. But we need video for

that.

maria: See it with headphones.

so just, I guess I was starting with the most rigid biological structure in humans, which we’re assuming Mr. Fantastic is a human and he has this and so one, he could, they got into, we, we touched on this before, genotype and phenotype, that he already had some genotype that predisposed him to, have, take advantage of the mutagen when it hit.

joe: And now he’s expressing that. Okay. But I think we gotta go one step further. You have. He can flatten out. So you do have a number of bones in your chest. Is that

maria: Oh yes. They’re called ribs.

They’re called ribs.

joe: Just

nick: is that what

maria: they’re,

called?

joe: I’m just

nick: like to eat those at barbecue

joe: been a while since I’ve taken anatomy, but yes.

And so they have to go somewhere. So now you’re,

they,

to flatten out. And then it, oh, go

maria: You’re

assuming that

they remain

ribs. There’s [00:11:00] collagen

in those structures too. so maybe if he can flip a

switch and be all stretchy in the skin, he can do it with his other organs.

And they can get more fluid.

joe: So fluid is good. ’cause I had an idea. What if he. What if its internal structures, juices up and it, you almost then become a fluid. And you could actually, there’s organisms like octopuses, things like that, that do have stretch. They can stretch their limbs and change shape and form and really elastic, but they’re usually hydrostatic.

And so could his bone structures and things be more hydrostatic and fill almost like a tube and then that would fill out

and the juice of his organs would then become would powered in his

maria: No. I think. you’re onto something. elephant trunks tongues.

Things like that. They don’t have bones in them. And they can do things and they can Change shape. So

joe: Camil chameleon tongues. They can also, they have, they can stretch out and curl and do all sorts of weird things, but and I will say curling,

if

you can roll your tongue.[00:12:00]

if

you can roll your tongue, that’s genetic.

maria: He’s right. He’s right. you, can’t, can he? Oh,

He can’t. He really Looks funny.

Yeah. Ooh,

joe: I can’t do that. What the,

maria: Yours is fluted,

Like aa.

joe: don’t know what’s

nick: Oh man

If only we had videos.

joe: Here it is.

maria: I don’t

joe: But yeah, no,

nick: hummingbirds tongues, don’t they roll up into their heads too?

No.

joe: know.

maria: Oh, they are, they,

do have,

to come out the, no, that’s probus,

joe: Yeah.

I don’t know what that is.

maria: Pocus Probus.

nick: Oh, I don’t know what that word

maria: that word is. like it comes out really long So it can go down. and, get the pollen and then it retracts up.

So maybe you’re Right? It does roll up.

nick: yeah.

I thought

joe: And I was gonna say that there are, with the, with kind of the thinking about the neurological axons and things like that, you could have a situation where you coil up, right?

So you have some length. And our, like our intestines. Our your intestines, average [00:13:00] adult’s about six feet long or so. Stretched out a little

maria: I think it’s longer than

that. Longer than that,

yeah,

much longer.

Like Probably in the

twenties.

joe: Oh, okay. So there you go.

20

feet, but it’s all coiled up inside of you. So

maria: I’m making it up,

I know

it’s longer than six.

nick: Yeah.

joe: We’ll put that in the show notes.

nick: All

I know is

joe: we got you here, Maria, to keep us

maria: Dang, this

is like a,

nick: feel like Maria’s closer than you are right now,

Joe. six feet.

right. I know. That’s

joe: That’s that’s, after you have a procedure,

nick: know anything.

joe: six feet left. Maybe that’s just a small, large intestine,

maria: that’s very

long.

nick: but yeah that’s

joe: I was gonna say that co that’s a nature. Does

maria: oh my God. 30 feet, nine meters The average.

joe: Wow.

There you go. People,

that’s a lot

nick: no, six foot,

lot of

joe: of intestine, but it’s

maria: probably more like twenties.

But

anyway, It’s

joe: coiled up

in there.

maria: yeah.

joe: a feature of nature, that it’s coiled. And actually, if you go to the ultra structure of the intestine, the villa, you have their coiled, and then you have the micro villa, which they’re on the [00:14:00] surface.

They actually are have this kind of , not coiled, but it’s it’s more folded structure. And so if you fold up something, you can pack it in, so a tighter space. So you could have this situation where so many structures are folded up, and then as you stretch

maria: yeah,

you

might have 25 to 30

feet,

Of a tube. But you’ve got a ton of surface

area inside, So agreed.

So you could, Lungs are similar. Yeah.

joe: Yeah, the lung’s, right? So they can flatten out. So he, you might have to juice up all the organs, maybe as a, maybe it’s not completely flat. There’s some lumpiness to it. And so maybe some things are being juiced and then

the

gi to generate the

fluid,

nick: really hate the way you’re saying

this,

joe: we have to.

But I think either way, I think at, if we had Mr. Fantastic here and we did some cell biology on him, I think he would have to have rapid cellular regeneration and growth. I think no matter how you slice it, how you stretch it that he would have to, [00:15:00] I think he would have to make new cellular material one way or the other.

Either stretching out or retracting back and probably both. Because the stretching out.

maria: So

elasticity,

and maybe some

plasticity,

nick: so

as he gets older, would his stretching ability

weaken

Or would it not retract as

maria: much

I say it would

get stiffer.

nick: I was just

thinking like an old rubber band.

That gonna right. That’s right. Yep.

joe: I thought it was interesting too. I was thinking about it and remembered

in the Incredibles, Alaska girl.

maria: She’s awesome. Yeah.

joe: But there was, when she was talking to oh, the woman that was making the super Edna,

maria: Mos talk to

joe: Edna Moons, and they were going over to suits, and Edna goes, it will stretch as far as you without injuring yourself. So that means that for elastic girl, there was some limit or perceive limit that you would stretch, and then you would actually cause physical harm, either get stuck there or not.

nick: No I took it as. If the suit didn’t [00:16:00] move with her, that would be the thing that hurt her.

joe: She said as

is, as far as

you, you would without injuring yourself.

So that’s more

nick: isn’t

joe: sounds more like it will stretch

maria: as far as there’s a limit you

joe: before until you hurt yourself. I, and it presumes that there’s a limit.

You, why say that, just say the suit was stretched as far as you can,

but it said as far as you can without injury. There was a, there was actually a qualifier there of injury,

maria: total

tangent.

But All the garments,

worn by the fantastic war, Why don’t they burn up or overstretch or are they

also imbued with The same

qualities.

nick: What It was

joe: Unstable,

yeah. Something like that. Yeah. Reed. Reed made up all of the

maria: Okay.

joe: outfits

maria: never change. Okay. never change your clothes.

nick: They

maria: assume they meant to,

nick: Adjust

to their abilities

joe: Yep. And even if they swapped, there was a,

what’s

that? A comic or the animated series where they switched power Johnny and

Sue

Switch Powers, but their suits still

nick: all of them. did. Mr.

joe: because they touched That’s right, yeah. Yeah. It was like by tut, right? Yeah.

Yeah.

nick: [00:17:00] Mr. Fantastics and in the comics Reed Richards can stretch up to 1,500 feet.

Just

so you know that’s his limit.

joe: That’s a pretty,

That

maria: was me being

speechless. Oh, wow.

I didn’t know that

joe: I looked at, I found it had about a hundred to 150% stretch limit before, before you tear. So that’s it. That, and that’s not a thousand, you said whatever, a thousand feet,

nick: feet.

joe: That’s not 1,500 feet. And,

is a,

so that means you would have to create new cellular material to keep stretching. That, that would mean that you would have to have some very fast growth of cellular material and then break down of the material.

maria: Wow.

That’s,

yeah.

Also,

nick: he can actually move his body parts

and

create the exact same part within himself.

maria: Wait,

what? example, please? Yes.

nick: I was reading comic recently with my daughter for a nighttime story where Reed goes [00:18:00] ahead and. They Reed and sue find a decayed body inside of a Doom bot, and he proceeds to put his eyeballs in his fingers

and

have it go throughout the body to examine it without

disrupting

the whole

body

itself.

It was absolutely

joe: So we can,

maria: is he a giant organism of

pluripotent cells,

and

he can just like, wow,

joe: just one big stem cell

maria: is one

joe: that’s going one, so yeah, that would fit that.

nick: Here you go.

maria: And there your regenerative aspect.

Ew.

Yeah.

joe: So that means Yeah, he could actually. Juice up his insides, take advantage of the kind of the hydrostatic skeleton.

nick: Also his making

maria: multiple, Appendages. and.

joe: And he maintains strength in all those appendages. Yeah. And

maria: So he’s a shapeshifter,

nick: Yeah.

But he

does wear himself [00:19:00] out while doing that,

joe: Yeah. So you

nick: I can send these to Joe And hopefully we don’t get them taken down.

joe: we’ll put ’em, in the show

maria: notes. Okay.

joe: Yeah, no, he would, you’re right, he is almost like a shapeshifter where he can manipulate,

nick: which Miss Marvel was able to do that as well.

Where

When she first got her power, she ended up changing into Carol Danvers.

And she

thought she was Carol Danvers then for a bit.

joe: But She Can mystique stretch if she. Or no,

nick: miss

that’s her powers

joe: will. Sorry, I meant would rogue stretch. So when she absorbs powers, so would she absorb Mr. Fantastics power?

nick: I’d

assume so. She

takes over anyone’s

Like No matter what it is, her abil, Her power is to take other people’s powers.

joe: a little

nick: And depending how much of her power, Their powers that she gets. It can either drain

them,

joe: Completely kill

nick: Yep.

joe: And then she, and she permanently gets their

nick: depending

on how long [00:20:00] she Holds on. Yes.

maria: I was thinking of the

stress and the strain for

Mr. Fantastic.

What

would

he do in a vacuum? What were, what if he were in space?

joe: Oh yeah. would he

maria: would he just Yeah.

Be a puff up?

blobby, protosome thing? or,

what would

joe: I,

presume he can control it. So you can you become more rigid?

maria: But he use gravity though.

joe: So you think it’s gravity based, especially if it’s

maria: some,

there

has to be some force,

right?

In in order to deform something.

That’s the Strain part.

force is do in space? It just loops, Right.

I’ve never heard water.

say, so maybe you’re

right, That sounded a little goldfish like that. does

joe: not have surface tension in water and space? Is that where you have it and I’m not,

maria: I don’t know.

my mind thinks it breaks down to

the smallest little thing.

that would,

joe: Yeah. People

they,

shoot water at each other and drink

nick: Yeah. They have water. gun fights up there. Like

joe: And the water actually at this, it does. Blob up and itself, it has its own surface tension, it still has its integrity, but it’s not fluid as we [00:21:00] think about it on earth.

That’s interesting. I don’t know I to look ’cause you can soak it up a sponge. Yeah,

maria: do that in

joe: I think it has its properties there, but a vacuum. I’m trying to think what happens to marshmallows. If you put it into a expand, they expand like in one of those flavor saver, vacuums, you suck all the air out, they get puffed up.

nick: yeah, they

joe: I would think that would happen to him. He would just puff up.

nick: So

he would just end up filling the space that’s in there.

joe: I, it, I presume if he can control how big it’s right, he can control. But if he can control his cellular growth and expansion, then he actually won’t experience anything necessarily be like a normal human.

You would just control that.

nick: What do the human do when there’s no. When they’re in a vacuum.

joe: Yeah. I think he, but I think he, I’m saying I think he can maintain a shape,

nick: but you’re losing consciousness too then. If you put Reed Richards in a vacuumed sealed room, I.

suck out all the air.

He’s not gonna be conscious enough to keep himself together.

maria: [00:22:00] But he might be because

he has the ultra structure to combat whatever is expanding him.

That’s why I think he can Use gravity to help

deform himself. That’s the stress on his system, and the strain is all the little movements that, that stress creates.

So that’s the deformation.

So

if he doesn’t have that,

then

he fights the opposite direction to keep himself together. I think he’d be fine.

joe: Yeah. I think you’re right. He would run outta oxygen and if he needs oxygen to live, and yes, he would. But he could be, I don’t know. Could he self.

Oxygenate through cellular breakdown at some level. I don’t know what his respiratory would be like. Is he using his lungs the same way as normal? Because if he’s flattening himself out and he is doing stretching and he is doing activities, then how is he actually inflating his lungs to push oxygenated blood through his system?

So I It’s almost a whole lot of

maria: Yeah. he, He’s maybe he’s turning his skin into, a respiratory system or something.

I don’t

nick: Being able to move [00:23:00] his organs and stuff around. He Could theoretically pump the oxygen that way? No.

joe: or if he, you, I don’t know until you’ve, gimme a better terminology.

When he juices his insides, then he would become more, you would have you would have dissolved oxygen in that fluid that can then be used and distributed in a very different way than a typical

maria: listen system, if Somebody can deform

themselves

that degree, they

could probably change

their hemoglobin to hang on

to whatever,

oxygen and use it over and over again.

Yeah.

I dunno.

I

nick: I feel like this whole series, you’ve

said

maria: the worst word every episode.

Wait, it was juicing

this time. Juicing your Organs. Juice

joe: up. His organs.

It’s

all squishy. Someone poke, Reed,

nick: so

for

his skin then we’re back going.

on the skin episode.

That’s

joe: right.

nick: But

how, like I wonder [00:24:00] if he does get cut, does it cut him or is he, just,

joe: See,

I think if he has increased

cellular regeneration,

I think he’s almost like a Wolverine or

nick: that’s what I was, thinking, like how

joe: That he would actually be able to heal cuts. And that’s a comic thing. I don’t, I’m trying to think if I’ve seen him injured like that.

nick: I don’t think I’ve

really

seen him,

someone

else

actually

do something

to

him other than what he does to himself.

And that’s where it’s huh.

joe: And it’s good in a comic that he runs out of energy because if you are doing this increased cellular regeneration and manipulation of your physical, both your external structures, but also your internal, that you would have this.

Yeah.

He could just

nick: I feel like he definitely does run out of his own

joe: He could be an octopus in the shape of a human,

maria: but I don’t think you can injure him. I

do think he can run out

of oxygen. and thus energy.

He’s a little beat after.

he reforms his shape.

nick: I feel like [00:25:00] that’s one of the main ways that he gets injured. And then if someone’s attacking his mind,

that’s

another way to

get to

joe: And that fits to what Maria was saying, that about the physical, mental control of the systems. And so if you are being mentally challenged and then also have to do physical challenges I think if he was playing chess and trying to, stretch out, would he be limited? Would he be

maria: able could we beat

him at chess Is what you’re saying? Beat

him at chess

We can beat him chess.

nick: no, ’cause

he

joe: outta reach,

right?

nick: do

his

lab stuff. I don’t know what you guys call that stuff, But he’s stretching himself out into multiple

joe: Yeah. But if you’re grabbing a pipette or something like that, you’re not doing a lot of

nick: a what

joe: it’s

nick: a pipe,

Are you

smoking a pipe. at The lab,

joe: called a pipette.

nick: What year are we

joe: pipette?

nick: Joe, I can

really picture you just with a

maria: but he can get snacks.

while he is in the

lab without moving.

joe: So we had we had some [00:26:00] fans stop by and that was one of the things they said they wanted stretching ability to reach the snacks. And so that’s it. But I think you would expend more energy getting the snack than you would actually could take in by the snack.

nick: Why, how many Big Macs are you gonna say, Joe?

joe: Yeah, I Big Macs. So I, once again, if he’s regenerating cells at that level. Then that puts him at the Wolverine Deadpool calorie load.

maria: That’s high metabolism. High

metabolism.

joe: We’re talking maybe baseline 10, 20,000 calories, just resting state. I think if he’s doing this other stuff where he is juicing inside and reforming, you may be in hundreds of thousands of calories.

nick: honestly,

he can take that all down With one bite.

joe: one bite. Was he, is he eating a whale? What are we talking about there?

nick: Open his mouth

and then shove everything in.

He doesn’t really need to sit [00:27:00] there and

joe: I guess you’re right. How’s he, what’s his in like stomach what’s his

maria: maybe he does take Something. in and then

he changes

all of his organs into a

big stomach, into big intestines There go. Extract

it on. And then

put your organs,

back. That’s,

I think he can, I

think he can

manipulate.

everything.

joe: Gotta get Jeff Goble, man.

nick: Oh yeah.

joe: Jurassic Park when he goes, that’s one big pile of

nick: what did he say? I’m

joe: That’s one big pile of poop.

I

think he used a different word there, but

maria: dinosaur.

joe: So maybe that’s so he can, but still that’s a lot of calories. That’s not so that means, as we talk about with other superheroes, does he have some metabolism change or more efficient? That’s been re pointed out. If he can do all this, then why can’t he change? Is his proteins that do work also difference and use and store energy.

Does he, is he using some sort of variable biological high energy [00:28:00] storage? Vehicle

maria: I like it. I think it’s a great theory.

joe: Yeah, that’s it. A lot of handwaving in there.

maria: Handwaving

nick: nailed to

joe: lot of handwaving.

But on the stretching thing and elastins great and that’s what humans have. But I was gonna say, the other thing I had found was Resilin

It’s a

nick: those of us who don’t know,

joe: Yeah. It’s a structural protein that’s found in certain insects. It was discovered in 1960 in Locust, and it functions as like a rubber biological rubber band. It can stretch recoil, it can store mechanical energy with minimal energy loss. And it’s found in areas such as wing hinges, jumping legs for frogs fleas, locusts or feeding or vibration systems like Circadas and things like that.

So it’s a very flexible elastic, protein, more elastic it can stretch up to 300% without damage. And and then there’s synthetic forms [00:29:00] that are engineered and they can stretch a little bit more about 300, 350, 300, 400, 400%. And so you could have used this modified structural protein.

maria: Mm-hmm.

joe: So when a cosmic ray hit

maria: mm-hmm.

joe: he had some sort of, I don’t know, I actually, I didn’t look up what the

maria: Elastin goes to lin

joe: Yeah exactly. Yeah. Yep. Or Reed was monkeying around with CRISPR and head, and I given everyone a little bit of a, he was trying to create superheroes in the lab and. The cosmic ray was the activating function.

I, I just think, I think Reed was up to something funny and I think Doom called him out a couple times about that and said, Hey, that, he experimented on you guys to the rest of the team. Because I think that’s what I think there was, I think he intentionally did

it.

maria: Brilliant.

but disingenuous.

joe: Yeah. Yeah, a little bit. That’s

maria: Experimenting on your

friends

Watch out

joe: using CRISPR in there. Hey, take a look at this

maria: [00:30:00] yeah, let’s see

what happens.

nick: you did that to me last

maria: let’s see what happens.

nick: What are you trying to say?

joe: you get a suit and a meal. But yeah, that, that was one that I found where you could actually start to go in and you could get something that’s a little more stretchy. And if you can combine it with some of these other things we talked about. With that,

would

that get you there to, yeah.

Closer to maybe stretching a little bit. I don’t know, about a thousand feet.

I just think 10, 10 feet

even. That’s a lot.

nick: I do feel like he was stretched further than that in a

comic before where, I want to say it was a

issue

of Spider-Man that was like a alternate universe where something was happening to earth and Peter snapped and stretched out Mr.

Fantastic. To keep everything together.

joe: Yeah.

nick: And that was a

weird Issue. It was dark. And

joe: now did he come back together or did he No. Stay, no.

nick: Reed was pretty much in [00:31:00] a agonizing state.

joe: So he, there was a,

maria: but he didn’t do it

he was stretched.

So back to the mind, body, part. yeah.

Ah,

nick: Where he was keeping

stuff together and it was just like. He

was not,

joe: doesn’t matter if you knock him out, if you,

maria: if

You could injure him, But if he is yeah. If He’s conscious

and

Reshaping himself,

whatever, what are

we calling it Deforming himself. I don’t know himself. Stretching, himself. There we go. Stretching himself.

joe: He Stretching We’re not using that,

maria: to

stretching himself, then he’s in control. But if you take that control

away. we could inre him. We could hurt

him.

joe: That’s it.

maria: are

we working for Dr.

nick: Doom

today?

Like

joe: got it. We can get him.

nick: I do feel like him and Doom are a very good, villain, hero matchup, because

they both do have their darker side as well as a good side.

’cause

what Mr. Fantastic ends up becoming the maker

who

is a [00:32:00] alternate version of him that is absolutely off the walls bonkers where. He wants to control absolutely everything. And Doom is a person that is trying to keep his

country

in order and wants to better them, So it’s like they

have

the good and bad

in them,

and it’s always so cool to see when, yes, they still fight.

But

what I wanna say Doom is the Godfather to Reed and Sue’s children.

joe: Yeah. Yeah.

nick: And

in

what one of the last issues we read, Reed ended up doing a thing where he took out a whole block

of

New York to take out some alien invasion, and he sent it a future

year

in the future.

Doom, got found out, freaked out, tried to fix it, and as soon as that year was up, doom [00:33:00] couldn’t do anything.

And

Reed ended up sending him a picture saying, Hey, I know you tried, but what I did worked and here’s a picture. knowing, letting you know that they’re all good. It’s like

they

still, they’re frenemies.

Yeah. that’s, I think That’s what I’m trying to go at. Yeah.

joe: And it reminded me of something with talking about that and the interdimensional mass storage, and we had this with Cyclops and his eye powers. Now he’s pulling from another dimension to use the optic blast that he has. So he is opening a portal through his eyes.

But we had this, I’m trying to think who else. We’ve talked about this where. This mass conversion. So the one way is that he’s has some rapid cellular, gener generation and then retracted. But what if the mass comes from another dimension? And that would tether into kind of Reed’s overall story of his [00:34:00] intelligence, science, stretching, and then this dimensionality that he has

maria: A human portal,

joe: A human portal, right? So he actually is, instead of channeling energy through his eyes, he actually is channeling through himself. And then you could get to a thousand feet.

maria: Okay.

nick: Where

is he pulling it

from?

joe: from? That’s

maria: it’s still him.

nick: no matter what part of it? You

go to,

maria: His brilliance. there

joe: could be many hims though, right across the

maria: There are Many,

hims, right?

joe: And so he’s just pulling from and himself.

So

maybe in, in some other dimension, he becomes very tiny and shriveled. And while he is stretching out or from multiples, he’s just pulling a little bit of material from many reeds.

nick: Are you high right now?

joe: No,

nick: That

one came outta left

field for me. I was

like,

joe: know.

maria: I like,

it

joe: I know, but

maria: because it’s so weird.

joe: a lot. [00:35:00] It gets you we gotta, we’re trying to make the jump from 10, 20 feet to a thousand. And so I’m just throwing something out there. Then

nick: take that,

take

the stretching ability to, any other stretcher, miss Marvel, Elastic girl,

plastic

Are they all doing that?

joe: So I, like I said, I think Elastic Girl has some limit and that was revealed. We don’t know what the limit is, but even in the show, she only stretched so far, she didn’t stretch a thousand feet. Okay. Maybe she has rapid regeneration. Maybe it’s a genetic, she was born that way.

maria: But

she always

has an appendage or she

always has a body,

appearance, right? Yeah, that’s right. She does. Indeed

but Reed

doesn’t, oh, So I think if you

joe: No. I’m gonna stop. She turned into a parachute and a boat.

maria: She did, but she still had,

A head,

joe: had a head. But I think Reed also has a head, usually his head doesn’t flatten or

maria: because it’s all coming from there,

joe: I’m just saying He also doesn’t but Right. Go ahead.

maria: Yeah, but he can’t maintain mass then, when [00:36:00] I’m thinking about that A thousand feet. I’m sorry. he’s gonna have to, do some regeneration because if

you,

took his mass and you

stretched it. out,

joe: that’s right. Strength and

maria: tiny little thread trying to beat up on you.

we go.

joe: He gets there.

Tink. But if you’re pulling mass Other dimensions and building up as you go, then you can maintain. And then when you get there, you have a powerful punch. ’cause now you’ve been

maria: and when you’re going back to

yourself, you just shove it back down the hole

nick: attacking anyone at that length.

joe: He’s grabbing things. He’s don’t, why stretch a thousand feet if you’re just for a

heck of it?

You’re

maria: just

joe: look what I can do kids. And

nick: I would,

joe: think he’s, I

maria: and then a Breeze comes.

and blows his

like, he’s

joe: grabbing something. Even if something, you could, it could be something that’s trivial as grabbing a knife off the ground at a thousand feet stretch.

You don’t have enough

nick: you grabbing a knife from a thousand feet away?

joe: He’s gotta get, he’s not close

maria: to stab somebody. Of course.

Secretly,

nick: Oh man. I left something at home.

Hold on.

Where What are you doing? I’m grabbing something, don’t worry. [00:37:00]

joe: But if he had, if he was pulling mass and keeping his strength, and then, ’cause when you stretch out, also we’re just talking about stretching in a vacuum.

It was like a physics test. There’s no friction, but

maria: I know

joe: i’s equating,

maria: worth thinking about

joe: if your arm is stretching out and then your gravity’s pulling on it, right? So now as you’re getting thin, not only will it get thin, but now it’s just slump. It’s gonna have a big,

it’s gonna sag in the middle like a, like a weighted clothes line.

And so you’re gonna have a big saggy thing and at the end, your hand’s gonna be out there and super skinny and thin. No, I, yeah.

It’s gonna

be weird. Yeah. Yeah. A thousand feets. That’s a

maria: lot.

That’s a,

joe: I think inter dimensionality, now I’m gonna go with it.

maria: A thousand feet. That’s like

football

field, right?

joe: A thousand feet. A

maria: That’s a hundred?

yards.

Yards. Oh, that’s 300 feet. Sorry. That’s three, three and a Three. plus, sorry.

We’re

nick: How big is a football field.

maria: I know that’s A hundred yards. but I,

Yeah.

Okay.

[00:38:00] That’s,

a

joe: And there’s three feet in the

yard.

maria: I

like the,

portal part.

I think that’s pretty good. That would explain a lot, right? ’cause he can pull on the energy and the Oxygen from whatever. He doesn’t have to maintain. Lung volumes

or,

Or blood volume or, yeah, he just yanks it.

joe: you put ’em in that vacuum. He is just

maria: pulling from

joe: some other dimensional Reed that’s now suffocating for no reason. I can’t breathe. What’s wrong with me?

maria: He would not have to eat a whole pasture of cattle to,

joe: that

is true too.

maria: to maintain

his energy level.

joe: It’s but you would need to eat though, because to maybe opening his portals, that takes some energy. So he would need, he, you might not even have to sustain it during the stretching.

nick: I feel like you just put this weight anymore into hand.

Avium.

joe: It was already

maria: I think if you’re a portal, it just is.

mean, if we’re gonna, we’re, and we’re gonna have to embrace the hand WM here. I’m trying to actually, the portal might work like, ’cause Cyclops does it, I’m not saying that’s not hand wave him also, but

do the cosmic rays make him smarter?

nick: I

[00:39:00] don’t think

joe: I think he was already like genius level,

maria: right?

nick: I think he was

joe: yeah.

nick: Top universe.

joe: That was his thing.

maria: So it Didn’t

hit him in the head.

It hit him everywhere else.

nick: I don’t think.

it affected

joe: Maybe. What was his personality like before? It felt like he was the same, but we started close to him wanting to take his friends up to the cosmic race, his wife, his brother-in-law, and his best buddy to get bombarded by Cosmic Ray to see what would happen to him.

And then they crashed, landed back on earth I believe, and then they woke up with powers.

maria: Boy, And how did they ever

trust him again? That so

rude.

nick: I don’t know about you, but I’m looking for power’s.

joe: Yeah, you

maria: Okay. But

it’s

joe: there’s a an advertisement

going

to explore cosmic ray. Are you in next one? Yes. I

maria: it’s a wild card, what you’re gonna get. You could turn into a giant nose,

you know,

nick: I am

maria: just

one

joe: cancerous tumor or you’ll get superpowers.

maria: [00:40:00] flip a coin. It’s a

gamble

I’m

willing

nick: to take.

Either It’s gonna be something, wild And

joe: That gets into that and there’s a lot of non-consensual superpower gaining in comics.

nick: Oh, a hundred.

joe: And I think. I think this was one of those cases.

nick: I feel like most of them are like,

oh, no no one’s really I’m going

for

joe: Some are accident, truly accidental. Like Spider-Man, he got bit by a spider while he was, and

once again, poor lab animal control that, there was, there’s issues, but some powers are like, you’re actually experimenting. You’re actually trying to do whatever thing happens to you and that’s you consent it yourself.

Now was it, should there be, OSHA rule? Should you be looked at and there, human, scientific experimentation, ethics. Yes. But I think you have that category, but then you have the other category where it’s just like. We’re gonna like we joke about the reign of Superman comics where it was like, we’ll give you a sandwich in a, a suit if you lick this rock and we’ll see.

It’s, and we, and [00:41:00] the scientists know something. Something’s crazy’s gonna happen.

nick: don’t know what’s gonna happen but Something’s gonna happen.

maria: Who was that little kid that was chasing back to the Incredibles for a minute that was chasing

Mr. Incredible

around wanting to be

him. And then Syndrome.

Yes. Syndrome. I Forgot how he got his power. What does

He

do? he

joe: he doesn’t have power. That was his whole point. He created technology.

maria: Oh, it was technology.

That’s right, that’s right. Fake power.

nick: Did you hear the theory that he was actually a

Mr.

Incredible son?

joe: What are you watching?

nick: So many random things. on YouTube.

Yeah. There. Legitimate

joe: son or yeah,

wow.

nick: That was pre elastic girl.

joe: Interesting.

maria: Yeah. That

it was

one of those things I was watching and I’m like, that would be weirdly

joe: It would be.

nick: And that’s why he was

going

around with a

joe: Right.

He had all of the shrine to him and he was older than Violet. It’s Right.

maria: but smaller than

Violet.

joe: [00:42:00] Shorter,

He

was like stocky. He had, it was a super

nick: he looks like dash

joe: a non-super, right?

maria: He was Dash,

with a

big head. Yeah.

nick: And his power was having a big brain.

maria: Yeah. I wonder what the, I always the genetics of superheroes, so we have Sue and Reed and they have kids

Mm-hmm.

joe: and they both are powered. And so it’s whatever the mutation was, it’s not, it’s actually

it

could be passed. It’s hereditary, so

maria: it wasn’t somatic

Wanda had kids too,

nick: mary Jane.

Mayday she has powers.

joe: Some,

maria: did Wanda’s,

they

joe: already genetic, right? So with

nick: have

maria: powers. Wanda’s kids had power. Wanda.

and Vision.

joe: Yeah, but vision wasn’t

Android,

maria: He,

joe: I don’t know how that worked, Yeah. right. That’s a different okay. maybe,

maria: was gonna

say wrong topic.

I say with,

joe: with I was gonna say with Re Reed and Sue who got bombarded by the cosmic race, usually, sometimes that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s [00:43:00] gonna pass that you’ve affected your. Germ line. Your germ

maria: cells,

the non somatic ones. I would think it would affect them all.

Yeah. Yeah.

joe: What do you think it would, Yeah, mutate with similar, so really the mutations would be

maria: I think it’d be random.

joe: Okay. So that’s why the kids not necessarily have invisible and

maria: I have no

evidence. What else

I would predict it.

would be

like rolling the D It’s rolling the dice going up in the cosmic race. Yeah. So It’s every kid would be different. That’s the weird part.

joe: but also, but that, you can say that with Sue because she has all of her a, your women are born with all of their

maria: you got all your eggs.

But

joe: sperm are regenerated. And so that means his germ line, the actual progenitor

maria: And maybe that’s a wild card. Why,

why they have different powers

joe: and maybe, and you said maybe it’s just one big stem cell. So maybe when he reproduces, he just regenerates some genetic out of the juice soup.

maria: Gotta throw juice In there.

don’t you?

joe: [00:44:00] I did it. I was gonna

nick: juice soup

there, Joe?

joe: I was trying, I’m birthing a new term.

Soup Primordial

maria: Mm-hmm. That

joe: Could you

imagine? He’s like lashing around after he gets out of a battle.

nick: One of my

maria: favorite. I think that’s what happens. And then

nick: And you’re saying juice so much and

maria: and then the cells decide, oh wait, I’m the heart cell and oh,

I’m the liver cell and oh I’m your

bones’

joe: have little, or you could just

maria: go where they need to nuggets, little

joe: in there that are for me.

maria: I believe that.

joe: And then. And then you would just, and that’s why you can move the organs around, like you said, they move, they’ll reform his livers here.

And that goes to what Jonathan was talking about, like the medical treatment. Could you imagine like cutting into him and it’s just just

nick: don’t think you’d even need

to cut into him,

He could just pull it out? to the

joe: he’s he’s incapacitated. You gotta help him out. Like he’s now, his heart’s stopping or his, his lungs are not inflating.

maria: I don’t think you could cut into him if he were conscious,

joe: he’s un, let’s say he’s unconscious, you knock [00:45:00] him out and now you’re gonna have to do some work, right? Because we’re saying that when he is conscious, his cellular regeneration or his interdimensional mass, Ree equilibration is so active that if he is

conscious,

he will stop you.

But that means if he’s conscious and he wants medical treatment, he can allow you to open him up.

That would be,

nick: he just open himself up then.

joe: Can you just open yourself up?

Can you make a pore?

maria: Yes.

nick: he’s able to move

every

other thing around his body. Why wouldn’t he be able to just

plop

it out front?

joe: Like he would just move it out like in here’s

maria: I’m gonna move it right here. Here’s my liver. Here, go here.

This is

nick: I need it to be

joe: Maybe he doesn’t need fixing. Maybe he can just generate, but I guess if you have a genetic issue like cancers, like what? What’s his Yeah.

nick: because Mm-hmm. I don’t

maria: think he needs anything fixed, to be honest.

nick: If you go into the cancer category, then you get Deadpool.

Who his body’s constantly killing himself, but he’s also regenerating [00:46:00]

joe: Yeah.

nick: It’s that war with himself.

joe: Now what if Reeds other dimensional reeds aren’t all superpowered?

Would,

Could he pass superpower.

Material back and forth through to dimensionality as he’s stretching and reforming and he’s pulling from his other counterparts,

maria: don’t pull from

the wrong

one. Is that what you’re saying?

joe: Don’t pull from

nick: then you can’t even choose. You

can’t pick and choose who you’re pulling from.

joe: Maybe can,

maria: I think he

has more control than you think. because he

doesn’t Maria, get cancer. That would be cells outta control. He’s in control of the cells.

And

joe: he’s regenerating ’em at that level, would he would,

nick: but

doing the interventional portals, that’s where you’re like,

maria: he says buddies on the other

side. he that.

Yes.

is the only pulling

joe: from dimensions that have super they’re already, they have the cosmic ray, so

maria: That’s his brilliance.

You guys that missed the

joe: pool of,

nick: I feel like

that, [00:47:00] I.

don’t know. Like it,

joe: Yeah, I think cancer is interesting because his, if he has this rapid regeneration also that means his cells have figured out ways to bypass the normal checks that cells have.

So with normal cells, they have like contact limitations. So once they your cells touch each other, they stop growing. But cancer cells, when they have certain mutations, they’ll grow over top of each other. They almost become immortal ’cause they’ll just keep growing into a big mass, uncontrolled mass.

That’s the idea there. So if he’s, now he’s taking advantage of that system to actually create rapidly new cells to stretch and manipulate his internal organs. Now, his external structure,

maria: but to control it enough so he doesn’t turn into a giant sarcoma.

joe: Yes.

nick: A What

maria: basically his

stretchiness over

I

want

I say

over produces itself.

and just

takes over.

Oh

yeah.[00:48:00]

oh it’s

a

A soft tissue tumor. Oh.

yeah. So if you don’t

have control of this process,

of

Not

overgrowing yourself,

You turn into an OMA

and in that situation. be sarcoma. so,

joe: yeah.

nick: Did not know

maria: either. Yeah. I

nick: I feel

like there was a lot of words that dropped. today

maria: know.

nick: wait, what is

that?

Yeah.

What

else you got for us there, Joe?

I see,

joe: I always got

nick: tapping away.

maria: Do you have questions?

joe: Questions? As a quiz?

maria: Yeah.

No, I mean.

Generated questions.

No, I, think we

went through a portal. we went through.

joe: Yeah. I just have I

maria: control of the Slushy. A slushy, is better than juicing

juice.

joe: You, and you don’t, do you slushy?

maria: slushy

joe: slush

up?

maria: Yeah. Because you have a catchphrase like slush up

better than

smoothie.

I dunno. than smoothie.

nick: It’s better than juice.

maria: [00:49:00] Better than juice.

joe: He’s juiced in there. I let’s go. I do have a little list of characters and we talked about Mr. Fantastic already. And everything that he does, plastic man

DC

Yep. He was there and he like can twist himself and he he’s more cartoonish than Reed I think in the comics.

Like more, more humorous and what he does, we talked about last girl Helen Par and hers was more genetics had. Plastic man was a chemical accident, so he fell in and he became, his skin became elastic and his, almost like he got dipped in vinegar or something and

maria: Elastic

or

plastic, because I think of plastic, The opposite of elastic. Yeah.

Okay.

nick: Which he also goes from good to bad a lot.

joe: He does. Yeah. He’s you

nick: know where he’s at.

joe: Yeah. He’s kinda like a joker or where he has

nick: falls in the dead pool

joe: Yeah, maybe Deadpool. Yeah. I

maria: Can he do a flat Stanley?

Yes.

Oh, okay.

he’s everything

nick: like this This guy I feel like he’s [00:50:00] more all over the place than Reed is.

joe: Somebody didn’t, not

realize elongated man

and

he was a DC character also. He consumed gin gold extract. And that. Made ’em stretchy and as gin gold was based on ginkgo extract which ginkgo extracts a real thing. It won’t make you stretchy.

maria: It’s often used to support

cognitive function, memory, How do you know that show?

joe: to the brain.

maria: It just won’t make you stretchy.

it’ll, you’ll know

joe: you need to drink

maria: rabbit

joe: hole of research is, we’re know, take

nick: he’s trying to

save us from

people being Like,

I

drank this ’cause you,

mentioned it on the

show. I just

joe: a quart of ginkgo

maria: and nothing happened.

joe: thing that stretched was my inside got

juiced.

Someone I wasn’t, and maybe, are you familiar with one piece? Yes. And Luffy, is it Louy?

Luffy Monkey.

nick: I

read

them. I [00:51:00] don’t,

I will pronounce it However,

I

do in my head. but I’m not gonna say it.

out loud.

joe: Luffy.

maria: Luffy. Luffy.

Like Puffy.

joe: They have like rubber arms and can bounce and things like that.

Someone I

came up to T 1000 from Terminator two. Liquid metal.

nick: No, I

wouldn’t say. Is he

joe: they can stretch out and they can manipulate their liquid metal form. It’s not biological, but it is a stretchy material that he has functional control over.

maria: think you’re getting into the materials science

world. And we need

joe: maybe Reed maybe he’s liquid metal

maria: science.

joe: And he gets stretch a thousand still difficult. Then there was, when I was a kid, I remember. Stretch Armstrong.

And a stretchy latex

maria: I remember Gumby

joe: was here. Gumby

So

maria: not a superhero, but Gumby.

joe: But Gumby,

maria: that’s

joe: right.

nick: Don’t know. Gumby was

joe: He was a super, oh my god.

nick: I’m here to say?

[00:52:00] It?

maria: You liked pokey

nick: Yeah. He was mean to

maria: pokey

nick: all the time.

joe: there it is.

maria: Read. Richard’s not the NICE’s guy.

in the world either,

So

joe: Gumby

maria: that love, hate that internal war.

joe: Gumby never took pokey to space to examine cosmic race.

nick: Pokey

is a

creature

that has,

joe: He can’t

nick: speak for himself.

maria: Okay.

nick: Stand up for the little guy there, Joe.

saying,

joe: man, it was. We have it there, but yeah. Gumby, I haven’t thought about Gumby in a while. Do you know the Gumby theme song, Maria?

maria: I do not.

nick: I Am Gumby. I am Gumby. that’s it

joe: went. I don’t. And then the go historical 16th century and this has come up journey to the west.

It’s one of China’s four great classical novels. There’s a character s song, W Kong, the Monkey King, and he could

nick: Oh, I, for God,

joe: stretch, transform his body and [00:53:00] shrink and grow in size. So more size morphing powers than any elasticity, I think we’ve been using those a little

interchangeable.

nick: Miss

Marvel goes in big,

and then

she Makes herself giant.

joe: yeah,

nick: So, yeah, it’s

a possibility

to use it.

joe: Yeah.

And I thought I just, now, I don’t know why, just when you said that made me think of it. The pin particles and that

maria: was

joe: we and the inner

maria: dimensionality

joe: aspect of it with mass conversion.

And so it could be a similar thing. Maybe read, discovered pin

maria: Yeah, I think mass is off the table. We talked about

preserving mass before mass

is never

off table.

No. I meant in terms

of conserving mass.

joe: That’s your hand. Wavy re’s, just like mass is gone

maria: It

went into the portal, into the

internal portal.

nick: Joe opened that can, and you’re like, yes, portal. I

don’t have to explain.

anything.

joe: right.

nick: Put it in the I like it. [00:54:00] Like you explain it by explaining it

joe: and it’s just explained.

But yeah, no, I think we’ve covered, like we talked skin. The only other system I had was muscle, but I think if we can get skin and everything else, then you would just, you would do the same trick. Just grow a bunch of new muscle or pull it from, another

nick: So Would he be able to make himself as big as the Hulk?

joe: Yeah. Why not?

he,

does, he does that kind of, that’s if he’s, if you’re going to do it, then yeah, I think he could beef

nick: don’t see why he would need,

joe: I think there’s a different episode and maybe one on just mass conversion. ’cause I don’t know where the Hulk gets his mask for him, like when he bulks up.

So either he has cellular, the same sort of process that he can

maria: pin particles.

in reverse.

No,

nick: It’s actually a portal that just comes out of nowhere in his,

joe: it’s the ga Yeah.

maria: antman. Got really big ones. Really

big, ones.

joe: He had to have orange slices afterwards too. But yeah, no, so you have that, the muscle, but you’re right, you could see [00:55:00] Reed, I think, if you maintain strength a thousand feet away, then why can’t you just bring that back in this beef up?

Become, bigger than Hulk,

mass wise.

maria: I,

always think of ’em as stretchy.

though, and not Really bulky.

joe: Yeah. I think he doesn’t take advantage of it. He presents

nick: I mean he doesn’t

maria: he doesn’t Oh, he is holding, back.

He’s

joe: holding, he presents as like a skinny, lanky dude.

nick: I feel like he doesn’t need to be strength like he has been for that, for the most part.

And then,

joe: That’s just,

nick: he just works.

in self around things.

joe: right? Is that they got the strong guy

nick: Yeah. I mean if you don’t need to,

joe: he doesn’t need the flex.

nick: Yes, he doesn’t need a flex on Ben. He’s

joe: He’s just juicy.

nick: alright.

I need you

maria: yeah,

I,

think what

we decided, this one

joe: very hand waving.

nick: I, think we proved it and we’re, we’ll talk about it in

maria: I don’t know. I mean, there’s a little hand W [00:56:00] portion to it. I think the human body can do strange things

And

bones

can get

Flexible and muscle. you,

still,

joe: you’ve avoided the how flexible are we talking before breakage?

maria: Inches There are or feet?

Oh,

Not

joe: Okay. So we’re already,

maria: but if you can do it a little

and you

get a cosmic

ray hit, then you can do it a

nick: See, this is why I like having her on.

maria: That’s the potential. because there’s precedent there. It’s just on a different

scale. race have you seen this happen?

joe: You have a

maria: what have you seen it on?

joe: i’s why

I want,

maria: anything hand

joe: I’m on team hand Wao, you’re on team. It could happen if we find some cosmic rays. Let’s do

maria: it.

Cosmic gray and a portal. we got both.

Get a

phone call from you Joe,

joe: guess what? Those cosmic rays?

maria: we got a trip. you wanna take it?

nick: Hey Joe, you wanna go

on a road trip

maria: at your base?

nick: To where?

Space. don’t worry.

joe: Yeah, I don’t know. You too. You’re really [00:57:00] leaning into these cosmic

maria: your brains.

joe: I,

don’t Woo. Yes. They’re insides will be juiced. We’ll see you.

maria: that in

Slushy. slushy Smoothie.

joe: Slushy Smoothie.

maria: Reed

joe: Mr. Fantastic. Mr. Pedro Pascal himself. That’s who’s playing. Mr. Fantastic. Are you excited about the movie, Maria?

maria: Now I’m gonna have to see it Yeah,

for sure.

There it’s, yeah. Yeah. I’m

growing excitement. Can’t you tell

Your excitement. I’m stretching.

my excitement container. Oh, I Can’t wait to hear the fanfic from this movie.

nick: Oh,

joe: all

maria: gonna Have to have a watch party.

or something. Yeah. have watch

joe: Alright.

I think that’s yeah, I think we can wrap this up. We wanna thank Maria,

nick: thank you so much for being here. My pleasure.

maria: My pleasure. I learned a lot.

some

nick: words that, I’ll never

maria: lot.

joe: words.

Yeah. You have me, Joe.

nick: You got Nick.

joe: got Nick. We’ve got Nick and [00:58:00] yeah, thanks for Go listen.

Fantastic Four, see the watch a movie. couple days, it’s coming out. So yeah, super excited and we’ll report on it in our mini, I think we already made a date to go. Awesome.

maria: you

gonna interview people again?

Okay.

joe: but

maria: No. That like strangers, what’d you think of the movie? What’d you

joe: Not at the movie. No, that’s, yeah.

Okay. yeah.

And

nick: we went down some stretchy holes.

joe: Y’all stay safe out there.

nick: Bye. Bye.

joe: Love you.