Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / A Heated Rivalry

Transcript

A Heated Rivalry · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Nke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: In August of nineteen ninety one, Marvel Comics released a
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: reboot of their X Men comics series, bringing the full
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: cast together for the first time with stylish new nineties costumes.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: The comic quickly became the best selling comic of all
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: time and still is to this day. This should have
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: ushered in a new golden era for the company, but
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: curiously it was the beginning of their descent into bankruptcy.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: X Men number one sold over eight million copies. Part
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: of this was because the product was genuinely creative. It
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: served as a climax to legendary writer Chris Claremont's sixteen year,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty seven issue run on the comic,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: which is one of the longest runs any comic book
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: creator has ever had. It also had him passing the
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: torch to popular new writer and artist Jim Lee, whose
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: characters with bulging muscles and multiple pouches on their costumes
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: came to define superhero comic book arts for the next
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: decade and a half. But it also sold well because
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: it had not one, not two, but five different covers.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: These were marketed as valuable collector's items that fans would
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: want to get a hold of. Who knew how valuable
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: they might be one day. But soon Marvel was expanding
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: this practice to their other biggest comic, Spider Man and
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: various X Men spinoffs. They were raking in the money. Now.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: This business model was the brainchild of Marvel owner Ron Pearlman. No,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: not the hell Boy actor. This Ron Pearlman was a
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: businessman who had spent over eighty million dollars acquiring the
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: company in nineteen eighty nine, and Ron wanted to recoup
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: his investment, so he kept milking the fans for more
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: and more of their cash. He even started including trading
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: cards bagged with the comics, So now a fan wasn't
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: just supposedly buying multiple copies of the different covers, They
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: were also buying multiple copies just to get all the
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: trading cards. Some fans might buy as many as twenty
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: copies of a single issue. Ron Peerlman was forgetting a
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: fairly basic economic principle. If you produce a high quantity
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: of something that's supposed to be rare, its value is
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: going to plummet. Comic books aren't food or oil. They're
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: a luxury good. They're only valuable if people believe that
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: they are. And the idea that comics are valuable comes
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: from the comic books of the thirties, forties, fifties, sixties,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: and even the seven This was before superheroes became box
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: office stars. Their comics were seen as cheap, disposable entertainment,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: literally like any other magazine, and so people threw them away.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you've seen the occasional headline where a rare
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Superman number one from nineteen thirty nine sells for millions
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: of dollars today, and that's because it actually is rare.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: There are only a few hundred copies left out there
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: out of the original nine hundred thousand copy print run. Marvel,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, was printing millions of copies of
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: X Men number one and their other comics, and since
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: they were selling them as collectibles, they were being carefully preserved,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: not rolled up and thrown away. By nineteen ninety six,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Marvel's revenues fell drastically as fans realized these comics weren't
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: worth anything. Marvel was still making all of these variant
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: covers in trading cards, and no one was buying them anymore.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: To solve this problem, Ron Perlman hatched a crazy scheme,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: filing for bankruptcy so that he could re organized the
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: company without permission from its shareholders. He was going to
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: then spend even more buying toy Biz, a toy company
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: that he thought could be used to increase Marvel's profits,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: and the shareholders actually liked that part of the plan,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: but they had no use for Ron Perlman's shortsighted business practices.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: They simply fired him and went ahead with the acquisition
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety eight. The new leaders of the company,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: toy Biz, executives like Ike Perlmutter and Avia Rod, would
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: lead Marvel into an even more curious history. As fast
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: as the company had gone from a record high to
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: a record low, it would just as quickly reach new
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: heights when Pearl, Mutter and Arod made major film deals
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: to lead movies like Sam Raimis spider Man and Brian
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Singer's X Men, and of course this was just the
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: beginning of the company's legendary film history. It's a curious
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: case of a company that went from so big it
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: failed to too big to fail in only a few
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: years of time. Marvel seems to be a company that
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: always bounces back. With that in mind, if you have
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: a copy of X Men number one, maybe hold on
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: to it. It might actually be worth something someday. Just kidding.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Millions of people would have to suddenly destroy their copies
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: for your copy of the comic to be worth anything.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: And if you're curious about getting into comic books, get
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: them because you want to have fun reading them, and
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: not because you think that they'll make you a millionaire.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: You may think that sports team rivalries and post championship
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: riots are modern inventions, but sports mania is actually a
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: tail as old as time. The Roman Empire had no
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Super Bowl or World Series, but there was chariot racing.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: People from all over Constantinople would flock to a one
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: hundred thousand seat stadium called the Hippodrome to watch the
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: two top teams, the Blues and the Greens, race to
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: see who would win, and just like today's sports fans,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: the rivalry between the two teams supporters sometimes turned violent.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: In the year five point thirty two AD, a group
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: of Blues and Greens fans were convicted of murder after
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: a deadly riot. They were sentenced to be hanged, and
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: a crowd of chariot racing fans from both sides gathered
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: to watch the execution. The convicts took their turns going
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: up to the gallows, and the first five men were
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: swiftly executed. Finally, the last two, one Blue and one Green,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: were led up to the platform, but while they were
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: being hanged, the gallows suddenly collapsed. They survived, and the
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: crowd went wild to them. This was a sign that
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: these two men were not supposed to die, and as
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: the executioners led the men away to await another execution date,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: the two teams were finally united against a common enemy,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: the government of Emperor Justinian, which was trying to execute
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: their divinely anointed heroes. A few days later, at the
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: next chariot race, rather than fighting each other, the Blues
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: and the Greens in the hippodrome appeared to be on
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: the same side as usual. While the charioteers were circling
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: around the track, all of the fans chanted Nika nika,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: the Greek word for victory. But they weren't just talking
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: about the race. They were also talking about victory over
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Emperor Justinian. Gradually, the anger reached a boiling point. United
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: with one will, the crowd streamed out of the stadium
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: and into the streets, and they rioted, setting every building
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: on the street on fire. The riot spread throughout the
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: city and it lasted for days, only gaining momentum as
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: time went on. After burning most of Constantinople, they converged
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: again on the Hippodrome, turning it into the headquarters of
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: their anti government insurrection. Meanwhile, Emperor Justinian panicked inside the
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Imperial Palace, which just so happened to be directly connected
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: to the Hippodrome. He was only a matter of time
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: before the rioters would breach the palace, and if they did,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: they would likely kill him. Justinian tried and failed to
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: appease them by firing several of his least popular officials. Eventually,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: he gave into their demands and he freed the two
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: prisoners who narrowly escaped execution but by that point even
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: this wasn't enough to quell the fury that had taken
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: over the city. On the fifth day, the rioters appointed
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: a new emperor and seated him on a throne inside
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: the Hippodrome, and this was the last straw for Justinian.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: He directed his military to launch a counter attack to
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: restore order. Justinian's generals descended upon the Hippodrome and barricaded
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: the exits, trapping tens of thousands of Rioters inside. What
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: happened next was a complete bloodbath. Within a day, the
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Emperor's soldiers had killed thirty thousand people and the insurrection
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: was finally put down. To this day, the Nico Riot
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: remains the most deadly riot in all of sports history.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. This show was created by me Aaron Manke
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Grim and Mild team, and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: more about the show and the people who make it
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: a link to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: available in bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: And if you're looking for an ad free option, consider
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: joining our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: the interruption for a small monthly fee. Learn more and
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: sign up over at patreon dot com. Slash Grimandmild, and
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: until next time, stay curious.