"Super Hero": A True Believer Once Again

If I were a contestant on “Who Wants to Be a Super Hero?” Stan Lee should have already eliminated me for disloyalty after my previous post, because I am happy to report that I was too quick to proclaim the show’s demise.

I was concerned that bringing a super villain into the mix would make the show resemble a professional wrestling match, but instead it has once again come off as totally endearing.

Plus, I learned a valuable lesson during this episode—people are not always very bright.

The show began with the heroes being introduced to their new enemy, The Dark Enforcer. TyVeculus, trying to sound like an actual super hero yelled “What is this treachery?” which was actually pretty funny. The new twist did exactly what it was intended to do, which was turn the heroes against one another as they debated The Iron Enforcer’s switch. Lemuria got in a heated discussion with the others about how she will do whatever it takes to win. I figured that Stan was listening and that she would be singled out for elimination; but Stan had something else in mind.

The first challenge was to go to a diner and buy lunch. Stan would then see if the heroes made the right food choices. Sounds really stupid right? But as Feedback pointed out, it was a trap, and all but two of the heroes fell right into it.

Before Stan could see the lunch choices, the Dark Enforcer interrupted to tell Stan that he had learned some things about the heroes with his hidden camera. Of course, it was the producers and not any super villain who came up with the plan; but it was actually kind of cute how they pinned it on him (Stan was right. He is a good villain.).

In the diner were a waiter and a waitress whose sole purpose (other than to take orders) was to get the heroes to tell their secret identity. Because most of the contestants were slightly embarrassed about being dressed in a costume in a public place, they gave up their names rather easily and also admitted that they were doing a reality show. Only Feedback and Fat Momma did not reveal their real names.

However, Monkey Woman gave up her name without even being asked. And when the waiter asked her how he could get involved in a show like this, she wrote down some websites for him to check out—totally blowing her super hero persona. But that wasn’t the worst of it. When Stan asked her how she knew about these websites, she admitted that she was an actress. But she had told Stan in her initial audition that she was in real estate, probably fearing that an actress wouldn’t be chosen. Monkey Woman pleaded to stay, but she was, of course, eliminated.

The next challenge was for the heroes to walk from rooftop to rooftop across a narrow beam to rescue a woman from a “burning” building. The heroes were freaked, especially Lemuria, about how dangerous this challenge was. They were sent back to the loft while the beam was being constructed, but when they each went to go back to the roof, they were confronted by The Dark Enforcer, who blindfolded them—which freaked them out even more.

But they had no reason to worry, because the beam was actually on solid ground on top of the roof and they were rescuing the screaming woman’s twin sister—which was revealed to them when they removed their blindfold. They all finished the challenge so I was wondering if Stan would consider their reactions to the con to determine the person who would be eliminated.

But he had something else in mind. He asked each one of them to stand and say who they would eliminate. Creature immediately stood up and said she would eliminate herself. Stan did his best acting job to seem surprised by her answer, but that was, of course, what he wanted them to do. One by one, they all followed Creature’s lead and offered to be eliminated. But then, TyVeculus—like a total moron—stood up and announced he would eliminate Lemuria because of her lack of self-control. It was bad enough that TyVeculus didn’t understand the challenge (maybe he thought it was an honesty challenge) but his argument made absolutely no sense! When Lemuria had the chance to defend herself, she wisely went with the others and picked herself. As Fat Momma prepared to pick herself, telling Stan that she wasn’t ready to leave, Stan insisted that it was important to find out who she would pick, so she chose Feedback for his personal safety since he took the competition so seriously (which even he admitted during his speech).

Then, it was time for an elimination, and only TyVeculus and Fat Momma were called to the cubes since they were the only ones who said anyone. However, Stan recognized that Fat Momma picked someone out of compassion and so Stan eliminated TyVeculus. The group was devastated. First Major Victory and then Feedback and Fat Momma left their cubes to say goodbye to TyVeculus. Fat Momma returned to her cube and told Stan that she would rather he had picked her because now her spirit was broken.

Back at the lair, Fat Momma criticized the others for their “fake” speeches and Lemuria once again insisted that she would do anything to win. Major Victory tried to break up the fighting while dealing with the loss of TyVeculus.

Now there are only five heroes remaining: Major Victory, Feedback, Creature, Lemuria and Fat Momma. The dynamics have completely changed and the challenges are getting more and more interesting…

And yes, I am once again a true believer.

Excelsior!