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'Who Wants to Be a Superhero?': Lying is for heroes
True believers, this episode of Who Wants to Be a Superhero? angered me more than a summer reality show should have. Look, underneath this ruggedly handsome exterior beats the heart of a geek, and when one of my heroes, Stan Lee, creates some of the most nuanced, human superheroes ever and then goes on a television show and judges contestants instead by a set of inhuman values and then does another about-face and ...
Well, read on to find out the rest. You gonna get spoiled.
The episode opens with Defuser counseling Ms. Limelight and, sweetly, making a bet with her not to say "I'm afraid" or "I'm scared" for 24 hours. It's a nice moment. Mindset comes over and says he thinks Limelight isn't really as ditzy as it seems, and that she's acting. Limelight immediately bursts into such copious tears that I reflexively look over expecting to roll my eyes at a certain redhead about Amber's waterworks. Then I remember I'm not recapping Big Brother.
The thing is, either Mindset was right and Limelight is playing up her act, or she deserves to be booted for criminal stupidity. But no, instead she weeps that all her life people have accused her of acting and she rilly rilly isn't. Oofda. Luckily, we're interrupted by a call to arms.
The show's first real supervillain, Beesting, has escaped jail and is holed up at a local abandoned school. The heroes converge and are immediately captured under a huge net. What, they couldn't be stuck in honey? Anyway, they're separated into two teams, each in a sort of cage. Beesting challenges the heroes to a spelling bee, with the first team to three points named winner. Oh, and as we find out after the first word, each has to be spelled wrong, with "bee" instead of "be." Holy campy Batman villains!
Mindset refuses to play Beesting's little game and spells his word correctly. In return, she releases bees into the cage. Oops. And also, how heroic! Right? Right? I mean, all last season and so far this, Stan's wanted Superman, not Spider-Man. (Spidey would've actually spited Beesting too, come to think of it.)
After some back and forth and more than a few stings, one team -- it doesn't matter which, because there's no point to this game -- wins and honey is poured into both cages. The heroes are freed, and once back at the lair try to clean off their costumes. They strip down to wash, and the camera lingers lovingly on Basura's copious skin as she says "I felt really exposed." I pay homage to the camera by rewinding and pausing. What? You know Stan did the same.
The next morning, Stan tells the heroes to suit up and meet him in the game room in 15 minutes. Of course, the costumes are ruined and some are missing bits, but that's okay, because this is where Stan asks each hero their superpower and then bestows new costumes. By asks, by the way, I mean he tells each character their powers, probably because Limelight is the first and has no frakkin' idea what her powers are. The costumes are neat, but this season the contestants put so much thought into their outfits that the quality was equal and in some cases better. Hyper-Strike's costume, in fact, is much worse and he's not happy.
Whip-Snap, by the way, cries again as she did last week, because she's had a hard-knock life. I honestly expect to see a hero named Jen-Eration X.
Time for elimination, and the bottom three are Mr. Mitzvah (for covering his face with a cloth during the bee challenge); Ms. Limelight (for not even knowing her own powers); and Mindset. Whuh? Yeah, apparently Mindset's comment to Limelight was unheroic, and his refusal to lie for the good of the team was even worse. Wow. Remember, just last week Defuser was berated for focusing on fixing the trucks (for the good of the team) while the folks who wandered off to play Good Samaritan were rewarded.
This makes me angry. I mean, come on, if you set rules, stick to them. What Mindset did -- not negotiating with a terrorist! -- was totally heroic and made sense. Should the heroes next let a villain run free if it's for the good of the team? With great power, Stan, comes great responsibility, and that means telling the truth and trusting your super-powered comrades can deal with some bees.
As you might have guessed, Mindset is cut, and I'm almost as mad as he is. After a decent premiere, this show has gone back to amateur hour. The surviving heroes get some sort of communicator watches, but I'm too incensed to care. I need to cleanse my palate with some classic X-Men.
I totally agree. Ms. Limelight should have been cut for being stupid. I can only assume she is being kept around as eye-candy, tho she isn't all that great looking. Either that, or she's the mole.
I didn't think Mindset's comment was out of line. As for the Bee Sting segment, Stan could have just as easily berated (bee-rated?) everybody who mispelled words to please the villian.
Last year Tyveculus got in trouble for not being up front with Stan about not liking his costume. This year Hyper-Strike tells him right away and just gets blown off.
erik | Aug 3, 2007 9:32:33 AM | #Sorry Andy, I have to disagree with you.
Last week there were civilians in "trouble" and the heroic thing to do would be to rescue them.
This week the heroes themselves were in trouble (and facing a challenge that far outpaced anything from last season I might add). Spelling the words incorrectly was for the good of the team. No one would have suffered for the incorrect spelling. If Mindset was truly bothered he could have just shut up.
As for Limelight, it's entirely possible (however unlikely) that she really speaks like that. To be fair, she hasn't done anything that would be considered dumb. (Whiny? sure. Dumb, not really.)
I do agree on the part of Hyperstrike though. His old costume was better, and Stan's reaction (and chastising Hyper Strike) were off the mark.
I agreed with the decision because as said above, Mindset should've misspelled the words. They weren't going to win unless they misspelled them, therefore this case the heroic thing was to not spell them right. By not doing that, they were stuck inside with more bees bothering, and some cases, stinging them.
That said, Ms Limelight should've been eliminated for not knowing her powers. That's one reason why she's selected. I'm also wondering if she is the mole because of that, because her powers are fairly easy to remember (She can absorb the energy of TV/movie characters and use their powers).
Both of Hyperstrike's costumes were cool, but I really don't like the headband of the new one. The black one edged out the red one a little more, but they're both good.
Other costume changes I like are Hygena's (the light blue and cut is flattering on her) and Whip-Snap's (I like the lettering and the gloves - it fits the character).
Some of the costumes too changed very little, such as Defuser's and Basura's, but in the latter's case the pants/hotpants (they looked short to me) are better because her old pair I kept thinking were going to fall off.
Mel | Aug 3, 2007 6:37:01 PM | #LIMELIGHT WAS ON ANOTHER TELEVISION SHOW,GREG BERHANDT I BELIEVE, HER BROTHER AND DAD ASKED FOR THE HOST TO PLEASE HELPHER SPEAK WITH A NORMAL VOICE BECAUSE SHE ALWAYS SPOKE LIKE SHE SUCKED HELIUM , AND TO GIVE HER A MAKEOVER, THEY WERE TIRED OF HER ACTING CUTESY, ANH HER WILD ATTIRE.
BON | Aug 5, 2007 7:50:03 PM | #I do understand where you're coming from, Andy. However, the challenge this week wasn't a smash-and-grab rescue, it was very 60's Batman where you have to play along with the villain until you can escape (which is somewhat strange since Marvel is the house that Stan built, but the bad guys on either side back then were pretty evenly hokey). And while I appreciate what Mindset was trying to do, he went about it the wrong way. Hygena played it right by condemning the game but also playing along, this keeping her teammates out of danger. Also, I don't have a problem with Mindset calling Limelight out, it was just the way he did it. It's a fine line to between blunt and mean...and regardless of whether she was faking it or not, he put himself in the position to look bad. That was very Tony Stark of him - for shame.
Also, I'm thinking Mr. Mitzvah or Limelight is the mole/turncoat with the edge going to Mitzah. He's acting weird, they kind of glossed over his intro in the first episode and he's the only odd man out like The Enforcer was first season.
Tamara B. | Aug 6, 2007 12:44:46 AM | #
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