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Who Wants To Be A Superhero?

 
  

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Mario
14:16 / 11.08.06
I was personally amused, after recent comicbook events, to hear Stan's speech that superheroes NEVER reveal their secret ID's. And using Peter Parker for an example....
 
 
grant
01:27 / 13.08.06
Anyone got guesses as to what the Major Victory/Fat Momma elimination round is going to be like? Because it's not going to be pretty.
 
 
buttergun
13:07 / 18.08.06
Many moments of irony last night, some of my favorites being:

1. Stan Lee chastising Major Victory for his stripper past...while a poster of Striparella hung on the wall behind Stan.

2. Lemuria getting canned because she couldn't complete her task...which of course was the most difficult task of them all. How in the hell could ANYONE sit on a prisoner's lap? Fat Momma had the easiest task -- just brush some hair out of their eyes. Victory and Feedback's tasks were tough too, but Lemuria had the hardest challenge. And what was with these "secret challenges?" They were both demeaning and disrespectful to the prisoners.

3. The way the prisoners were trotted out and put on display like the heartless boogeymen (and women) Conservatives want you to believe they are.

4. The police guard, who I swear was character actor MICHAEL PARKS. (Most well-known as Sherriff Earl McGraw in Tarantino's "From Dusk till Dawn" and "Kill Bill Vol. 1")

5. The staged manner of the scenes with the prisoners, which took the "heavily scripted" format of the show into new heights. Notice how the female prisoner kept hanging her head low, so her stringy hair would hang in her face -- conveniently, so Fat Mama could easily fulfill her task of brushing the hair away.

6. Major Victory being scolded for throwing his cape on the ground so those old ladies wouldn't have to walk in a puddle!? WTF? What next, being scolded for taking his cape off to wrap around someone who's cold?

7. The awkward line-readings provided by the family and friends of our heroes. Even worse, Stan's awful reactions of dismay to these "revelations." Worst line ever from Stan yet: "Fat Mama, I hate to say this, but that was a tough donut to swallow."

8. The even-more awkward group cry at the end. Stan prodding each of them to bring on the waterworks with his staged "Do YOU have anything to say?"

9. Scripted, hackneyed, whatever, Feedback's "Spider-Man taught me how to be an adult" nearly made me misty-eyed, I'll admit it. Major Victory should win, but Feedback deserves to win.

10. The clip for next week, which claims that the next termination breaks down Stan -- meanwhile the clip, of Stan yanking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes, made it look more like he had just been sprayed with mace.
 
 
electric monk
15:48 / 18.08.06
The even-more awkward group cry at the end. Stan prodding each of them to bring on the waterworks with his staged "Do YOU have anything to say?"

My wife exclaimed at this point in the show (in her best Stan Lee voice), "Feedback, why don't you kiss my ass for a little while?" Which, of course, is exactly what he did. And it was touching, as was his visit with the convict. Heavily scripted or no, I'm enjoying this show more and more. Don't even mind the writers playing with my heartstrings as they do. It's been a fun ride thus far. And I find that I'm actually rooting for Feedback and hoping he wins, though I think he's a shoe-in for termination next week.

So there are, what, two more episodes to this season? Damn.
 
 
Jack Fear
16:37 / 18.08.06
And what was with these "secret challenges?" They were both demeaning and disrespectful to the prisoners

...who were, of course, actors.

The whole show is essentially WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY? writ large—an extended improvisation exercise, with the big prize goes to the one who most successfully remains in character. Feedback performed masterfully, feeding his acting partner precisely the right cues—triangulating him such that the only valid in-character response was to open his arms for a hug. Nice piece of cooperative improv, that.
 
 
buttergun
17:34 / 18.08.06
Yeah, the prisoners most likely were actors. Or at the very least they really WERE prisoners, but part of their prison's theater troupe (fresh from their cell block's presentation of "Twelth Night").

The hammy asides from the police guard ("about to see a beat-down"), the way the male prisoner kept saying "don't touch me" -- as if he KNEW touching him was exactly Feedback and Victory's "secret tasks -- all of it was as set-up as a sketch.

I forgot, though. Best line of the night went to the female prisoner, when Lemuria asked who she was:

"Who am I? I'm the fuckin' prisoner from the goddamn jail!!"
 
 
grant
22:16 / 29.08.06
They eliminated Major Victory? What happened?
 
 
Billuccho!
22:24 / 29.08.06
Well, DC has a copyright on "Major Victory," so...
 
 
grant
23:48 / 29.08.06
Feedback is *insane*. I'm watching ep 5 on the net right now, he's scrubbing the sink, and he's clearly out of his mind.

Even if he's acting, he's not well. Pong? The kids, they know.

Interesting that the comic books are Dark Horse.

Victory was eliminated for hamminess, wasn't he....
 
 
grant
02:23 / 30.08.06
..oh, man. Was he ever.....

"You're my hero, Dad."

AAAAAAAHHH!
 
 
miss wonderstarr
13:49 / 04.09.06
I have downloaded episodes 1-4 so far and I am finding it fantastic comfort-viewing as I'm currently laid up recuperating from street violence. Very-human superheroes are ideal for this kind of mentality.
 
 
X-Himy
21:19 / 04.09.06
When Major Victory got the nix, it was obvious that Feedback would win. There was never a chance that Fat Momma could win the thing, and stopping the almost inevitible matchup between Major Victory and Feedback killed the suspense. But this show was wonderful.
 
 
miss wonderstarr
07:04 / 05.09.06
I just got real weepy at Major Victory ~ "Chris", when stripped of his costume ~ and his daughter. Has the finale already been screened? I've only got episodes 1-5 available on bittorrent.
 
 
Jack Fear
12:15 / 05.09.06
Yup. The show wrapped up last Thursday. The lesson we all took away from it: The qualities that make up a true superhero are (a) humility, (b) courage, (c) integrity, and (d) sucking up to your benefactor to an obscenely unseemly degree.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
15:03 / 05.09.06
wonderstarr- I too have joined the downloady superhfolks goodness. And I've got to say, half way through the first episode, that if I was convalescing I can't think of anything that would cheer me up better. (Needless to say, get well soon). I was just feeling a bit inexplicably mopey, and now I'm sat here with a big grin on my face.

Sure, it's cheese. But, y'know... put it this way, I'd make a rubbish vegan.

Funny watching non-Hollywood, non-drawn people and how they look in costumes the like of which we take for granted as comics readers.

And I'm loving Stan at the moment. I know he has his faults, but there's something about his enthusiasm that gets me every time I see him.
 
 
Elijah, Freelance Rabbi
17:01 / 05.09.06
"Feedback, I want you to go out and spread the word that I didn't steal all of Kirby's thunder, that is your first mission!"
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
15:12 / 08.09.06
wonderstarr- I could only find 1-5 for ages... think 6 must have only gone up in the last couple of days- can't remember which site I found it on, but it is out there.

Just watched the final. That was the best, cheesiest thing I've ever seen. I loved every minute of it. And I want Stan Lee to be my uncle.

That was simultaneously all the worst things about reality game shows all at once, and one of the most fun things I've seen in my life.

I wish I was still ten years old. I'd have SO loved that. Only I did anyway. Shit, maybe I am actually ten years old. I should really stop smoking and drinking.
 
 
miss wonderstarr
21:50 / 10.11.06
Just got hold of #6 ~ really the winner should have been obvious since day 1, I suppose. I've rarely seen a more deserving victor on a reality show. Someone who's lived this since he was five... you can't fault it. The effects were pretty dire, but the emotional heart was convincingly real.
 
 
electric monk
15:42 / 08.02.07
Dammit dammit DAMMIT!

I missed the second season tryouts in my area. Check it out, heroic US 'lithers! In-person auditions with Stan the Man go until mid-March and they're accepting audition videos via mail as well.
 
 
Jack Fear
11:26 / 29.05.07
A bump, cos I was thinking about it this morning...

Prepare yourselves for... Who Wants To Be A Supehero? II: The Returnening

Series starts in July. Watch audition videos here. Beard Man, from the LA tryouts, is an early favorite, but Smashsquatch has the best name.

Also: the TransAmerican, from San Antonio: WTF?
 
 
Saint Keggers
13:57 / 29.05.07
What ever happened to the movie that the winner of the first season was supposed to make? Did that ever air?
 
 
Jack Fear
15:14 / 29.05.07
Not to my knowledge, but he appeared on air, in costume, as an "expert" in a cable news report about this fucking thing.
 
 
grant
20:48 / 29.05.07
What did he say?
 
 
Jack Fear
13:52 / 30.05.07
See for yourself.
 
 
Jack Fear
02:16 / 24.07.07
Wa-hey! The Feedback comic is in stores now! A forty-page one-shot with a gallery of mock-up covers featuring the also-rans from last season.

And double wa-hey! New season premieres this Thursday, 26 July, 9:00 PM EDT in the US.

My schedule = CLEARED.
 
  

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