Bit of a break from format here; I know this is a TV show, and not a comic. But I’m still a big fan of it, and I think you’ll be too, so bear with me here…
Who Wants To Be A Superhero came at a very unique time; originally broadcast in the US in 2006, and in the UK in 2007. This was a time when Superheroes and comics culture were increasing in popularity, but hadn’t quite yet captured the zeitgeist that would define the following decade of tv/cinema.
By 2007, TV shows like Heroes and Big Bang Theory were respectively legitimising comics and lampooning their fanbase, a sure-fire sign that superheroes had broken through as acceptable mainstream entertainment. And in 2008, Iron Man and The Dark Knight smashed the box-office, and the image of the cheesy lycra-clad superhero was destroyed with it.
But back in 2006, this hadn’t quite happened yet; and so it came to be that Stan Lee hosted a 6-episode reality TV show where a collection of ‘real people’ competed by prancing around Los Angeles with skintight costumes and catchy code-names, in order to win the nebulous honour of being ’The Next Big Superhero’. Looking back at it now; you might be confused as to why the audience is invited to laugh at these people for their naive behaviour and notions of heroism, and yet also chastise them for not honouring those heroic ideals well enough. But if you can balance on that knife-edge (or ignore it entirely) then you are in for an absolute treat.
I think the genius of the show is that it takes the faults of Reality TV, and by repackaging them as super-hero tropes, it makes them more acceptable to the audience, and actually part of the enjoyment. So the forced/awkward confrontations (which were probably driven by producer-fed prompts), the drawn-out moments of drama, the never-ending recaps, the low-budget effects and even the increasingly-emotive weekly eliminations all become completely legitimate. Stan Lee’s poker-faced stoicism, perfected over decades of editorial meetings and comics convention appearances, only served to support this.
I was tempted at first to present this review as ‘My Favourite 5 Bits’ from ‘Who Wants To Be A Superhero’, but that would have spoiled some of the genuine surprises that were peppered throughout the series. In the first few episodes, the producers/writers concocted some fiendish twists that quickly filtered out the unworthy wannabes from the line-up, and by the mid-way point, the altruistic aspects of the remaining candidates started to display in some unexpected and genuinely heartfelt moments. Regardless of their reasons for initially being there; the contestants actually found themselves increasingly recognising the heroism in themselves and in each other.
I’ll leave it to you to watch the show and discover each of the characters for yourself, but I will single out Major Victory as a personal favourite of mine. He was sort of the Captain Jack Sparrow of the show; never quite the main driver of the drama, but always mincing around the background, providing witty asides and never breaking character. As his back story is eventually revealed, the Major becomes a genuinely tragi-comic figure, and he is at the centre of (for me) the emotional climax to the series, which actually occurs in episode 5. By the time the sixth and final episode rolls around, only 2 candidates remain, and both are equally worthy of winning; the series is just doing a victory lap by this point, but it’s still highly entertaining television.
The entire first series is available for download from amazon at a reasonable price, and I’d recommend you check it out, whether it’s for the first time, or to revisit with your family. After all, it’s never too early to heed Major Victory’s advice; “don’t be a Wiener, be a Winner!”