{"id":10160,"date":"2006-08-22T13:47:35","date_gmt":"2006-08-22T20:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/08\/22\/who-wants-to-be-a-superhero.html"},"modified":"2006-08-22T13:47:35","modified_gmt":"2006-08-22T20:47:35","slug":"who_wants_to_be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/22\/who_wants_to_be.html","title":{"rendered":"Who Wants to be a Superhero?<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/div>\n

The answer being, “Nobody, if they have to put up with this dreck.”<\/p>\n

I’ve watched this show<\/a> for the past couple of weeks — I missed the first episode or two. And I fear that Stan “The Man” Lee is setting comics back — well, at least 40 years, if not moreso.<\/p>\n

Okay, the premise is eleven people — with costumes and concepts — are competing to be the one “superhero” chosen by Stan Lee. Winner gets a comic book made about him\/her, as well as a SciFi Saturday Original Movie. Which, if you’ve ever seen one, would be no great thing, I think.<\/p>\n

The heroes supposedly bunk down in a little converted LA building, the “Lair.” Each episode, they get faced with two challenge; after each challenge, one of them gets fired, turning in their costume and leaving the Lair.<\/p>\n

The competitions themselves vary between plausible tests of determination, courage, etc., to nearly arbitrary reasons to simply cut one of the competitors. Which event takes place with tears and pats on the back and “We’re going to miss you, man, you were a great competitor.”<\/p>\n

Margie describes it as a Reality Show blended with Power Rangers. Except in Power Rangers, the acting (and the FX) are significantly better.<\/p>\n

It’s impossible to tell whether the whole thing is staged, or whether the people are simply acting in a goofy\/camp fashion that they think superheroes should. Trite cliches abound, both from Stan and from the cast. The most humorous bits are repeated questions by Stan as to whether they can imagine Spider-Man ever taking off his mask (ha), followed by Stan (and everyone else) mispronouncing Lemuria’s name as “Lumeria.”<\/p>\n

The shame here is that it didn’t need to be nearly this over the top. Some of the competitions are good ones, and the others could be replaced by other ones that exemplify the qualities of a super-hero — bravery, integrity, honesty, self-sacrifice. Instead, everyone’s trying to sound like a bad Stan Lee pastiche, including Stan himself, and none of the competitors seem heroic, only pathetic in their truckling for fleeting fame and the desire to not be disqualified.<\/p>\n

And yet … there is, I’ll confess, an amazingly entertaining cheesiness to it (it definitely rings on the TFC meter, as Mary and Margie would recognize it), almost a train-wreck of awfulness that keeps me wanting to come back. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The answer being, “Nobody, if they have to put up with this dreck.” I’ve watched this show for the past couple of weeks — I missed the first episode…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-comics","category-media-tv"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":137451,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/11\/12\/rip-stan-lee.html","url_meta":{"origin":10160,"position":0},"title":"RIP, Stan Lee","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 12-Nov-18 12:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Say what you will about the stuff he didn't create, or his self-aggrandizement and ironically-fitting legend-making about himself: Stan Lee still did a huge amount to shape and influence comics in ways that are still felt today both in comics and, through them, modern cinema.Thank you, Stan, for all the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38146,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/05\/superhero-movie-bingo.html","url_meta":{"origin":10160,"position":1},"title":"Superhero Movie Bingo","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 5-Jul-13 12:42pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I like it.Reshared post from +Mark MeansCoolnessWho says BINGO has to be a yawnfest??\"Oh...there's Stan Lee....BINGO!!\" Superhero Movie Bingo I had an idea pop into my head the other day, and I just had to see it through to fruition. There's plenty of common things that happen in many superhero\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6282,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/09\/27\/blind_leading_t.html","url_meta":{"origin":10160,"position":2},"title":"Blind leading the blind","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 27-Sep-04 5:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"This week's Top5.com Little Fivers -- Comics Edition: Back in 1964, Stan Lee and Bill Everett created the Man Without Fear, Matt Murdock, a successful lawyer who also waged battle...","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10687,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/11\/18\/galactus_is_coming.html","url_meta":{"origin":10160,"position":3},"title":"Galactus is Coming!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 18-Nov-06 9:08pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A collaboration between Stan Lee and Jack Chick. (Well, not really, but ...) (via DOF)...","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/reed.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":49215,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/09\/astro-city-is-the-super-hero-comic-fans-super-hero-comic.html","url_meta":{"origin":10160,"position":4},"title":"Astro City is the super-hero comic fan's super-hero comic","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 9-Jan-15 9:43am","format":false,"excerpt":"I've loved Kurt Busiek's Astro City book since its inception. Abetted by Brent Anderson on the interior art and Alex Ross on the covers, Busiek plays with, respects, and brings freshness to super-hero tropes in a way nobody else does in the industry. He also spends a lot of time\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132649,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/25\/literature-even-comic-books-mean-something-or-else-they-mean-nothing.html","url_meta":{"origin":10160,"position":5},"title":"Literature (even comic books) mean something, or else they mean nothing","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 25-Jan-17 10:44pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Stan Lee may be a self-aggrandizing huckster who parlayed some great collaborative ideas into a media empire that he took credit for ...... but The Man speak sooth. Folk who want comic books to be simple escapist fare (and God knows I enjoy escapism and comic books) ignore that even\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/104fca54-df43-4803-842e-b04259aecc65imgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}