Who Wants to Be a Superhero?

Who Wants to Be a Superhero? was a reality show hosted by Stan Lee. Contestants dress up as comic book superheroes of their own invention. Each week, Lee challenges the contestants to represent what "superheroes are all about." One or more of the superheroes deemed the least deserving is eliminated per episode. The grand prize for the winning superhero is to have his or her character star in a Dark Horse Comics comic book written by Lee and appear in an original movie to be aired on the Sci Fi Channel. The winner also receives a trip for two to Universal Studios Florida to participate in the park's Parade of Superheroes.

Season 1 premiered on July 27, 2006 on the Sci Fi Channel. Season 2 premiered on July 26, 2007.^[1] Stan Lee and his partner Gil Champion refused to confirm or deny rumors of a third season; Champion, in a shared 2007 interview with iF Magazine, stated "I guess it's a little early."^[2] There has been no sign of a third season, so despite no official announcement, the show is believed cancelled. Stan Lee has also co-created a British children's version of the series.

Season 1

The twelve-hero cast of the first season was:

• Rotiart (Jonathan Finestone; 27) (Los Angeles, California) He has a hidden camera that he can use to record his surroundings and show it to others on a mini T.V. screen on his chest.
• Levity (Tobias Trost; 32) (Lakeside, Montana) can control air molecules, create force fields, and shoot blasts of air that can penetrate concrete.
• Nitro G (Darren Passarello; 19) (Staten Island, New York) has super strength, super speed, flight, and manipulates energy.
• Cell Phone Girl (Chelsea Weld; 22) (La Crescenta, California) can teleport from one active cell phone to another. Her eyes can take digital photos and can download any information available on a computer (e.g., learn Japanese on the fly). She can use her cell-phone waves to move physical objects and shoot fires beams from it.
• The Iron Enforcer (Steel Chambers; 35) (Brooklyn, New York) densest bone structure of any human, does a mind-blowing "death punch", and wields an arsenal of high-tech weapons.
• Monkey Woman (Mary Votava; 28) (Seattle, Washington) has the skills of a monkey and can speak monkey as well. She has high-tech weapons and gadgets disguised as bananas and wields a bamboo staff. She changes into her costume in a tree, as long as it covers her whole body.
• Ty'Veculus (E. Quincy Sloan; 34) (Bakersfield, California) has super-strength, speed, fire resistance, and always detects lies because he can only hear the truth.
• Creature (Tonya Kay; 25) (Coldwater, Michigan) can heal others with fruit and raw foods, shoots fire-beams, wields a magical bullwhip, and throws knives with unerring precision.
• Lemuria (Tonatzin Mondragon; 30) (Los Angeles, California) shoots laser-beams and fireballs, levitates, drains energy from people, animals and plants, and hurls orbs of solar energy.
• Major Victory (Chris Watters; 38) (San Francisco, California) has super-strength, can levitate and is never knocked down, can jump 375 feet straight up, can go 25 minutes without air, has super-acute vision, and can manipulate sound waves to create noises or throw his voice.
• Fat Momma (Nell Wilson; 42) (Los Angeles, California) can grow to five times her normal size when she gets angry, she has other abilities that can be activated when she eats a doughnut.
• Feedback (Matthew Atherton; 34) (Las Cruces, New Mexico) absorbs powers and abilities from video games that he plays, generates a feedback field that disrupts electronics within 15 feet, and is a computer genius.

Season 2

The ten-hero cast of the second season was:

• Braid (Crystal Clark; 42) (Bloomington, Illinois) can use her hair extensions as zip lines and to take down foes. She can shape shift into any age, race, or gender. She also has a superior sense of smell. She can change into her costume with her prism stones.
• Mindset (Phillip Allen; 24) (Coral Springs, Florida) is a telekinetic time traveler on a mission to end all war, his armor is impervious to modern weapons, and his highly advanced brain makes him an excellent problem solver. He also has the unique ability to sense danger.
• Mr. Mitzvah (Ivan Wilzig; 51) (Miami, Florida) He sports a Star of David paddle, which is able to deflect any attack. He also has super-strength, flight, night-vision, and super senses.
• Ms. Limelight (Trisha Paytas; 19) (Byron, Illinois) is a super heroine who absorbs the powers of action stars on TV and in movies. She is a fantastic swimmer, can instantly see people's weaknesses and sports a mirror used to temporarily blind her foes.
• Basura (Aja De Coudreaux; 27) (Oakland, California) uses her mystical powers to turn trash into gadgets and weapons. She enlists the help of insects of all kinds everywhere and can communicate with them.
• Whip-Snap (Paula Thomas; 31) (Dallas, Texas) has a mastery of her whip, which she wields with pinpoint accuracy. She possesses increased flexibility and stamina, and if her bare skin touches a villain, that villain is turned into dust. She has a bond with Mother Earth and derives special strength from the warmth of the planet.
• Parthenon (Dan Williams; 28) (Orlando, Florida) is an archaeologist who gets his mystical powers from an ancient gauntlet called the Armaguard, which he discovered in Greece. It's "Allstone" grants him three principal abilities: super-strength, limited invulnerability and flight. He has other gemstones which allow him to create a force field, a sonic attack, and illusions.
• Hyper-Strike (John Stork; 21) (Plainfield, Vermont) is a martial arts expert with super strength, enhanced durability and agility. He can manipulate his qi (life force) and that of others.
• Hygena (Melody Mooney; 36) (Sherman Oaks, California) fights crime and grime, using a magic necklace dating back to the ancient Greek goddess Hygieia to make weapons from all types of cleaning utensils, including a feather duster that shoots ionized radiation upward to 60 feet and clean bombs that cause her foes to fall unconscious for 30 minutes.
• The Defuser (Jarrett Crippen; 38) (Austin, Texas) uses non-lethal weaponry to stop villains. He has the unique ability to function at 110 percent. He also has super strength, speed, agility, reflexes, sensitive hearing and night vision to a range of 60 feet.

A spin-off series, The Superhero After Show, premiered on the Sci Fi Pulse broadband network immediately following the Eastern Time Zone broadcast of the first episode. The series was hosted by Feedback (Matthew Atherton) and is shown on Sci Fi Pulse. Feedback interviews Superhero contestants as they depart the show; each departing challenger shares reflections on his or her show experience and plans for the future. In the final installment, Feedback interviews Stan Lee about the season as a whole.

Season DVDs

A 2-disc DVD set of season 1 was released on September 21, 2006; Season 2 was released as a 3-disc DVD set on October 19, 2007. Both are available at both the NBC Universal Store and Amazon.

International broadcasts

Fat Momma at the 2008 New York Comic Con.

The UK Premiere was shown during a 2007 bank holiday special on May 5, 6, and 7th. While UK viewers could not compete in the show, a competition was launched by SCI FI for fans to submit a video of themselves as a superhero. Prizes included the winners footage being included on the DVD.^[3] The show continued to run every Monday, the last of season 1 being broadcast on June 18, 2007.

The Sci Fi Channel Australia premiered Season 1 of the show on May 10, 2007; while Season 2 premiered on September 24, 2007. Season 1 of the show was aired in New Zealand on C4 on October 23, 2007. It also aired in Canada on IFC, in Asia on STAR World, and in Latin America through the cable TV station Sony Entertainment Television, with Spanish subtitles. The first season started to air in Denmark, on the TV2 Zulu channel, on January 9, 2008, for a Wednesday evening slot at 22:00.In Indonesia, this program premiered season 1 in Trans7 on December 27, 2007 started to air at 20.30 and in the Philippines at Jack TV.

In the United Kingdom, the BBC commissioned its own version of the show, also called Who Wants To Be a Superhero?, for child contestants. It began airing on BBC Two on 3 January 2009. H20 Man is the current winner.

References

External links

• Who Wants to Be a Superhero? at the Internet Movie Database
• Who Wants to Be a Superhero? at TV.com
• Page for the Dark Horse comic book
• Review of Who Wants to Be a Superhero? characters on Dark Horse Comics Page