Who Wants to Be A Superhero ep. 6, The Finale

The only superheroes remaining are Fat Momma and Feedback. The other 9 have turned in their costumes and moved on. It's time to find out who really is a superhero.

Wasting no expense, the show begins with horrifyingly bad effects showing Stan taking over everyone television and telling the world about his new superhero. Oddly, this seems to work better when one wears a Guy Fawkes mask. He is going to announce the winner to the whole world, but first he has to do a few more things to decide who that winner will be.

Right away, Stan informs the two remaining contestants that it is time to gain their superpowers. While I was hoping he would release a bunch of radioactive spiders into the Lair and hope for someone to get bitten, it turns out that he is sending them to stunt school. At the stunt school they learn to fight, tumble and fly in front of a green screen. Feedback performs many of the activities better than Fat Momma, who is not surprising as his character is not based on being out of shape. What is surprising is that as he says he needs to "stretch out a bit", Feedback drops down into the splits, indicating that if he doesn't win this contest he could always replace Jean Claude Van Damme in a sequel to Bloodsport.

Eventually, they get chances to leap from the swing, in front of the green screen and onto pads. Feedback does it repeatedly and seems to really enjoy himself. As Fat Momma gets onto the swing and prepares to fly, she thinks about the risks. The risk of injury, especially for a single mother who has young children depending on her, outweigh the benefit of flying in this way. She decides that she will not do this stunt, and everyone applauds her decision. With a risk-benefit analysis like that she proves that, even if she can't become the next superhero, she's a great fit for middle management.

Back at the Lair, the contestants each get a chance to talk to Stan one on one, and for the first time, he greets them by their true first names. First up is Feedback a.k.a. Matthew, who when asked who his hero is, once again sites Stan Lee and talks of growing up with Spider Man as a guide. Stan seems perplexed, but touched once again. To be fair to Feedback, he explains this well, so that it seems a little less creepy this time. Tears are shed, and it's Fat Momma's turn.
As Fat Momma, a.k.a. Nell, sits and converses with Stan, he asks her about her hero. She tells him about her father, who is older and is beginning to have problems with his memory. Tears are shed, and it's time for the decision. This time it's too big of a ceremony to have on the roof, so Stan has them go to Universal City Walk.

Stan shows up on a giant monitor above Universal City Walk and greets the citizens. He tells them of the competition and introduces the superheroes by showing a clip of each in action. While showcasing some of the worst green screen effects in history, the clips show that Feedback certainly appears better on screen than Fat Momma. Then again, when they give you something like "Chicken Man," a chick green screened to appear as big a building, you can't really expect people to take you seriously.

Stan finally makes the difficult choice and asks Fat Momma to turn in her costume. He congratulates Feedback, who celebrates and is surprised by the arrival of his wife. Then, all the other superheroes show up to celebrate with him, until finally Stan's monitor appears to malfunction and he disappears. In the final surprise, Stan comes out to greet everyone in person, and Feedback finally meets the Willy Wonka to his Charlie. More tears are shed, especially by those who will be involved in making a Feedback movie, and we conclude with "The End?"

It was not a perfect show. In fact, it was not really even good, if you tried to take it seriously. None of the people on the show were good potential superheroes, but perhaps with good writers and some judicious ignoring of the backstory the contestants gave themselves, they could be turned into better candidates. My favorite contestant throughout the show was Major Victory, who was (as Stan noted) more of a parody of a superhero. He knew that this should never be taken seriously and therefore never did take it too seriously. In the end, I don't think this could have ended any way other than it did. The contestant who most wanted to live as a superhero was the one who won the chance to do exactly that. Now, all we can do is wait for the SciFi Saturday night movie, and if those clips they showed are any indication, it's going to be good...in a bad way. Or is that bad in a good way? Either way, I'll be there, hoping that it's as fun as it can be.