So Long and Thanks For All the Spandex

Posted on August 24, 2006 by Timothy Burke

What, a show that basically is a metafictional foolery about superheroes and comics has a problem with a guy who is playing (in a fairly talented way) to the cheesiness of the genre AND the show? Yes, I know, it’s the usual manipulation that reality shows excel at, but count me out. I sign off of Who Wants to Be a Superhero? along with Major Victory.

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4 Responses to So Long and Thanks For All the Spandex

  1. Jonathan Dresner says:
    August 27, 2006 at 5:06 pm

    I have to ask: what standard would you have used for selection instead? The whole show seems predicated on denying the fundamentally cheesy, as you put it, nature of the genre within the context of the show, while playing on it for viewers (at least those who chose to view it ironically, rather than literally).

  2. Timothy Burke says:
    August 27, 2006 at 7:24 pm

    See, I don’t think the show has been very clear in its scripted narrative line–more arbitrarily working to get the selection to points of maximum entertainment value, as reality shows often do. So kicking out Major Victory seems to me bizarre in this sense unless they’re trying to make sure that a final has the two least charismatic characters and therefore something of a suspenseful choice.

  3. lstokes says:
    August 29, 2006 at 12:03 am

    When I first heard the concept, I thought a big part of winning the show would have to involve having a charismatic character who was funny and bad-ass and creative, somebody who people would actually enjoy reading a comic book about.

    The show turned out to be more of a “Who Wants To Be A Funny-Looking Boy Scout?” Distressingly didactic, and totally un-reality-show. That said, I’m still watching the finale.

  4. kmunoz says:
    September 2, 2006 at 8:46 am

    The “boy scout” angle doesn’t really surprise me. Stan Lee’s public persona has always been as a promoter of the “boy scout” superhero image.

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