Who Wants to Be a Superhero?, Premiere - The Lazy Braid
Welcome, superheroes, to the premiere of the second season of Who Wants to be a Superhero, hosted by Stan Lee of Marvel Comics. The prize of this particular contest is nothing less than "immortality"; the winner will star in both a comic book and a Sci-Fi original movie and have an action figure made in their likeness. The first few minutes tell how the ten finalists were selected. There were auditions in eleven cities throughout the U.S., and hordes of outlandishly dressed men and women unleash their inner nerd. At Lee's request, different heroes display their "powers", describe their motivations, and give their battle cries. Lee then dispatches Feedback, the first season's winner to collect the ten finalists: Basura, Braid, The Defuser, Hygena, Hyper-strike, Mindset, Mr. Mitzvah, Ms. Limelight, Parthenon, and Whip-Snap. The contestants are evenly divided between the sexes, and two, The Defuser and Whip-Snap, have law enforcement backgrounds, while Braid used to be in the C.I.A.
Feedback teleports the finalists to their secret lair, which is right above a laundromat. While Feedback is gathering the aspiring heros, they tell us a little about themselves and why they want to be superheroes. Mr. Mitzvah tells us that he inherited a lot of money and is looking for a purpose. Basura's name means "trash" in Spanish, and her weapons and costume are all made from trash. The Defuser became a police detective because that was as close to being a superhero as he could get-- until now. (We later learn that The Defuser has kids older than the 18-year-old Ms. Limelight.) While the heroes check out their lair, which include beds with hoky nameplates, Lee contacts them via a videoscreen. He starts lecturing them about what he's looking for in a superhero, stressing that it's not just physical prowess he wants. (Good. Otherwise, most of the women might as well pack up and go home.) He wants to see appropiate personality traits, like honesty and selflessness. Then the screen suddenly goes to static-- Stan Lee has apparently been attacked in mid-lecture!
When the static dissipates, the heroes find themselves facing a man in a dark cloak and mask. This villain informs that he has kidnapped Stan Lee and taken him to one of two aqueducts. The heroes have to split into two teams and search both aqueducts. As the heroes don't know really know each other, they don't spend a lot of time picking the teams; basically, the five on the left are one team, the five on the right are the other. Red Team: Hygena, Hyper-strike, Mindset, Mr. Mitzvah, and Whip-snap. Blue Team: Basura, Braid, The Defuser, Ms. Limelight, and Parthenon. They reach the aqueducts and the Kidnapper contacts them again, telling them they have four minutes to shut off the wind and water machines in order to reach Lee-- and something else is key to Lee's safety. Here, the camera cuts away to the keys dangling on the abandoned grocery carts in the aqueducts. Since nobody apparently watched the previous season, they either don't notice the keys or realize they have to take them The Defuser quickly assumes leadership of the Blue Team and has everybody link arms so nobody gets knocked down by the wind or the water. When they reach the controls they do get the levers and switches in the "off" position-- but that doesn't stop anything. Then they remember the key and all go back to collect it. They succeed in retrieving it and shutting off the machine. Red Team just charges into the fray willy-nilly. Whip-snap realizes that they need the key and goes back alone to retrieve it. The water knocks her down and she apparently hurts her knee. (She DR's about hearing her knee pop.) Nonetheless, she gets back up and gets the key, and Hygena helps her back. Unfortunately, the time expires before they can shut off their machine.
The would-be superheroes wonder what the consequences of failure are-- but they don't have to worry for long. Lee appears onscreen, and assures them that he's alright: he'd staged his own kidnapping to see what they would do. He then sends them back to their lair. Whip-snap is upset because she thinks the others will blame her for not getting the Red Team's key back in time. The Defuser assures her that won't happen.
Later on, Lee contacts the heroes and sends them off to a warehouse that has been robbed. Their mission: to question the victim and learn what they can in two minutes. A lot of them do succeed in learning at least one clue. Mr. Long, the victim, however, is somewhat less than cooperative and trips a few of them up. He asks Braid about her super-powers and she obliges by describing her powers for the whole two minutes. (And this idiot used to be in the C.I.A.?! Yikes!) Mr. Mitzvah reacts to Mr. Long's evasiveness by waxing impatient and rude.
After dealing with Mr. Long, the gang leave the warehouse to find that their tires have been stolen. Also in the area are an older woman trying to load her walker in her car, an over-burdened deliveryman struggling to carry three boxes, and a lost dog. While The Defuser leads the group in finding their missing tires and putting them back on, Parthenon realizes that it does not take ten people to fix tires and helps the deliveryman carry some of his boxes. Hygena and Basura assist the old woman, but nobody even notices the dog. Oh well, at least the humans received help.
Elimination time! The heroes gather on a rooftop and stand on lit platforms. Lee contacts them again through yet another video screen. He praises some, including Whip-Snap, for her determination at the aqueduct challenge; The Defuser, for his leadership skills; and the three who'd helped people at the tire-jacking challenge. Determination, leadership, and a concern for others are all traits he wants to see in aspiring superheroes. However, he does chide The Defuser a bit for being so wrapped up in trying to resolve the car-jacking problem that he failed to notice the people and dog in need around him. At least, The Defuser had been doing something useful, unlike Ms. Limelight, who saw the struggling old woman-- and ignored her. Lee then announces his candidates for elimination: Ms. Limelight (for ignoring the old woman), Mr. Mitzvah (for rudeness), and Braid (for laziness). All three get on red platforms and have to defend themselves before Lee. They do, and Braid is eliminated. Lee tells her to "turn in her costume", and Braid gets on yet another platform, and thanks to some jazzy special effects, her costume is turned into street clothing.
Preview: The group battles a female supervillain with a thing for bees, and they get costume make-overs.
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