Who Wants to Be a Superhero?, Episode 4 - This Episode Sponsored By ...
As usual, we start with a recap of last week's episode, which told of our heroes' first encounter with the sinister Dr. Dark, who was lurking in an amusement park. Mr. Mitzvah failed to face his fears by refusing to ride a rollercoaster, and Ms. Limelight got lost, while Basura stopped for a "moment of fame". A double elimination resulted in Mr. Mitzvah and Ms. Limelight being sent home. Upon returning home, our heroes find that their lair has been burglarized!
Not only has the lair been completely ransacked, but the safe containing the superheroes' secret identities has been emptied, and Parthenon notices that Stan Lee's pencil has also been stolen. Hygena feels a compulsion to clean up the place, but The Defuser tells her not to. He tells people several times not to touch anything. Once again, he's in "police captain" mode. Whip-Snap comes unglued and comments that she feels inferior to the others, and that she's tired, and that she can't do this any more.
Stan Lee calls with the news that a check for 15 grand has also been stolen. It was from Esurance to an environmental charity, Friends of the Urban Forest. He also tells them that their stolen items have been found, and that Dr. Dark's courier is planning to fence the goods. The heroes go to Universal Studios' Universal City Walk, where the courier supposedly is, and Lee and Erin Esurance contact the heroes over their wrist communicators. (Okay, this is just wrong. Product placement usually is quite blatant, but this business is turning this sequence into one long commercial for Esurance.) As per Erin Esurance and Lee, the heroes have to "go undercover", before they can contact the courier and get their goods back, as the villain's henchman is not likely to cooperate with obvious superheroes. So the heroes have to borrow clothes from passerbys to get a disguise consisting of a shirt, pants, and shoes-- all within the next 15 minutes.
The Defuser notes that this challenge will be hard for him simply because of his size, and later tells us that he stands 6'4" and weighs 250 pounds. Unfortunately for him, this makes him about 6 inches taller and 75 pounds heavier than the average man. Basura feels uncomfortable with asking total strangers for their clothing, while Hygena dislikes the idea of putting on somebody else's possibly-dirty clothing. Most of the heroes seem to have a relatively easy time talking people into parting with tops; it's shoes and pants that prove to be the sticking points.
The Defuser runs into one of Lee's traps: a distraught woman searching for a lost child. In the past, he's ignored this sort of thing-- and been scolded by Lee for doing so. He's apparently taken those tongue-lashings to heart, though, and he helps the woman look. She gets a call on her cell phone that the child has been found by a store's security. The Defuser, relieved, goes back to looking for large men who might be willing to part with their clothing. Hyperstrike, meantime, entertains some young men by doing multiple backflips in exchange for clothes. He's the first hero to complete his disguise-- now he just needs a phonebooth to change in.
The Defuser finishes off his disguise-- by talking a large woman into parting with her bloomers. He and Whip-Snap are the next to finish their disguises. Hyperstrike, Hygena, and Whip-Snap all take time to help the woman with the lost child. Basura finishes her disguise, but while she's talking to the guy who has loaned her his pants, she's approached by the woman with the lost child. Unlike many of the others, she does not drop everything to help the woman. Ooops. At this stage of the game, a contestant ought to know one of Lee's traps when they see one. They should also know what Lee expects of them.
Erin Esurance calls the disguised heroes with the news that the courier will be wearing blue jeans (Big help!) and that the courier will return the items upon hearing the code phrase, "I need ears. Can I have yours?" Hygena has finished her disguise by securing some ratty-looking pants. She changes in a women's bathroom-- and then takes the time to neatly fold up her costume. Hygena has been a good perfomer so far, but I suspect her cleanliness compulsion is going to bite her in the ass sooner or later. She and the other heroes who have finished their disguises and gotten changed begin approaching anybody wearing blue jeans and reciting the code phrase at them. Parthenon is the one who recites the phrase to the right guy in jeans and thus secures the goods, which includes everything but Stan Lee's pencil. Hygena gets there just in time to see Parthenon complete the mission. Ooops. She might have won if she hadn't taken time to fold her costume.
The heroes then go to a Golden Apple comic book store for their "first taste of immortality"-- comic book covers of them. The covers vary in actual resemblence of the heroes, with Hygena's being the least like her, as it makes her look considerably younger and thinner than she actually is. Lee also introduces the group to Mike Richardson, the president of Dark Horse Comics, the company that will be selling the winner's comic book.
Back at the lair, Lee congratulates Parthenon for winning the challenge and gives him a reward: permission to call home. The reward has a potentially less pleasant aspect to it, though, as Parthenon also has to choose a superhero to share the reward with. Parthenon decides the fairest thing to do is to interview the other heroes about who they'd call. Hyperstrike would call his girlfriend of two years, while The Defuser and Hygena would call their spouses. Basura and Whip-Snap don't have significant others, and Whip-Snap goes so far as to urge Parthenon to give the phone call to somebody who does have a family. Parthenon eventually decides in favor of Hygena, who calls her husband, who tells her that he "already considers her a hero." This makes Hygena cry. Parthenon calls his partner, Derek. While Parthenon and Hygena are on the phone, The Defuser confronts Basura, telling her that she's too quiet. Basura then tells The Defuser that he needs to curb his habit of talking over people, and The Defuser admits that it is rude, but when he gets a thought in his head, he feels the need to express it right away. (Dude, you're 38 and the oldest superhero left; you really ought to have picked up some social graces by now.)
Afterwards, Lee asks the heroes to fill out "mission reports" and to be "brutally honest" about each other. The heroes do so, and while they wait, Hyperstrike and Whip-Snap have an arm-wrstling contest, which Whip-Snap wins. Afterwards, Lee reveals the results of the "mission reports", by showing the heroes some of the comments that had been made about them:
"Defuser is quick to sieze control." -- probably by everybody
"Whip-Snap is open about many things, but I still feel there is something missing."-- The Defuser
"Hyperstrike has yet to come out of his shell."-- The Defuser again
That last comment angers Hyperstrike. The Defuser says he'd made that comment, because he doesn't think Hyperstrike has shown all that he's capable of as the challenges come very easily to him. Um, shouldn't superheroes keep a few tricks under wraps or in reserve. What a teammate doesn't know, an enemy is even less likely to know. And can somebody get this nosy control freak off my T.V. screen?!
Lee then announces that it's elmination time. Basura hopes that The Defuser is sent home, as he's a bully. Hygena thinks Whip-Snap is too emotional. On the rooftop, Lee congratulates Parthenon for winning the challenge, but chides him for telling total strangers about the robbery. "What happens in the lair should stay in the lair," quoth Lee. Hygena's cleanliness compulsion slowed her down. Lee scolds Basura for wavering when approached by the woman with the lost child, and tells her that the woman's need should have taken priority. Whip-Snap showed nobility in telling Parthenon to give the phone call to another hero, but was too emotional when she saw that the lair had been ransacked. The Defuser had been honest in his mission reports, but was too bossy and domineering. Basura, The Defuser, and Hygena are summoned to The Red Cubes of Shame, and Basura is sent home for not helping the woman or being assertive.
As the heroes leave, Parthenon DR's that he's upset to see Basura go. But, meanwhile, in a dark and gloomy hideout, the nefarious Dr. Dark gloats over having extracted Stan Lee's DNA from his stolen pencil. The previews for next week show the heroes crawling through a tunnel infested with snakes and spiders, and show Stan Lee commenting, "First time I've heard a superhero scream."
|
The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.
|
|
|
