Super on the Inside By Kathy Merlock Jackson for the Portfolio Weekly.

What’s the big deal with superheroes? Every summer, as predictable as lightning bugs and fireworks, the likes of Spiderman, Superman, Batman, or the Hulk dominate American movie screens, attracting filmgoers into the theaters and breaking box-office records. This summer, true to their seasonal appeal, they’re even on television.

On a reality show, no less.

Developed and hosted by legendary comics creator Stan Lee, Who Wants to Be a Superhero? joined the Sci Fi Thursday night line-up this summer, and it’s proved to be one of the most quirky and interesting reality shows since Mad Mad House chronicled the shenanigans of a vampire, witch, and voodoo priestess.
"This is my mission," announced Stan Lee on the show’s premiere. "I set out to find the next great superhero."

Apparently, there were a lot of applicants. Who wouldn’t want to be a superhero?

After passing over several superhero aspirants, such as the beautiful Ice Bitch, whose catch phrase was "Freeze!" Lee settled on 12. His "elite group of superheroes" included Major Victory, Cell Phone Girl, Fat Momma, Creature, Monkey Woman, Nitro G, Feedback, Levity, Lemuria, Rotiart, and Iron Enforcer. Only one would win the ultimate prize: to be featured in a Stan Lee comic book.
But getting there would not be easy. The six-week series features Lee barking challenges to his costumed contestants, who must prove themselves worthy. After each test, Lee selects three for possible elimination, points out their errors, and then chooses the one to go, saying, "Turn in your costume."
No one wants that kind of rejection, especially someone who has waited all of his life for a chance to be a superhero.

"I grew up as an outcast," explains Levity, who now works as a toymaker and wants to make replicas of himself.

Superheroes became important to Feedback, a software engineer, after his father died. Now he wants nothing less than to be one himself.
The superhero applicants learn early on that Lee is watching and scrutinizing everything that they say and do. After their raucous party, Lee observes, "I’ve spent my life creating superheroes, and they don’t act like that."

Later, he reveals that one of the contestants, Rotiart ("Traitor" spelled backwards) is really a spy, who gets Levity kicked off by revealing that he wants to benefit financially as a toy designer from his superhero status.
Superheroes just don’t do that. In another test, Lee challenges his competitors to change into their costumes in a public place without being seen and to be the first to get back to the center of town. But along their path he plants a crying little girl who has lost her mother.
To those who don’t stop to help, Lee chastises, "That crying child was the most important part of this test." He adds, "I was appalled at those of you who did not stop to help that little girl."

Out goes Nitro G, who not only changed into his superhero costume in plain view, but sped past the distraught child.
How, one might ask, does Who Wants to Be a Superhero? qualify as a reality show? Two reasons come to mind.
First, ostensibly about "reality," reality television is often more about fantasy, as people’s hopes and dreams, such as marrying a millionaire, dancing with the stars, or becoming as an American idol, are played out on the screen. Reality shows are about people wanting to be famous or do things that they know they can’t. Short of being bitten by a radioactive spider or being propelled to earth from the Planet Krypton, being a superhero is something we know is impossible — except in the context of Stan Lee’s TV show. Then it becomes real.
Second, Lee’s interaction with his contenders gives real insight into the comic superhero genre, what works and what doesn’t.

When Lee says, "Superheroes are born, not made," we believe him. And when he stresses, "Every good superhero has what’s important on the inside," we know it’s true.
In assessing the Iron Enforcer’s costume, Lee remarks that the big gun doesn’t seem right because "superheroes don’t kill people; they help people." The Iron Enforcer, eliminated in the second episode, thus assumes his rightly place: as a villain.
To be a superhero, Lee tells us, one must have heart, which is much more important than superhuman strength or the ability to fly. It’s a theme repeated throughout the series.

And if that’s not enough, you can catch the same message in movie theaters this summer with Superman Returns and My Ex-Girlfriend is a Superhero. We might not all get to wear capes and tights and monkey costumes and actually be superheroes, but at least we can learn from them. •