Speaker 1: Novel. It was a cold, unusually windy evening in downtown
Speaker 1: l A in two thousand and six. The hum of
Speaker 1: the city was interrupted by a woman's screams for help.
Speaker 1: She was on the roof of a warehouse, running around
Speaker 1: in a pink skirt and flailing her arms. But on
Speaker 1: the neighboring roof was a site that would make even
Speaker 1: the most jaded Angelino do a double take. A group
Speaker 1: of superheroes were assembled. They're dressed in colorful spandex costumes
Speaker 1: and billowing caps. One of the heroes cried out, help
Speaker 1: is coming. At the edge of the roof was a
Speaker 1: perfectly placed beam that spanned across the two buildings to
Speaker 1: create a precarious bridge. From this height, the people walking
Speaker 1: along the street below looked like ants, We're gonna go
Speaker 1: across two buildings on a beam, because that's the superheroes do.
Speaker 1: That's La Mauria. She's one of the heroes. She's wearing
Speaker 1: a gold spandex suit with no sleeves and a black cape.
Speaker 1: Her black hair is flowing in the wind. Gold lots
Speaker 1: and lots of gold, lots of gold like gold power
Speaker 1: and then I work gold pants well rap fans, super
Speaker 1: tight and um stiletto gold stiletto booths, because every superhero
Speaker 1: should wear a s little boothe She stepped onto the
Speaker 1: beam towards the desperate woman. It's at night and there's
Speaker 1: a wind going, and I'm feeling my hair is kind
Speaker 1: of brushing against my face. I'm holding on to a beam,
Speaker 1: just white knuckling it. Right, So I'm white knuckling this beam.
Speaker 1: I cannot see anything. With her face furrowed in concentration,
Speaker 1: Lemuria and the other superheroes navigated the narrow space between
Speaker 1: the buildings. So here we go. So we're there, and
Speaker 1: I literally no shape. I have no shame at all,
Speaker 1: no shape. I get on my hands and knees, and
Speaker 1: the wind is coming and I'm getting cold, and just
Speaker 1: one hit time, you know what I mean. This is
Speaker 1: like internal, ugly crying and just the fear of death.
Speaker 1: Midway across the beam, Lemuria thought it might be the end,
Speaker 1: but after some hyperventilating, she saved the damsel in distress.
Speaker 1: At this point, I should add that while La Maria
Speaker 1: thought she was defying death two above street level, she
Speaker 1: was actually blindfolded on a TV set, tiptoeing across a
Speaker 1: wooden beam. There was only a few inches off the floor.
Speaker 1: There was even a guy operating a wind machine to
Speaker 1: simulate the gusty l a wind. I didn't realize it
Speaker 1: wasn't real. We're on the set of a reality TV
Speaker 1: show like no other. Somewhere inside autous Welcome to Who
Speaker 1: Wants to Be a Superhero? Before Phoenix Jones and the
Speaker 1: Rain City Superhero Movement started doing their ing. Who Wants
Speaker 1: to Be a Superhero was a reality competition show that
Speaker 1: aired on the Sci Fi Channel in two thousand and six.
Speaker 1: It was like a cross between Big Brother and The Apprentice,
Speaker 1: but with a whole lot more spandex. The premise was
Speaker 1: that comic book fans had to invent their own superhero
Speaker 1: persona and battle it out in a series of challenges
Speaker 1: to see who possessed true superhero qualities compassion, courage, and kindness.
Speaker 1: It's the church to make lifelong fetes. I'm a source
Speaker 1: of life, i amdulous ball, I'm the last hero standing.
Speaker 1: Would receive a prize that money can't buy. They'd have
Speaker 1: their character immortalized in an original comic book written by Stanley,
Speaker 1: the mastermind behind Spider Man, The Hulk, the Fantastic Four,
Speaker 1: and some of the greatest comic book superheroes in history.
Speaker 1: When you look back at footage from Who Wants to
Speaker 1: Be a Superhero, it's can't be in pretty ridiculous. The
Speaker 1: contestants have names like the Iron and Forcer, cell Phone Girl,
Speaker 1: or Nitro g and they carry homemade cardboard laser guns
Speaker 1: or plastic bananas which supposedly transform into high tech weapons.
Speaker 1: It all looks pretty low budget. Who Wants to Be
Speaker 1: a Superhero air before the renaissance of all the superhero
Speaker 1: blockbuster movies, back when the real life superhero scene was
Speaker 1: just getting off the ground. In a way, the show
Speaker 1: laid the groundwork for the whole movement. I wanted to
Speaker 1: get to know the people who played such a big
Speaker 1: role in this weird subculture. I'm about to dive back
Speaker 1: into the comic book universe to find out what it
Speaker 1: takes to triumph in the ultimate reality TV battle between
Speaker 1: real life superheroes. So don your capes, slip into your micra,
Speaker 1: and rehearse your cheesiest catchphrase, because things are about to
Speaker 1: get ridiculous. I'm David Weinberg and from the Team's at
Speaker 1: Novel and I Heart Radio. This is the Superhero Complex,
Speaker 1: Episode ten America's next top superhero. I'm such a nerd.
Speaker 1: You know. You're here in my house and it's just
Speaker 1: board games everywhere and swords and beholders and mind flares
Speaker 1: and dragons on the walls. And that's what makes me happy.
Speaker 1: I met Matthew Atherton at his house in the suburbs,
Speaker 1: about an hour east of Los Angeles. Back in two
Speaker 1: thousand and six, he was known as Feedback, a real
Speaker 1: life superhero, but not in the way that Phoenix Jones
Speaker 1: is a real life superhero. I'm not the guy who
Speaker 1: you know is going to put on a costume and
Speaker 1: go into dark alleys and look for wrongs that need
Speaker 1: to be righted. Feedback is Matthew's superhero character, created for
Speaker 1: who wants to be a superhero. Before he was Feedback, though,
Speaker 1: Matthew liked to role play as his favorite superheroes, in
Speaker 1: particular Spider Man. I made a Spiderman costume and dressed
Speaker 1: up as Spider Man and led the Halloween parade a
Speaker 1: Spiderman and stuff like that. And in college he even
Speaker 1: made his own Spider Man movies. So the first one
Speaker 1: was called The Origin, and I sent a copy to
Speaker 1: my mom, and my mom sent it to Marvel, and so, uh,
Speaker 1: I got this letter that said, we really love that
Speaker 1: you're excited about the character, but you can't do this,
Speaker 1: you know, getting this, I'm like, mom, why did you
Speaker 1: do that? And so I wrote back a letter that said, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, we're not charging any money for any of this.
Speaker 1: I said, we're just making fan films. And I got
Speaker 1: another letter back that's like, you know, it's tough to
Speaker 1: break into the comic book business. You know, try hanging
Speaker 1: out at a comic bookstore and all this other stuff.
Speaker 1: And I thought, this is worthless. Maybe Marvel knew something
Speaker 1: Matthew didn't at the time, because hanging out at this
Speaker 1: local comic bookstore would change his life. One day, around
Speaker 1: two thousand and five, many years after Matthew got in
Speaker 1: touch with Marvel, he saw an ad for an open
Speaker 1: casting call. It was for a show called Who Wants
Speaker 1: to Be a Superhero? Matthew raced home and forged a
Speaker 1: brand new superhero persona feedback. Feedback had the power to
Speaker 1: draw energy from others. If I was with other heroes,
Speaker 1: I could enhance their powers, and if I were with
Speaker 1: a villain, I could pull their power down. Feedback were
Speaker 1: a black iron man looking suit with electric blue detailing
Speaker 1: and a big letter F in the middle. On the
Speaker 1: day of auditions, Feedback took the day off from his
Speaker 1: job as a software engineer and drove down to Sunset
Speaker 1: Gower Studios in Hollywood. He parked his car and quickly
Speaker 1: realized he wasn't alone. There was a whole crowd of
Speaker 1: would be superheroes milling around, blinking in the rain and
Speaker 1: waiting to be told what to do. The battle to
Speaker 1: become one of the show's contestants was clearly going to
Speaker 1: be fierce, like how do you do this? And it's like, well,
Speaker 1: let's have an open casting call and we'll put it everywhere, Craigslist, everywhere.
Speaker 1: This is Rick tell Us, he's the director of the show.
Speaker 1: He was raging on the day of the auditions and
Speaker 1: he was scared nobody would show up. But Rick definitely
Speaker 1: underestimated the number of would be superheroes in l A.
Speaker 1: And then I remember going outside looking down the street
Speaker 1: and there was this huge line of people and it
Speaker 1: just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1: He had to open a second studio to house them all,
Speaker 1: and they were all dressed up and I'm thinking to myself,
Speaker 1: how do you keep them entertained? Rick didn't have to
Speaker 1: do anything because these weren't regular people. They were superheroes,
Speaker 1: and it's just completely filled with spectacle, you know, people
Speaker 1: that are wearing huge wings and some people even like
Speaker 1: breathing fire, you know, and I'm like, how is that?
Speaker 1: You probably should not be doing that in an enclosed space.
Speaker 1: Feedback and the other superheroes walked into a dramatic black
Speaker 1: room and took their place in a pool of light.
Speaker 1: Then they introduced themselves, told their superhero origin story, and
Speaker 1: explain their powers to Stanley, who's peering down from a
Speaker 1: large screen. There was Monkey Woman who sounds exactly like
Speaker 1: a monkey, and there was Ice Bitch, who has the
Speaker 1: excellent catchphrase of freeze motherfucker. There was Mulletman, who looks
Speaker 1: as you'd expect, and then there was also a guy
Speaker 1: who can unleash the powers of his quote Harry Ass
Speaker 1: when he puts on a yellow thong and healed white boots.
Speaker 1: Here's director Rick. There was one woman that came in
Speaker 1: and took off her top and we were like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, how are we going to show this on TV?
Speaker 1: Stan was like shocked, and we were all shocked or like,
Speaker 1: oh my god. Apparently she liked to fight topless to
Speaker 1: distract her enemies. Sometimes you have to go to extreme
Speaker 1: measures to combat evil. Some of the wanna be TV stars,
Speaker 1: it seemed more invested in their characters than others. The
Speaker 1: trick was figuring out who's the most genuine. Maybe it
Speaker 1: was the woman clad in a pink leotard over her
Speaker 1: skin tight black suit with donuts hanging around her waist.
Speaker 1: My name is Alison Wilson. I'm known as Neil Wilson.
Speaker 1: I wasn't into superheroes and stan Lee and I didn't
Speaker 1: really even know who he was. You know. Allison's daughter
Speaker 1: had come home one day after seeing a post about
Speaker 1: the audition on social media. She said, they were doing
Speaker 1: auditions for Who Wants to Be a Superhero? And so
Speaker 1: we were playing around and um, trying to think of
Speaker 1: what we would be if I was a superhero. So
Speaker 1: I said, well, I'm fat and I'm a mama, so
Speaker 1: I'll be fat mama. And so I had these donuts
Speaker 1: and I put some donuts around my waist, and I said,
Speaker 1: I'll read the world of bullies so I would help
Speaker 1: people to accept themselves the way they are, and the
Speaker 1: producers loved her. They loved her so much that that
Speaker 1: Mama already knew she was in by the time she
Speaker 1: attended the audition. It was merely a normality. But not
Speaker 1: everyone was having fun. Another aspiring superhero, Major Victory, was
Speaker 1: dressed in ballet tights and a red shirt with a
Speaker 1: letter V duct tape to his chest. He was fed
Speaker 1: up at the endless hours of auditioning and waiting around
Speaker 1: as the producers tried to whittle down their contestants. What
Speaker 1: am I doing. I'm dressed in spandex, I'm sopping wet
Speaker 1: my hair that I had all like a bunch of
Speaker 1: hair spray and and stuff, and I just felt like
Speaker 1: a wet dog. And I wanted to leave. But just
Speaker 1: as he was about to give up and go home,
Speaker 1: he got a tap on the shoulder that would change
Speaker 1: his life forever. And I was just about to leave,
Speaker 1: and the producer grabbed me and said, hey, I want
Speaker 1: to introduce you to somebody. This is Diamond Girl. So
Speaker 1: he introduced me to Diamond Girl. So I met Diamond Girls. Said, hey,
Speaker 1: you want to see my diamond said sure, I'll check
Speaker 1: out your diamond and and um Diamond Girl ended up
Speaker 1: being my wife. While romance blossomed between these who masked adventures,
Speaker 1: their spandex clad rivals were being put through the wringer.
Speaker 1: After being grilled and grueling round of interviews, psychological tests,
Speaker 1: and a final round of performing their superhero battle cry
Speaker 1: to Stanley himself, the producers picked their final twelve contestants.
Speaker 1: It took a bit of extra persuasion for feedback, but
Speaker 1: I knew that if I were on the show, then
Speaker 1: people who really loved comics and loved the stories, and
Speaker 1: not just the great artwork and the funny parts of it,
Speaker 1: but the parts where you care about it. You know,
Speaker 1: stories that resonate with you as a human being. I
Speaker 1: wanted to represent those people who really appreciated it and
Speaker 1: just said, I feel like this is my purpose. There's
Speaker 1: the reason why I'm on the planet. His speech to
Speaker 1: the producers did the trick. Feedback, secured his spot on
Speaker 1: the show, and perhaps unadvisedly quit his job that same day.
Speaker 1: On the first day of filming, the chosen twelve superheroes
Speaker 1: arrived one by one on set to a luxurious mansion
Speaker 1: with large staircases. Each character was profiled in true comic
Speaker 1: book fashion in a majestic entrance hall, Fat Mama, Feedback,
Speaker 1: Major Victory, and Lemuria. We're all sizing each other up
Speaker 1: over a welcome toast. Alongside them were Monkey Woman, Cellphone Girl, Creature,
Speaker 1: Iron Enforcer, Nitro g Tculus Levity, and Rode Art, who
Speaker 1: was wearing a silver suit and a silver army helmet.
Speaker 1: At first, I was a little bit intimidated because, like
Speaker 1: I said, all I saw was these people, and they're young,
Speaker 1: and you know, they looked like what America or people
Speaker 1: think a superhero supposed. It looked like we had no
Speaker 1: idea what was going to be ahead of us. A
Speaker 1: party ensued. Monkey Woman was shaking her body wildly while
Speaker 1: cell Phone Girl danced the Robot Levity, an action figure
Speaker 1: shop owner, discussed his plans to blaze a trail for
Speaker 1: the LGBTQ community as a superhero with the added perk
Speaker 1: of being able to cash in with his own act
Speaker 1: and figure. Creature, who could heal others with fruit and
Speaker 1: raw foods, was flirting with the other heroes, and Iron Enforcer,
Speaker 1: with his machine gun arm was bragging about his affinity
Speaker 1: for killing people. Suddenly, Stanley interrupted them from a screen
Speaker 1: in the corner that none of them had been paying
Speaker 1: attention to. He was wearing his iconic aviator glasses. He'd
Speaker 1: been watching them for a while. I was appalled at
Speaker 1: the chaotic scene unfolding in front of him. This was
Speaker 1: serious business and not what superheroes were supposed to do.
Speaker 1: Hero like that, he informed them that he was looking
Speaker 1: for human qualities that make superheroes great. They were going
Speaker 1: to move to a secret layer, because, after all, their
Speaker 1: identities were supposed to be kept secret. The mansion was
Speaker 1: just a tease. They were ushered into an inconspicuous vehicle
Speaker 1: to take them to their hideout, and by inconspicuous, I
Speaker 1: mean a long and glaringly white limousine with disco lights
Speaker 1: blasting from the inside. We're driving around a limo, around
Speaker 1: and around, and we pulled up to kind of a
Speaker 1: very nondescript building. And if you wouldn't have been able
Speaker 1: to talent from outside, I remember that excitement of we
Speaker 1: knew there was going to be a challenge, but we
Speaker 1: had no idea what it was going to be. They
Speaker 1: arrived at a storage facility with dumpsters and barbed wire
Speaker 1: lining the street. It took the contestants a while before,
Speaker 1: they spotted stan Lee on another screen. Stanley had a
Speaker 1: message for them, quote, I'm afraid one of you will
Speaker 1: not be allowed to enter. There happens to be a
Speaker 1: spy amongst you. I've enlisted the help of one of
Speaker 1: my assistants to infiltrate the group. I have to be
Speaker 1: sure that all of you are here for the right reasons.
Speaker 1: They all started pointing fingers. Then Roti Art stepped forward
Speaker 1: spelled backwards. Is stradar. I've got all of you on
Speaker 1: tape since the very beginning, watching all of your moves.
Speaker 1: Pulling out footage from the party, rodi Art showcased multiple
Speaker 1: examples of indecent superhero behavior. In a tense moment outside
Speaker 1: the storage facility, Levity was eliminated. His plan to monetize
Speaker 1: his superhero status with an action figure did not sit
Speaker 1: well with the Great Stanley. One of the main qualities
Speaker 1: of the superhero is selflessness. I understand you have a
Speaker 1: toy shop and you hope to make millions on your character.
Speaker 1: Superheroes were not supposed to be greedy. Levity never got
Speaker 1: his chance to fulfill his dream of becoming a gay
Speaker 1: superhero icon. His sudden departure sent shock waves through the
Speaker 1: remaining heroes. Ship just got real. This probably would have
Speaker 1: been a good time to remind everyone of the contracts
Speaker 1: they had signed, which allegedly included a clause that the
Speaker 1: producers could lie to their faces. But I'm willing to
Speaker 1: bet that reading the fine print was not a superpower
Speaker 1: that many in the group put to use on the show.
Speaker 1: We walked through would look like a sweatshop. There was
Speaker 1: these people sitting there, so seen, soing, and all factory going.
Speaker 1: The remaining ten superheroes found a rickety old elevator. There
Speaker 1: was a warning sign on the door. After a few
Speaker 1: moments of hesitation, they decided to go in. The elevator
Speaker 1: took them up to a darkened floor. Then the lights
Speaker 1: came on and they were standing in a huge room
Speaker 1: with tall ceilings lined with candle light. The furniture was
Speaker 1: draped with velvet. There was even a hot tub. They
Speaker 1: had finally made it to their secret layer. Major Victory
Speaker 1: was psyched. When you got into it, you felt more
Speaker 1: like a superhero, you know what I mean? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: check this. Look at all the red brick kind of
Speaker 1: goes with my outfit. Nice cool, But the heroes were
Speaker 1: also a bit wary. It wasn't just the production team,
Speaker 1: but the heroes were suspicious of They didn't trust each
Speaker 1: other either. On the first night, Fat Mama overheard a
Speaker 1: whole lot of superhero bitching going on in the layers
Speaker 1: hot tub. I was on one side of the curtain
Speaker 1: and Lamaria Nitro creature where in the hot tub, and
Speaker 1: so they didn't know I was on the other side
Speaker 1: of the curtain, and they were saying, oh, Fat Boma
Speaker 1: was definitely going first. You don't even need to be here.
Speaker 1: He can't do nothing. But you know, all this stuff,
Speaker 1: I've never said that. That hurt my feelers, but at
Speaker 1: the same time it gave me determination that I'm gonna
Speaker 1: show them. You know, the superheroes hadn't even started competing
Speaker 1: against each other, but already there were personality conflicts and
Speaker 1: rivalries were simmering. After tiling off, it was time to
Speaker 1: get some rest. The next day, the heroes would do
Speaker 1: battle for real in a series of outlandish challenges that
Speaker 1: would push their powers to the limit. That's coming up.
Speaker 1: The superheroes were all assembled at Pershing Square, a paved
Speaker 1: park in downtown Los Angeles. It was time for the
Speaker 1: first challenge. Their mission was to make it from one
Speaker 1: end of the park to the other as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1: At the same time they do inconspicuously change into their
Speaker 1: full superhero outfit. I think Clark can't turning into Superman
Speaker 1: and the telephone booth but while running at the same time.
Speaker 1: It was cheesy from the get go. Monkey Woman scaled
Speaker 1: a treat to change into her outfit, then somersaulted back
Speaker 1: down to the ground. The Iron Enforcer sprinted through the
Speaker 1: park brandishing a homemade laser gun. Then it was Fat
Speaker 1: Mama's turn. I though, I can't outrun these guys and
Speaker 1: all the younger people and stuff, but I'll just go
Speaker 1: through as they asked. She rounded a corner and saw
Speaker 1: something unusual and so what does he look? Come on,
Speaker 1: I saw this little girl crying, and I stopped and
Speaker 1: asked her was she okay? And she was saying she
Speaker 1: lost her parents and stuff. And then there was a
Speaker 1: sign over to the side that says security. So I
Speaker 1: ran her in there and I ran, you know, took
Speaker 1: her to security. There was a trick at play that
Speaker 1: Stanley didn't reveal. Here's director Rick tell Us. We put
Speaker 1: a little girl next to a fountain who was lost
Speaker 1: and she needed her mom. And we wanted to see
Speaker 1: who would stop and throw the challenge and help that
Speaker 1: little girl. And that was the real challenge. Major Victory
Speaker 1: also spotted the secret challenge and decided to ramp up
Speaker 1: the drama just a little. I think I said, who
Speaker 1: is this child's mother? I did by d J Boys Blue.
Speaker 1: He proceeded to carry the little girl heroically to security office.
Speaker 1: Lemuria also decided to help the girl, but she had
Speaker 1: a different problem. I just were running in these crazy heels.
Speaker 1: I do not recommend that for any in the future,
Speaker 1: and wants to create a superior costumers do not use.
Speaker 1: Still let him feels, and then there was feedback. Things
Speaker 1: were going wrong and the zippers were not going up
Speaker 1: and clasps were not clasping, and I was like, oh man.
Speaker 1: After a struggle behind some porter parties, feedback was finally
Speaker 1: suited up. As he was running, some straps from his
Speaker 1: costume fell off in front of the girl. All I
Speaker 1: saw was that archway and I flew past. After he
Speaker 1: was done, the production team asked him how he thought
Speaker 1: he did, and then they said, so, did you see
Speaker 1: anything unusual? And I said unusual. No, they said, you
Speaker 1: didn't see a little girl, and I thought, oh I missed.
Speaker 1: Oh I'm done. Made me on the rooftop in time
Speaker 1: for an elimination. All the contestants were called up to
Speaker 1: the rooftop of their secret layer in the middle of
Speaker 1: the night. They stood on glowing cubes with the lights
Speaker 1: of l A glittering behind them. It was the first
Speaker 1: of many supposedly epic game show eliminations. Stanley was peering
Speaker 1: down on them from a big screen. Once again, here's Lemuria.
Speaker 1: So it's all very dramatic, and none of you know
Speaker 1: who's leaving. You're all packed. I think we had to
Speaker 1: pack up every single time. Stan was disappointed at the
Speaker 1: six contestants that missed the little girl. This obviously wasn't
Speaker 1: a test of speed. The girl was practically screaming for help.
Speaker 1: Stand calls on three of the failures to explain themselves,
Speaker 1: and in the end, Nitro g gets sent home Nitrogen
Speaker 1: Turn into your costume. He changed out in plain sight
Speaker 1: and totally missed the girl. He was both the youngest
Speaker 1: contestant and the biggest comic book collector of all of them.
Speaker 1: When he heard the news, he solemnly pulled off his
Speaker 1: gloves and threw them into a nearby trash can. Fat
Speaker 1: Mama felt relieved. I laughed so hard because I said
Speaker 1: I thought I was gonna be the wanted to go home.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, okay, so Fat Mama didn't go home.
Speaker 1: Feedback took the results of the challenge to heart. I
Speaker 1: was crushed. I felt like I had disappointed stand and
Speaker 1: disappointed myself. I thought I knew the trick, and therefore
Speaker 1: I closed my mind off to other things, and so
Speaker 1: being authentic was really the right way to go. And
Speaker 1: my most authentic self is Captain Oblivious. The contestants all
Speaker 1: lived together in a house and were filmed intensively every
Speaker 1: day for two weeks. Each episode took about three days
Speaker 1: to film. There wasn't a huge budget for the show,
Speaker 1: and the contestants suffered as a result. You go into
Speaker 1: the bath room, it was like it's no white the
Speaker 1: seventh Awards. There's these lines of twin side beds and
Speaker 1: I'm like, we gotta sleep in here, all next to
Speaker 1: each other. We all thought we would getting their own
Speaker 1: bed room, so maybe two to a room. So you
Speaker 1: never thought she was gonna be sleeping in a room
Speaker 1: for growing the dope. You know, at night they say
Speaker 1: good night John. You know you say good night to
Speaker 1: each person going down the line. As well as sharing
Speaker 1: a bedroom, there was only one bathroom between them all.
Speaker 1: They often slept with their shoes next to their beds
Speaker 1: in case a challenge was sprung on them during the night.
Speaker 1: Living on top of each other for days and days
Speaker 1: on end, the contestants started to get more and more tired.
Speaker 1: According to La Mauria, tensions were starting to build. Okay,
Speaker 1: so fat Mama really got reality, Like she really understood,
Speaker 1: like she was gonna push buttons and kind of make
Speaker 1: things happen and be in the middle of all the craziness. Right.
Speaker 1: But she, oh man, she got so she would just
Speaker 1: pick at me a little. She was just a little.
Speaker 1: It was something you're like, Okay, cool, I can handle that.
Speaker 1: That's fine. Just get on my nerves, Okay, she just oh,
Speaker 1: I was getting pissed. There wasn't time for the contestants
Speaker 1: to hold drudges for long. The filming schedule was packed
Speaker 1: with challenge after challenge designed to put their superhero qualities
Speaker 1: to the test. By the second week of filming, the
Speaker 1: superheroes overcrowded bedroom was getting emptier and emptier. There were
Speaker 1: only four superheroes still standing, Lemuria, Fat Mama, Major victory
Speaker 1: and feedback. They had to battle it out in a
Speaker 1: questionable challenge that would prove fateful for the ending. The
Speaker 1: remaining heroes were standing in the kitchen eating fruit before
Speaker 1: Stanley appeared on a screen. He said, very shortly, you'll
Speaker 1: meet some hardened criminals. All of them are incarcerated as
Speaker 1: we speak. They'll spend some quality time with them in
Speaker 1: an effort to show them the error of their ways.
Speaker 1: The challenge was to prevent these criminals from reoffending. The
Speaker 1: superheroes were genuinely nervous as they got taken to the
Speaker 1: prison to meet the convicts. It was a big sandy
Speaker 1: yard surrounded by tall fences and barbed wire. The whole
Speaker 1: setup was fantastically absurd. The spandex, the minivan, the orange
Speaker 1: jump suits, and the camo clad prison guard brandishing liability
Speaker 1: contracts that assumed any in all risks, including death. What's
Speaker 1: more is that the superheroes had also been given secret
Speaker 1: tasks to complete. In their encounter with the prisoners, La
Speaker 1: Mauria had to sit on an inmates lap for ten seconds.
Speaker 1: This challenge felt particularly gross to me, especially the use
Speaker 1: of prisoners comic relief. Unsurprisingly, Lea Maria felt uncomfortable with
Speaker 1: the situation that the producers had put her in. I
Speaker 1: was really tired. I was so tired, and I hadn't
Speaker 1: been sleeping. I tried to give people a great deal
Speaker 1: of respect for their personal space, for their personal body.
Speaker 1: So for me personally, I kind of felt a little
Speaker 1: bit weird being in somebody's personal space that had already
Speaker 1: been in prison, that had already been um it was
Speaker 1: already paying their dues. I didn't want to be more disrespectful.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter if I'm on a TV show, it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if I'm you know, in a really cool costume.
Speaker 1: It does not give me the right to invade another
Speaker 1: human being space, and especially a human being there's a
Speaker 1: point in their life that they're not doing great. But
Speaker 1: in the world of Stanley, all is not as it seems.
Speaker 1: It turns out the prisoners were all actors. Lamuria was
Speaker 1: actually talking to dot Marie Jones, who would go on
Speaker 1: to play Coach Sheldon on Glee. She was sitting on
Speaker 1: a chair with an angry demeanor, legs sprawled out in
Speaker 1: front of her. Her red hair was messy and unkempt.
Speaker 1: In a desperate attempt to complete her challenge, La Mauria
Speaker 1: abruptly tried to sit on the coach's lap without consent.
Speaker 1: The actress shoved her away and angrily stormed off again.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry if I disrespected you in anyway. I really,
Speaker 1: I really are. Feedback, on the other hand, had to
Speaker 1: hug an inmate three times. I don't think being phony
Speaker 1: has any part of being superhero. So the only way
Speaker 1: that I'm going to hug that person is if I
Speaker 1: feel a genuine response to hug. The fake convict asked
Speaker 1: to have his handcuffs removed. The man was apparently in
Speaker 1: jail for four counts of murder. Feedback asked if he
Speaker 1: felt any remorse for his victims families, and the man
Speaker 1: replied no, because my own father was murdered. In return,
Speaker 1: Feedback opened up with his own story. He revealed, and
Speaker 1: when he was a kid, his father took his own life.
Speaker 1: I don't know what your life was like, but I
Speaker 1: know what it's like to leave to dad when my
Speaker 1: dad died. I started getting back into the Spider Man
Speaker 1: comic books, but for me. I was searching for father
Speaker 1: figures and the character of Peter Parker, the decisions he
Speaker 1: would make. I took that and was integrating that like
Speaker 1: a father figure almost. But it wasn't Peter Parker that
Speaker 1: I was looking at as the father figure. It was
Speaker 1: the creator of the stories, the writing, and that was
Speaker 1: stan Lee. The producers had no idea. This emotional exchange
Speaker 1: turned into a big hug, and Feedback managed to complete
Speaker 1: his secret task. Later, at that night's elimination ceremony, Stanley
Speaker 1: announced that he'd won a place in the next round.
Speaker 1: Feedback thanked his father figure with tears in his eyes.
Speaker 1: The episode was a real emotional roller coaster and reminded
Speaker 1: me of a lot of the time I spent with
Speaker 1: the real life superheroes, especially those moments where one minute
Speaker 1: I would be thinking this is all so ridiculous, and
Speaker 1: then the next moment I would be so moved by
Speaker 1: the work the superheroes were doing and by their dedication
Speaker 1: to bettering their community, even if it was in this
Speaker 1: really bonkers way. Unfortunately for Lemuria, she was the only
Speaker 1: one who failed to complete the prisoner challenge. Stan told
Speaker 1: her it was time to pack her bags. I was
Speaker 1: incredibly sad to leave from outside. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: this wacky show, I think, but for inside and being
Speaker 1: with the people that were on it and doing these challenges,
Speaker 1: and we got to go in an amazing adventure and
Speaker 1: experiencing that adventure. And then when stance like, well, you're done,
Speaker 1: and then these other people get to keep on going,
Speaker 1: you kind of you just just want a little our taste,
Speaker 1: a little half. And you know, I think I cried
Speaker 1: a lot because I wasn't going to be able to
Speaker 1: do that. In the Battle of the Real Life Superheroes,
Speaker 1: there were now only three contestants remaining. Superheroes can lonely
Speaker 1: get harder from here, but I suspect the three of
Speaker 1: you will be up to it. Yes, sir, Yes, sir. Sleepwell,
Speaker 1: Tomorrow is a new day that's coming up. As Who
Speaker 1: Wants to Be a Superhero reached its climax, the challenges
Speaker 1: got even more absurd. The three remaining contestants, Fat Mama,
Speaker 1: Feedback and Major Victory had to win over a tough
Speaker 1: jury of fourth graders with their origin stories and super hours.
Speaker 1: Then they hunted for a super villain and a shopping center.
Speaker 1: They were also shown their potential comic book covers a
Speaker 1: k A their passport to immortality. When our first side
Speaker 1: to be honest, I was like, why do you make
Speaker 1: me look so mean? The face was so mean. Fat
Speaker 1: Mama wasn't sure about her own comic book, but she
Speaker 1: could see from Feedback's face how much surprise meant to him.
Speaker 1: Back in the Secret Layer in between challenges, Fat Mama
Speaker 1: was worried. She had a bad feeling that Feedback was
Speaker 1: going to be eliminated. The fourth graders had been confused
Speaker 1: by the explanation of his powers, and he lost out
Speaker 1: in the race to hunt for the super villain. At
Speaker 1: the mall, Fat Mama and Major Victory, we're going to
Speaker 1: be finalists. The producers had already planned to fly Major
Speaker 1: Victory's daughter out for an emotional finale. He wanted to
Speaker 1: be a hero in her life, and the producers could
Speaker 1: smell the tears. Fat Mama locked herself in the bathroom
Speaker 1: and asked to speak to the production team. I told
Speaker 1: them to eliminate me and let the two boys do
Speaker 1: it and have it because they really wanted it, and
Speaker 1: I couldn't see taking that from someone. When I came
Speaker 1: in and I wasn't really even into the prize, and
Speaker 1: when I look at Feedback, it was like I couldn't
Speaker 1: do it to him, you know, I was like, I
Speaker 1: need to go fat. Mama wasn't even into comic books. Now,
Speaker 1: maybe if it was two or three million dollars, we
Speaker 1: might be talking something something totally different. The producers were
Speaker 1: in a difficult position. Feedback didn't want to go home,
Speaker 1: but he understood their dilemma. It made sense for her
Speaker 1: to win this show. As an audience member, I would
Speaker 1: have wanted her to win the show because then it
Speaker 1: would send the message of everybody can be a superhero.
Speaker 1: It's about how you treat other people and how you
Speaker 1: face different challenges. There was another complication too. Before his
Speaker 1: Superhero days, major victory was in a dance group called
Speaker 1: the California dream Men. They were a bit like an
Speaker 1: off brand Chippendale's. Apparently they were huge in Italy stand
Speaker 1: and the producers were conflicted about major victories dancing days. Apparently,
Speaker 1: according to them, stripping didn't qualify as a heroic activity.
Speaker 1: I'm noticing a pattern with you. No matter what I say,
Speaker 1: no matter what I do, you just can't see to
Speaker 1: keep your clothes up. Personally, I think it takes a
Speaker 1: lot of courage to get naked in front of strangers.
Speaker 1: It also seems like a skill that would come in
Speaker 1: handy if you wanted to, I don't know, seduce a supervillain.
Speaker 1: But ultimately Major Victory's fate was in the hands of Stanley,
Speaker 1: known skeptic of male strippers. Up on the roof of
Speaker 1: the layer stand, summoned the three remaining superheroes for one
Speaker 1: more elimination ceremony. They took their places on the glowing
Speaker 1: cube shaped podiums to face the music one more time
Speaker 1: before the grand finale. From up on a giant TV
Speaker 1: screen disguise as a billboard, Stanley glared down at them
Speaker 1: and now that one hero would be eliminated, Major Victory,
Speaker 1: the whole thing surreal because you're up there, They're trying
Speaker 1: to dissect everything you did wrong, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: to justify you leaving, and you just felt, wow, this
Speaker 1: is coming to Then Stanley told him it accomplished his mission.
Speaker 1: He had become a hero to his daughter. The producers
Speaker 1: handed him a phone and they put my daughter on
Speaker 1: the line, and I lose it and it just feels
Speaker 1: so final, and it felt good um to connect with her.
Speaker 1: It was cathartic and I really grew from it, and
Speaker 1: I got to connect with my daughter. I got to
Speaker 1: meet some amazing people, do some really fun things, to
Speaker 1: meet my wife. It's like one of the best experiences
Speaker 1: I've ever had in my life. It was time for
Speaker 1: the final showdown between Fat Mama and Feedback. Okay, my
Speaker 1: money was on Fat Mama. For the next challenge, our
Speaker 1: two remaining heroes were sent to stunt school to learn
Speaker 1: the action packed moves that any self respecting superhero should
Speaker 1: be able to perform with ease. We're going to teach
Speaker 1: you to flaw using that green screen over there. Under
Speaker 1: the watchful eye of a Hollywood stunt coordinator, Feedback launched
Speaker 1: himself again and again onto a crash mat. Fat Mama
Speaker 1: traded punches with an instructor before flooring Feedback with a
Speaker 1: right hook and a kick to the stomach. Here we go.
Speaker 1: Then they were grilled by Stanley in a final interview.
Speaker 1: This is the last chance I'll have to speak with you,
Speaker 1: and I want to learn more about you, not your character.
Speaker 1: And finally, Fat Mama and Feedback were taken to the
Speaker 1: Universal Studio CityWalk shopping center. They were greeted by a
Speaker 1: cheering crowd and Stanley beaming down from his giant screen.
Speaker 1: We wrote around the World's Next Grade. High up on
Speaker 1: a balcony podium, overlooking the crowd, Fat Mama reflected on
Speaker 1: what she and Feedback had shared. Me and him are
Speaker 1: the only two that went through every single task, and
Speaker 1: we got to experience everything. We got to see the
Speaker 1: heartache and the laughter and the joy. Feedback's heart was pounding.
Speaker 1: I had no idea what was happening. They told us
Speaker 1: to write two different speeches, one as a winning speech,
Speaker 1: one is a concession speech. And I didn't spend any
Speaker 1: time on the winning speech because I completely convinced that
Speaker 1: Fat Mama was gonna win. For the final showdown, the
Speaker 1: producers rolled an action movie sequence of the two heroes
Speaker 1: dueling and evil villain called dragon Breath in the Last
Speaker 1: Chance to prove their super credentials. Well, if it isn't
Speaker 1: Mr dragon Breath, we're going down, Fat Mama. The producers
Speaker 1: through in all the special effects that a mid tier
Speaker 1: reality TV show could forward. There were meteors, fire breathing dragons,
Speaker 1: and even a giant chicken rampaging Godzilla style through skyscrapers.
Speaker 1: Then the dust settled, intense music ramped up up on
Speaker 1: his godlike TV screen, Stand bowed his head solemnly and
Speaker 1: declared the time had come for him to make the
Speaker 1: ultimate decision. After evaluating all the challenges over the course
Speaker 1: of the season, the winner was Feedback. And then stan
Speaker 1: Lee comes out, and so my my mind was just
Speaker 1: jumping up to different levels que the big fake explosions.
Speaker 1: As Stand the manly strolled over to meet Feedback in
Speaker 1: real life. They shared a big hug, which was a
Speaker 1: dream come true for the nerd of all comic book nerds.
Speaker 1: Then Feedback literally flew off into space in a big
Speaker 1: flurry of bad c g. I. There were a lot
Speaker 1: of people that thought I was just this attention seeking
Speaker 1: crazy guy. But it wasn't about getting attention. It was
Speaker 1: about fulfilling something inside of me. And at that moment
Speaker 1: of winning, I felt validation. I felt a purpose fulfilled
Speaker 1: After blowing all that money on the giant c g
Speaker 1: I chicken, maybe the producers didn't have any budget left
Speaker 1: or stands appearance fee because he didn't stick around to
Speaker 1: explain what exactly the superhero qualities were that made Feedback
Speaker 1: a winner. If you ask me, it seems like kind
Speaker 1: of a cop out considering that it was meant to
Speaker 1: be the whole point of the show. But talking to
Speaker 1: his fellow contestants, they had some theories. An incredibly humble,
Speaker 1: loving human being that would literally you could see himba
Speaker 1: a fireman that would just save people's lives without any
Speaker 1: thought of their own. That is that man. But Feedback
Speaker 1: sees it differently. It was Fat Mama's competition. In my mind,
Speaker 1: Fat Mama is the one, you know who won, and
Speaker 1: I'm still runner up to her because I think she's amazing,
Speaker 1: and I still think the only reason why she didn't
Speaker 1: win this because basically she said she didn't want to win.
Speaker 1: As for me, I was happy for Feedback. Being a
Speaker 1: superhero clearly meant a lot to him. After all, he'd
Speaker 1: been dressing up like Spider Man since he was young,
Speaker 1: and Fat Mama seemed perfectly happy to let Feedback have
Speaker 1: all the glory. After the show, many of the contestants
Speaker 1: remained friends, and some went on to make appearance as
Speaker 1: at comic book conventions and gigs within the superhero community.
Speaker 1: Some of them used their superhero characters to become real
Speaker 1: life superheroes who went out on the streets and patrolled,
Speaker 1: just like Phoenix Jones. As for feedback, he never became
Speaker 1: the next Spider Man. Despite overcoming six episodes worth of obstacles,
Speaker 1: his character faded into obscurity. He was even promised a
Speaker 1: role in a TV movie on the Sci Fi Channel,
Speaker 1: but all he ended up getting was a cameo. At
Speaker 1: one point, he was asked to do a new TV
Speaker 1: show with our old friend Phoenix Jones. In true Phoenix
Speaker 1: Jones style, he was mid crisis on his way to
Speaker 1: the hospital one night he gave me a call because
Speaker 1: he had been He had like a shaft of a
Speaker 1: knife like stuck in his leg. The show they talked
Speaker 1: about never came to fruition and the two heroes never
Speaker 1: spoke again. But for feedback, it was never about the
Speaker 1: TV deals. They offered this prize of immortality and getting
Speaker 1: your own comic book and stuff like that. But for
Speaker 1: me then end now, the prize was always being on
Speaker 1: the show. And I think what the show is about
Speaker 1: is identity, you know, finding your people and making them
Speaker 1: feel like, wow, there's some validation there. This It's not
Speaker 1: just me who likes this stuff. It's enough people where
Speaker 1: they're going to make a TV show about it. We
Speaker 1: live in the age of the slick, six pack filled
Speaker 1: superhero industrial complex, where a new Marvel or DC movie
Speaker 1: gets pumped out every couple of months. It's easy to
Speaker 1: forget there was a time not so long ago and
Speaker 1: being into superheroes wasn't that cool to me? Who wants
Speaker 1: to be a superhero? Feels like an extension of the
Speaker 1: real life superhero movement. It's one of the few places
Speaker 1: in popular media that represented regular folks who created their
Speaker 1: own original superhero personas. In the years following the show,
Speaker 1: superheroes became a dominant force in popular culture. But strangely,
Speaker 1: the rise and popularity of comic book superheroes was not
Speaker 1: accompanied by a rise in real life superheroes. I've always
Speaker 1: found that puzzling. Maybe it's because we are increasingly living
Speaker 1: our lives online so there's less actual real life happening
Speaker 1: in general, or maybe he was always going to be
Speaker 1: a fringe movement. But even if they are small in number,
Speaker 1: I'm glad they're out there suiting up and patrolling their neighborhoods,
Speaker 1: helping people in need, and making the streets a little
Speaker 1: more exciting. I do wonder what Stanley would think of
Speaker 1: the real life superheroes who were inspired by his writing
Speaker 1: to take on the real world problems dressed as superheroes.
Speaker 1: I did come across a quote of his and which
Speaker 1: he talked about why he created characters like the X
Speaker 1: Men and the Fantastic Four. He said, vote we were
Speaker 1: fascinated by science and awed by the mysteries of the
Speaker 1: great beyond. Today we consider a nearer, deeper, unknown one
Speaker 1: inside ourselves. We asked, what is more real a world
Speaker 1: that we were born into or the one we create ourselves.
Speaker 1: The Superhero Complex is hosted and written by Me, David Weinberg,
Speaker 1: and reported by Me, Amalia Sortland and Caroline Thornham. Production
Speaker 1: from Amalia Shortland and Caroline Thornham. Sean Glenn, Max O'Brien
Speaker 1: and David Waters are executive producers. Fact checking by Andrew Schwartz,
Speaker 1: Production management from Shari Houston, Frankie Taylor and Charlotte Wolf.
Speaker 1: Sound design, mixing and scoring by Eli Block and Daniel Kempson.
Speaker 1: Music supervision by Nicholas Alexander and David Waters. Original music
Speaker 1: is composed by Paul Housden. Special thanks to Peter Tangent,
Speaker 1: Willard Foxton, Matt o'mera, Katrina Norvelle Beth and Macaluso, or
Speaker 1: In Rosenbaum, Shelby Shenkman, and all the team at U
Speaker 1: t A. For more from Novel, visit novel dot audio