Man, That's One Rude Superhero

As promised, here's my recap of the second episode of the second season of Who Wants to Be a Superhero?. Let's get into it, shall we?

The episode begins right after last week's elimination, and it appears being on the chopping block has left Ms. Limelight especially bummed. The Defuser does his best to cheer her up (including making a pact with her to go twenty-four hours without saying "I'm scared" or "I'm afraid"), but then Mindset goes and tells her that he thinks she's either putting on an act or is a total ditz. She gets upset to the point of tears, and the others - Whip-Snap, especially - make a point of sticking up for her and comforting her.

But the nine remaining superheroes can't sit around for long, because there's a supervillain on the loose. You know that bee-related hero I mentioned in the last episode review? Yeah, her. She's Bee-Sting, and the heroes have to go round her up. But as they arrive at her last known whereabouts, they're trapped and split into teams. They're forced into a spelling bee competition, with the idea being that each word has the syllable "be" in it, and that it had to be spelled "b-e-e."

The winning team will be the one to get three words right, and for every wrong word, a thousand bees will be dumped into the chamber holding that team. I guess every supervillain needs to have a gimmick. But Mindset thinks the whole thing is dumb, spells a word without the bee gimmick, and proclaims, "That is how it is spelled. I will not play your games." So yeah, a thousand bees for his team. But as the heroes eventually finish the challenge, Bee-Sting gets the last laugh by dumping a few hundred gallons of honey on them. Alrighty then. (Though it does lead to a funny line, when Basura calls Bee-Sting a "bee-itch.")

The nine heroes return to their abode, and the following morning, Stan calls them up and tells them to suit up and meet him in the game room in fifteen minutes. Of course, their costumes have all been ruined, and some are even missing pieces somehow. And by "missing pieces," I mean that Mr. Mitzvah shows up without any pants. How do you not remember to pack at least one change of pants when you go away for a few weeks to tape a reality show? So the heroes all end up meeting in the game room, looking like the Jonestown massacre was held at the San Diego Comic-Con. The reason Stan has called them there is because he wants them to describe their characters and their powers to him. Wasn't that what the auditions were for? I mean, how do you audition potential superheroes and not have the topic of their powers come up? The whole thing ends up being Stan deciding what he feels their powers should be, since Ms. Limelight went first and had absolutely no clue what her powers were. Yeah... okay.

So Stan tells them all what their new powers are, and announces that since they "look like hell," he was going to give them new costumes. And even though the new costumes are pretty much of the same quality as the ones they created in the first place, they all dig them. Except for Hyper-Strike that is. Stan ends up blowing him off when he complains, so it doesn't really matter what he thinks.

But now it's time for an elimination, and the heroes all meet on the roof. Called to the chopping block are Ms. Limelight (for not knowing her own powers), Mr. Mitzvah (for not facing his fear of bees during the challenge), and Mindset (for being rude to Ms. Limelight, and because his refusal to play by Bee-Sting's rules put his team in jeopardy). Mindset ends up getting the axe, and he ain't happy. He defends himself by saying that a real hero would live with suffering minor bodily harm instead of playing by the villain's rules. Though would a real hero insult a fellow hero? Anyway, Mindset turns in his costume, and he's gone. The remaining eight heroes leave the roof, and are promptly presented with communicators. And in the final seconds, it seems that Doctor Dark and Bee-Sting are going to team up. Wait, I thought Doctor Dark was just Stan Lee in a mask?

So yeah, I don't know what to say about this. Unlike last season, in which are the contestants were all interesting in their own ways, I'm having a hard time really finding anybody to cheer for. I like a few of them, but the rest... meh. Hopefully, I'll change my mind by the end of the season, because I want to like this season's cast. There's apparently a mole that will make its presence known in the next episode, and I don't think it will be as obvious as Rotiart last season. ("Traitor" backwards? That's still lame.) Maybe this mole will shake things up a bit?