Stan Lee Super-Excited About Heroic Reality Show

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LOS ANGELES (TNA) – Comic book legend Stan Lee is a hero to many, just for creating classic comic book characters like Spider-Man, The Hulk and The Fantastic Four.

But, at the age of 84, Lee is enjoying a good hard dose of reality – reality TV, that is.

Lee is currently appearing in the second season of "Who Wants To Be A Superhero?" a reality show that allows eight average Joes (and Janes) a chance to super size their humdrum lives by becoming superheroes.

The show airs Thursday nights, and Lee puts aspiring heroes such as Mr. Mitzvah (who fights crime with Star Of David-shaped paddles) and Ms. Limelight (who possesses the ability to absorb the powers of action stars she sees on TV and movies) through the ringer with various challenges and a few super villains to boot.

Stan Lee

The prize for the best hero: their own comic book from Dark Horse Comics, scripted by Lee himself, which, for many geeks, is the fulfillment of a lifelong fantasy.

Despite the fantasy element, Lee is pretty sure the contestants aren’t blurring the line between fantasy and reality.

"I think in their innermost thoughts and beliefs [the heroes’] know that this is just something they made up," Lee said. "However, as with any mode of entertainment, they’ve got to go along with it just to keep the show interesting."

Although heroes like Mr. Mitzvah are a little kitschy, Lee stresses that he’s looking for heroes, not weirdos.

"Actually, our first thought is, ‘Will he be colorful? Will he be interesting?’ and ‘Will he give the right amount of variety with the other characters?’" Lee said. "We want to make them all different from each other, and yet all with the same universal feature—that is, that they kind of believe not in their powers so much as they believe in what they want to do and accomplish."

That’s because Lee figures that heroes, both real and fictional, are more important than ever.

"I would say the world is certainly in need of somebody who could bring all the different sects together and make us all realize that if there is a creator, we were all created by the same one, and I don’t think he, she, or it wanted to show any favorites," Lee said.

"There’s just too much hatred in the world. That’s the big problem. And if we in our own little way can do something to make it just seem as though we’re all really pretty deserving people no matter who and what we are."

Although the comic book is where the modern myth known as the superhero first took root in 1939 with the invention of Superman, Lee doesn’t think a lack of knowledge about comic books is any hindrance to his real-life hero wannabes.

In fact, more than one contestant last season admitted never reading comic books in their life and Lee doesn’t look down on that.

"It doesn’t really matter to me if they’ve read comic books or not, to tell the truth," Lee said. "It’s just, are they enjoying this whole thing about pretending they’re superheroes and do they want to go along with it?"

It’s not easy being a hero, and Lee said many applicants didn’t make the cut for various reasons.

"There was one girl who bared her breasts. There were guys who just had the most ridiculous, unbelievable powers that they gave themselves and some who were so funny-looking that you couldn’t believe it as far as their costumes," Lee said. "We couldn’t use them because they were too extreme, but at the same time we did get a big laugh out of them.

"In the back of my mind I was thinking, ‘Well, I don’t know, maybe the fact that they’re so extreme should make us use them. Maybe the audience would laugh. But then you walk a fine line—are we looking for the viewers to laugh or to give [the contestants] a little credibility? It isn’t easy picking these ones."

Although the show has made Lee a TV personality, his legend rests on the seismic pop cultural shift he created in the early 1960s, when he devised superheroes whose were as flawed as real humans. For example, Peter Parker is a neurotic nerd, The Incredible Hulk has a terrible temper and Reed Richards from The Fantastic Four tends to, in Lee’s words, "talk too much, and use a lot of big words"

He adds: "I think I kind of modeled him after myself."

Although these character flaws had to be created by Lee, he says the contestants on "Who Wants To Be A Superhero?’’ don’t need to bother – they already are flawed.

"All of our contestants, and all of the people on the crew, also seem to come with enough natural flaws that it hasn’t been much of a problem for us," Lee laughed.

"The one thing we’re looking for mostly is not so much what their superpower is as what is inside of them, you know, their own make up—their mental and psychological make up and how much courage and loyalty they have, a feeling of right and wrong.

"As far as the flaws go, I think you’ll find that as the elimination process proceeds, almost every one of them is eliminated at some point because of something he or she failed to do, which in a way touches on whatever flaws they might have."

Speaking of flaws, Lee jokes that his biggest flaw these days is that he budgets too little leisure time. For instance, even though The Fantastic Four is starring in a movie this summer, he still hasn’t seen it.

"I don’t have time to go to the movies. I will probably see it when it comes out on a DVD," Lee said. "Most of the others I’ve seen because I go to the premiere. They have a special showing and a red carpet and all of that. I wasn’t able to go to the one at the ‘Fantastic Four’ because they had it in London.

"I just don’t have time to go to the movies so if I don’t see it at a special showing I have to wait until I get the DVD, which is quite enjoyable. I like watching them on DVDs because I can stop them whenever I want. I can go back and see something over again—usually my own cameo, of course."

"Who Wants To Be A Superhero?" airs Thursdays on The Sci Fi Channel.