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Wannabe Heroes Give TV a Healthy Dose of Reality

"Who Wants to Be a Superhero?" started with eleven wannabes. By the final episode this week, two contestants remained. One fit the image of a superhero. The other looked anything but.

This reality show doesn't focus on superhuman feats. Rather, it tests the contestants on compassion, courage, integrity. It's about rejecting the cultural status quo and doing the right thing, which is rare in today's ethically murky, cutthroat culture.

The contestants invented their own superhero personas. The winner will be immortalized in a television movie and a real comic book by Stan Lee, creator of The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and the X-men.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Stanford W. Carpenter
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