If you are following this show, care about it, and haven’t seen tonight’s episode, beware of spoilers.

More beneath the fold…

I was kind of surprised that Mr. Mitzvah was the first superhero to go tonight; up until now, from the beginning of last season through this season so far, Stan Lee has been eliminating boy-girl-boy-girl.  So with Mr. Mitzvah as the first elimination tonight, Stan broke the pattern.  Curse him!

However, my prediction that Ms. Limelight would be eliminated was fulfilled.  But for the wrong reason.  I think I found her less annoying than my wife did, but I’m not all that sorry to see her go.  I will say, though, that I think it was awfully cruel for Stan Lee to call the heroes back for a second elimination after they were already on their way downstairs.  That’s just evil!  Worthy of Doctor Dark.

It’s hard for me to decide whether I like this season as much as last season.  The sense of novelty that was around last year is gone, but the cheese factor remains.  On the other hand, I notice that the producers have doubled their special effects budget to approximately $13.98, which is kind of cool.  I also notice that some of Stan’s traps aren’t quite working because all of the participants learned some of his sneaky tricks last year, so it’s less possible to be amused by how badly some of them screw up.

I also think that part of the reason why I’m not so thoroughly engaged in this season as I was last season is that there’s no real clear front-runner at this point, no one that I’m really going "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" for every time I see them.  Last year, it was Major Victory; who couldn’t love the way he pranced and danced his way through the challenges?  Or his exclamation of "Mister Shiny Pants!" when he got his costume makeover.  None of the characters this year are affecting me the same way.  Sure, Defuser seems like a natural leader, but I don’t think he’s going to make it for the long run; he’s still a little too focused on what’s right in front of him, totally cop-like.  And Whipsnap certainly has the emotional thing going, which is part of what worked for Feedback last year.  Hyperstrike and Parthenon are starting to grow on me; they’ve got the superhero posing and what not down, but they don’t spring to mind immediately when I think of this season of the show.  Basura is definitely the front runner for cleavage, but I like to think Stan Lee will consider more than that.

If I were going to pick a personal favorite that I’d like to win for this year, though, I think I’d go with Hygena.  I like that she seems to display more character and integrity than the others.  But I fear that Stan Lee may eliminate her eventually for being too domestic and not "big enough" for a superhero, or some nonsense like that.  Still, his show, his rules.

I’m definitely going to stick with this show, though.  There’s enough cheese to keep me happy.

Excelsior!