Stan Lee’s Superhumans: Season One

Hi there, true believers. Take a walk with me today as we go inside the world of super humans. Humans that have powers far beyond average homo-sapiens. Can you control electricity or perhaps possess the strength of several men? Whether you answer yes or whether your eyes go ablaze in wonderment, you might just be interested in Stan Lee’s Superhumans. Season one awaits, let us proceed.

Stan Lee besides being a personal hero of mine is the creator of Marvel Comics. He has created such amazing heroes as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and the Incredible Hulk. But Stan doesn’t think that these super-heroes exist only in the pages of a comic book or on a movie screen. He knows that there are living human beings out there in the world today that possess super natural powers.

Daniel Browning Smith is dubbed “The World’s Most Flexible Man”. He can contort his body into the smallest size imaginable by dislocating arms, legs and bending them in crazy directions. Daniel can even turn his head an amazing one hundred and eighty degrees. He spends his life amazing people with his contortionism whether it be on the movie set or for friends and family.

Put the creator of comic book super heroes and a possible super human in his own right together and you have the perfect foundation for a television show about superhumans. Stan Lee sends Daniel around the globe in search of these amazing human beings who can do some of the most fantastic feats of strength, mind, endurance possibly ever recorded. Then they wrap it up into a tidy forty five minute package. Need some examples?

There is Rajmohan Nair of Kollam, India who can withstand enormous amounts of electricity and not be killed. In London, England, Derek Paravicini is blind and autistic but that doesn’t stop him from the ability to recreate any piece of piano music by only hearing it once. Or perhaps we should journey close to home in Chicago, Illinois and see martial artist Tom Cameron deliver blows to men and knock them down without even touching them.

There are a few dozen more of these people in Season One that can do all this and more. Some of these powers are what I would consider truly special to ones I admit still left a little skeptical of whether there were some smoke and mirrors hiding around. But safe to say, the subjects contained in these eight episodes are some of the most gifted, special and strangest on the planet. It is wonderful that they get such a vehicle to showcase those talents.

They really could not find two better people to have the honors of hosting this show. On one hand, you have Stan Lee who is sitting in some giant office building as he looks over bios of these super humans and tells Daniel to go on these trips to find out if everything is on the up and up. Daniel then faithfully becomes our host for the rest of the episode as he serves as a perfect intermediary to determine what makes these people so special. Whether that requires special feats or medical tests, he seems eager to dive into the subject.

Video

The video is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. Despite this show being on the History Channel, it looks like it was lifted right off the Travel Channel due to Daniel traveling to so many exotic locations. Color is pretty amazing here and the places come alive depending on which locale he visits. There isn’t much to be negative about and it is a quality presentation.

Audio

The audio is presented in 2.0 English Dolby Digital Stereo. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as impressed with the sound of the show. It is certainly enough to get by with the clearness of the dialog and such. But there is very little in the way of environment noises especially when Daniel is standing on a mountain watching a guy who has absolutely no fear at all. Aren’t we going to hear some wind or something? There are no subtitles included in the set.

Special Features

• Bonus Footage 14:53 : Includes extra footage of the Human Anvil, Ultimate Diver, Modern Samurai, Splash and the Human Calculator. These clisp are ones they didn’t show or extended footage of popular ones already found elsewhere on the disc. Human Anvil was actually a little hard to watch (the dude was hammering spikes with his head). However. some of the “extended footage” really wasn’t extended, just alternate ways of looking at it. Watch the first one (if you dare) and skip through the rest.

Final Thoughts

As of writing this, there doesn’t appear to be any plans for a second season of Super Humans. In fact, there were only eight episodes as it was one of those summer replacement type shows. It is a shame because Stan Lee and Daniel Browning Smith do a great job showcasing these unbelievable talents. The only knock I can think of is you don’t see any women on the show at all. Surely, there are some females with amazing gifts as well.

The discs are pretty decent with some great video and acceptable audio. The extras are honestly a throw away and we would have been better served with some commentaries from Stan Lee or an extended making of featurette. Hopefully this show comes back and they incorporate some women and or examples of people who are not super humans (but think they are). A balance if you will.

Folks, there are real super humans out there in the world today, and one could very well be sitting right next to you. I highly recommend these discs and looking at Amazon (just use our links), this is actually going for very cheap. So grab it, sit back and enjoy. Stay faithful, true believers (but don’t try this at home).

Episodes
Disc 1
Electro Man
Killer Punch
Hammer Head
Human Speed Bump

Disc 2
Human Wolf
Human Crash Test Dummy
Rubber Band Man
Jaw Breaker