In the Season 5 finale, “Hometown Heroes,” the guys get to play superheroes for a night. It’s a fun gag, but the main draw of the episode is Phoenix Jones, who is the catalyst for the guys’ night of patrolling Red Bank.

Ming and Real-Life Superhero, Phoenix Jones!

I had never heard of Phoenix Jones before, but his story is fascinating. He’s a real-life superhero in the Seattle area — he’s Kick-Ass! Or, you know, Spider-Man, as the guys say. His car was broken into one night, and when he and his son checked it out, his son fell on some broken glass and was injured, but the police didn’t seem to care when he reported it. His car window was broken with a rock wrapped inside a mask, and it gave him the idea to don a suit … It’s an awesome story, and he’s even earned the appreciation of the cops now. He’s been shot a couple of times, so it’s not without danger, certainly. He started a whole movement in Seattle, apparently. It’s pretty cool.

Phoenix Jones with his new crew

He talks about taking the guys out to the mean streets of Red Bank, if they can come up with costumes, which they do, of course. Bryan has some sort of gimp pig mask (is anyone really surprised at that one?), and says he’s the Fourth Little Pig. Walt has a sugar skull mask and talks about his tragic accident where he was burned at the cash register. Mike’s superpower is having knowledge of all sorts of things you’d never want to know, and Ming looks like, as Walt says, the Noid. They go out to the streets looking for criminals up to no good, but I don’t think Red Bank is any sort of crime capital, so they find nothing. They end up embarrassing Phoenix by finding trouble where there is none and bothering innocent people, so the whole gimmick kind of fizzles out pretty quickly at the end of the episode.

Walt, Bryan, and Ming talking it up at the Stash

In store business news, we get to see a one-of-a-kind piece: A mask of Andre the Giant as Bigfoot from an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man. It’s got his curly hair, and the customer says it’s unique, and it sets Walt reminiscing about that episode, which had a big impact on him. Another customer comes in looking for a “Son of Satan” comic, which starts a discussion about Satan being in comics and how the devil was suddenly very big in the ’70s, with movies like The Exorcist and The Omen. I have to say, it IS a pretty weird idea for a comic — but then again, even “Sandman” has a segment that takes place in Hell, so I guess it’s not that uncommon, really.

The guys have fun living out a dream for an evening, we get to hear stories from Phoenix, and we get to see some interesting memorabilia. It all makes for an enjoyable end to Season 5.

Best Bryan Moment: When Phoenix is talking about hopping in his car and going out in costume, Bryan: “This is all really cool. But did you say ‘the Kia of Justice’?”

Megan Wilde

I'm an editor, wife and mom of two. I love to read and watch good TV and good (OK, and bad) movies. I like pop culture, sci-fi, zombies, comics, Neil Gaiman, Miyazaki movies, Star Wars, '80s nostalgia and all things geeky.

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