Who are...


The Specials
 The 6th or 7th Greatest Super Team in the World* !
* according to the annual Rolling Stone poll.
 Amok, U.S. Bill, Ms. Indestructible,
Alien Orphan (overhead), The Great Strobe, Minute Man (on TGS's shoulder),
Mr. Smart, Deadly Girl, Power Chick, Nightbird & Eight (not shown).

They're Not Incredible, They're Just Special.

Click on the highlighted images to see larger.












The Great Strobe
(Thomas Haden Church)
Real Name: Ted Tilderbrook
Quotes:
"I can shoot laser beams out of my arms.
That's what sets me apart.
Can other humans do that? (pause) Can they?"
"Super heroes don't get Oscars, we get action figures."

 Cliches:
  • Superior Laser Beam Powers (4)
  • Religiously Inspired & Pretentiously Long-winded Leader (3)
  • Vain & Self-Absorbed Husband (3)

Origin:
Ted was a twenty-two year old college student and I, his brother Tim, was thirteen.  One night we snuck into an abandoned photo-processing plant "on a goof."  We were unaware that that supervillain Dr. Malevolent was using the abandoned plant as a laboratory (he was out at the time).  Ted and I were tiptoeing across a ceiling rafter when Ted slipped and plummeted into a giant vat of experimental radioactive fluid. I tried to help him out but I only weighed sixty pounds (I was little for thirteen) and I toppled in after him. Eventually, we escaped from the vat and we collapsed outside the plant.  Our skin was burning.  It hurt. We had both fallen into comas when an ambulance delivered us to St. Dominic’s hospital.  There, Ted was pronounced dead but resuscitated.  While "dead" Ted had a vision of God — that he was chosen to do God’s work on earth.  When we came out of our comas we found that both our bodies were suddenly enhanced with superpowers.  Ted had the idea that we should don costumes and became The Strobe and Minute Boy, and it was neat.






Ms. Indestructible
(Paget Brewster)


Real Name: Emily Chandler-Tilderbrook
Quote:
"Every morning I look look down
and I am wearing boots with lightning bolts on them.
And I think - where did I make the wrong turn?"

Cliches:
  • Super Babe with Indestructible Skin (4)
    • except her eyes
  • Frustrated Wife (3)
  • Organized Businesswoman (3)










Minute Man
(pronounced my-NOOT)
(James Gunn)


Real Name: Tim Tilderbrook
Quote:
"It's Minute Man.
Do I look like a soldier from the Revolutionary War?
I don't think so."

Cliches:
  • Super Shrinking Powers (4)
  • Undersexed & Insecure Superhero (3)
  • Ticklish

Origin:
See my brother The Strobe’s origin, above.  It’s exactly the same except for the part about seeing God in a dream at the end.  While we were laid up for those three weeks, my most vivid dream was a dream about having a tickle war with Blair from "Facts of Life" (the earlier, skinnier Blair).






The Weevil
(Rob Lowe)


Real Name: Tony Sierra Jr.
Cliches:
  • Weevil Speed, Agility & Strength (4)
    • Can walk up walls and across ceilings
  • Insincere Lady's Man (3)
  • Most Witty & Likable Super Hero (3)

Origin:
Tony is a second-generation superhero. His father, Tony Sierra, Sr., the noted paleontologist, was the original Weevil. Tony, Sr. discovered an ancient insect frozen in amber. Sierra, Sr. was driven to ingest the insect, which then gave him "weevil powers." When his son Tony turned 14 he shared a bite of the bug with him, and Tony Jr. began his training as the new Weevil








Amok
(Jamie Kennedy)


Real Name: Casper Drake
Quote:
"I save lives, I don't think I owe
anybody anything more than that!"

Cliches:
  • Bad Boy Anti-matter Blaster that longs to "fit in" (4)
  • Foul-Mouthed High School Dropout (3)
  • Sexually Frustrated former Super-Villain & Painter (3)
Origin:
Casper Drake, a young high-school dropout who earned his living doing custom paintings on the sides of vans, was chosen to become Amok, an emissary of the enormous God-like planet-eater Tyrannos.  Tyrannos bestowed upon Drake his enormous powers.  He then sent Amok to planets to announce that he was coming to destroy them.  However, Amok had such a bad attitude — one time he spit on Tyrannos giant eye — and he was somewhat of a slacker — sometimes he would just go to the arcade or something and forget to go to a planet to warn them Tyrannos was coming to eat them — that Tyrannos fired Amok.






Deadly Girl
(Judy Greer)

Real Name:  Angela McCary
Quote:
"This is what I do."

Cliches:
  • Morose Ruler of the World of Dead (5)
  • Jaded & Sarcastic Sorority Sister (3)
  • Shieldmates: Demon Hordes (4)


Origin:
Angela was a member of Alpha Gamma Delta sorority on the University of Michigan campus.  One night, slightly buzzed from a keg party, she and three of her sorority sisters started messing around with a Ouija board.  Somehow, the four young women accidentally triggered a multidimensional portal into the World of the Dead.  Lord Vorhu, the then-current Ruler of the World of the Dead, used the girls as grisly fodder, torturing them and murdering them. Angela witnessed the horror of her friends disemboweled and dying (which may be partly responsible for her current "Goth" appearance).  She herself was about to be sacrificed by Lord Vorhu with the sacred Dagger of the Dead when Angela heroically grabbed the dagger.  She leapt upon Vorhu with a speed uncommon for Alpha Gamma Deltas — or any sorority sister, for that matter — and slit open Vorhu’s neck.  At that moment, Vorhu’s powers poured from the open slice on his neck and into a surprised Angela McCary.  As Vorhu stumbled onto a purple spiny thing and died, Angela McCary became the new Ruler of the World of the Dead.  Demons (usually) submit to her as they did to Lord Vorhu, and she is able to come and go from the World of the Dead as she pleases.











Alien Orphan
(Sean Gunn)


Real Name: (unpronounceable word of 42 syllables that begins with an "M"). Some of the members of the Specials have taken to calling Alien Orphan "Doug."
Theme Song: "Life is a Rock" - The Reunion


Cliches:
  • Unpredictable Childlike Morphing Shapechanger (5)
  • English-language Challenged Green Alien (2)
  • Hypnotic Lord of the Dance (3)
Origin:
Alien Orphan’s rocket ship crash landed on earth.  At that time, he was a living substance in the shape of a gooey green glob that looked a lot like phlegm.  Gradually, over time, Alien Orphan has been able to hold his body, through will power, in the approximate shape of a human being.






Mr. Smart


Real Name: Seymour Graham Brakhage
Quote:
"I smell everything."

Cliches:
  • Clueless Genius (4)
  • Gadgeteer of Useless Items (3)
  • Rubik's Cube Champion & Pinball Enthusiast (3)








U.S. Bill
(Mike Schwartz)


Quote:
"I messed up again."

Cliches:
  • Dim-Witted & Slow Simpleton Strongman (4)
  • Protective Momma's Boy (3)
  • Hats Enthusiast (2)

Origin:
U.S. Bill claims to have gotten his super-strength through a faulty tetanus shot.






Power Chick


Real Name: Nancy Glickenstaff
Quote:
"I like you."

Cliches:
  • Mutating Body Powers (4)
    • Power Chick can mutate her body into any substance she desires — whether it be hard as diamond or soft as a plush animal.
  • Overly-Optimistic "Out" Lesbian (3)
  • Mother Duck to Alien Orphan (3)


Origin:
Nancy "dropped" a mysterious substance at a Grateful Dead concert in 1986 that resulted in her amazing superpower.








Nightbird
(Jordan Ladd)


Real Name: Shelley Madden
Quote:
"I came here to fight evil."

Cliches:
  • Mysterious Bird Powers (4)
    • she can lay eggs
  • Novice Superhero with stars in her eyes (3)
  • Former High School Oddball Outcast (3)







Quote:
"The Specials need the Specials."

Cliches:
  • 8 Bodies with a Single Consciousness & Group Intelligence (5)
  • Aloof Super Hero (3)
  • Jack-of-all-Trades (4)
    • Eight holds 8 jobs outside of The Specials
Origin:
Eight was at one time eight separate human beings. They were part of a sleep study performed by the CIA on "joint dreams." The eight humans, did, in fact, have a joint dream (it concerned going to school naked), but when they awakened they realized that their minds had remained connected.







Not as good as regular superheroes, but slightly better than you.

Deadly Girl, Amok, The Weevil, Minute Man, The Great Strobe and Ms. Indestructible.
It doesn't take much to save the world.


Before They Could Save the World,
They Had to Save Themselves.












Read all about The Special's super adversaries.
Not as good as other superheroes, but definitely better than you.


thespecials-movie.com at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine


Last updated 10/18/2016.