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With James Gunn directing the new Superman flick, perhaps now is a good time to revisit Super, his dark take on the crime-fighting genre. Released in 2010 – four years before Gunn made Guardians of the Galaxy for Marvel – Super is gritty, weird and considerably less wholesome.
Frank (Rainn Wilson) is a diner chef who, by his own estimation, has very little going for him except his marriage to Sarah (Liv Tyler). So when Sarah, a recovering addict, relapses and leaves him for local drug kingpin Jacques (Kevin Bacon), Frank’s life completely falls apart.
As Frank’s low self-esteem metastasises into full blown self-loathing, he has a vision – or hallucination depending on your theological preference. God speaks to Frank in a sequence that in the Venn diagram intersection between Cecil B DeMille’s Ten Commandments and X-rated Japanese animation. Heavenly tentacles descend from on high to slice open Frank’s scalp and squirt the juice of revelation into his brain, prompting him to take matters into his own hands.
Searching for inspiration, Frank finds himself in a local comic shop where he meets Libby (Elliot Page) – and together they come to the conclusion that all it takes to become a superhero is the choice to fight evil. So Frank takes to the streets as the Crimson Bolt, a masked vigilante, while Libby is his sidekick Boltie.
Wielding a large wrench and the catchphrase “shut up, crime”, Frank lives vicariously through his alter ego, dispensing brutal retribution for any perceived injustice. Drug dealers, child molesters and queue jumpers all receive the same punishment: a wrench to the head and a trip to the hospital, as Frank and Boltie work their way up to confronting Jacques and rescuing Sarah.
Audiences are primed to expect anything featuring characters in colourful costumes to be light and escapist – a step removed from real life. But just like Frank, this movie itself operates in disguise, using its masked hero to tell a story of disenfranchisement and some very damaged people going to some very extreme lengths.
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Super masquerades as comic book fun with an upbeat animated opening and onomatopoeic fight scenes, riffing on the classic 1960s Batman. But it switches out humour for violence in the blink of an eye, culminating in a savage finale and a tonal shift that ensures you never get too comfortable in your seat.
Full disclosure: it doesn’t always work. At times the humour is uneasy and feels designed to provoke and intentionally push buttons. Super teeters on the precipice of being too mean-spirited, but in its sensitive moments it finds a surprising depth of character and emotion which offer reward to those prepared to accept it.
Wilson expertly handles Frank’s complexity, finding sympathy in his desperate plea with God and his newfound confidence behind the Crimson Bolt’s mask. Page goes absolutely feral as Libby in a performance that must be appreciated for its true commitment to the unhinged. What starts out as exuberant enthusiasm quickly balloons into unadulterated mania as we discover Boltie’s psychopathic tendencies.
In a time when the Marvel Cinematic Universe was in its ascendancy, James Gunn took his idea of a superhero, doused it in combustible violence and dark humour, and then stepped back and flicked a match at it. The results didn’t set the box office alight but – alongside the similarly themed Kick-Ass – it blazed a trail for R-rated comic book movies that would be followed later by the likes of Deadpool.
Super’s general air of hostility might be what prevented it from broad appeal, but it’s also what makes it interesting. It’s still raw and crass and viscous, and in my book that makes it well worthy of rediscovery.
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Super is available to stream on Stan in Australia and AMC+ in the US, as well as available to rent in the UK. For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click here
