If you liked the cult-classic Mystery Men then read SuperCanucks!
For those unfamiliar with the 1999 film, it is a very loose adaptation of the ground-breaking Bob Burden’s Flaming Carrot Comics, that itself parodied mainstream superhero comics more hidebound traditions. Mystery Men stars Ben Stiller alongside such comedy powerhouses as Janeane Garofalo, Hank Azaria, and Paul Reubens. Several more traditional actors got in on the fun too, like William H. Macy and Greg Kinnear. Academy award winner Geoffry Rush chews ALL the scenery as over-the-top villain, Casanova Frankenstein.
The plot sees the fifth-rate “wannabe” superhero protagonists—Mr. Furious, the Bowler, the Blue Raja, the Spleen, the Shoveler, and Invisible Boy—forced to fill the void left when the city’s number one A-list hero, Captain Amazing (Kinnear), is unable to face down his long-standing nemesis and various themed henchmen. Hilarity, unsurprisingly, ensues.
Mystery Men remains one of the best films of its type—fond satires of the superhero genre. Other similar standouts followed, including The Specials (2000), Hancock (2008), and two similarly violent takes from 2010, Kick-Ass and Super.
Of course, subverting superheroes is nothing new. Both Marvel and DC have been doing it since almost the beginning. Scores of heroes have exploited humour to increase their appeal—She-Hulk, Plastic Man, and Deadpool are three such. I adored the off-the-wall antics portrayed in What if? and What the?!. Both series feature prominently in my collection, stored in acid-free long boxes for posterity.
Pop culture acceptance of such lighter fare required breaking out of the long stigmatized comic book ghetto. Big budget movies, such as Mystery Men, drove movie-goers to try new things. It took time for the box office to catch up but, eventually, films like Guardians of the Galaxy and Suicide Squad began to rival the success of darker titles (X-Men, Batman, and the like).
In respect to being willing to wink, knowingly, at all that came before SuperCanucks: An Anthology of Canadian Small-town Superheroes stands on the shoulders of caped giants.
Comprised of eleven stories, SuperCanucks presents different takes on the traditional superhero. Some are humorous, others satirical, all, however, embrace a deep-seated fondness for the genre. The anthology limits itself to only Canadian tales and focuses on an underserved subsection of that vast nation, embracing one of its most underrepresented communities: small towns.
“Flyover country” no more, now these overlooked and long underestimated places are the star of the show. Be it a coastal village in Newfoundland or some rural farm town in the Prairies, superheroes make a difference—even those with less-useful abilities. Home is what you make it and heroes, whether super or not, make theirs better. To paraphrase an iconic comic book line, “With great power comes great problems.” And, no matter small town or big city, superheroes are up to the challenge.
Take a leap and try the extraordinary stories within SuperCanucks’ brightly coloured covers. You just might find yourself taking flight.
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Thank you to editor Matthew Del Papa for sharing SuperCanucks with us! Find a copy here on All Lit Up, or from your local independent bookseller.
