Subverting superhero stories is old news. You had movies like Mystery Men as far back as 1999, and more modern examples are shows like The Boys and Invincible.
Sometimes these subversions are simply in the name of comedy, sometimes they are satire that is shining a light on how the world really works, and sometimes they are a fresh take on the classic superhero pantheons, with more modern sensibilities.
The Rules of Supervillany manages to be all three.
At first C.T. Phipps’ take on superpowered humour comes across like he wrote down every power known to humanity on a bunch of tiles, put them in a Crown Royal bag, shook it up, and pulled out what he needed whenever a new villain/hero shows up. You will find echoes of just about every hero and villain you already know out there, but in new genetic recombinations that might well have been orchestrated by a supervillain in a parallel dimension.
For example, our protagonist, Gary Karkofsky, has recently acquired the dark cloak of his hometown’s resident superhero, gaining its powers. At first, the context makes you think you’re dealing with a Batman clone, only, no, he’s got superpowers… Superpowers with some strange requirements.
Let me back up a bit. Gary has always wanted to be a supervillain. Why? Well, lots of reasons. For one thing, his brother was a supervillain (before he was murdered by a vigilante, which didn’t win him over to the side of ‘heroes’).
He’s also got very legitimate problems with the kind of people the superheros out there are actually protecting. Stopping a robbery of a bank who makes all its money through corrupt practices that hurts the little guy? Who’s benefiting?
He also just… likes the idea. Gary’s kinda messed up.
So, when The Nightwalker dies after a long career, and Gary receives his cloak for some unknown reason, he sees this as the perfect opportunity to do some good… for himself. After his first attempt at a bank robbery gets usurped by another supervillain, he inadvertently does some good by stopping him.
Mind you, Gary’s not a Robin Hood, either. He robs the bank as soon as he stops the other robbers… and deals with an ex-girlfriend who happened to be one of the henchmen (and later becomes one of his).
Gary’s goal is to rob from the rich and corrupt and give to himself. Only once he starts gaining henchmen and starts to learn the rules of supervillany (title drop) it turns out that’s not as easy as it seems. There’s a lot of overhead involved in being a supervillain, especially if you have people working for you.
There are other complications involved. Unbeknownst to him when he first put it on, the cloak draws its power from dark magical sources, and if it’s not used every day, the dead begins to rise. Also, the cloak is now bonded with him for life. And it talks to him. And he can see the dead (er… their spirits, I mean).
This was when I realized that this story wasn’t content with JUST having superhero/villain analogues from easily recognizable sources. In Austin Grossman’s Soon I Will Be Invincible, the various characters were a lot more direct in their comparisons. With most of them, you would point to a single superhero type they were connected to.
But Gary’s powers are a bit of a mystery, but as random as it might seem that you have a talking cloak who says you need to use your dark magic every day or the dead will rise and eat the living, it actually makes more sense towards the end when you find out more about just whose cloak it really is.
Aside from Gary, there is an equally interesting range of supporting cast. His ex-girlfriend now henchwoman gives off strong Harley Quinn vibes, while another henchman he acquires is the honourable Diabloman (loosely based on Bane), who plays mentor to Gary as he learns the ropes of being a supervillain boss.
As far as ethics go, it’s hard to call Gary a villain. As much as he talks about being a supervillain, he doesn’t want to hurt innocent people, or superheros. He’s completely devoted to his wife and the people who work for him. His anger at society is not only understandable, but relevant and timely. In fact, it made me wonder what I would actually do if I had superpowers.
That said, this guy has no qualms about killing a supervillain who kills innocent people. At the same time, for a villain that calls himself Merciless (The Supervillain without Mercy™) he shows an awful lot of mercy to an awful lot of people. It might just be that he’s not such a villain after all.
If you said that to his face, however, he’d rob you just to prove you wrong.
Phipps’s superhero world carries every trope there is, from gritty Gotham-like streets to secret moon base cities with advanced supertech. The story walks the spectrum from low-level bank robbery to world destroying monsters.
His ever-growing pantheon isn’t just diverse in terms of superhero tropes, however. It’s full of the ordinary everyday kind of diversity as well in terms of gender, sexuality, race, and religion. To the story’s credit, it handles all this matter-of-factly, and never really draws attention to it, other than for logical reasons.
For example, this world’s version of Superman, Ultragod, is African American. This is never really brought up, however, except when dealing with his arch nemesis, Tom Terror—who used to battle him based on racial prejudice back in the old days, but has evolved past that. Now Tom Terror fights him for entirely other reasons.
While this story is very much focused on comedy and satire, it doesn’t have to go to The Boyz level of dark to make its points. It points out the hypocrisy of the whole superhero system, while at the same time condemning the supervillains. So what does that make Gary? Well, it takes him a while, but he figures out who he is eventually.
The author calls this series a loving homage to superhero fandom, and while he initially tried to dismiss any deeper themes (even calling it brain candy), he had to admit that it has also given voice to what he sees as the real injustices in the world.
The series is currently up to nine books, with ten planned in total. Even Phipps has been surprised by the series’ popularity. While he obviously enjoys the world building and characters, it’s the readers’ reactions to the series and how it has resonated with them that really puts a smile on his face.
Guess there’s a lot of budding supervillains out there, but, you know, nice ones!
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