Movies and TV shows about unsuccessful superheroes

Even though Mystery Man was not a hit at the time, it is also probably the first thing many think of when it comes to the idea of unsuccessful superheroes. Now, Captain Amazing, he’s a successful superhero. It’s right in his name! Then, he’s captured, and it’s up to a ragtag group of semi-superheroes to save the day. They happen to have powers like shoveling really well or having a psychic connection with their dead father, whose skull they have in a bowling ball. It was probably too quirky for mainstream success, but Mystery Men earned cult status.

Damon Wayans, during his brief run as a movie star, co-wrote Blankman as a vehicle for himself. It’s…a bit odd, both silly and also kind of dark. Daryl Walker is not doing well as is, and then his grandmother is killed. Thus, Daryl imitates his childhood hero, Batman, and becomes a superhero to save his city. Somehow, Blankman was less of a success at the box office than Mystery Men, but it’s one of those ‘90s movies that worked its way into the brains of many.

Now, as opposed to The Shoveler or Blankman, John Hancock is extremely powerful. He’s almost as powerful as, say, Superman. However, being powerful and being a successful superhero isn’t the same. Hancock is a drunkard who pays no attention to overall safety the times he deigns to use his powers to do the whole superhero thing. Will Smith played Hancock, and back in 2008, even though the movie got mixed reviews, that was enough to make it a hit.

James Gunn has chilled out as he has gotten older, and for a guy who wants to work in the lucrative blockbuster movie world, that’s for the best, but when the bad-faith-driven controversy around some crass, vulgar jokes he tweeted became a firestorm, it became quite clear a lot of people were not familiar with Gunn’s work. This is a dude that came up in the world of Troma. In addition to writing The Specials, which is also about a group of weird, unsuccessful superheroes, he wrote and directed the exceedingly dark and discomfiting Super. It’s mostly about Rainn Wilson as a guy who freaks out and becomes "The Crimson Bolt,” a crimefighting vigilante superhero who mostly just brains people with a pipe wrench.

Alan Moore’s Watchmen comic series is a seminal work of an “elevated” superhero story, but Moore hates when his stuff is adapted, and Watchmen was long considered unadaptable. That didn’t stop Zack Snyder, though. The superheroes in Watchmen aren’t unsuccessful in the Mystery Men way. Some of them are past their primes, though. Some of them are too morally compromised to serve the community anymore. Some of them are stuck in interminable sex scenes incompetently directed by Snyder with the most on-the-nose needle drops imaginable. Watchmen was also loosely adapted, or at least inspired, an HBO show that was better received (and features the dubious superherodom of Lube Man).

Megamind is a fairly clever concept. The titular alien is a supervillain, and he begins the film by finally defeating his nemesis, the superhero Metro Man. A movie that features a superhero losing and then retiring? That doesn’t scream success. There’s more movie, though. After that, Megamind creates a new superhero to be his new nemesis, and Tighten (the guy who misunderstands when Megamind brands him as “Titan”) fails by becoming a supervillain.

When a superhero movie ends up on Mystery Science Theater 3000, it probably does not feature a terribly successful version of a superhero. Tony, who is apparently the Pumaman, is probably supposed to be more successful than he appears. There’s a huge problem when it comes to Pumaman’s quest to stop Donald Pleasance from taking over people’s minds (people like mellow singer-songwriter Roger Whittaker, for example). Namely, he looks like a total doofus, particularly when he “flies.”

The whole ethos of Teen Titans Go!, aside from “goofy, random humor,” is making the members of the Teen Titans maniacs. They spend as much time fighting each other as anybody else. Half the time, they aren’t fighting crime. Half of the time, when they fight crime, they do it terribly. They will beat up their enemies even when the Hive is just getting ice cream. It’s a lot of fun but not a good look for superheroes.

We hadn’t thought of Inspector Gadget as being a superhero, but we saw him listed as such online, and…we kind of get it. He has a lot of superhuman powers. His arms extend. A helicopter propeller comes out of his head. Of course, he’s also not good at using those powers to fight crime, leaving Penny and Brain to handle the real work.

The whole point of The Boys is that the superheroes aren’t, you know, heroes. They have superpowers, but marketing has them appearing as heroes to the world. That leaves it to a team of vigilantes, who themselves are fitfully successful, to try and take them down. It’s proven to be Amazon Prime’s most successful superhero show (take that, The Tick!).

The Aquabats predate their super show. For years, they have existed as a comedic pop-punk band that dresses as superheroes and has a backstory. They generally riff on campy old superheroes like the ‘60s version of Batman. That made them a fine choice for a “Yo Gabba Gabba” style kids’ show. In The Aquabats! Super Show!, the band exists as superheroes in a blend of cartoons, live-action comedy, and music. And, for humor’s sake, the Aquabats are characterized by their incompetence as superheroes.

Birdman, from Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, was a successful superhero. Harvey Birdman, though, was not a terribly successful superhero or a terribly successful lawyer. Much like Space Ghost Coast to Coast, this Adult Swim show recontextualized an old superhero (and some other old Hanna-Barbera characters). Birdman, now Harvey Birdman, is a lawyer representing, say, the Scooby gang for possession. Absurd hilarity ensues.

Airing on All That and KaBlam!, Action League Now! was the best of the KaBlam! shorts. It was a stop-animation show built upon action figures who served as the characters in the show. These superheroes weren’t terribly good, though. The Flesh was just an action figure who had lost his clothes (he was super strong…and naked). Meltman could just melt. You get the drill.

Ahh, they really churned out the cartoons in the ‘90s. Darkwing Duck only aired from September 1991 until December 1992. In that time, they managed to squeeze in 91 episodes. Darkwing Duck was Disney’s superhero parody and is considered their first kids’ cartoon that was a straight-up riff on a genre. Drake Mallard, aka Darkwing Duck, is more considered with his ego than his success, which stands in his way.

Aliens come and gift you with a suit that gives you superpowers. Awesome, right? Not so much! Ralph Hinkley is an LA high school teacher who is visited by aliens who give him a suit so that he can fight crime. Alas, they chose the wrong guy. Ralph hates the suit and, more to the point, immediately loses the instruction manual for the suit. Still, he gives it a shot and takes a trial-and-error approach to superhero life.

We have to give some love to one of the most successful franchises of the new millennium. We will admit that it’s more supervillain-focused. Gru is a supervillain, but he sometimes becomes a secret agent and quasi-superhero. Also, there are superheroes in the world of Gru (and, yes, the Minions). It’s all played for comedy, often of the slapstick variety. They have made four Despicable Me movies and two Minions spinoffs. No story of unsuccessful superheroes (and supervillains) has been, counterintuitively, more successful.