Superhero Media: The Awesomes - Season 1

How does a Hulu original programme spoofing superheroes do a better job of telling a story than some bigger budget production television and film? I'm going to say less editorial oversight, but maybe that's the writer in me talking. The Awesomes are the greatest superhero team on the planet, until Mister Awesome, a kind of Superman, decides to retire to space to do some reading. Without his leadership, the team disbands except for his son, Proc (He's a Professor and a Doctor) and Muscleman. They go about recruiting new teammates from formerly rejected applicants and hilarity ensues. 

Where The Awesomes shines is in its pastiche of Superhero tropes and minute analysis of what it must be like to live in a world where aliens invade and Supervillains run amok. The heroes have toy lines and stringent government oversight, seemingly average people are former assassins or retired villains. What happens where there have been heroes since the 1940s and some of them are still around and just a little racist? Watchmen hints at fetishism and sexual dysfunction as the norm for costumed heroes, but The Awesomes delves into the realms of new perversions that only become avialable to those with super powers, and gets some good laughs out of it. Throw in a bit of Jerry Springer and an intergalactic paternity suit and you have a good, but weird, episode. 

I'm not rushing out, looking for generic supers to turn into a team of Awesomes, however, I'm very happy to see that the programme got a second season. In a world fast filling up with grim and gritty superheroes, there needs to be the silly and funny counterpoint. If that counterpoint is as clever and fun as The Awesomes, all the better.