So what would happen if we had a superhero flying around? No really. Comic books, TV shows and movies have been giving us their fantastic versions of what would happen for years. But what would you do if you were to look out your window right now and saw a guy in a red cape flying through the sky? Make some yucky in your pants is a given. But what happens after that? The filmmakers of “Superguy: Behind the Cape” answer that question and I think they’re absolutely correct.
Produced like a bonafide documentary you would see on A&E or the Discovery Channel, “Superguy” starts us off with home movies and pictures of Mark Trent as a child. Many of these pictures feature the boy performing inhuman acts such as lifting an elephant with one arm and floating in the air behind his friends. Yeah, Mark was a special boy and his father, who ran his own gas station and still, was no dummy. He saw opportunity and started pimping out his son to the circus, helping create Mark’s “Superguy” identity. But as he grew older and his powers became stronger, Mark turned into quite the difficult little boy to handle. One of the funniest parts of the film has Mark’s father, now a bitter drunk, blathering on about the problems he had with his boy – “He beat the s**t out of me one day, the little Martian!”
We’re then shown how the world reacts when they first see a caped man flying through the sky. Like a helicopter traffic news reporter says – HOLY S**T! Breaking news reports inform the shocked public that what they are seeing is not some kind of Hollywood stunt. There’s actually a man flying around in a cute little outfit and even though it appears that he poses no threat, in fact he’s fighting crime and rescuing people from burning buildings, citizens are advised not to interact with him. You never know, he just may bite.
But once the shock has worn off and this flying being is proven to be the world’s first superhero, Superguy mania begins. His likeness appears on every sort of collectable imaginable, as well as billboards and covers of magazines, he even stars in a couple of films. But that’s just the tip of the sno cone. With “Superguy” the filmmakers cover just about every angle on what a world with a real superhero in it would be like. There are religions (called Supies) based around the figure, the police are upset that someone without a badge is meddling in their work, many suicides occur as people try and fly off the tops of buildings, other people try suing the hero saying that he knocked them off the roof of their home because “he wasn’t watching where the hell he was going” and journalists out looking for a little dirt reveal that Superguy in fact likes to get hammered and smoke cigarettes at bars. These angles and so many more are explored in this brilliant mockumentary. Most of the laughs in “Superguy” come from the filmmakers poking fun at how stupid society often is. This superhero is here to help us and what do we do to repay him? Jump up his a*s. Highly entertaining!
