Super – Justice Has No Rulebook

Super (2010), written and directed by James Gunn, is a brutal, pitch-black comedy that rips the glossy paint off the superhero genre. It's not about saving the world. It's about a broken man, a wrench, and the dangerous line between justice and delusion.

Rainn Wilson stars as Frank Darbo, a lonely, emotionally unstable short-order cook whose wife (Liv Tyler) leaves him for a sleazy drug dealer (Kevin Bacon). After a vision—complete with tentacles and divine inspiration—Frank transforms into The Crimson Bolt, a homemade superhero who believes God has chosen him to fight evil. His weapon of choice? A pipe wrench. His catchphrase? “Shut up, crime!”

With no powers, no real plan, and zero restraint, Frank embarks on a violent crusade against wrongdoers—petty, serious, and sometimes undeserving. He’s later joined by Libby (Elliot Page), a comic store clerk who becomes his unhinged sidekick, Boltie. What starts as awkward vigilante justice spirals quickly into chaos, blood, and moral gray zones.

Super is not a feel-good story. It’s unsettling, often uncomfortable, and violently absurd. But beneath the carnage and madness lies a tragic character study—a man so desperate for meaning and control that he builds a costume to survive his grief.

Gunn’s film mocks superhero fantasies but never stops asking: what happens when someone actually tries this in real life? The answer is messy, disturbing, and sometimes darkly hilarious.

Because in the real world,
Heroes don’t fly.
They bleed.
And sometimes, they go too far.