Everything Is Super

The mythic status of American superheroes takes another beating in this purposefully trashy send-up featuring a protagonist named Lloyd “the Human Hemorrhoid” Herman. Lloyd’s adventures do not involve titanic struggles for the fate of humanity, but Rottsteak’s dedication to scabrous antiheroic spectacle still manages to surprise. In the mangy town of Victory Creek, everybody has superpowers except the pimply and pathetic “human pustule” Lloyd, who serves as the town’s token non-super human (somebody needs to bag groceries and mop floors). When not being bullied, Lloyd slugs cough syrup and talks smack with his somewhat-super buddies Kevin (who uses his x-ray vision to be a Peeping Tom) and Toby (narcoleptic, starts fires). The conceit’s out-of-left-field comic potential is apparent in a series of episodes where the trio run into ever more disturbing and hilariously gross-out characters: Lloyd is chucked into the sky by an angry, cigarette-smoking baby; a woman spontaneously generates homicidal zombie-like versions of herself; and a bratty kid creates a robot simulacrum of his often-absent father, which then goes on a killing spree. Comprising the series’ first four issues, this collection delivers a grubby and grimy aesthetic that zooms in on the repulsive. Fans of The Boys and other trope-deconstructing comics will smirk over Rottsteak’s R-rated cynicism and scatological humor. (Oct.)