James Gunn's first superhero movie from 2010 deserves more love from fans for its strong message about vigilantism. While Gunn has made his mark on the MCU and the DCU with surefire hits, ranging from Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy to 2025's Superman, the current DC Studios co-CEO entered the superhero genre in 2010 with his film, Super.
Directed and written by James Gunn, the low-budget black comedy followed the story of Frank D'Arbo (Rainn Wilson) as he spirals into desperation after his wife leaves him for a dangerous drug dealer and decides the only answer is to become a powerless superhero named the Crimson Bolt.
Why Super Is a Significant Movie In James Gunn's Slate of Projects
Super holds a significant place in James Gunn's career, as it was his first true superhero movie before his time with Marvel and DC. Following his debut feature, Slither (a horror-comedy) in 2006, the film marked Gunn's first raw exploration of the psychology and tropes of costumed vigilantes.
Super was not based on any adaptation of an existing comic, giving Gunn more freedom to dive deep into the terrifying dangers of how an ordinary person becomes a hero without being held back by a source material.
While the film received mostly mixed reactions from fans and critics (currently sitting at a 50% critic score and 56% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes), many would argue that Super is an underrated gem and worth watching today.
What sets it apart is its uncompromising refusal to romanticize vigilantism. Unlike its 2010 counterpart, Kick-Ass (starring Nicolas Cage as Big Daddy and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the titular hero), which leaned into the fantasy of an ordinary person becoming a costumed crime-fighter to gain fame, Gunn's Super is the exact opposite, keeping the messaging brutally honest and uncomfortable.
Super portrayed Frank D'Arbo's journey into becoming the Crimson Bolt as messy and awkward, not inspirational and hopeful, as Gunn's later movies (Guardians of the Galaxy and Superman) zeroed in.
Super's 96-minute runtime chronicled the complete psychological deconstruction of D'Arbo. What began as a quiet heartbreak spirals into a full-blown madness as the mild-mannered everyman descends into a desperate, damaged individual who sees becoming a superhero as the only solution to his shattered life.
At one point in the movie, Crimson Bolt "defends" innocent civilians by savagely beating a man with his pipe wrench for simply cutting in line at the movies. This moment proved how unhinged his portrayal of a superhero really is because he sees a line cutter on the same level as a violent criminal.
The film's religious undertones also add another layer of discomfort for the viewers. However, this exact aspect is the main reason Super remains so compelling today, because D'Arbo interpreted his personal unraveling into becoming a superhero as a divine calling.
Unlike Kick-Ass, a movie that featured expert combatants and street-level legends like Big-Daddy and Hit-Girl, Super's violence felt awkward and dangerous, not cool or choreographed. It also directly addressed the harsh truth of what happens when a damaged person fights crime with a blind conviction.
Super Defined James Gunn's Greatest Strengths In the Superhero Genre
Super is more than just James Gunn's first superhero movie because it defined the filmmaker's strengths, which later translated into his big-budget superhero movies. While trying to find his unique voice in the superhero genre, Super showed that Gunn can write a tragic protagonist and elicit deep empathy from the audience, a move he would later use to adapt broken misfits on-screen, such as Peter Quill, Rocket Raccoon, and Peacemaker.
Gunn's use of music is also prominent in Super, laying the groundwork for one of the most distinctive and defining elements of his filmmaking style. The film's soundtrack, which included Cheap Trick's "If You Want My Love" and Eric Carmen's "It Hurts Too Much," featured occasional needle drops that heightened Frank D'Arbo's absurdity and chaotic superhero nature.
The DC Studios' boss strategy of carefully choosing music and incorporating it into memorable action and drama sequences proved to be a signature trademark for Gunn, which he would later use in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, Peacemaker, and even Superman.
While Super's use of music was mainly driven by Frank's own escapist ways, Gunn would later use music as an emotional glue that holds his films together.
Super Has a Familiar Cast & Gunn's Usual Humor
Super also featured many actors from Gunn's other superhero movies, such as Nathan Fillion (who plays the Holy Avenger - the superhero that inspired Frank's crime-fighting antics), Michael Rooker, Sean Gunn, Kevin Bacon (as the big bad drug dealer), Mikaela Hoover, Ellen Page (as Crimson Bolt's sidekick, Bolty), and Linda Cardellini. It even featured special cameos from Steve Agee (who played John Economos in the DCU) and Gunn himself as a TV villain named Demonswill.
Rainn Wilson's unhinged performance as Frank D'Arbo in Super is also widely different from his deadpan portrayal of Dwight Schrute on The Office, and one that many fans will find compelling and intriguing to break down. Ellen Page's psychotic portrayal of Boltie is also a standout in the movie, adding an extra layer of fun.
By watching (or rewatching) Super, it will be an intriguing, meta deep dive for many because it provides a fun experience of seeing these big-name stars (who would later become staples and anchors in his Marvel and DC projects) in absurd roles, and many could see it as a delightful Gunn-verse prototype.
Another reason Super is worth watching is that it embraces Gunn's signature humor, absurdity, and heart that fans have grown to love in projects like Guardians of the Galaxy, The Suicide Squad, and Peacemaker.
By diving deep into the effects of religion on one's descent into madness, and how a cheesy Christian superhero show served as the catalyst for Frank to embrace a superhero life, Super's unique brand of black comedy also sets it apart from Gunn's filmography and the superhero space in general.
Ultimately, Super serves as a time capsule of the pre-MCU era of comic book movies, one that isn't afraid to take risks and offers a raw counterpoint to the glamorous, incredible lineup of Marvel and DC films today. If anything, it serves as James Gunn's own "origin story" of how his voice for the superhero genre developed.
Super is available for rent and purchase on Prime Video and Apple TV+ in the United States.
Super premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2010, before being released in theaters in the United States on April 1, 2011.
