There’s that old line about how great power comes great responsibility. Unfortunately, if you’ve seldom picked up a comic book – you probably don’t know about the added responsibility. Meet Exhibit A: Frank D’Arbo…or The Crimson Bolt as he comes to be known.

Frank is the centre of SUPER, a film by director James Gunn (not Tim Gunn as I accidentally called him in a previously posted podcast). He believes the day he married the very damaged (and way too hot for him) Sarah was one of the two perfect moments in his life. So when this bit of perfection he calls a marriage slips away from him, he finds himself without a moral compass. It’s around this tim that he turns to God.

Either it wasn’t God who answers him, or he didn’t quite catch what God says, because he soon believe’s that he is destined to fight lowlives like the ones who cost him his wife. Thus he becomes The Crimson Bolt – the most ramshackle superhero you could ever imagine.

SUPER is a solid movie, thanks in large part to the comedic timing of Rainn Wilson. He plays the schlub very well, but he plays it as a witty lumbering schlub that continually make you wonder what he’ll do or say next. He’s a cautionary tale as to why everyday people aren’t all supposed to be heroes. He dashes off for drastic feats of daring do without a whole lot of forethought, and he eventually can’t seem to understand what calls for vigilante justice…and what calls for a stern tone.

Wilson’s spotlight is damned near stolen by Ellen Page in this film. Ellen plays Libby – a comic shop clerk who takes an odd fascination in Frank. The fascination makes the jump to hyperspace when she finds out that Frank is The Crimson Bolt. It’s right about this time that she tries to talk him into being his sidekick. Bad idea. If Robin is Batman’s moral centre, and the only thing that keeps him from slipping off the edge, then Libby is The Anti-Robin. With a vengeance.

SUPER is not going to jive with mass audiences, but with each passing day I’m believing more and more that mass audiences don’t have a clue anyway.The film is clever, funny, and rather violent cautionary tale about what can happen when you mistakenly believe “you’ve been chosen”. Should be hitting theatres in the near future – keep an eye out for it.