Review: The Awesomes ‘Villain-Tine’s Day’

Spoilers Below:

It was Valentine’s Day at Awesome Mountain, and Mr. Awesome (now evil) was back. While Prock was seemingly on a date with Hotwire (it was really Metal Fella’s empty suit being controlled by the evil Awesome) a bad guy named Villain Tine started stirring up trouble by causing people to fall in love and jacking up the price of flowers. Metal Fella’s suit then began destroying the city, but Prock managed to stop it using his time-freezing superpower. Another villain then emerged and overmatched the Awesomes, but Mr. Awesome stepped in to stop her (and Villain Tine too). Because of his actions, the public started calling for Mr. Awesome to take control of the superhero group – exactly as he planned.

Back in space, Dr. Malocchio was still attempting to return to Earth to stop Mr. Awesome, but drifted away during a spacewalk and had to be rescued by a passing van-ship of stoner aliens.

In Case You Missed It:

1) Perfect Man speaks the truth: “I’m much less of a dick these days.”

2) Mr. Awesome’s search engine results for “How to be EVIL!!!” were articles titled: “Top 10 ways to release your inner evil,” “How evil are you?”, “So You Decided to be Evil,” and “Top 5 Evil Plans your enemies will never see coming (with pictures).” One of the results said “These are important questions that “good” people like Mr. Awesome would never…”

3) Mr. Awesome’s computer log-in name is BigDaddy_A.

4) In one of Sumo’s Valentine’s Day cards he wrote: “Sorry for staring – Tim”

5) Impresario also speaks the truth (to Frantic and Concierge): “You’re gay! And you’re probably gay.”

6) Hey, look, a bong! (Kind of.)

This was an interesting Awesomes installment. On one hand, it featured our superhero friends defeating villains like usual. But on the other hand – as Mr. Awesome pointed out – it was the Awesomes failing to best an old lady and her cats and only stopping a metal suit they themselves created.

So it was odd. But this was all really just an elaborate ruse set up by daddy to embarrass his son and his pals, and eventually seize power. Although the way he’s working it, it won’t be seizing as much as it will be people begging him to take over. So the battle plot was a little weak, but only because it helped the overall plot. Again: interesting.

As for humor, this was a pretty funny episode. They took topical shots at Upworthy and LinkedIn, had a running gag with the “Have a good summer” line, and even had a throwback joke when they referenced Perfect Man’s past love of last season. (Although, side note: I’d like to point out that Perfect Man was in love with a basketball, not a volleyball. Her name was Spaldetta. I still appreciate the mention though.) It definitely wasn’t as funny as last week, but it was still a strong showing.

In the end, I think the plot going a bit unconventional while still at first appearing as a conventional episode was a unique twist on the usual story approach. I didn’t find the villains as amusing as they usually are, but again, that’s kind of the point. Still they at least could have been a bit more humorous with the character creativity. Although on the topic of characters, Jack MacBrayer did a good job as Villain Tine – despite sounding like he could have played Frantic’s brother, or something.

I know I’m hopping around a bit with this review, but that’s kind of how the episode felt; it had a lot of different elements happening at the same time. They did fit together pretty well, but not perfectly, and not hilariously. Still, “Villain-Tine’s Day” was strong and entertaining, while providing ample opportunities to laugh at it. Just like Hulk Hogan.