Spin-off! Hell yeah!
Kite Man: Hell Yeah! is a 2024 adult animated superhero sitcom series based on characters appearing in DC Comics and a spin-off of 2019’s Harley Quinn. It is developed by Quinn’s Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker, and Dean Lorey.The series follows C-list supervillain Kite Man (Matt Oberg) and his girlfriend Golden Glider (Stephanie Hsunote ) as they take over ownership of Noonan’s, a Gotham City bar catering to supervillains in the shadow of the Legion of Doom.
The series premiered on Max July 18, 2024.
Additional and Guest Cast
- James Adomian as Bane
- Natasia Demetriou as Malice
- Janelle James as Queen of Fablesnote
- Jonathan Banks as Sean Noonan
- Keith David as Darkseidnote
- Michael Imperioli as Joe/Moe Dubelz
- Rory Scovel as Gus the Goon
- Lance Reddick as Lex Luthornote
- Judith Light as Helen Villigan
- J.B. Smoove as Frank the Plant
- Lake Bell as Poison Ivy
- Kaley Cuoco as Harley Quinn
- Alan Tudyk as Clayface
Tropes! Hell yeah!
- Adaptational Badass: Interestingly played with Golden Glider; traditionally, her 'power' was just that her skates allowed her to 'skate' on air (either by generating gravity-defying ice to skate on or simply just being gravity defying boots) allowing her a form of Not Quite Flight and mild Super-Speed while regularly fighting the superhero who is known for taking Super Speed to genuine broken levels, which would put her in a similar area of 'lame joke villain' as Kite Man himself (
Word of God even confirming this as the reason they picked her as his love interest), though other circumstances did tip things in her favor note . Her ghostly light powers appear to be based on her New 52 powerset, who could astral project into a ghostly form that allowed her to fly at super speed while her body remained in a cancer-induced coma, before later being able to simply fly and manipulate ribbons she wore, but it was still never shown to be as incredibly powerful or destructive as the show presents it (or nearly as lethal or messy). It seems almost deconstructed though, as she struggles to control these powers (which appear to be a new thing she's dealing with), making her reluctant to use them, however even without them she is a ridiculously lethal in combat, to the point its rare for a fight to go down where she doesn't end up caked in other people's gore. - Adaptational Villainy: In the flashback scene in "Portal Potty, Hell Yeah!", one of the supervillains seen at Noonan's is Miya Shimada/Tsunami, who in the comics was an obscure superhero. It's possible the creators of the show got her confused with the Dial H villain of the same name.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: This series' incarnation of Baby Doll is a green-eyed redhead instead of a blue-eyed blonde like in her debut.
- Art Evolution: Golden Glider gets a redesign that gives her a shorter, messier haircut and a different dress that swaps out the white for black and has a shorter skirt.
- Bad Guy Bar: The series has Kite Man and Golden Glider become co-owners of Noonan’s, the henchmen’s bar from Harley Quinn.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Lex Luthor, Darkseid, and Helen Villigan are the main antagonists for the 1st season of Kite Man, as they are all interested in acquiring the Anti-Life equation. However, Helen decides to work with Kite-Man in destroying said equation, once she discovers it’ll do more harm than good to her business, leaving Luthor and Darkseid in the running.
- Bubblegum Popping: In episode 2 when Bane tries to talk to Lex, the desk secretary does this two times while showing no sympathy to Bane's pleas.
- Bullying a Dragon: Lisa was apparently regularly mocked and bullied by Alpha Bitch ice-skaters, despite the fact she can single-handedly demolish the whole team (and does so, after they shove her into a trash can and humiliate her). Her interactions with Malice imply this isn't new for her, and she has enough baggage with mean-girl types that Malice's presence triggers pretty much all of her insecurities.
- A similar instance occurs in Episode 8, when she scares off a posse of middle-aged women with her powers after they made fun of her and hit on Kite Man.
- The Bus Came Back: from Harley Quinn:
- Queen of Fables is back for the first time since season one.
- Gus, a henchman/kindergarten-teacher last seen in season two, returns as a regular character here.
- Chekhov's Gag: Darkseid is always accompanied by an ominous choir who announce all of his actions in song. Glider's mother joins the choir to get close to him, so she can steal the Anti-Life Equation.
- Commonality Connection: After spending an episode absolutely hating Malice with every fiber of her being, seeing Malice get verbally and emotionally abused by her godfather Darkseid prompts Lisa to identify with and help Malice gain his favor. It's not stressed, but its clear she recognized similarities between her and what Chuck experiences with his father, and possibly her own experiences with her father (who we later learn was an abusive drunk who Lisa accidentally killed when her powers emerged), as well as her experiences with mean girls who pick at her insecurities that Malice initially reminded her of.
- Conjoined Twins: The aptly named Moe and Joe Dubelz, a pair of conjoined twin gangsters. It gets real awkward when Joe is shot in the head during the heist in the first episode and stays so until his head is ripped off in the fifth one.
- Dance Battler: Golden Glider is able to kill people through ice skating routines.
- Dramatic Irony: Spoofed. Lex keeps the Anti-Life Equation hidden in Noonan’s freezer, and then Darkseid comes visiting Noonan’s to see his god-daughter Malice who's working there now.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Kite Man and Glider went through a lot of hardships and slapstick in their respective pasts and continue to do so in the show. Kite Man continues to struggle with his feeling of inferiority while Glider seeks control and remedy due to her rampant superpowers putting a bane on her life. Both make choices guided by their insecurities which endangers their relationship and well-being numerously. Eventually, the pair end the season with putting those behind, preventing Luthor and Darkseid from acquiring the Anti-Life Equation (with their contributions acknowledged directly) and making peace with both the latter and Villigan.
- Enemy Mine: Villigan and Kite-Man team-up to permanently destroy the Anti-Life Equation once it’s made clear that the former can’t profit off it and the latter is the only one who can use it without destroying all life forms in the universe.
- Evil Is Petty: Lex buys Noonan's for ten million dollars after hearing how much it means to Kite Man so he can have it torn down out of spite.
- Foreshadowing: The newspaper Goldilocks brings back in time and shows Glider's mother has an article saying that Martian Manhunter is missing. Guess who shows up at the end to swipe the Anti-Life Equation?
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each episode title goes by the formula “_____, Hell Yeah!”
- Informed Attractiveness: Downplayed with Malice, who is genuinely strikingly pretty and her goth girl vibe is certainly going to attract a particular crowd, but she's treated as an epic beauty who's looks alone could draw attention to Noonan's, something Lisa herself apparently doesn't, despite being just as pretty and having a literally identical body (that we see more of thanks to her costume). Malice's comments indicate its largely just due to Malice being younger.
- Insecure Love Interest: Both Kite Man and Golden Glider are incredibly insecure in general, but despite the fact they both, mutually, absolutely adore one-another, they're deeply self-conscious that the other deserves better than them. Chuck views himself as a complete failure in every metric and thinks Lisa is way too awesome for him, meanwhile Lisa thinks that her incredibly destructive and hard to control powers make her too dangerous for Chuck and he's far too sweet a person to deserve the constant risk she poses to his well-being. That they both have a major Freudian Excuse (Chuck's incredibly abusive parents who constantly bully him, Lisa's apparent history with being bullied by mean girls and her Accidental Murder of her own abusive father and missing mother) and that they are both very prone to humiliating themselves only adds to their insecurities.
- Losing Your Head: Queen of Fables is still alive after being decapitated by Harley, but she’s been reduced to a still-living head in a jar. She then works out a solution to that.
- MacGuffin: The first season has none other than the Anti-Life Equation serving as the MacGuffin. The pilot sees Luthor using a freezer in the back of Noonan’s bar as the Equation’s hiding place as no one would ever think to look for it there.
- Magic Skirt: Lisa's short dress never seems to show anything despite her frequent high kicks and flying. After being transformed into Beast Mode, Chuck actually tries to deliberately flip it up, yet between the angle and Lisa's quick reaction we still don't see anything.
- Mistaken for Masturbating: Kite Man tells a story where his mom would interrupt his supervillain daydreams, he would insist he wasn’t masturbating, and his mom would invoke Suspiciously Specific Denial.
- Ms. Fanservice: Golden Glider, who typically wears a Minidress of Power that is dangerously short (based on an ice-skater uniform), has an extensive scene where she fights naked (though that crosses into Fan Disservice as she starts getting censored by the gore of the people she's killing covering anything), and is made very clear she's very sexual in her relationship with Kite Man. Downplayed though, as while her costume is very revealing, the artstyle rarely draws attention to it outside of some brief leg focus in an intimate moment with Kite Man, and even when nude she's not subject to the Male Gaze.
- Mythology Gag: A prominent sign in Noonan's reads "No contract killing", a reference to Hitman (1993) where Noonan and his bar originated, where Noonan is an ex-hitman and the bar is largely patronized by contract killers.
- Outdated Outfit: Just like in Batman: The Animated Series, Baby Doll's outfit looks like it's from the 50s, which is odd considering she's 47 and her show would have been on in the 80s or 90s in this continuity, making her outfit outdated even on her old show.
- Required Spinoff Crossover: Harley and Ivy make a cameo in the pilot.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Inferred, at least, with Golden Glider residing in Gotham and hanging out with low-rung Gotham villains like Kite Man implying she's a Batman villain in this continuity (or at least, a general use villain like Queen of Fables and the Legion of Doom). Traditionally, she's a villain/occasional supporting character of The Flash, but so far is yet to show any history or connection to them.
- Running Gag: A double-header: Queen of Fables gets her head attached to replacement bodies, then gets torn off again and needs another replacement. And Joe's head gets more deteriorated each episode, Moe remains oblivious that he's dead, and this continues without comment by all the others. Fables eventually gets attached as Joe's replacement.
- The Stinger: After Rebecca is shown making the book of Fairy Tales a living hell, the last shot shows a purple skull spaceship approaching from space... However, the stinger is actually meant to be for Harley Quinn's show's season 5 rather than a second season for Kite Man's show.
- Suddenly Voiced: After numerous silent cameos in the main series, Cheetah finally gets dialogue.
- Supporting Protagonist: The show is named after Kite Man, but in practice, the main focus is on his girlfriend Golden Glider, whose issues with her insecurities and uncontrollable powers form most of the show's storyline, while Kite Man's personal arc is mostly his attempt to be a good boyfriend for her.
- Transplant:
- As noted, Golden Glider is a Flash villain traditionally, with no real history with Gotham, Kite Man, or Batman's rogues.
- As originated in the parent show, Noonan's is a setting associated with the main character of Hitman (1993), as are newly introduced characters like Sean, Six-Pack, and the Dubelz twins.
- Truer to the Text: Golden Glider's previous appearances outside of comics, both in this show's parent show and in The Flash (2014) gave her a significant change to her appearance and personality, with the former making her a shy wallflower with anxiety and the latter making just Captain Cold's fully clothed Femme Fatale sister who's 'power' was a gun that shot gold-coloured quick-hardening liquid, and otherwise had nothing to do with the character. This show gives her a revamped look that, while playing Movie Superheroes Wear Black and keeping the Race Lift Harley Quinn gave her, still maintains gold as her primary colour, gives her a Minidress of Power and skates that skate on the air as her primary power, and characterize her primarily as a Cute and Psycho hyper-femminine but Violently Protective Girlfriend with a Hair-Trigger Temper who is more likely to use excessive violence than her teammates. All of which is far closer to the character of the comics.
- Villain Protagonist: As with Harley Quinn, the series is supervillain-centric; in this case, the focus is on the villain Kite Man and his girlfriend Golden Glider.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Golden Glider assures Kite Man that his heart is his real superpower and that “anyone who doesn’t see that is getting their ass kicked by me.” The feeling turns out to be mutual. When Baby Doll tells Kite Man she had Golden Glider assassinated, he immediately forgoes his initial misgivings about fighting someone who looks like a child and delivers a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to her.
- Wedgie: In the episode "Mother/Daughter Day, Hell Yeah!", during a fight in the bar, Kite-Man, as Beast Mode, used his telekinesis to give one guy a regular wedgie by his pants and then gives the punk girl a frontal thong wedgie with her pink thong, in which, during the rest of the fight, she was holding her crotch before collapsing in pain just as the fight ended.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Kite Man's kites are derided as not a superpower. Golden Glider's assertion that his true power is his heart also gets mocked by the Queen of Fables.
- You Have Failed Me: Lex ejects Toyman from the Hall of Doom using a rocket in his chair after he failed to get a warranty on their vault. He then ejects Bane for hiring Kite Man, who failed to protect the vault.