Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

justice-league

2018-03-19 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
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justice-league
Votey panel for justice-league
This explanation is incomplete or may contain errors. It was generated by AI and has not yet been reviewed by a human editor.

Explanation

The Joke

A superhero team leader announces they have received a "franchise reboot" from a world where villains are "biologically incapable of violent megadeath." In this new, gentler world, the heroes' powers must be scaled down to match the reduced threat level. Batman is only allowed to use echolocation. Robin must guard a patch of tiny eggs. Aquaman -- whose already-mocked power is talking to fish -- must now only communicate with "small barnacles." The final panel shows Black Canary, whose power is normally a devastating sonic scream, being told her role is now just "running around." She responds with delight: "Ooh! Nope. That's the life."

The Humor

The comic satirizes the endless cycle of superhero franchise reboots by imagining one taken to its logical extreme: if the universe has no real threats, the heroes become pointless. Each hero's "downgraded" power is a joke based on their original abilities -- Batman becomes literally bat-like, Robin becomes literally bird-like (sitting on eggs), and Aquaman's already-weak-seeming powers get even more diminished. The escalating absurdity of each reassignment builds the comedy, and the punchline lands with Black Canary being genuinely happier with her meaningless new role, suggesting that maybe superheroes would prefer a world with nothing to fight.

References

This comic references DC Comics' Justice League and the common fan complaint about Aquaman's seemingly useless power of "talking to fish." It also satirizes the frequent reboots of superhero franchises (particularly DC's New 52 and Rebirth continuity resets), where characters are regularly reimagined with altered powers and backstories.

View History (1) Original Comic