I’m A Virgo shatters superhero stories by showing where real power comes from

polygon.com:

Nearly 40 years ago, Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns turned superhero comics upside down. Fascist “heroes” upholding unjust systems for wealth and fame, “villains” driven to crime by desperation and injustice — in a genre that was once defined by straightforward battles between good and evil, all bets were now off. Ever since, storytellers have continued to play with the power dynamics and political implications of superheroes: Moral ambiguity is essential to series like Amazon Prime’sThe Boys, for example.

Boots Riley’s I’m A Virgo, which debuted this week on the same service, explores many of these same themes. The story revolves around Cootie (Jharrel Jerome), a giant teenager living in Riley’s hometown of Oakland, California. Although his size makes him stand out, to say the least, Cootie doesn’t want to be special. He just wants to hang out with his friends and his girlfriend Flora (Olivia Washington), eat dozens of fast-food burgers in one sitting, read comic books, and vibe.

But being a 13-foot-tall Black man makes Cootie a target. And soon, an arrogant Iron Man-type billionaire who calls himself The Hero (Walton Goggins) makes capturing Cootie — who the media depicts as a dangerous “thug” because of his race and size — a priority. I’m A Virgo’s story has all the hallmarks of a revisionist superhero tale: A fascist “hero” who’s essentially a cop on steroids, driven by corruption and bigotry. A misunderstood leading man driven to populist crime — in this case, destroying a device in the Oakland power plant that regularly causes rolling blackouts — by a society that wants to fetishize him and kill him at the same time.

Even Cootie’s relationship with his aunt and uncle, Martisse (Mike Epps) and Lafrancine