A few years back, I was pretty surprised with the Harley Quinn animated series. That show has a similar tone to Adult Swim shows. Still, with the animation quality you’d expect from a WB animation DC Comics show, the comedic writing was top-notch, even with some of the over-the-top violence and gore. When watching that, I didn’t expect them to use Kite Man, a pretty Z-list Batman villain that was recently (at the time) redone in Tom King’s Batman run in DC Comics during The War of Jokes and Riddles arc. Tapping into his name as Charles Brown and the kite thing, it ends up being a play on all those Peanuts strips where Charlie Brown gets his kite stuck in the tree but never gives up on flying a kite. So in the show, as he ends up being Poison Ivy’s boyfriend while Ivy and Harley figure their whole relationship status out, Kite Man is just an overly optimistic and not great at villainy. Now, like all successful past sitcoms, they’ve decided to take a well-loved cast member and give them a spin-off. Here we have KITE MAN: HELL YEAH! a show where Kite Man and his new girlfriend, Flash rogue Golden Glider, are deeply in love in their burgeoning relationship, and now Kite Man buys the local villain hole-in-the-wall drinking bar Noonan’s.
Personally, I’ve gotten a bit tired of the Harley Quinn show as it’s gone on, and that’s probably because of Harley’s oversaturation in all parts of DC output; this feels fresh. The couple of Kite Man and Golden Glider is hilarious. Voiced by Matt Oberg and Stephanie Hsu, respectively, they both bring a light and earnest vocal performance to these characters. I’m a sucker for underused DC characters as well, so just seeing a show starring Captain Cold’s little sister really had me invested. The writers do a great job with this couple, as they’ve done with Harley and Ivy. This reminds me of shows like Dharma and Greg and when Larry and Balki got girlfriends on Perfect Strangers. Their main outlandish character is Bane, who leaves the Legion of Doom to work for them in the bar. The writers have even more fun with Bane in this series than on the Harley Quinn show. James Adomian continues to voice Bane. I’m still surprised they go with Lex Luthor as a person of color in this universe, and the late Lance Reddick had the right type of voice for this character.
Some great surprise voices are Michael Imperioli, Joe, and Moe Dublez, especially the characters interacting with the Queen of Fables, now voiced by Janelle James of Abbott Elementary fame. I actually think she’s better as the character than Wanda Sykes. Using Malice and Chessure, really deep-cut Non-Jack Kirby Fourth World characters are perfectly voiced by Natasia Demetriou. Outside of the main three, it has the most impactful arc as it’s connected to the biggest threat of this show, Darkseid (one of my favorite characters ever), who is voiced by Keith David. If there is anyone who’s as good as Michael Ironside for this character, it is the great Keith David. Darkseid has a dark choir, and it’s hilarious each time he appears, playing up his dark, divine nature. The animation in this show is top-notch, with good action and great use of gags. The writing in this show is very good and funny, and like I said earlier, while it’s consistent with the other series, it’s strong enough to stand on its own without having to know much about what’s happened in Harley Quinn much. I find this show a much more satisfying watch than most other mature comedy animated series in this current era.
It does take some time to have a few cameos from the original show, but never too much to overshadow these characters in their own show. They give just a taste to add to the show and have a little continuity. KITE MAN: HELL YEAH! is a fantastic addition to the animated series on Max and a hilarious take on these overlooked DC characters. If Harley Quinn is their Cheers, then KITE MAN: HELL YEAH! right now, it is starting out to be it’s Fraiser.
Score: B