Inferior Five is a parody series by DC Comics. The series stars the titular team, the kids of a parody of the Justice League of America.
The characters made a reappearance in the 1991 Angel and the Ape miniseries drawn and written by Phil Foglio.
Inferior Five provides examples of:
- Centipede's Dilemma: In a comic that parodied the X-Men, the equivalent of Archangel is shown wearing a sweater. Naturally, one of the Five asks him how he puts on a sweater over his wings. The poor mutant loses it because, now that he's thought about it, he'll never be able to do it again.
- Clark Kenting: Parodied, where even though only Awkwardman wears a mask, nobody knows their true identities. Even Awkwardman is pretty obvious. "Nobody suspects clumsy, oafish Leander Brent is really clumsy, oafish Awkwardman!... I wonder how come?"
- Color-Coded Characters: Merryman is magenta, Awkwardman is blue, Blimp is green, Dumb Bunny is red, and White Feather is orange and white.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Hilariously subverted in the short-lived DC parody comic book. The would-be superteam's first nemesis was Dr. Gregory Gruesome, a brilliant, evil Mad Scientist who was so poor he lived in a dilapidated wooden hut in the middle of a junkyard and his sole henchman was a dim-witted vagabond. Despite lamenting about his inability to "turn out multi-million-dollar missiles like they were paper planes" like this trope's namesake, he actually created some remarkably effective machines by cobbling together garbage, scrap, and various other odds and ends.
- Dumb Muscle: Dumb Bunny. The name says it all.
- She meets her match in the first issue with Mr. Mental, an extremely powerful telepath who is really really really stupid. "Try your helmet! Hit 'em with a blast of telekinetic power!" "Oh, is that what this is for? I thought we'd been playing soldier!"
- Graceful in Their Element: This may apply to Awkwardman — none of the team's cases takes place underwater.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: a villainess holds up an inflatable infant and asks "you wouldn't hit a woman with a baby, would you?" Dumb Bunny: "No, I'd hit her with a grown man!" Wham!
- Happy Harlequin Hat: Merryman had one of those, though it was monochrome.
- Heroic Lineage: Subverted, as the Inferior Five are the children of various Captain Ersatzes of DC heroes— and utterly incompetent.
- Legacy Character: Each of the titular five half-rate superheroes was the son or daughter of one or more competent, and somehow familiar-looking heroes.
- The Notable Numeral: The Inferior Five are a humorous DC Comics superteam consisting of the offspring of more popular, powerful supers.
- Pathetically Weak: Merryman is described as “a 98-pound weakling... before he lost weight.”
- Strong Girl, Smart Guy: The parody comic featured Dumb Bunny, a superheroine described as "strong as an ox and almost as intelligent", and Merry Man, the 98-pound weakling son of the world's two most powerful heroes who used his intelligence to to survive as a costumed hero. They were teammates and an on-again-off-again romantic couple.
- Superman Substitute: Mr Might of the Freedom Brigade is the Superman of Earth-12, having the expected powers and also a back story as Barb-Ell, son of Dumb-Ell of the planet Neon, who predicted the planet would explode, and, when nobody believed him, sent his only son to Earth. (The other Neonians were right.) However, his main significance is that he's the father of Awkwardman of the Inferior Five, who is Does Not Know His Own Strength combined with The Klutz.
- Super Zeroes: The Inferior Five were forced to become heroes by their super Stage Parents. Team leader Merryman comes from a long line of Badass Normals, but he is a weakling and a fatalist. The Blimp shares his father's ability to fly but did not inherit his super speed, giving him the ability to fly about as fast as he can walk. As he is rather fat, that is not very fast. Awkwardman has incredible strength and can survive indefinitely underwater, but is so clumsy he is more a danger to his friends than his foes. Dumb Bunny is even more powerful than Awkwardman but is so lacking in intelligence she is usually even less helpful. Finally, the White Feather is an ace marksman and glamour photographer... when he is alone, at least; Whenever he even thinks someone else might be around, his skills go to crap and his cowardly streak emerges. When trouble arrives, Police Chief Geronimo will call them on the Lukewarm Line and they will be there to make it worse; they never fail to fail.
- Too Dumb to Fool: Dumb Bunny. "I may be dumb, but I'm not stupid!"
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: The Blimp has the ability to fly... very, very slowly. Actually, he can only float in midair. He needs a stiff breeze to push him in any kind of direction.
Just redefines the concept of "useless", doesn't it? - Winged Humanoid: The Inferior Five once encounter a team who are a parody of the original X-Men, who are genetic throwbacks. The team includes an Angel counterpart named Icarus who is a throwback to the birds (and, yes, the fact that humans aren't descended from birds is lampshaded). Somewhat ironically, and probably coincidentally, the actual X-Men would decades later have a member called Icarus.
