The Guardians of Justicenote is a 2022 live-action TV series written, directed, and created by Adi Shankar. Produced by Shankar's Bootleg Universe production company, the first season was released on March 1, 2022, with seven 30-minute episodes.
The parody takes place in a dark superhero universe based on the stories from DC Comics.
Marvelous Man (Will Yun Lee), a Superman Substitute who single-handedly won World War III "in one fucking day", has protected Earth for 40 straight years. He shares his advanced technology and building with a team of superheroes known as the Guardians of Justice. The world tunes in to hear his yearly address.
Then, Marvelous Man fires a Kryptonite Factor bullet straight into his head on live television.
The entire planet riots, unable to handle modern realpolitik after four decades of superhuman enforcement and handholding. Things get even worse when Marvelous Man's wife claims that he was forced to commit suicide, prompting every world leader to point fingers at one another and threaten all-out nuclear war.
As Knight Hawk (Diamond Dallas Page) settles into his new role as leader of the Guardians, he must either find out who killed Marvelous Man - or find a way to take on an entire planet before it tears itself apart. If he doesn't tear himself apart first.
This show provides examples of:
- All for Nothing: The ending narration explains that The Traitor will be haunted by this idea for the rest of their lives. Fearing that the threats Marvelous Man warned of will never arrive, and that his Face–Heel Turn would have all be for nothing.
- Alternate History: In addition to superheroes changing the course of civilization, the Nazis started World War 3 by using a robot army, only to get their asses kicked to total defeat by Marvelous Man's debut in just 24 hours.
- Army of Thieves and Whores: The Traitor recruits vagrants and drug addicts to turn them into military-grade soldiers. While they're fairly competent, the ones that aren't still half-addled are cruel and psychotic.
- Art Shift: The Superhero Series. The team compensated for their low budget by using every art resource at their disposal - anime, 80's, live-action, claymation, etc. - and interlacing them between scenes to preserve high-tension moments that could eat up the special effects budget with minimalist supplements that add variety and humor. It works.
- Batman Parody: Knight Hawk is the Non-Powered Costumed Hero with a Kid Sidekick and Elaborate Underground Base.
- The Beard: Marvelous Man's marriage served as this, to hide the fact he's gay.
- Bury Your Gays:
- Marvelous Man, before his death, erased Knight Hawk's memory of them being a couple to prevent the people from finding out. However, Cortex manages to bring it back.
- The Meow was in love with a woman, but her lover was killed by the police, which led her to get revenge and get kicked out of the Guardians. However, from the way the scene was shot, only one of the cops was responsible for the murder while the other police officers acted in self-defense, indicating that Meow's thirst for vengeance blinded her from the reality of the situation and merely attempting to justify her actions.
- Cast of Expies: Most of the cast is based on DC and Marvel characters. Some of the heroes are gender swapped, including Speed, Blue Scream, and Black Bow.
- Knight Hawk/Atticus Payne = Batman/Bruce Wayne.
- Red Talon = a combination of Red Hood and Dick Grayson.
- Little Wing = a combination of Jason Todd and Damian Wayne.
- Meow/Malina Lyle = Catwoman/Selena Kyle.
- Commissioner Jordan = Commissioner Gordon.
- Bedlam Asylum = Arkham Asylum.
- The Speed = Flash.
- Motion Blur = Professor Zoom.
- Awesome Man = Captain Marvel.
- Blue Scream = Black Canary.
- Black Bow = Green Arrow.
- King Tsunami = Aquaman.
- Sepia Spider = Spider-Man.
- Mr. Smiles = Joker.
- Child Soldier: Little Wing to Knight Hawk, Sepia Spider as well.
- Crapsack World: The world goes to shit rather quickly after Marvelous Man's death.
- Dimension Lord: Golden Goddess rules an extradimensional Lady Land.
- Downer Ending: The Speed - the last morally upstanding superhero - is murdered by Awesome Man on Knight Hawk's order for "the greater good" and he is now set to take over the world with his fascist army unimpeded.
- Driven to Suicide: After 40 years defending humanity, Marvelous Man breaks down and kills himself.
- Due to the Dead: After having Awesome Man kill her, Knight Hawk decides to give Speed a memorial, out of respect for them being teammates.
- Evil vs. Evil: The Traitor's army versus Anubis. The narrative explicitly states that despite destroying a terrorist nation, The Traitor and their army are just as evil for resorting to war crimes - enthusiastically.
- Fallen Hero : The Traitor (Knight Hawk) "was already on the path to moral ruin", since they executed Mr. Smiles decades before the story begins, and slowly crumbled from there.
- Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Speed is dressed in a skintight outfit, and in any live-action shot, the cameraman inevitably focuses on her chest and buttocks.
- Hot-Blooded: Sepia Spider wisely decides to go and kick Anubis's ass, ignoring orders to return. It gets him killed.
- Hypocritical Humour: Van "America's Voice" Dawson, anchor of a highly patriotic American news show, speaks with a strong British accent.
- Kill the Ones You Love: Awesome Man kills The Speed on Knight Hawk's orders.
- Lady Land: Golden Goddess rules Another Dimension only inhabited by women.
- Lethally Stupid: The crooked cop kills Meow's lover, and Meow is known as the Guardian's tracker. He makes no effort to cover up his scent, and Meow identifies him by scent within seconds. Meow tracks him down and kills him as well as all the other crooked cops in his precinct house.
- Never Suicide: Knight Hawk is convinced Marvelous Man's on-air suicide was the result of him being forced to do it somehow. In the end, by all indications it really was a suicide and Marvelous Man was crumbling under the stress of taking responsibility for the entire world.
- Non-Powered Costumed Hero: Knight Hawk is the Batman Parody. Subverted with Little Wing who's a Robin expy who turns out to also be Awesome Man (A Shazam! expy).
- Off with Her Head!: The Speed gets her head ripped off by Awesome Man.
- Older Alter Ego: It's revealed near the end that the Robin and Shazam expires are actually the same person.
- Practically Joker: Mr. Smiles is Knight Hawk's clown nemesis.Turns out the real one died a while ago, and is a Legacy Character working for Knight Hawk, and a prototype for Knight Hawk's army.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Subverted with Awesome Man, who is a child. And has a conscience that was thoroughly warped by The Traitor.
- Rage Against the Mentor: Red Talon really doesn't like Knight Hawk. Considering he treated him like crap as a kid, it's not too surprising.
- Samaritan Syndrome: Marvelous Man lived with constant guilt that he couldn't save everyone and could hear all the screaming and chaos around the world. It contributed to his suicide.
- Shout-Out: The opening intro, featuring the sunset silhouette of the Guardians of Justice, draws from the same iconography in Justice League.
- Stupid Jetpack Hitler: He got revived as a robot in this universe and started World War III.
- Superman Substitute: Marvelous Man is a Flying Brick who was sent to Earth from a dying planet as a baby.
- Super-Speed: The Speed draws her power from the Fast Force.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Speed is the only hero with a strong moral compass, and she dies trying to stop Knight Hawk.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Knight Hawk wants to protect the world from an evil cosmic threat that destroyed Marvelous Man's planet, so he decides to manipulate his fellow Guardians and create an army to combat it.
- Wonder Woman Wannabe: Golden Goddess is the main female Flying Brick superheroine in the setting.
- World War III: In this universe it happened shortly after World War II with Hitler revived as a robot.
- Younger Than They Look: Awesome Man is actually a child who is able to transform into an adult Super-Powered Alter Ego. This has the unfortunate effect of making his romantic relationship with The Speed somewhat
Harsher in Hindsight.
