Golden Age superheroes, created in the 1930s and 40s, tend to be kinda goofy. In the heady rush to cash in on the craze started by Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel and Captain America, countless characters were dreamed up. There’s a sense of whimsy to these brightly colored women and men that modern superheroes, with their attempts at “realism” and “sophistication,” lack. These oddballs are often made fun of, but those jokes forget that the original audience for superhero stories were children. These character should be rubbing shoulders with Phineas and Ferb and Steven Universe, rather than Wolverine or whoever they’ve got wielding the Green Lantern ring this week.
So, with that in mind, I started Super-Duper Fun!, re-imagining those old weirdos in a context where their quirks are not things to be ignored and removed, but celebrated! And where better to start than the poster-child for these characters...
The Red Bee
I love this guy. No joke. He's such a wonderful collection of things that can only work in superhero comics.
The original Red Bee was, Rick Raleigh, an assistant district attorney with who fought crime with a collection of trained bees. Micheal, his favorite, was kept in a pouch on his belt.
Adorable.
So here’s our 21st century Rick Raleigh, the genius son of the district attorney. In addition to his science-fair prize-winning trained bees, Rick’s also invented a BackBuzzer, a pair of wings that allow him to fly around his neighborhood along with Micheal, his smartest bee.
Rick gets into Encyclopedia Brown-style adventures, helping kids in his neighborhood and crimes that his father is having trouble with at work. When it comes to the Red Bee and Micheal, no case is too small!