For various reasons I’ve been thinking about a superhero comic center around cleaning product mascots. And as I wrote this, it kind of got away from me. Like, the main superhero duo would be Mr. Clean and Billy Mays/someone who looks like Billy Mays from those early commercials from Oxiclean (since oxiclean, to my knowledge, doesn’t have a mascot). And their sidekicks could be those mascots from the scrubbing bubbles bathroom cleaner commercials.
Except the twist would be that Mr. Clean is actually evil! Or more like he wants to take the whole cleaning/superhero a lot farther than just saving the day. Like Batman from the Justice Lords (the alternate universe Justice League).
Wounded by the betrayal, Oxiclean starts to abandon the superhero way, wondering was it worth it, did they do the right thing. Until the scrubber sidekicks help him remember what he was doing it all for, to see a brighter, cleaner future.
They try to stop Mr. Clean but alone they can’t succeed. Which is why they need help, but not from any other superhero character. But from regular anthropomorphized cleaning supplies, like sponges and duster and brooms and mops.
The climax peaks as their plan falls perfectly into place, Oxiclean about to take the final blow that would end Mr. Clean’s tyrannical order but, before the punch can hit, he stops an inch shy. And Oxiclean wonders, is this the right way to do things. Mr. Clean went to far but, what is he doing? Solving everything with violence? Taking out one powerful figure so that another can take their place? And he wonders what should he do, what does he want to do?
He backs away for a moment, to overcome by the decision he now has to make. Briefly he wonders that, if he takes down Mr. Clean, could he take over? He was sure to have support from everyone who had helped him to that point, and he was confident that he could make the right decisions. His thoughts stop, pause on that moment, could he make the right decisions? Looking back at his former partner trying to recover, the choice he wants to make becomes clear to him, as clear as a window cleaned with Windex.
With one giant leap forward, he hugs Mr. Clean, crying over their different opinions, the divide that drove their partnership into the ground. Wishing for a world in which problems didn’t exist, so that they wouldn’t need to fight ever again. He had no idea what he should do next, all he knew was that he wanted to take some time and cry.
And Mr. Clean bruised, battered, and beat up from their fight, suddenly hugged by his enemy loses the will to fight, as the memories of who he’s fighting flood his thoughts. He wanted to make the world a better place, he never wanted to fight his best friend. He doesn’t hug Oxiclean back, he stands there motionless, pain etched into his face, thinking about the path that lead him there, thinking about the fact that even knowing the pain he’s cause Oxiclean, he still feels no remorse. Only knowing that, moving forward, he can’t continue down the path he chose that one faithful day, the day he betrayed Oxiclean, because every step down that path would be more painful than stepping on broken glass.