Do you need from the current superhero TV series and movies? More queerness?
Well, you’re in luck. Here comes “Kappa Force.”
The new series satirically cross-pollinates the superhero genre with the arrogance of college rom-com and musical shows like “Glee” and “Dawson’s Creek,” along with the camp of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” And to top it off, all of this colorful action features a cast of queer femme POC, trans and lesbian characters battling against over-the-top and comical villains.
“Kappa Force” is the brainchild of Latinx creator Addison Heimann, who wanted to create a superhero series that, up until now, didn’t exist.
“I wrote Kappa Force in the deep darkness of a depression that almost got me,” he said of the show’s inspiration. “While binge-watching old ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ episodes until six in the morning, I dreamt up a crazy farce — an intersectional queer superhero force dedicated to saving the world and destroying evil frat bro scum.”
If you’re tuning in to this series expecting a queer version of “X-Men” or “The Avengers,” it’s not that kind of superhero rodeo.
“Kappa Force” has episodes that clock in well under 10 minutes. The main villain is a murderous swaggering frat pledge-master type called The Douche. The majority of the main characters have been orphaned by car crashes of varying degrees of tragedy. And if you haven’t figured it out yet, the snark factor is turned up to 11 in every bite-sized episode. The show has more in common with the Adam West 1960s era “Batman” and a John Waters film than anything or anyone you might see wearing a cape and defeating bad guys on TV or the cineplex these days, and that’s the point.
Heimann didn’t write this for typical superhero audiences; he wrote the series for himself and other queer geeks who want and need to see something different from a superhero show.
“I created a world I wanted to live in: a world in which a trans woman, an Asian woman, a Black woman, and a lesbian kick butt and take names, all in the name of feminism … and humor,” he said. “I’ve always found the idea of meta-humor as a distinctly queer aspect of comedy. You get to wink through the screen, securing a bond that connects actors and audiences, assuring each other that we’re all in on the joke. I created nothing new, but the reality is, there is a severe lack of queer representation in the genre space, especially with superhero comic fare. By simply putting queer faces in the front of a genre project, getting to play out the tropes that cis straight actors have done for years, that is my kind of visibility. It literally pulled me out of my depression.”
The series, directed by Hannah Welever, is sure to brighten the days of many queer folks. And with a cast that includes Michaela Petro, Aja Wiltshire, Kyra Jones and Elle Walker, binge-watching is recommended.
“Kappa Force” can be viewed on Revry, the first global streaming network. For more information, visit https://revry.tv/.