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detrimental to the world correlates strongly with the U.S. culture in a post-9/11
paradigm.
Selected Bibliography: Irwin, William, Rebecca Housel, and J. Jeremy Wis newski,
eds. X -Men and Philosophy: Astonishing Insight and Uncanny Argument in the Mutant
X-Verse. Indianapolis: Wiley, 2009; Wein, Len, Keith R. A. DeCandido, and Karen
Haber. Th e Unauthorized X-Men: SF and Comic Writers on Mutants, Prejudice, and
Adamantium. Dallas: Benbella Books, 2006; Zakarin, Scott, Dir. Stan Lee’s Mutants,
Monsters & Marvels. DVD, Sony Pictures/Creative Light, 2002.
Lance Eaton
MYSTERY MEN. Bob Burden’s Mystery Men was a cult satirical superhero team series
that fi rst appeared in 1987, in a two-part, backup story in Flaming Carrot Comics #16
and #17. Burden’s best-known character was published by Aardvark-Vanaheim, Ren-
egade Press, and then Dark Horse Comics from 1984 to 1993. Born in Buff alo, New
York, in 1946, Burden has won the Ignatz Award, Th e Inkpot Award for Outstanding
Achievement in Comic Arts, and the Eisner Award for Best Single Issue. Republished
by Image Comics since 2005, current incarnations of the title are listed as Bob Burden’s
Original Mysterymen. Th e Original Cult Comic Classic. Burden’s work is characterized
by self-aware postmodern humor about comics and superheroes in a similar fashion
to Steve Gerber’s Howard the Duck (1973) or John Byrne’s run on Th e Sensational
She-Hulk (1989), but his independent status allows for more outrageous parodies. “Th e
Flaming Carrot” wears a large carrot-shaped mask with a perpetually burning fl ame at
the top, a white shirt, red pants, and fl ippers. His origins as revealed in issue #7 of Flam-
ing Carrot Comics were that of a man who had a nervous breakdown after reading 5,000
comics in a single sitting for a bet.
Th e Mystery Men are down-at-heel, second-string blue-collar superheroes in a
“world of superheroes.” In its comic book incarnation, the team has included Flaming
Carrot Man, Th e Shoveler, Jackpot, Mr. Furious, Screwball, Captain Attack, Bondo
Man, Jumpin’ Jehosaphat, Red Rover, Th e Strangler, Th e Spleen, Th e Metro Marauder,
Hummer, Disc Man, Jumo the Magnifi cent, Th e Whisperer, Mystic Hand, Star Shark,
the Zeke. Members invented for the movie include the Bowler, the Blue Raja, the
Sphinx, and Invisible Boy. Th e comic and fi lm explore the idea of the underside, ground
level experience of superheroics before the trope became more popular in comic book
series such as Keith Giff en and J. M. DeMatteis’s Justice League International. If this
trope was still a cult novelty among comic readers it was even more of an unknown
quantity for movie-going audiences, so it is ironic that the Mystery Men characters
gained wider prominence via Kinka Usher’s 1999 fi lm Myste r y Me n.
With its tagline, “Th ey’re not your average superheroes,” Myste r y Me n spoofed
the idea of the superhero team, a concept that cinematically had yet to reach its cur-
rent prominence with the likes of the X - M e n trilogy. Set in Champion City, the fi lm
concerns Th e Shoveler/Stan Belarsy (William H. Macy), Mr. Furious/Roy or the
