Comic Book Villains opens with a shudder-inducing sequence pairing an endless pan across comic-book panels with a pair of goofy voices acting out a histrionic scenario suggesting the unholy offspring of an imitation Quentin Tarantino and a second-rate Kevin Smith. Another unpromising sequence follows, introducing—via DJ Qualls' overwritten narration—a slew of shrill characters, chief among them greasy comic-book-store proprietor Donal Logue, his opportunistic rivals (Natasha Lyonne and Michael Rapaport), and mysterious loner Cary Elwes. Each is at a crossroads: Lyonne wants to have a baby, Logue is on the verge of losing his store, Elwes wants to keep the house he's fixing up, and Qualls is starting to realize that there's more to life than comics. Potential salvation arrives in the form of a valuable comic-book collection controlled by Eileen Brennan, the lonely mother of a dead geek. As Qualls develops a kinship with Brennan, the desperation of Logue and his rivals grows, leading to a muddled plan to steal the comics, followed by a pile-up of bodies, betrayals, and double-crosses. Comic Book Villains flirts intermittently with the promising idea of using the fanboy geekiness of its comic-book milieu to undercut the macho posturing of Tarantino knockoffs, but mostly, it's a muddled mass of conflicting tones, moods, and acting styles. Writer-director James Robinson's film veers from hokey sentimentality to lurid, tawdry melodrama to overheated action without settling on a consistent tone, particularly when Logue and Elwes make sudden, unconvincing transformations from goofball iconoclasts to bloodthirsty monsters. Logue has his moments, but the material serves the rest of the actors poorly, particularly a badly miscast Elwes, who adds insult to injury by giving his unconvincing small-time hood a tough-guy accent straight out of a '30s gangster movie. For those who like cloying emotion with their glib sadism, Robinson helpfully includes some tender moments between Brennan and Qualls, who emerges as the film's most likable character only by default. Comic Book Villains' comic-store setting seems conducive to a cult following for the film, except that it insults its core demographic by having Brennan give a condescending speech about how comic books keep people from living in the real world. Judging from Comic Book Villains, Robinson knows as little about that real world as his monomaniacal characters.