Kite Man: Hell Yeah! is a delightful treat for DC fans

For fans of Max’s Harley Quinn, it’s safe to say there’s an inbuilt knowledge of D-list DC villains to rival even the most dedicated of comic-book collectors. On the show, the likes of Calendar Man, KGBeast, Clock King, and Reverse-Flash have all gotten their moment in the spotlight. (Hell, Clock King even married the Riddler!) Still, co-creators Justin Halpern, Dean Lorey, and Patrick Schumacker’s ultra-violent cartoon reserves its biggest glow-up for the lamest baddie of all: Kite Man, voiced by Matt Oberg. As the name suggests, his only “power” is flying around with a kite strapped to his back. Harley Quinn introduced the character as an unlikely love interest for Poison Ivy (Lake Bell) to act as the obstacle to her and Harley (Kaley Cuoco) becoming the “BFF/GFFs” they were always destined to be.

However, Kite Man, a.k.a. Chuck, turned out to be more than just a plot device. Though he wasn’t the right match for Ivy, he’s the rarest of creatures: A “nice guy” who’s actually nice—a himbo with a heart of gold and a (relatively) healthy relationship with male insecurity. Kite Man: Hell Yeah!, named after Chuck’s favorite catchphrase, builds off the goodwill of Harley Quinn. It maintains the original’s winning blend of sharp humor, dirty jokes, ultraviolence, and emotional stakes. Also like its predecessor, it’s both a sendup of and a love letter to the ludicrous costumed freaks of Gotham City.

Really, Kite Man has two protagonists: Our guy in green and his far more powerful girlfriend, Golden Glider (Stephanie Hsu). The show’s setting takes its cues from, of all things, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Noonan’s Bar, Gotham’s go-to watering hole for assorted mobsters, henchmen, and washed-up villains, is overseen by retired hitman Sean Noonan (Jonathan Banks). But the pub gets put on the chopping block when Lex Luthor (voiced by the late, great Lance Reddick) buys it out so he can steal the Anti-Life Equation, a mathematical formula that does, well, exactly what it says on the tin.

That’s when Kite Man and Glider decide to bid on Noonan’s themselves, despite the ludicrous price tag and their complete lack of cash. Naturally, the place comes equipped with a wall of hidden weapons, a toilet that transports you back to the ’80s when you drop a deuce, and a pack of ne’er-do-well regulars. This rogue’s gallery includes a few faves from Harley Quinn—Bane (James Adomian), Queen of Fables (Janelle James, taking over for Wanda Sykes), and Gus the Goon (Rory Scovel)—plus a few newcomers: Moe Dubelz (Michael Imperioli), a two-headed mafioso who shares a body with his brother’s rotting corpse, the perpetually drunk Sixpack (Eddie Pepitone), and Malice (Natasia Demetriou), a spoiled daddy’s girl who takes a bartending job for the lulz.

That daddy just so happens to be Darkseid (Keith David), a super-powerful, super-evil space god who wants the Anti-Life Equation so he can bend the universe to his will. And he’s not the only existential threat Kite Man and Glider are facing. There’s also Villigan’s, a sinister, Amazon-esque company that opens a theme restaurant across the street from Noonan’s, run by the scheming Helen Villigan (Judith Light). In addition to all the lovingly rendered blood spatter, Kite Man sustains its witty, filthy dialogue. There’s something strangely poetic about lines like “You can all suck my butt and put it in a butt container!” and “I’m gonna go eat a tub of potato salad like a cockroach, ’cause that’s what my dad used to call me: potato salad!”

The best choice is to bring Bane, arguably the funniest character in the Quinn-verse, to the forefront. Nothing will make fans laugh harder than the way Adomian, in Bane’s unmistakable high, shouty voice, pronounces “manipulate” as man-nipple-ate. It’s also weirdly touching to watch the biggest brute in Gotham trip over himself to be a responsible babysitter and fret about messing up the fabric of space-time. As she’s proved in Blue Eye Samurai and The Second Best Hospital In The Galaxy, Hsu’s musical theater–trained chops transfer seamlessly to voice acting. Banks’ soothingly gruff tones counterbalance the wackiness. Demetriou’s deadpan performance as a rich goth girl is spot-on, and as a banally evil exec, Light seems to be channeling the late, great Jessica Walter’s performance in Archer. And that’s not even to mention cameos from the likes of Richard Kind and Rhea Seehorn.

Like Harley Quinn, Kite Man grounds itself in real-world shit—mostly Chuck’s fear that he isn’t good enough for Glider and Glider’s fear that she’ll never learn to control her deadly superpowers. They also both have major daddy/mommy issues, especially when Glider’s absentee mom (Margaret Cho) comes into the picture. Through it all, the pair’s love for each other is unerring. But it’s impossible not to compare their relationship with Harley and Ivy’s epic romance. It’s easy to get invested in these two crazy kids making it work because Harley Quinn has taken us through every bump in the road. “Harlivy” looks like no other romance on television because of its queerness and specificity. In between blowing shit up and boning down, they help each other grapple with past traumas and butt heads over stuff like the moral binary.

As fun as Kite Man is—and it’s really, really fun—it fails to recreate that magic. Chuck and Glider are easy to love, but without proper context and examining their issues, there’s nothing fresh about them. Though Chuck is supposed to be the hero of the series, he comes off as the supporting player again. In a world of huge personalities, he feels kind of beside the point. Still, it’s hard to dunk on a show (or a bro) as winning as Kite Man. When you’re facing off against forces as uber-powerful as space nihilism and Earth capitalism, you really can’t do anything but root for the little guy—and, of course, his little kite.

Kite Man: Hell Yeah! premieres July 18 on Max.