As the subject of colorful, costumed crimefighters remains near and dear to me, I thought I'd discuss some of my favorite Supers related productions of 2026 and how they are influencing my next Superhero RPG endeavor...
Dispatch
If you love Superheroes, Video Games, and especially Superhero Video Games, do not miss out on this title. Dispatch, produced by and available for download on Stream, is a 'Superhero Workplace Dramedy'.
It largely revolves around Robert Robertson, formerly the superhero Mecha Man, who starts working as a Dispatcher for SDN after his Mecha Battlesuit gets wrecked. SDN is the Superhero Dispatch Network, a private company employing Superheroes [and former Supervillains] as an ongoing on-call protection, crimefighting, and rescue agency.
It is funny, charming, romantic, quirky, and action-packed, with a solid story and best of all, some really fun characters. I highly recommend it! It has strong Supers RPG vibes and a game where the PCs work for SDN would absolutely rock!
More on that later...
Invincible
The Invincible comic book series was great and the animated adaptation is quite excellent as well, particularly because its not a perfect one-for-one transfer from page to streaming screen. There are a number of changes to the original material in the form of characters and events that, IMHO, work even better than they did in the comic more often than not.
Not every wild swing the show makes is a home run but they're batting average is pretty damn good.
Free League is releasing an Invincible Tabletop Roleplaying Game and for the most part, I think it's quite good. It does some interesting things directly related to the Invincible franchise that makes the game feel original in its approach to Superhero RPGs.
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes
I love this series. I've alluded to this in the past but I am going to come right out and say it here, I actually like it more than the original in a lot of ways.
It feels smaller but more personal and the way it explores a character learning to use their Quirk (Superpower) gives the viewer a clearer view of how such a thing might develop.
Add in some great characters, additional world-building, and a largely straightforward plot that still has some nice twists and turns and you've got the subject most heavily influencing my newest campaign.
Spider Noir
I'll admit I went in to this series both very intrigued and highly skeptical and ended up absolutely loving it. This is how you do a Superhero alternate universe show!
I watched it in B&W on my first run through and I just started my rewatch in Tru-Color. I gotta say, WOW! I think the purist in me prefers the B&W version but damn if their color choices aren't absolutely beautiful.
Nicholas Cage is at his quirkiest and the rest of the cast does an amazing job that all the characters really pop. The story is interesting and the way they transfigure the Spiderman mythos is very clever indeed. I would absolutely love to see more of this series.
Is there another Marvel 'What If' game in my future? You never know...
The Boys
After reading the first few issues of the Boys comic book I put it down and never really looked at it again. It just wasn't for me. I don't want to see deconstructions of the Superhero genre as, unlike writer Garth Ennis, I actually like Superheroes. If you are going to do it, you're going to need to do it REALLY well, with a deep love of the genre underneath it all.
As far as The Boys as a streaming series, I loved it. Why? Because unlike the creator who hates the very idea of Superheroes, the team that produced the show clearly loves Supers. Its the same subject, story, and characters (for the most part) approached in a very different way thanks to a much more entertaining perspective.
While I can't see myself ever running a game in this universe, there are aspects of 'Hero as Celebrity' shown in the series that are certainly on my mind.
My Adventures with Superman
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to check out the latest season as of yet so I'll save a discussion of this show for a future post. I very much enjoyed the previous seasons and I am definitely looking forward to this one.
MHA Hero Helpline and LSH Legion Outpost
I currently have two Superhero RPG campaigns going, which is probably one too many. It might even be two too many! We'll have to wait and see what happens.
I was kind of desperate to come up with two new ongoing games, one for each the weekly groups I'm in but honestly, Superheroes was near the bottom of the list of choices. In the end I caved though because A) I realized that Supers just works with most of my friends and B) I was kind of inspired by all of the above.
With Group A I felt like we'd just played Supers not that long ago [and in fact, we had]. I
wanted to do something different though so I went with a very particular setting and vibe. The campaign is set in the world of the Anime/Manga My Hero Academia, with the players playing American Superheroes working for the Hero Helpline. Hero Helpline is an on-call private enterprise that responds to individual and business requests to fight crime, perform rescues, and provide other services best suited to the Hero profession. They are also available to assist city law enforcement and emergencies services.
Basically, I wanted to combine the core concept of the computer game Dispatch with the setting of My Hero Academia.
As far as Group B, well, I've been promising them I'd run Supers again with them 'someday soon' for a little while now. After a few short campaigns, false starts, and some really good one-shots, I decided someday was now.
This campaign sees the PCs as an expansion of the Legion of Superheroes, the premier team of DC Comics' 31st Century. As the United Planets has grown in size, so has interstellar criminal activity and attacks from hostile powers like the Khund Empire and The Dominators. Our team of five Superheroes are based far from Earth on the ocean world of Vuruna. Every adventure sees one or more of the established Legion characters helping out the PCs.
I'm having fun with these but I'm not sure they are what I want to run most.
More on that...very soon,
AD
Barking Alien
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