Batman Meets The Umbrella Academy In The '90s Cult Classic That Was Ahead Of Its Time

Published Sep 5, 2026, 6:15 PM EDT Ben is a Senior Writer on the New TV team at Screen Rant. He graduated from the University of Central Lancashire with a First Class B.A. Degree in English Literature and History. Born and raised in Ireland, Ben has always had a love for storytelling in all forms of media and operates multiple projects under the name Benjamin Blogs. Ben is a comic book writer and podcast host, in addition to his work as an entertainment journalist. He has worked as both a writer and editor for Screen Rant, Collider, and other media outlets across various departments, including features, news, reviews, and interviews. The 1990s gave birth to some of the most subversive, bizarre, and genuinely groundbreaking films of all time, like one superhero story that proved to be far ahead of its time. Now, looking back at superhero movies from the 1990s, such as Tim Burton's Batman Returns, The Mask, and Spawn, these proved to be some of the most experimental superhero stories ever created at the time. Today, superhero stories have managed to take over the box office, with the MCU raking in billions of dollars through the years, and the DCU starting to fire up its engines to follow in those footsteps. But beyond theaters, TV has also started to dip into the superhero space in a big way, with many of the most successful shows in the space breaking the mold and offering something completely unique. Shows like The Umbrella Academy, or The Boys, which may occasionally look similar to traditional superhero shows, focus on wild and outrageous narratives that dip into grounded realism. But long before these shows began streaming, Mystery Men captured this same kind of magic spark in a groundbreaking way that set the stage for more stories like these to be told. Mystery Men Is Way Too Underrated In 1999, Mystery Men, a film directed by Kinka Usher and based on a subversive counterculture series of comics by Bob Burden, Flaming Carrot Comics. Just like the comics, the film took familiar concepts, such as the superhero story, and took it to extremes that challenged and upended tropes and expectations that had become a part of the genre. While a movie like Batman Returns, and even Burton's initial effort, Batman from 1989, imbued those stories with Burton's style and sense of humor, they still felt like a lot of superhero stories that had come before, but Mystery Men truly broke new ground. Firstly, the film boasted a stellar cast, including Hank Azaria, Claire Forlani, Eddie Izzard, Greg Kinnear, William H. Macy, Paul Reubens, Ben Stiller, and so on. But more than the incredible cast, Mystery Men took risks and created a story that felt completely new despite the popularity of comics and superheroes at the time. It's goofy, quirky, gritty, and bizarre, but it manages to convey a spectacular story that is unlike anything else released in that decade, and as a result, it got swallowed up in a sea of films that were more in line with the standard releases of that era. Mystery Men Paved The Way For Subversive Superheroes Despite this, recent years have certainly given way to novel and outlandish comic book movies, as audiences have become disenchanted with the traditional superhero stories and have begun turning to something more challenging and new. Shows like The Boys, The Umbrella Academy, Misfits, The Tick, Gen V, Extraordinary, and more explore aspects of these stories that previously went untapped. In these stories, heroes are more complex. They are not simply gods walking among men, or wealthy philanthropists who become one-man armies, but they are flawed human beings. They wield their powers selfishly, they make mistakes that result in catastrophic disasters, and they become consumed by their egos and self-belief that they are somehow more worthy than anyone else of a power they had no say in developing. In addition, many of these stories examine novel superpowers that can often be disgusting, inconvenient, and cause more trouble than they are worth. All of this is explored in great detail in Mystery Men, once again showing how ahead of its time the movie was. While some of the most recent releases in this space are absolutely defining the space, it's worth going back to where the foundations for these kinds of stories on the big and small screen were laid. Mystery Men remains one of only a handful of feature films in this space, but the success of subversive superhero shows could lead to a renaissance in the space, decades after Mystery Men broke new ground. Release Date August 6, 1999 Runtime 121 Minutes Director Kinka Usher Writers Neil Cuthbert, Bob Burden