Major Bummer
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Major Bummer was a humorous comic book produced by DC Comics in the late 1990s. It was created by writer John Arcudi and artist Doug Mahnke.
[edit] Story
Two alien college students (named Zinnak and Yoof) are doing their thesis on heroes in Earth culture. To further their study, they send through the mail EEM's or Extreme Enhancement Modules that, when opened, attach themselves to the heart of the recipient endowing them with superpowers.
The main character of Major Bummer was Lou Martin. Lou was a slacker who, due to the incompetence of Yoof received an EEM instead of Martin Louis, an upwardly mobile young lawyer and philanthropist. Lou received a new muscular body that is inhumanly strong and has super-human intelligence. Unfortunately, because Lou is so lazy, he is only able to use his intelligence either subconsciously or during moments of extreme concentration. Despite this flaw, Lou was an erudite and intelligent individual already. The great irony being that his limitations were always his own fault and Lou enjoyed being a slacker; unlike most superheroes gaining powers were actually an inconvenience to him. Lou's EEM was designed to attract trouble and the other superhumans who Martin would have chosen to lead.
The other "Superheroes" included: the environmentalist daughter of an Ice Cream magnate who could fly, an aromatherapist hippie with a sonic scream, an elderly woman who could predict the future, but was so absent minded she got confused with the past, her cat that became a giant when scared (it opened and ate an EEM by mistake) and "Gecko", a nerdish man who could stick to walls and took the concept of being a superhero too seriously.
The EEM's were also gifted to a group of supervillains and attracted to one another in order to ensure battles would occur (mnost notably the loser turned monster Nunzio who Lou accidentally brain damaged). Other stories involved a Nazi dinosaur from a parallel universe named Tyrannosaurus Reich, a demon-possessed toddler who Lou babysat, an alien time traveler that destroyed time, alien worms that ate everything and an overly adoring fan of Lou's that tried to kill him to make him more famous.
Despite being critically successful and highly praised by a few devoted fans, Major Bummer had poor sales and was cancelled after issue number 15.
