That title isn’t a typo! The last episode of Super Crooks is called “Super Crooks” because it wraps up the story of Johnny Bolt and his gang of lovable(?) villains and ties up the plotlines of the series with a neat bow while leaving lots of details unexplored.
1. All’s well that ends … well, you get the idea
When we left Kasey, she was being tormented by The Bastard in exchange for information about Johnny and the gang’s plans. The two had a psychic showdown that wasn’t actually happening, since Kasey had them fooled since the last episode. While I’m relieved to see the “only female character becomes the damsel in distress” trope, it would’ve been interesting to see the way Kasey’s powers compete with Matts’s.
The heist concludes and, for once, is a complete success. The villains part ways and a time skip shows us what happens as they enjoy the rest of their lives. Johnny proposes to Kasey again, and Carmine is back to his old tricks, gambling away his share of the spoils. Happy endings all around for our gang of weirdos.
2. Pacing, pacing, pacing
The happy endings in the time skip come fresh off of a five-year time skip just a few episodes prior that was largely ineffective because it didn’t show any growth or change during the time that was missed. So while I’m marginally glad the main characters got their money in the end, I mostly didn’t care that much what happened to them from episode to episode.
The first nine or so episodes were strangely paced. From showing Johnny’s childhood but never making it matter, to introducing truly stupid sidekicks that he dropped in favor of the sidekicks that would stick around for the rest of the series, Super Crooks didn’t seem to know how to structure its thirteen episodes to build to a satisfying conclusion. This might be because the last three episodes were the only ones with preexisting source material from the comics. In any case, it meant the first episode promised a bonkers series but the middle was such a slog to get through that it dragged down the ending, which could’ve been a lot of fun.
3. (Character) Arcs be damned, let it rain
Johnny Bolt was ostensibly the protagonist of this series. But did he grow? Or learn anything about the world or his place in it? Nope, not that I could tell. Praetorian was moonlighting as a hero and a villain but you never find out why or what he did that finally brought him to the attention of the authorities. His comeuppance in the final episode was supposed to be cathartic but didn’t have much impact since we never got any insight into his life or why he was doing the things he did (or even what, exactly, he did during the time skip that was so bad). Similarly, Gladiator joining the team because he felt betrayed by Praetorian was supposed to be a big deal for his character but since we never saw them interacting except in montages, the whole thing fell flat.
Some of these characters may have been introduced in the larger Millarworld but since this is the only part of it I’ve seen, I’m treating this as a standalone series. The Union of Justice and its associated heroes were barely one-note characters here, which makes sense since it focused on villains. But because the thesis of the show was that heroes and villains aren’t that different, not developing characters like Praetorian meant that there just wasn’t much to back this assertion up.
4. Bad Romance
The only relationship that had any impact in the series was that of Johnny and Kasey. They had some chemistry and the best character designs out of the bunch, even if Johnny’s habit of calling Kasey random English words like “my honey” or “baby” in the Japanese audio version was mega creepy. But again, the lack of growth by any of the characters and the weird pacing meant that Johnny kept gaslighting her and breaking promises, right up to the end. Her forgiving him made no sense and I spent the whole series hoping she would leave the team to find happiness elsewhere.
Continued below5. To all the plot holes I’ve loved before
The random details were what made and broke Super Crooks to me, both throughout and in this last episode. The final heist involves snatching a briefcase from the big bad, who has hidden it in the basement of his private island. All standard stuff. But the briefcase is bigger on the inside, hiding all kinds of treasure. It essentially uses Time Lord technology and this is a fact that no one finds interesting or remarkable. Similarly, the final fight involves the bad guys (our protagonists) having their powers shut off but the heroes are unaffected. Why? How does that work? There wasn’t even a throwaway line of dialogue to explain it.
The lack of worldbuilding is something we’re expected to just roll with, and I think it would’ve been easier to do so if the series had leaned into the really weird stuff. If you’re constantly seeing bonkers action sequences and common sense-defying things, it’s easier to not wonder about the mechanics of the story. But because the heist and romance aspects of the show were front and center, it made the superpowers and fantastical technology stand out in a bad way.
Super Crooks had a handful of enjoyable moments that were overshadowed by how clumsy the rest of the series was handled. It was not a successful show, which is a shame, because the premise was a good one. It could’ve been an entertaining, violent romp but instead, it was baffling, boring, and forgettable.
