[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_awesomes_5972.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The Awesomes, our bar is lower.]]

''The Awesomes'' is an adult animated series streaming on {{Creator/Hulu}}, about the greatest superhero team ever -- after all the good members quit. From the comedic minds of Creator/SethMeyers (''Series/SaturdayNightLive'') and Mike Shoemaker (''[[Series/LateNight Late Night with Jimmy Fallon]]''), and showcasing the voice talents of then-contemporary and past SNL stars, ''The Awesomes'' premiered in August 2013.

After Mr. Awesome, the world's most beloved superhero, announces he's retiring, he reluctantly passes the mantle and leadership of the eponymous team off to his son, Jeremy (aka "Prock"). Prock is incredibly intelligent, but he's not cut out for being a hero, being a [[SquishyWizard rather nonathletic wimp]] with no leadership experience. After all the other members leave, save Prock's only friend on the team, [[DumbMuscle Muscle Man]], Prock is forced to build the team back up so that the US Government will continue funding them. After filling out his roster with an eccentric group of superheroes who had been previously rejected for a litany of reasons, Prock and the new Awesomes have to learn to be a good team and prove themselves to the public.

Has been officially cancelled by Hulu after the third season ended, though the creators are allegedly still looking for other networks willing to pick the show up.

Now has a [[Recap/TheAwesomes Recap page]].
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!!''The Awesomes'' provides examples of:
* AbusiveParents: Frantic's parents, particularly his father, who calls him worthless when Frantic is introduced.
* AffectionateParody: Of superhero stories and tropes.
* AIIsACrapshoot: The robotherapists, who acknowledge this trope and claim that isn't going to happen. [[spoiler: Subverted, they were deliberately created to be evil by Dr. Malocchio as part of his master plan.]]
* AllLoveIsUnrequited:
** Prock has a crush on Hotwire, but she's already dating Perfect Man. [[spoiler: Tomboy has pined for decades for Gadget Gal, [[IncompatibleOrientation who doesn't swing that way]].]] [[spoiler: And apparently Joyce Mandrake secretly is very attracted to Prock, which everyone, including herself, finds disturbing.]]
** If her slight nervous breakdown in "Robotherapy" is of any indication, [[spoiler: Concierge seems to have a slight crush on Prock as well.]]
* AllYourPowersCombined: A villain uses a special set of PoweredArmor to do this to the Awesomes and the Euro-Awesomes. [[spoiler:He's defeated by getting Prock's BlessedWithSuck time stop ability and overusing it.]]
* AlternateSelf: In the 5th episodes, the team encounters alternate universe versions of themselves and several of their enemies.
* AmericansHateTingle: InUniverse - Perfect Man is ''much'' less beloved in France than he is elsewhere. Turns out it's probably because he is ''insanely'' racist.
* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler:The series ends with the Awesomes about to fight off an AlienInvasion.]]
* ArtEvolution: The animation in the second and third seasons is a step up from the first.
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Malocchio Jr's sonic scream somehow traveling across interstellar distances to hit Mr Awesome's space station [[spoiler: at the moment he was performing a blood transfusion with Malocchio Sr]].
* ArtisticLicenseLaw: So much was wrong with the trial of Perfect Man. First of all, Jocelyn Stone is the prosecutor yet has a TV commercial like some AmbulanceChaser. Second, she called Perfect Man to take the stand, when the 5th Amendment states that a person cannot be forced to incriminate themselves and thus cannot be called by opposing counsel. (Testifying in his own defense would be another matter.)
* BackToBackBadasses: Muscleman and Perfect Man in the first season finale, after Muscleman talks the depowered hero into it.
* BadassNormal: Gadget Gal and Concierge. Gadget Gal [[WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys relies on (duh) gadgets]] to fight, while Concierge is more on [[TheSmartGuy the information-gathering side of things]].
* BattleCouple: Dine and Dash, [[spoiler:Sumo's parents]] met while trying to steal the same thing, and soon became really good at fighting as a team.
* BecomingTheMask: Hotwire [[spoiler: developed genuine feelings for Prock while posing as a hero.]]
* BigBad: Dr. Malocchio for season 1. [[spoiler: Malocchio Jr for season 2.]]
* BittersweetEnding: Both seasons so far:
** Season 1: Malocchio's plan is foiled and the world is safe. But [[spoiler:Hotwire is presumed dead, though she isn't really, and Perfect Man and the other heroes get all the credit for saving the world.]]
** Season 2: [[spoiler:Maloccio Jr. and the PRICKS are stopped, Jaclyn is back to normal and on good terms with Prock, Prock and Hotwire are finally together, Malocchio Sr. is cured of his evil and Perfect Man not only saves the world from the invading aliens but fully admits Prock is a good hero. However Perfect Man's saving of the world overshadows the awesome's victory, Hot Wire is saddened by her failure to turn her brother back, France is destroyed, and, worst of all, the blood transfusion that cured Malocchio of his evil infects Mr. Awesome with his evil supercells, turning Mr. Awesome evil. ]]
** Season 3: [[spoiler:Mr. Awesome has been stopped and reverted back to being a good guy and finally acknowledges Prock and his accomplishments. Hotwire has also given birth and the entire gang is enjoying Italy. However, the aliens that Mr. Awesome called a year ago while he was still evil arrive and wish to enslave humanity.]]
* BroughtDownToNormal: Dr. Malocchio's plan involves convincing Earth's superheroes to do this to ''themselves''.
* BullyingADragon: Pablo and his sidekicks continue taunting Tim even after they find out he can turn into Sumo. They claim it's because they think he's cool as Sumo.
* ButchLesbian: Gadget Gal's archnemesis, Tomboy, was an ArmoredClosetGay case of this, topped off with [[spoiler: actually having a crush on Gadget Gal herself]].
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Season 1 has Muscle Man start as the routine DumbMuscle until he shows true sparks of intelligence later, and he has been developed to be a good listener and caring toward his friend Prock, along with becoming attracted to alien women. Season 2 has Gadget Girl cracking more jokes about her sexual tendencies than retro references, and even Prock's problems have become more about his rocky romances rather than superherodom.
* DatingCatwoman: Subverted. Muscle Man scores a date with a sexy burglar named Catlady for Valentine's day... only it turns out, he was mistaken; Catlady is a CrazyCatLady while the person he was thinking of was Cat''GIRL'', presumably a Catwoman/Black Cat expy. He calls off their date after realizing this.
* DeadpanSnarker: Several characters, but Prock and Concierge are the ones to most frequently fill out this role.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: Prock saves the world from the robotherapists with a RousingSpeech. Seconds later, he's back to being taunted for his emotional weakness and general uselessness.
** After the final battle in Season 1, the Awesomes are only awarded "participant" status, whereas everyone else wins golden medals of heroism.
* DumbMuscle: Muscle Man. This may be primarily intellectual laziness, as [[spoiler:he figures out that Hotwire is TheMole before anyone else, correctly works out that the pageant is a trap (he's trying extra hard in that episode) and successfully fools Malocchio into believing he's made a FaceHeelTurn]].
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first season seems fairly disjointed from the rest of the series, with much stiffer and less expressive animation (notice the difference in Impresario's facial expressions for a very clear example) and more frequent tropes found in other superhero shows/movies, both of which were toned down in later seasons.
* EvilCounterpart: The Astoundings of Earth-4. [[spoiler:The Hotwire of that Earth is a hero, so what does that make ''our'' Hotwire?]]
* {{Expy}}: Inevitable given this is a parody of superheroes, although most examples aren't too blatantly obvious:
** Mr. Awesome and Perfect Man are both Franchise/{{Superman}} [[SupermanSubstitute copies]].
** Prock has a few elements of [[ComicBook/{{Invincible}} Mark Grayson/Invincible]].
** Sumo is a CaptainEthnic version of the [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]]. Given that he's also a young boy whose superpowered form is that of a grown adult, he could also count as one for [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Billy Batson]].
** SuperSpeed is not an unusual superpower, but Frantic's similarity to Franchise/TheFlash is reinforced by the fact that he wears a yellow costume similar to one of the Flash's early ones.
** Although his choice of costume is completely different, Impresario's power is basically the same as Franchise/{{Green Lantern}}'s (except that Impresario can't fly, and his constructs are purple... and bear a disturbing resemblance to his mother). His costume may draw some comparisons to Blue Raja from ''Film/MysteryMen''.
** Gadget Gal is basically a mix of [[Comicbook/{{Watchmen}} Sally Jupiter/Silk Specter]], with elements of Merry the Gimmick Girl and Merry's daughter Gimmix of Creator/GrantMorrison's ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiers''; she's basically Gimmix if she were her mother turned young again, instead of a LegacyHero using her mother's gadgets. Her look is a fusion of Merry's costume and Silk Specter's hairstyle and fishnets.
** Black Irish is Franchise/{{Batman}}. Right down to the raspy voice of recent incarnations, which is lampshaded when he takes a throat lozenge and his voice changes ''completely''.
** Concierge's appearance, voice, personality, and background are all uncannily similar to that of Alice Tompkins from ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic''. The freckles and red hair, however, as well as her job description, might be a nod to ComicBook/IronMan's GirlFriday and occasional LoveInterest Pepper Potts.
** Metal Fella is a rather obvious take-off of Iron Man. A genius billionaire playboy philanthropist who fights crime using a suit of PoweredArmor. [[spoiler: Or so we're led to believe. Turns out it's actually Hotwire.]]
** Jaclyn Stone, the best prosecutor in the biz, has an uncanny resemblance to [[Franchise/AceAttorney Miles Edgeworth]], also a highly esteemed prosecutor.
* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler:Hotwire and Dr. Malocchio in the second season.]] The second one is involuntary.
* FantasticRacism: An intelligent ape is prejudiced against humans. He's swift to clarify that he's got nothing against gay people, however; when he insults the team by calling them "Homos" he's mortified that they initially assumed it was short for something other than ''Homo sapiens''.
* FastballSpecial: Muscle Man and Sumo perform one in season 3, but it's a little different than most in that Muscle Man kicks off of Sumo's stomach to send himself flying rather than being thrown.
* FirstEpisodeTwist: Well, of the second season. Metalfella's identity. [[spoiler:It's Hotwire.]]
* FlashForward: The first episode starts with one of these, to the culmination of Dr. Malocchio's plan.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Mr. Awesome's favoritism of Perfect Man over Prock and their similar powers were all hinted to the reveal [[spoiler:Mr. Awesome is Perfect Man's father]].
* FriendlyEnemy: Dr Malocchio and Awesome Man. It helps that they were friends before Malocchio turned evil, and that Malocchio is very AffablyEvil.
* FunWithAcronyms:
** Joyce Mandrake works for G.O.O.S.A (Government Office Of Superhero Affairs).
** U.M.B.R.E.L.L.A., which stands for Ultimate Military But Really Extremely Low-Level Acknowledgement. This name is promptly lampshaded by Prock's teammates:
---> '''Hotwire:''' Sounds like they were trying ''really'' hard to make an acronym for "umbrella".\\
'''Impresario:''' And umbrellas aren't even cool. Why not do "dragon"?
* GadgeteerGenius: Gadget Gal.
* GoKartingWithBowser: Mr. Awesome and Malocchio [[spoiler:in season 2 pass the time by playing Scrabble]].
* GreatDetective: Fitting with his being a Batman copy, Black Irish. As Prock puts it, "You don't find him; he deduces that you need to talk to him and he finds you."
* HatePlague: In "The Awesomes' Awesome Show" it turns out that [[spoiler:the producer of the reality TV show has this ability and uses it to create drama above and beyond the normal reality television action]].
* HollywoodHealing: Averted in that Prock breaks his wrist on his first mission, and the cast he places around it is still present through most of the first season. He proceeds to break the other wrist at the start of season 2, which he wears into season 3. Plus there's the matter of that time-stopping power that often causes him nosebleeds and, as he has been told, may eventually kill him.
* HonorBeforeReason: "Teleportation Larry always pays his debts." Even if it means teleporting back into a trap.
* IAlwaysWantedToSayThat: Muscleman. "Finally, I get to say to someone else what everybody has been saying to me all these years. You're an idiot."
* InkSuitActor: Jaclyn Stone looks exactly like Amy Poehler.
* InterchangeableAsianCultures: Averted - Tim's mother is Korean, and his father is Japanese but raised in California. However, they posed as Japanese immigrants with heavy accents when they took on civilian identities.
* InWithTheInCrowd: Tim temporarily gets to hang with the delinquents at his school because they like Sumo's rage-induced rampages.
* JiveTurkey: Professor Doctor Astounding in Season 1 and Metalfella in Season 2. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] on both occasions.
* KangarooCourt: Perfect Man is accused of treason in Season 2 and the prosecutor flagrantly manipulates him, badgering him into saying he sided with Malocchio of his own accord (when he was actually mind-controlled). The judge makes no effort to intervene, and the jury immediately declares him guilty, very obviously because they don't like him (he's [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero a teensy bit racist]]).
* KnightInSourArmor: The Awesomes as a team, but most prominently Prock.
* LeftHanging: Due to cancellation, the series had several plot threads left unresolved, and [[spoiler:ended with a giant CliffHanger]].
* LegionOfDoom: [[spoiler:Malocchio Jr.]] is putting one of these together in season 2.
* LoveAtFirstSight: A couple of seconds after seeing Hotwire for the first time, Prock announces to himself: "Okay, this is the woman of your dreams, and you're going to marry her. That much is clear."
* MakeMeWannaShout: Malocchio Jr. after injecting himself with the super-serum that gave his father powers.
* MesACrowd: Impresario learns how to do this, but turns out to be unable to reabsorb his energy duplicates, which have autonomy. [[spoiler:After the others are destroyed, the sole known remaining duplicate joins the PRICKS.]]
* MirrorUniverse: Earth-4, where the heroes are the bad guys and vice versa. Also worth nothing, Mirror Mr. Awesome supported his son's desire to follow in his (evil) footsteps, and Tomboy is a man (The Handyman).
* TheMole: There's a traitor on the team. [[spoiler:Confirmed to be Hotwire]].
* MommasBoy: Impresario. Tim has some shades of this, though he's much more independent and it stems from his parents [[EducationMama placing a lot of emphasis on his academics]] (plus he's like 11, still just a kid).
** Impresario seems to undergo some character development in a second season episode [[spoiler:by managine to conjure up things that don't look like his mother]].
* TheMultiverse: Episode 4 establishes the existence of multiple universes, with the following episode revealing the alternate Earth featured to have the designation of Earth-4.
* MusicalEpisode: "Les Miserawesomes", an almost WholePlotReference of ''Theatre/LesMiserables.''
* MyBelovedSmother: Impresario's mother, to the point that his conjured constructs ''will'' look like her in some way. [[spoiler:He manages to conjure up things that don't look like her in the second season, though.]]
* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Perfect Man pulls this twice in season 2.
** When Prock recaps the events of season 1, we see a portrait of Perfect Man above The Awesomes. He even winks before segueing into the opening theme.
** At the end of Episode 18, entitled "Euro-Awesomes", Perfect Man's towel drops revealing his nude body. While Prock and Hotwire are grossed out, Perfect Man shakes it off like it's nothing. Heck, he opens the wine bottle naked.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Malocchio ("evil eye") turns out to be Malocchio's real name, and foreshadowed his fate.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Prock's drunken ranting convinces Malocchio Jr. to become a supervillain. Also, his unleashing a sonic wave messes up the blood transfusion process for Maloccio, turning Mr Awesome evil in the process.
* NoNameGiven: Most of the heroes, as well as Concierge. We only know Prock's (Jeremy), Sumo's (Tim), and Impressario's (Austin) at the start, with more slowly revealed over the series.
* NoodleIncident:
** At some point, the Awesomes (or maybe just Muscleman) [[MonumentalDamage knocked the head off the Statue of Liberty]].
** The "Rhode Island Story" for Prock. It has ''something'' to do with a car breakdown.
* NoSell: Both Prock and his father are immune to mind control.
* NotSoAboveItAll: Despite his OnlySaneMan tendencies, Tim is still just a kid and isn't above doing immature things. Concierge also takes drugs.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Joyce Mandrake. Though she does allow Prock to set up a new Awesomes team, even when he recruited from the Rejects file, she doesn't have any problem with saddling the team with any new restrictions that pop up along the way.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Prock is a lawyer and [[NotThatKindOfDoctor some sort of doctor]], who's also got expertise in computer programming and advanced technology design (as he designed the hologram room to block all of the Awesomes' powers).
* PowerAtAPrice: If Prock uses his time-stopping abilities too much, it could kill him. Thus, he has to use it sparingly.
* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Perfect Man, and Gadget Gal to a lesser extent.
* PrankDate: [[spoiler: Mr. Awesome]] makes it appear via manipulation of a dating site that Muscleman has expressed an interest in dating [[CrazyCatLady Cat Lady]]. Muscleman is initially okay with this, mistaking her with [[ClassyCatBurglar Catgirl]] until he's corrected by the rest of the team and is shown her picture he then rejects the date. Cat Lady does [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge not take this well]].
* {{Pride}}: Black Irish's self-described greatest weakness. It caused him to abandon the Awesomes when Prock became the leader, and later lured him in to Dr. Malocchio's trap.
** In fact pride is stated to be the weakness of all heroes which is why no one questioned a gathering of all the world's superheroes for an awards show.
* ProductPlacement: The first season endings have the characters plugging Jack Link's Beef Jerky.
* PsychicNosebleed: Both Prock and Dr. Malocchio get these if they overextend themselves.
* RacistGrandma: Gadget Gal has some outdated attitudes about race, and her looking like a twenty-five-year-old means she doesn't get as much of a pass. Lampshaded in "The Awesomes Awesome Show" in regards to [[spoiler:Frantic's homosexuality]].
--> I don't call him "chorus boy" because he can sing, I call him "chorus boy" because it's offensive.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: A more literal example. Red eyes are a symptom of turning evil, [[NotHimself being mind-controlled to do evil things]], and [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs using mind-control powers to make people turn evil.]] This is all common knowledge InUniverse and will even hold up in a courtroom.
* SamusIsAGirl: [[spoiler: Metalfella ain't a fella.]]
* SexySecretary: Concierge.
* SmugSnake: Dr. Malocchio. Especially when he says "All is going according to plan".
* SmugSuper: Perfect Man. It's even in his name. He's incredibly condescending to the Awesomes throughout season 1.
* SoProudOfYou: [[spoiler: Mr Awesome at the end of season 1 expresses his pride in Prock's achievements after Prock saves the world from Malocchio.]]
* SpannerInTheWorks: Teleportation Larry's drunkenness renders him immune to Malocchio's mind control (because he can't focus his eyes well enough to make actual eye contact), and because he can still teleport despite being drunk, most of the team is able to escape thanks to him.
** The Fishsticks ruin the Aggravator's plan to exploit the Awesomes by kidnapping her, forcing her to release the Awesomes to save her
* StalkerWithACrush: Muscle Man's sister has a thing for Prock... Even though she's married...
* StevenUlyssesPerhero: Malocchio's real name actually is Malocchio, and he has the ability to mind control people with his eyes.
* StraightGay: [[spoiler: Frantic]] is gay, and even has a boyfriend that visits Awesome Tower all the time. It's never mentioned before now because Prock never actually pays attention to anything he does.
* StressVomit: Muscleman reveals that he rarely freaks out due to long experience with the bizarre things that happen around superheroes, but when he does, he vomits. The episode then has him vomit repeatedly.
* SuperHeroOrigin: Parodied in the third episode when the Awesomes share their stories campfire style.
* SuperRegistrationAct: All superheroes are required by law to register with the Government Office of Superhero Affairs (G.O.O.S.A).
* SuperSerum / PsychoSerum: Dr. Malocchio discovered a way to give himself and others superpowers, but it turns them evil.
* SweetOnPollyOliver: {{Averted|Trope}} and {{Inverted|Trope}} by Prock and Gadget Gal respectively. [[DramaticIrony While Prock hates Metalfella]] [[HateAtFirstSight at First Sight]] and soon warms up to him, [[HeterosexualLifePartners his feelings are completely platonic.]] Meanwhile, Gadget Gal wants to bang Metalfella immediately. While he's fully armored. Yeah, if you’re reading this and [[DestructoNookie you know how this can work without Gadget Gal breaking more than five bones]] give us a call.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Dr. Malocchio has publicly pulled off a HeelFaceTurn (via mind-controlling people into ''believing'' that), but it's clear to the audience and to Prock that he's still scheming to take over the world.
* WellDoneSonGuy:
** Prock would really like his father to acknowledge him as a superhero. There are hints that Mr. Awesome ''would'' be proud of his son if Prock stuck to things he was actually good at, but that's not where Prock's heart is.
** Joyce Mandrake wants the Awesomes' reality show and its spinoffs to continue because it's the first time her mother has ever understood what she does for a living.
* WickedCultured: In addition to his interest in destroying the superheroes, Dr. Malocchio is quite the gourmet and an excellent cook (he manages to concoct something not only edible, but quite palatable, out of only the ingredients "beans, grapes, cinnamon, and tobacco"). He's ''seriously'' offended that his minions want to order pizza instead of having his latest creation for dinner.
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