normalman is a limited series of American comic books created by Jim Valentino. It began in November, 1983 as a four page story in issues #56 and #57 of Cerebus the Aardvark before being launched as a full color 12 issue series (January, 1984- December, 1985) which was published by Aardvark-Vanaheim before moving to Denis Loubet's Renegade Press. The story of normalman would conclude in normalman 3D Annual #1.
Fearing the Planet Arnold would explode, normalman's father sends his infant son on a rocketship to escape the planet's destruction . . . which NEVER comes to pass. Twenty years later and fully grown, normalman crash-lands on the planet Levram, where everybody has super powers ... except for normalman himself. Being the only person on the whole planet with no powers makes him a celebrity.
The series spoofed many comic book companies per issue, including DC, Marvel, EC and Harvey, as well as doing parodies of The Spirit, Elfquest, Asterix, Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz. The series was first collected in trade paperback by Slave Labor Graphics. Recently, a new trade paperback which included several followups was published by Image Comics. Both trades are in black and white. In 2024, a hardcover omnibus was published collecting the series in full color along with other material.
Do not confuse with Muggles or Badass Normal, nor with the Italian comic book (later adapted to a radio show and eventually to a Live-Action TV show) superhero spoof of the same name.
Tropes associated with this work:
- Actually a Doombot: Sgt. Fluffy - the first time, anyway.
- The Adjectival Superhero
- Alien Non-Interference Clause: The rest of the universe has Levram quarantined due to the dangerous nature of its inhabitants.
- Alien Space Bats: Levram turns out to be an Alternate History Earth where a serum from the future gave everybody superpowers.
- Alternate Universe: normalman ends up jumping through a few, including the comic book Journey and a mishmash of Disney/Warner Bros. and Harvey Comics.
- Ambidextrous Sprite: Parodied with Sgt. Fluffy's eye patch changing eyes between panels.
- Back from the Dead: Sgt. Fluffy, after he actually dies.
- Batman Parody: There's a Batman-looking Paper Person called Flat Man in the Justice League Of Society.
- Big Brother Is Watching: Levram is one big reality TV show with cameras everywhere to catch the men fighting ALL the time.
- Captain Ersatz: A distinct majority of the characters. Captain Everything, for instance, combines elements of Superman and Captain Marvel.
- Captain Superhero: Captain Everything.
- City Planet: normalman had always assumed Levram was one of these until he had to travel from town to town to advance his political career.
- Crossover: with Cerebus the Aardvark, Journey by William Messner-Loebs, Tales of the Beanworld, and Megaton Man (the latter also featuring appearances by everyone from Madman to Bone to Groo the Wanderer to Flaming Carrot)
- Dimensional Traveller: One of Captain Everything's many powers if he doesn't get trapped in the Negative Phantom Zone.
- The Ditz: Captain Everything
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After all normalman/ Norm-L has endured on Levram, he is reunited with his mother on Arnold and he and Sophisticated Lady get married.
- Captain Everything becomes the champion of the planet Arnold.
- Earth All Along: Levram turns out to be an Alternate History Earth where superpowered people outbred the Muggles.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Dark Fluffy does this to Levram.
- Everyone Is a Super: Levram
- Eyepatch of Power: Sgt. Fluffy. (It even changes its position on his face.)
- The Fantastic Faux: The Ultra-Conservative sends the The Fanatic Four after normalman'', consisting of Mr Fanatical, Helpless Woman, The Humane Touch and The Lunk.
- Four-Fingered Hands: Standard in the setting and really weird looking on more 'realistic' characters like the Countess. In the Journey crossover, Joshua sees norm's hands and thinks he's the product of "when cousins marry..."
- Funetik Aksent: Dr. Deranged and Mr. Nose-Et-All.
- Fun with Acronyms: S.C.H.M.U.C.K.- which stands for "Nothing-In-Particular", according to the footnotes.
- HULK MASH!-Up: A big, green Captain Everything appears amongst his imperfect duplicates.
- Kavorka Man: It turns out the Levram women all want a weed like normalman because the local men are too busy beating the tar out of eachother to be interested in women.
- Lantern Jaw of Justice: Captain Everything can actually give the Crimson Chin a run for his money!
- Mars Needs Women: The women of Levram want normalman to repopulate the species with non-powered children because the supermen are too busy fighting to have sex.
- Meanwhile, in the Future…: Often cuts to the Legion of Superfluous Heroes as they're still doing their roll call before they can go back and save normalman in one of the early issues.
- Mocky Mouse: normalman runs into a rich anthropomorphic mouse called Mickey Money when trapped on Earth-Dismal.
- Naked People Are Funny: The Flesh (No, not that one!)
- Names To Not Trust: if someone named "Rotten Kid" claims to help you, maybe it wouldn't be wise to trust that someone.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Captain Everything states that he has this ability in the very first sentence he speaks.
- No Fourth Wall: Pretty much everyone seems aware they're in a comic book.
- Only Sane Man: normalman of course.
- Overly Long Gag: Every time S.C.H.M.U.C.K comes up, the editors feel it necessary to mention that it doesn't stand for anything in particular.
- The Legion of Superfluous Heroes' Roll Call counts as one too.
- Paper People: There's a two-dimensional Batman Parody called Flat Man.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Sgt. Fluffy is a fur-faced, heart-poundin', front-facin', meat-and-potatoes patriot who wears The Wizard of Oz style red sequined pumps.
- Ridiculously Average Guy: normalman, so average his name doesn't get to be capitalized. Until the series' end, where we learn that his real name is Norm-L.
- Rouge Angles of Satin: Unfortunately, there's a whole heaping bunch of obvious spelling and grammatical errors.
- Superpowerful Genetics: Inconsistent how it works. It's shown early on that one superpowered man spread his genetics all over the world to the point that non-powered people died out but it's said later that normalman could conceive non-powered children with the women of Levram.
- Sdrawkcab Name: Levram.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: With regards to the Legion of Superfluous Heroes, at least - "Yelling Girl" causes Lightweight Lad to lose his place shortly before reaching the Z's, and his starting over from the beginning pisses off everyone else so much that the combined energy they shoot at him destroys the clubhouse and possibly causes a time loop.
- Sinister Minister: The Pope of Pain.
- Something Person
- Stable Time Loop: normalman leaving a vial of Gaulish potion around during the Asterix parody leads to the development of superpowers in Levram's populace. Also, the destruction of the Legion of Superfluous Heroes clubhouse may have led to the existence of the huge crater they decided to build the clubhouse in to begin with.
- Strawman Political: The Ultra-Conservative, played for laughs. After getting injected with a super-serum, he alternates between his original persona and "The Liberalator", much to his annoyance.
- Stripperiffic: The Countess of Monte Crisco.
- Don't forget Nasty Girl.
- Superman Substitute: Inverted with normalman and played straight with Captain Everything.
- There Was a Door: Not many of the inhabitants of Levram use doors. Especially not Captain Everything.
- Un-Sorcerer: Well, duh.
- Wonder Woman Wannabe: Human Person seems to be the Wonder Woman in the Justice League Of Society amongst the other Justice League expies.
- World of Badass: The planet Levram, where everyone has super powers.
