the-real-supervillain
Original: the-real-supervillain on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Superman: Superman has no familiar with the hygiene hypothesis?
Bald man: Huh?
Panel 2:
Superman: It starts attacking healthy cells instead.
Panel 3:
Superman: The idea is that you might actually give people deadly diseases in order to calm an overactive immune response.
Bald man: What's your point?
Panel 4:
Superman: Imagine you had a person who fought crime so effectively that there was none left.
Panel 5:
Superman: But that person was still around, still itching to do good, still all-powerful and very powerful.
Panel 6:
Superman: What you need is to create new "criminals" for him to target.
Bald man: I'm not sure I want to talk to you.
Panel 7:
Superman: Because you know how afraid he'll take? It'd help and attack you so instead of coming right out and saying it, you slowly become the ridiculous example of the fake criminals.
Panel 8:
Superman: First it's a smart guy named Bad. Then, it's hulk people at some point it's an alien from a planet called Hooksome.
Bald man: Wait, what does that mean?
Panel 9:
Superman: When mean aliens have enough fucking enormous bad things like wires you can pull all that simply, but they expel it? I mean?
Panel 10:
Superman: It's so obvious in retrospect.
Bald man: I'm going to mark to us alone and write bad poetry.
Panel 11:
Bald man (thought/caption): Superdiseases is the idea that bad guys keep Superman busy.
Panel 12 (silhouettes at a podium / lectern):
Damn, Luthor is good.
Votey:
Caption at top: Soon...
A bald man (Lex Luthor) looks sad/wistful.
Speech bubble: I'm bored without him.
Superman: Superman has no familiar with the hygiene hypothesis?
Bald man: Huh?
Panel 2:
Superman: It starts attacking healthy cells instead.
Panel 3:
Superman: The idea is that you might actually give people deadly diseases in order to calm an overactive immune response.
Bald man: What's your point?
Panel 4:
Superman: Imagine you had a person who fought crime so effectively that there was none left.
Panel 5:
Superman: But that person was still around, still itching to do good, still all-powerful and very powerful.
Panel 6:
Superman: What you need is to create new "criminals" for him to target.
Bald man: I'm not sure I want to talk to you.
Panel 7:
Superman: Because you know how afraid he'll take? It'd help and attack you so instead of coming right out and saying it, you slowly become the ridiculous example of the fake criminals.
Panel 8:
Superman: First it's a smart guy named Bad. Then, it's hulk people at some point it's an alien from a planet called Hooksome.
Bald man: Wait, what does that mean?
Panel 9:
Superman: When mean aliens have enough fucking enormous bad things like wires you can pull all that simply, but they expel it? I mean?
Panel 10:
Superman: It's so obvious in retrospect.
Bald man: I'm going to mark to us alone and write bad poetry.
Panel 11:
Bald man (thought/caption): Superdiseases is the idea that bad guys keep Superman busy.
Panel 12 (silhouettes at a podium / lectern):
Damn, Luthor is good.
Votey:
Caption at top: Soon...
A bald man (Lex Luthor) looks sad/wistful.
Speech bubble: I'm bored without him.
Alt text
A multi-panel SMBC comic. A character drawn as Superman (in his S-shield costume) delivers a long, rambling monologue to a bald man, riffing on the medical "hygiene hypothesis" — the notion that an immune system with no pathogens to fight starts attacking healthy cells, so you might deliberately give people diseases to calm an overactive immune response. He extends the metaphor to a crimefighter so effective that no crime remains, yet who is still all-powerful and itching to do good; the solution is to invent new "criminals" to keep him occupied. He spins out an escalating, increasingly garbled scheme about manufacturing fake villains — a smart guy, hulking people, an alien from another planet — to keep the hero busy. The bald man grows confused and uneasy, eventually saying he's going off to be alone and write bad poetry. In the final panels, shown as silhouettes at a podium, the takeaway lands: "Superdiseases" is the idea of keeping Superman perpetually busy with manufactured threats, and an admiring voice concludes, "Damn, Luthor is good" — revealing the bald schemer was Lex Luthor. Votey (aftercomic): A close-up line drawing of the bald man (Luthor) looking sad and wistful under the caption "Soon...", with a speech bubble reading "I'm bored without him."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.