Captain Blasto Takes Off

The web video world’s awash in shows about superheroes and existential crises these days, but they’ve all been amazing so why not add one more to the group? Enter Captain Blasto, an eleven-part, biweekly series that just aired its sixth installment and is gaining popularity on YouTube, iTunes, and other channels.

The show’s main character, Colin Carter, is your standard nerdy high schooler whose best friend is the janitor, Daryl Karameikos. Tired of being bored and ignored, Colin decides

to assume the identity of his favorite comic book superhero, stage crimes around town, rescue the unknowing victims, and reap the rewards. This all gets laid out pretty well in episode one, but the hijinks (and killer editing – watch for the chase scene) pick up as the first “caper” goes down in episode two:

Colin and his growing crew of discontented collaborators continue recreating the Captain Blasto story in the next three episodes (check them out in high quality on Blip here), which highlight the entertaining comic absurdity of their plans with a great musical and aesthetic homage to comic book style.

The sixth and latest episode starts to reveal the main conflict of the series, though, when the fictional capers become a bit too dark and a bit too real.

The last five episodes are sure to offer plenty of superheroic twists and zaniness to see you through the end of the summer (episode 11 is scheduled to come out on October 13^th).

It’s also worth noting that the series seems to be an adaptation of a feature film (but not an Atari game, mind you) created in Pittsburgh by the young filmmakers Chris Preksta, Aaron Kleiber, and Ashley Urbaniak on a $5000-$7000 budget and released to acclaim on the independent film circuit in 2005. Web syndication seems like the best way for the creators reach as many viewers as possible given their indie platform, and such geek-friendly material doesn’t hurt either.

I certainly wish the Blasto crew the best over the coming weeks, and many successful video capers in the future – or at least my inner escapist high schooler does.