While the newest live-action Harley Quinn was a big part of the latest Joker: Folie à Deux trailer, Kaley Cuoco’s animated quasi-hero returned to the small screen in cameo form for the Max Original Kite Man: Hell Yeah, the wonderfully nutty and self-deprecating spinoff fronted by the titular bar-owning villain. The new DC TV show is just as wildly NSFW as Harley and Ivy’s love-story adventures, whether we’re talking sex jokes about Catwoman, F-bombs, or shockingly nasty fight sequences. And somehow, it manages to go beyond.
Not when it comes to the show’s amusingly uncomplicated core plotline, which revolves around Matt Oberg’s Kite Man and girlfriend Golden Glider (Stephanie Hsu) buying Gotham City’s most antagonist-friendly dive bar, Noonan’s, and trying to make it a success. (Of course, that’s all complicated by other more noteworthy villains like Lance Reddick’s Lex Luthor and nightlife competition.) Rather, I’m talking about Kite Man: Hell Yeah introducing a pair of baddies that could potentially go down as the most shockingly disgusting and vile DC TV characters of all time.
I’m talking, of course, about the conjoined-twin brothers Moe and Joe Dubelz, as voiced by The Sopranos and This Fool vet Michael Imperioli. Simply put, Moe and Joe are introduced as fairly obvious parodies of traditional mobster types, only not quite so coked-out and over-the-top as Al Pacino’s Scarface, and not quite so actively dangerous as James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano. But before too long, a plot to rob Kite Man’s father goes awry, leading to Joe’s death via gunshot wound.
Not that Moe was eager to accept that fate, trying to explain it away initially as such:
Nah, nah, Joe’s fine. He’s just taking a nap.
Just because Joe’s dead now doesn’t mean that he actually vacates the show or anything, which is where things get hilariously dark and non-DC-like. Considering Moe continues to be an avid patron at Noonan’s, that means Joe is also along for the ride, and it looks like the conjoined corpse will go through the decomposition process as the season goes on. So just about every time viewers’ eyes pass across the twins, Joe’s head is that much closer to total putridness.
Like, this is for real on par with something out of Eric Kripke’s The Boys as far as its extreme nature goes. But while that show’s grossest moments tend to involve male genitalia and explosions, and are understandably handled quickly due to the live-action-ness of it all, Kite Man’s sitch with Moe and Joe is far more morose and psychologically warped in how prolonged it is.
Kite Man: Hell Yeah! is set for a 10-episode first season, which means Moe Dubelz could be a leaking and stinking mess by the time the finale comes around. Part of me can’t imagine any kind of DC project going that route, but I also can’t imagine that this character’s arc was plotted in such a way where Joe ends up suddenly leaving town or something. So the only alternative within this universe would be for Moe to take a dip in a Lazarus Pit, which would bring him back to life, but as a changed person with darkened morals.
Only time will tell whether or not that happens. But in the meantime, I’m shamefully loving a reality where I’m legitimately wondering what DC’s stance is on animated maggots.
Kite Man: Hell Yeah! streams new episodes every Thursday on Max, so place your bets on just how nasty Moe will get before the season is done, and head to our 2024 TV premiere schedule to see what other new and returning shows are popping up soon.
