When a lonely man passes away in a small town, rumours begin to circulate through the comic community about a possible goldmine collection that he left behind. Privy to this information are hardcore collector and store owner Raymond (Donal Logue) and his loyal customer Archie (DJ Qualls), along with rival store owners and squeaky clean business couple Norman (Michael Rapaport) and Judy (Natasha Lyonne). Both teams search out the collection, but find that the deceased man's mother, Mrs. Creswell (Eileen Brennan), has no desire to sell, no matter what price. What begins as a bit of healthy competition soon becomes a dangerous game of one-upmanship as each team desperately claws for any form of leverage over the other. But when Norman enlists the help of a lone psychopath, Carter (Cary Elwes), things go lethally pear-shaped.

Comic Book Villains is the kind of film Kevin Smith would have debuted with had he not taken all his film school studies with a grain of salt. That is, throughout the feature, it seems director James Robinson is constantly torn between following the rules to please an audience and breaking them to please himself.

At once, Comic Book Villains is hip and comic culture savvy, with a very human insight into the mind of the obsessive collector. But where a likewise subject would have remained largely unchanged by someone like Kevin Smith, first time helmer James Robinson obviously felt that this premise wouldn't float on its own. So, like most inexperienced filmmakers within a pressurised situation, he threw in some guns and and a viscous serving of violence. As a result, this turns a potentially enjoyable black comedy into something that becomes harder to swallow than a brick stuffed into a cheese grater.

The biggest problem with Comic Book Villains is that it contains too much black and not enough humour. Most of the jokes are either so dry that they have practically evaporated, or they just aren't funny. Not to mention that almost every character here seems miscast. Unfortunately for Donal Logue, he seems to be playing second fiddle in a role that screams for Jack Black. While his 'ham' is in full force, Cary Elwes just doesn't fit into the weird loner, tough guy role he's been stuffed into, and Natasha Lyonne and Michael Rappaport don't fair much better as the conservative couple either. DJ Qualls is, of course, almost as nauseating in his pleasant demeanour as he is pathetic in frame. Although one feels that there is still a breakthrough cult hit waiting out there for him somewhere, it's definitely not here. In fact, the only mildly intriguing character is the mischievous and mysterious Conan (That '70s Show's Danny Masterson), but sadly he is tragically under used here.

Whether Robinson is a true collector himself is unclear; there is certainly a clear romance present, but as forced as his commentary on the subject feels in the film's second half, perhaps he really does believe in the destructive nature of obsessing over collecting. Or perhaps it was just something he needed to get out of his system before starting his screenplay for the upcoming comic to film adaptation of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Whatever the reason, it's clear that Robinson knows comics and knows collectors - which makes Comic Book Villains' hackneyed Hollywood plot twists and misfired attempts at creating disturbing characters all the more disappointing. Surely he could have come up with something with a little more originality? It might seem a tempting film to 'get your geek on', but pretty soon you'll end up wanting to move it to another, more deserving feature.

Yet another nice looking transfer from Universal for a relatively low key title. The image quality is consistently sharp, displaying some especially wonderful skin detail. While it's clear that the film was shot on a low budget, colour reproduction is largely authentic right through, with the exception of a few slightly drab scenes.

In terms of audio, there's nothing particularly surprising here. We get a good 5.1 mix for the most part, with some nice atmospheric effects and a decent soundtrack. There are no noticeable problems with dialogue, however some minor instances of distortion mar an otherwise fine audio transfer.

Not that one can imagine that there would be much extra material to source for this release, it would have been nice to have something more than just the two theatrical trailers here. How about a list of the 'dream' collection?

Comic Book Villains really should have delivered more. As it is, it's perhaps a little too much of a thriller to appeal to comic book fans, while its base subject matter be will likely be passed over by most others. Still, it's not all bad. You could certainly do a lot worse for a one-nighter.