20 funny comics to lighten your mood and make you laugh

God Hates Astronauts #4 (Cover image via Image Comics)

19. God Hates Astronauts

Sometimes, reading the exploits of certain large superhero teams, you wonder just how much of their time is taken up by non-superhero stuff. Sure, credit where credit is due: they save the world and defeat evil for at least half of the week. But, for the other half, they sure spend a lot of time indulging in interpersonal drama. In many ways, superhero comics (especially the large team-based legacy ones) are soap operas with different set dressing.

Before you get too upset, that’s completely fine. There’s no shame, really, in following the personal exploits of a fictional character, even if they can fly and go around in a skintight leotard. However, what if all of that non-hero drama took up the entirety of a story?

That’s more or less what happens in God Hates Astronauts. Originally published as a web series and then later picked up by Image Comics, it follows The Power Persons Five. The group is lead by Star Fighter (Bill).

The team also includes Starrior (Shelley), the female lead, along with The Impossible (Janet), the Anti-Mugger (Dave) and Craymok. There are also secondary characters named Time Giraffe and a human-hippo hybrid (created by Louis Pasteur, no less) called Sir Hippothesis.

Though he’s your standard male superhero lead, Star Fighter has some serious issues. At one point, he gets punched so much that — yes, this is really gross — his head turns into a huge sack of gore. He inexplicably remains alive, though his new “face” ruins his relationship with Starrior. Don’t worry about Star Fighter, though.

Eventually, he teams up with a ghost cow named Blue Grass and takes on the cow’s head, becoming Star Grass. Even though Star Grass is often frighteningly violent and uncouth, NASA gives him all the funding he wants.

If you haven’t picked up on the theme, God Hates Astronauts is thoroughly satirical. Even if you’re a fan of more classic superhero comics, this one is still probably worth your time.