History ComicBook / Birthright

* RealityEnsues: In Issue 35#, Mikey delivers himself to the authorities in order to [[spoiler:help save a comatose Brennan and hand over Kallista to be locked up]]. In the very next issue, he has been severely restrained and interrogated by government agents. He might have saved the day, but he is still a wanted fugitive and as far as the authorities are concerned, ''a terrorist that killed several cops'' (it was actually Kylen who killed them to [[FrameUp pin the blame on Mikey]]).

* HopelessWar: A common theme in this comic that drives the protagonist actions is how utterly hopeless the war against [[BigBad Lore]] has driven them to despair. The Five pulled out from Terrenos and moved to Earth in the first place because no matter how many of Lore's monsters they destroyed, they were nowhere near getting him hurt (let alone managing to destroy him) with each battle, more and more innocents were killed in the crossfire. And Mikey's devastating defeat at Lore's hands was one of the reasons why he decided to strike up a deal with him to return home.

* TrappedInVillainy: Because he is the host to the Nevermind (a parasitic spirit), Mikey has no choice but do Lore's bidding even though he doesn't want the Earth to be destroyed and all he wanted was to be reunited with his family. The Nevermind will torture him and cause him great pain if he doesn't oblige and trying to remove it will eventually kill Mikey. [[spoiler:He is eventually freed, but at great cost]].

** It turns out that [[spoiler:Lore also is one himself, having saved Terrenos from it's threat in the past but ended up becoming a tyrant later]].

* TheUnmasquedWorld: In Issue 26, the Five and their secrets have already spilled out into the public with one person seeing the news about a dragon from Sameal's hideout free. Rya notes that Earth is starting to catch up in magic to Terrenos.

** It turns out that [[spoiler:Lore also is one himself]]..

** A glimpse of [[BigBad Lore]]'s true face is enough to turn your insides, with his flayed lower jaw and his muscles seemingly ''being made out of maggots''. [[spoiler:Its mitigated by the fact that is merely a form he assumes in battle and his real appearance is more human]].
** Those possessed by the Nevermind are prone to have their body horrifically twisted whenever they emerge.

* LightIsNotGood: The Diviner.

* FallenHero: Mikey was ''supposed'' to defeat Lore and release Terrenos from his tyranny, but instead made a deal with him to go back to Earth. It turns out that [[spoiler:Lore also is one himself]].

* RomanticFalseLead: Shortly after arriving in Terrenos, Mikey gets introduced to a princess the prophecy says he will marry. Nevertheless, it is clear that Rya was his actual lover, and the princess isn't seen in any flashbacks after his first year in Terrenos. He apparently did marry her but refuses to explain further.

** While circumstances of motives differ significantly, [[spoiler:Mastema is revealed to be this to her father Lore, since they both want to establish an utopia via genocidal means - Lore wants to conquer all possible worlds so he can establish his idea of stability and order, while Mastema plots to have both Earth and Terrenos destroyed in hopes of containing Lore and re-create an new world in her image]].

** Issue #30 has [[spoiler:Mikey finally freed from Lore's influence when the Nevermind is extracted by the Priests of the Mind's Eye... However, he reveals that his mission to kill Mastema and Samael hasn't changed]].

** Issue 25 ends with this trope twofold: [[spoiler:Brennan is kidnapped by Kallista before his parents' eyes and Mikey is denied being approaching his newborn daughter because of the danger he represents to his family, and there is nothing either can do about it]].

* ConvictedByPublicOpinion: Aaron. Even Wands thought he was guilty.

* NotSoDifferent: [[spoiler:Kallista]] to Mikey. [[spoiler:She]] lost her family at a young age, fought alongside Rook for decades and eventually joined Lore when she decided that fighting Lore was only making things worse.

** To drive things home, even the invincible evil overlord ''utterly failed'' to win the war ([[WonTheWarLostThePeace because he can't win the peace yet]]) and desperately wants a way out. The only reason he's continuing this war is because 'good' is obsessed with fighting 'evil', bringing about the inevitable DestructiveSaviour, AntiHero, ComedicSociopathicVillainProtagonist, and constant SenselessSacrifice, and his armies are the only thing keeping order in a world that would gleefully tear itself apart the moment its 'ultimate evil' vanished. [[spoiler:And the icing on the cake? Lore is a FallenHero who ''did'' defeat the evil overlord of his time, only to watch the fantasy world he was in get progressively worse from its own issues until his kingdom became TheEmpire by simply being the most powerful and he became the evil overlord by default.]]

** Its also one for InvincibleVillain. When confronted with an big bad dark lord who has seemingly endless armies at his disposal and black magic, the natural reaction of most people would be to give up fighting against him altogether.
** And in a very strange way, it's an allegory for the now-classic tale of an assassin seeking revenge against the evil corporations that forced him to become a killer;

* EnemyWithin: Mikey has a Nevermind inhabiting his body. Its a evil spirit that serves as an extension of Lore's will and when forcibly extracted from him, its revealed to be have a very twisted physical similarity to the host.

** For the TrappedInAnotherWorld kind of story where a young kid gets taken from Earth to a fantasy realm where he is TheChosenOne destined to take down the BigBad. In this kind of story, the [[WarIsHell horrors of war]] turn the KidHero into a ShellShockedVeteran and his resent over being separated from his family and forced to fight in a war he never asked for ended up driving him to side with the BigBad.

* BlackAndGreyMorality: In one hand, you have a monstrous EvilOverlord who turned his world into a hellish landscape to oppress and corrupt it as he sees fit and he also wants to do the same thing to Earth, with [[VillainProtagonist the main protagonist]] serving his will. Against him, there are the mages on Earth trying to preserve the barriers and they won't hesitate to unleash cleansing spirits, get innocents killed or manipulate Mickey's loved ones to serve their ends. Its not helped their motivations aren't entirely heroic or selfless: one of them states she'd rather abandon Terrenos to its fate and make fortune and wealth on Earth, and only wants to stop the BigBad to preserve her comfy position than anything else.

* SupernaturallyYoungParent: As a result of the time he spent on Terrenos, Mikey is a full-grown adult just like his parents Wendy and Aaron. [[spoiler: Wendy becomes shocked to discover Rya is carrying Mikey's child, making her a Supernaturally Young ''Grandma'']]

Michael Rhodes was just a normal kid, when during his birthday, he mysteriously disappears without a trace while playing with his father in the woods. His disappearance deals a tragic blow that tears his family apart, specially when his father is suspected of having murdered him. One year later, they are still coping with Mikey's loss until he reappears just as mysteriously as he had vanished in the first place, but radically changed as he is now [[TookALevelInBadass an hulking, fully grown, battle-worn warrior]]. As its turns out, he was transported to the fantasy world of [[AnotherDimension Terrenos]], where he was revealed to be TheChosenOne destined to free it from the tyrannical grasp of [[EvilOverlord God-King Lore]]. Supposedly, he defeated the tyrant and restored peace to Terrenos, but his servants had escaped to Earth and now plan to merge both worlds. He returned home to warn his people of this evil, but when nobody believes him, he is forced to take matters into his own hands and becomes a fugitive of the law with his own father Aaron and brother Brennan following him. But things don't really turn out to be what they seem and there is more to Mikey than he lets out to be: in reality, he had betrayed his allies and sided with Lore to come back home and the war criminals are in fact heroes from Terrenos trying to protect Earth from their world's tyrant.

* CoDragons: Lore has Mikey (his direct agent on Earth hunting after the Five Mages to ensure his invasion on his homeworld) and Kallista (who enforces his will in Terrenos and fights against the resistance).

* TrappedInVillainy: Because he is the host to the Nevermind (a parasitic spirit), Mikey has no choice but do Lore's bidding even though he doesn't want the Earth to be destroyed and all he wanted was to be reunited with his family. The Nevermind will torture him and cause him great pain if he doesn't oblige and trying to remove it will eventually kill Mikey.

* GodzillaThreshold: In Terrenos, those desperate enough will summon a cleansing spirit known as the Diviner, which twists every single thing around it into abominations that will seek out and hunt Lore's agents. The result almost always razes all surrounding life and its deemed too horrific to use by Rook and his allies because the cost is too high and the effects are dangerous and unpredictable.

* GodzillaThreshold: In Terrenos, those desperate enough or will stop at nothing to destroy [[BigBad Lore]] will summon a cleansing spirit known as the Diviner, which twists every single thing around it into abominations that will seek out and hunt Lore's agents. The result almost always razes all surrounding life and its deemed too horrific to use by Rook and his allies because the cost is too high and the effects are dangerous and unpredictable.
* GoodPowersBadPeople: Kallista has stereotypicaly good nature-based powers. One of her favorite tactics is to make plants grow inside people and rip them apart.

* HeroicLineage: Its revealed that [[spoiler: Mikey and Brennan's grandfather is one of the five mages that have set up a barrier between Earth and Terrenos, and Mikey's child with Rya is possible of trans-versing both worlds]].

* MoreThanMindControl: Lore can't force the Nevermind on anyone, it has to be received willingly. He [[spoiler:convinced Mikey to take his by showing him how his family had fallen apart without him.]] Once it's actually inside a host it can't control their thoughts or actions, it can push them to greater extremes and subtly twist their minds, and it can punish you if you disobey orders, but of the host fights through the pain it has no way of forcing them to do something they don't want to do. [[spoiler:When Mikey is freed of his he announces that he still plans to kill the two remaining mages, indicating that he truly has gone over to Lore of his own free will.]]

** Its also one for InvicibleVillain. When confronted with an big bad dark lord who has seemingly endless armies at his disposal and black magic, the natural reaction of most people would be to give up fighting against him altogether.

* {{Deconstruction}}: For the TrappedInAnotherWorld kind of story where a young kid gets taken from Earth to a fantasy realm where he is TheChosenOne destined to take down the BigBad. In this kind of story, the [[WarIsHell horrors of war]] turn the KidHero into a ShellShockedVeteran and his resent over being separated from his family and forced to fight in a war he never asked for ended up driving him to side with the BigBad.

* InvincibleVillain: Lore.

* GrandTheftMe: It' implied that [[spoiler:Lore plans to do this to Brennan]].

''Birthright'' is a comic series by Publisher/ImageComics written by Joshua Williamson with art provided by Andrei Bressan and colors by Adriano Lucas, not only focusing on Mikey's attempts at re-connecting with his family but also serving as a desconstruction for the typical story we KidHero TrappedInAnotherWorld and destined to defeat the BigBad and the subject of prophecies in general.

* TimeLapseMontage: A series of shots during one of Rya's flashbacks shows Mikey growing from a scared little kid, to a cocky young warrior, to a straight-backed hero, to a weary veteran.

* HeroicOrc: Rook. There were others but Lore killed them.

* ConvictedInTheCourtOfPublicOpinion: Aaron. Even Wands thought he was guilty.

* ConvictedByTheCourtOfPublicOpinion: Aaron.