History Webcomic / ClownCorps

** At one point during the College's tour of Pinfall, the tour guide shows the group a door marked "Restricted" that leads to their most secret projects and tells them they're not allowed to enter. Ragdoll stays behind for a moment to take a peek anyway, opening it to find... a broom closet. [[spoiler: Except this ''itself'' is actually the bait, as the Shadow Circus {{Mooks}} break into that same closet to reveal a hidden keypad that opens a door to an ''actual'' secret lab]].

-->'''[=McBell=]''': Y'know... It's become painfully obvious I can't outrun you. Guess it's time to stop running. [[BadassBoast I'll just have to knock you out]].\\
[''Both Echo and [=McBell=] start running towards each other]''\\
'''[=McBell=]''': (''throws another platform creating pie on the ground and [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere reverses direction]]'') PSYCH!!

* DisappointedByTheMotive: [[spoiler: Mustard is this with Gus Gilborn a.k.a. Ringmaster's motive. The man behind the Shadow Circus, who had ''started a cult'' to hurt the Corps, was just a narcissist with too much self-importance. He only did it because he wanted to, that's it. [[https://clowncorps.net/comic/chapter-5-page-89/ Mustard is genuinely furious]] that one asshole on a power trip could cause so much damage, insisting it can't be that simple. Binky has SeenItAll, so he isn't surprised.]]
* TheDragon: Echo, an evil mime who is the main muscle and 'favourite' of the Ringmaster. Unusually, she is not the Ringmaster's NumberTwo, as her inability to talk means she's rubbish at coordinating the Shadow Circus' minions. That job instead falls to The Captain. [[spoiler:She eventually becomes the DragonAscendant after Gus is taken down and arrested, with The Captain still serving as her NumberTwo.]]

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: [[spoiler:The Shadow Circus's attack on the car [=McBell=] was planned as part of a recruitment scheme, based on the idea that she would run away from her captors. It throws their entire plot for a loop when she stays behind and saves Oats instead.]]
* EvilCounterpart: The Shadow Circus is this to the Clown Corps. [[spoiler:Invoked, as the Ringmaster's ''modus operandi'' is to make these for whoever he wants to defeat, having previously done so to a {{Sentai}} team and other organizations who have 'opposed' him, starting with his high school debate team.]]

** In Chapter 2, when Bunsen is analyzing the remains of the grenade fired at Oats and [=McBell=] she notes that it doesn't match any known manufacturer, meaning it had to have been illegally made and sold instead of stolen. [[spoiler: Her line of thought about how that means the manufacturer isn't related to the crime is interrupted when she notices Mustard and says her name, with Binky snarking that he hopes the manufacturer isn't related to Mustard either. As it turns out, Echo, TheDragon to the mastermind behind the attack, is Mustard's sister.]]
** Binky at one point accuses Mustard of treating [=McBell=] as a ReplacementGoldfish for her deceased younger sister. [[spoiler: [=McBell=] winds up being the only clown who can reliably counter Echo, who ''is'' said younger sister.]]

** Dean Squeaky uses balloon animals that he can transform into a variety of weapons. Swords, hammers, [[GatlingGood a gattling gun]]... [[spoiler:Echo one-ups him by bringing out ''a tank'']].

* KnowsTheRopes: Oats is a rodeo clown who fights with a lasso. [[spoiler:She switches to power cables in her new persona as 'Livewire'.]]

* {{Mooks}}: The Shadow Circus mostly consists of goons in identical uniforms and clown masks. The Captain can be distinguished from the rest by the teardrop on his mask. [[spoiler:TheMole later reveals that the mooks are actually recycled between fights, and there are at most forty of them. The Shadow Circus uses gaslighting and cult techniques to keep them from realising this.]]
* MouthStitchedShut: Echo, the evil mime that works for the Shadow Circus, is revealed to have this when her mask is knocked off. [[spoiler:Her first action upon having the stitches undone is to tell someone to fetch her some solid food.]]

* TotallyRadical: Ollie has shades of this, being a skateboard enthusiast who occasionally talks with 90s slang.

** [[spoiler:The Ringmaster injects himself with a mutagen that grants him superhuman strength. With his lack of combat skill and experience, it doesn't help him at all.]]
* WhamLine: [[spoiler: Mustard manages to knock off Echo's mask during their fight at the arcade, which itself is a minor WhamShot showing that Echo is mute because her [[MouthStitchedShut mouth has been stitched shut]].]] The real kicker, however, is what she says ''after''.
-->'''Mustard''': [[spoiler: It's her. It's [[DeathByOriginStory Maggie]]. My sister is ''alive''.]]

* SadClown: Brought up several times. A lot of the Clown Corps have surprisingly tragic backstories, such as Fuchsia losing both her parents or Mustard's younger sister dying in a car crash. Ragdoll even apparently signed up for the College mostly because she noticed a lot of clowns seemed a lot less cheerful than a ''clown'' should naturally be.

** In Chapter 2, when Bunsen is analyzing the remains of grenade fired at Oats and [=McBell=] she notes that it doesn't match any known manufacturer, meaning it had to have been illegally made and sold instead of stolen. [[spoiler: Her line of thought about how that means the manufacturer isn't related to the crime is interrupted when she notices Mustard and says her name, with Binky snarking that he hopes the manufacturer isn't related to Mustard either. As it turns out, Echo, TheDragon to the mastermind behind the attack, is Mustard's sister.]]

* DisappointedByTheMotive: [[spoiler: Mustard is this with Gus Gilborn a.k.a. Ringmaster’s motive. The man behind the Shadow Circus, who had ''started a cult'' just to hurt the Corps, was just a narcissist with too much self-importance. He only did it because he wanted to, that’s it. Mustard is genuinely furious that one asshole on a power trip could cause so much damage, insisting it can’t be that simple. Binky has SeenItAll, so he isn’t surprised.]]