Line #10 ComicBook/TheFuse


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_fuse_650.jpg]]
2	22,000 Miles up, there is no backup. Working homicide on an orbiting solar-power-generation space station, in a five mile long jury-rigged steel city stuffed with a half million people, and no help from your so-called colleagues back on earth, is more than tough...it's murder.
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4	Ralph Dietrich, the Fuse's newest Homicide detective, has barely stepped off the shuttle when a homeless 'cabler' drops dead in front of him. As if that wasn't bad enough, he also accidentally insults his new boss - The Fuse's oldest Homicide detective, Sergeant Klem Ristovych.
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6	But it's just a dead homeless person. Should be a slam dunk, right?
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8	Maybe not. After a second cabler turns up dead on the steps of City Hall, the case takes Klem and Ralph through ever layer of Midway City, from the lowest hobo to the Mayor himself, as they carefully navigate Fuse society - not to mention each other.
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10	And nobody is above suspicion.
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12	Cynical, foul-mouthed veteran Antony Johnston (Umbral, Wasteland) gets partnered with fresh-faced idealist Justin Greenwood (Wasteland, Resurrection) for a new crime series with serious attitude!
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14	----
15	!The Fuse provides examples of:
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17	* BecomingTheMask: [[spoiler:Stephen Kachowski aka "Porl" in "Constant Orbital Revolutions" is an anti-terror undercover cop in the FLF who went native and became a sincere terrorist.]]
18	* BodyDouble: In the "Perihelion" arc, Klem catches the "[[SerialKiller Haircut Killer]]" by impersonating the woman who she suspects he intends to kill next.
19	* BookcasePassage: "Constant Orbital Revolutions" has a miniature version, with a secret compartment in the victim's bedroom closet that is opened by moving a book.
20	* BoringButPractical: People make a habit of questioning Ralph's choice of using a real handgun in a space station instead of the usual 'bouncers' with ammo designed to disintegrate upon impact -- so as to not cause damage to the actual station.
21	* BuddyCopShow: The comic is based around the two protagonists Klem and Dietrich, who are police partners.
22	* BulletProofVest: [[spoiler:Leonid]] gets shot in "Constant Orbital Revolutions" but was prepared enough to wear one because he knew a sniper was on the loose.
23	* ByTheBookCop: Dietrich, superficially, [[spoiler:although he actually has secret objectives that may not be wholly within the law]].
24	* CainAndAbel: [[spoiler:Dietrich's sister has no interest in reforming when he finds her and shoots him in the stomach before being herself killed by the other cops]].
25	* CampStraight: Klem is the unusual DistaffCounterpart, a so-far straight woman with a very butch personality and dress sense.
26	* ClearTheirName: In "Constant Orbital Revolutions", Klem's son Leonid is framed for complicity with the FLF.
27	%% * ColdSniper: [[spoiler:"Porl" tries to snipe the Mayor at a campaign event]].
28	* ColonizedSolarSystem: As well as the Fuse, there is implied to be a permanently-inhabited and breeding human colony on Mars.
29	* TheComicallySerious: Dietrich. It's implied that some of it is how he naturally is and some of it is trolling his colleagues.
30	* CoolOldLady: Klementina "Klem" Ristovych, a veteran homicide detective and former construction worker.
31	%% * CowboyCop: Klem is an unusual female example.
32	* DayInTheLife: The "Perihelion" arc takes place in a twenty-four hour period, during the day of Earth's closest orbital approach to the Sun, which is a festival on the station but is also associated with out-of-control behaviour of different types.
33	* DisposableVagrant: Subverted in the "Russia Shift" arc, in which two homeless people are the murder victims but the crimes turn out to be very personally directed at them specifically.
34	* FacialRecognitionSoftware: It exists on the Fuse, but criminals and political dissidents wear "dazzle" make-up that breaks up the planes of the face and stops it from working.
35	* FictionalSport: Zero-G Ball, or "ziggyball", which appears to be a three-dimensional microgravity equivalent of either American football or basketball.
36	* FirstNameBasis: Dietrich notices the first time Klem calls him "Ralph", in the "Gridlock" arc.
37	* GoodIsNotNice: Klem is not the most considerate or tactful of people.
38	* JurisdictionFriction: Happens occasionally between the Midway City Police and the anti-terror squad, who are part of a separate organisation run from Earth.
39	* LeanAndMean: Klem isn't a villain, but she's very thin and also very abrasive and dark-humoured.
40	* LongLostRelative: [[spoiler:Dietrich turns out to be searching for his sister, a life-long left-wing terrorist who has now joined the FLF.]]
41	* MeaningfulName: "Russia shift" stands for the time the station flies over Russia as the earth rotates below them.
42	* MundaneDogmatic: The comic does its best to create a realistic vision of future humans in space, without SpaceOpera elements.
43	* TheNickNamer: Klem immediately starts calling Dietrich "Marlene", after famous German actress Creator/MarleneDietrich.
44	* NoNewFashionsInTheFuture: Mostly. The only significant change seems to be that men (and Klem) wear upright open shirt collars with no points, and what look like clip-on ties. The "wacky" fashions seen in the book are only slightly changed from contemporary crusty/punk styles.
45	* OddlySmallOrganisation: The Fuse's homicide squad consists of five people. Justified as all the services on the Fuse are severely underbudgeted.
46	* OldCopYoungCop: Klem is in her sixties at least and Dietrich in his twenties or thirties.
47	* PoliceProcedural: JustForFun/InSpace!
48	* ThePoliticalOfficer: When Klem starts to suspect Dietrich's personal agenda, she suspects him of being this, although probably wrongly.
49	* ReassignedToAntarctica: Played with. Other Fuse police officers are actually shocked that Dietrich volunteered to be transferred to The Fuse.
50	* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The incident in "Perihelion" where a pediatrician is mistaken for a pedophile by an uneducated mob is based on a notorious real incident in Britain in 2000.
51	* ShoutOut:
52	** The "haircut killer" turns out to be obsessed with his mother and to be [[Film/{{Psycho}} trying to "become" her]].
53	** An Earth left-wing terrorist group briefly mentioned in the comic is called "Front 424", which is a reference to the {{Industrial}} music group Music/Front242.
54	** "Zero-G Ball" was briefly mentioned as a sport in an episode of ''Series/RedDwarf'', although it might be a coincidental similarity of imagination.
55	* TenMinuteRetirement: Klem is about to retire at the beginning of "Constant Orbital Revolutions" but decides not to after [[spoiler:Dietrich has a family tragedy and is seriously injured]].
56	* TomboyishName: "Klem" for Klementina.
57	* TwoFaced: [[spoiler:Ralph's sister]] has some nasty scars on one side of her face due to a suicide bombing that she accidentally survived.
58	* TwoferTokenMinority: Ralph Dietrich. Black and [[spoiler:either gay or bi.]]
59	* WackyRacing: The "Gridlock" arc centers around illegal racing across the surface of the solar panels, in hard-vacuum and on magnetic hover-bikes.
60	* TheWarOfEarthlyAggression: There is a strong separatist lobby on the Fuse, divided into the constitutional-nationalist Midway Freedom Council and the terrorist Fuse Liberation Front.
61	* WunzaPlot: A young, by-the-book black guy paired up with an elderly white female Cowboy Cop.

Context ComicBook / TheFuse