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Sidekicks
Valerie Upton / "Sidekick Girl"
The protagonist of Sidekick Girl. Val became a sidekick because she didn't have the proper Heroic Build for being a superhero, despite being a competent fighter and having a useful power. Her hero is Illumina. Her power is the inability to die.
- Action Girl: A very tough fighter.
- A-Cup Angst: Not usually, but she has been teased about her small breasts.
- Atrocious Alias: Her hero alias is Sidekick Girl. Illumina chose it. She normally doesn't bother with it, and no wonder.
- Batter Up!: She fights with a bat called Mr. Bat.
- Blessed with Suck: Her power has elements of this, as she can still be hurt and still feels pain. Though she now has a small Healing Factor, she didn't when she was younger, enhancing the suckiness.
- Boring, but Practical: A large part of Val's character and the reason she didn't make hero. She's built like a fighter instead of a porn star, her backstory amounts to "I was hit by a car as a child and figured out that I couldn't die," and she doesn't wear a flashy costume out to fight crime- just a red tank top and jeans.
- BFG: Has one for the fights when Mr. Bat isn't enough.
- D-Cup Distress: When she's in Illumina's body during the Body Switch arc, she does not appreciate Illumina's breasts.
- Fights Like a Normal: Val's power doesn't have offensive applications, so she's more likely to use Mr. Bat.
- Healing Factor: Her body heals faster than normal.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Val is the one doing all the crimefighting while Illumina looks pretty for the camera.
- Informed Attribute: Supposedly, she's a good enough mechanical engineer to be offered full scholarship to MIT. She has yet to use this knowledge in any way. Illumina does mention Val's experiments (she bans Val from doing them in her [Illumina's] body during the body swap arc) and we see one early comic where Val is wearing a heavy apron, gloves, and a face shield.
- Truth in Television: Just because you have the talent doesn't mean you have the training. Val might be highly technically oriented, but she doesn't necessarily have the training or experience to really use it.
- Less so when she mentions wanting to make a device to counter Shiver's powers after the interim arc.
- Oblivious to Love: Never once realised that Tornado Boy had a crush on her.
- Other Me Annoys Me: Really doesn't like the bitchiness of her Alternate Self, The Dark.
- Shipper on Deck: For Jasper/Hazel and Chris/Jeremy And she is not subtle about it.
- Stripperiffic: The costumes her heroes tend to choose for her. Illumina's first choice is a strappy thing that barely covers her private areas, and the costume that Shiver supplied, while better in that regard, bares her midriff and doesn't have sleeves.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Has this philosophy, as seen in her conversation with The Dark after the Dark kills the villain Dollmaker.
- True Companions: With Illumina and the other sidekicks.
Jasper Belmont/"Tornado Boy"
Val's best male friend (who has a crush on her) and fellow sidekick. Jasper almost had the right build for superheroism—except for his gut. He wears a girdle in his sidekick costume. His hero is Cyclone, and his power is super strength.
- All Love Is Unrequited: He had feelings for Val that were never returned.
- Big Eater: He's this, as shown during his date with Hazel. The creators have theorized that superheroes with enhanced physical abilities have to be this, to fuel their powers.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Likes punching things.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Quite jealous of Val going out with Isauro. This goes away when he starts going out with Hazel.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: With Hazel.
- Non-Indicative Name: His sidekick name is Tornado Boy, although his powers don't have anything to do with tornadoes.
- Pair the Spares: Him and Hazel.
- Stout Strength: He didn't make hero because he's fat, although that has no impact on his strength or fighting ability.
- Super-Strength: His power.
- True Companions: With the other sidekicks.
- Tsundere: Towards Val.
Chris Leary / "Puzzle"
Another sidekick friend of Val. He's a guy, despite what Jasper originally thought of him. Chris' likes are boys, NASCAR, and being fabulous. His hero is Maelstrom, and his power is causing confusion.
- Ambiguous Gender/Dude Looks Like a Lady: So much so that Jasper went out on a date with him, thinking that he was a girl. It's part of his power of confusing people.
- Agent Peacock: He likes being fabulous, but that doesn't mean that he's a pushover.
- Fights Like a Normal: He uses tonfa to fight.
- Mr. Fanservice: Was once told that going shirtless was his price of admission to a party.
- Long Hair Is Feminine: Part of the reason Jasper mistakes him for a girl.
- Significant Green-Eyed Redhead
Illumina's Past Sidekicks
Illumina had three sidekicks before Val: Sparkle, Forever Boy, and Marina. Each left her service in... less-than-ideal conditions, which led to Illumina's reputation for getting her sidekicks killed, although none of their fates were her fault, and only Marina actually died. Sparkle performed a Face–Heel Turn (her character sheet is listed in the Villains section), Forever Boy went insane, and Marina died to protect Illumina. Sparkle's power is producing sparkles, Forever Boy stopped aging when he was 12 (and may have had some agility powers), and Marina was a Badass Normal.
- Badass Normal: Marina, who didn't have any powers except being a former Marine who wanted to help people after leaving the service.
- Contrived Coincidence: Forever Boy tried to commit suicide by jumping off Illumina's balcony, but landed in a pillow truck instead. The whole thing is Lampshaded by Val, who's telling his story to Isauro.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: When we last see Marina, she's dying of three bullet wounds to the chest while Illumina weeps over her body. Has a dash of Pietà Plagiarism as well.
- Heroic Sacrifice: How Marina died.
- Not Growing Up Sucks: Forever Boy. The stress of being an adult with an active sexual appetite stuck in the body of a preteen drove him insane.
- Taking the Bullet: What Marina did for Illumina.
- True Companions: Illumina and Marina.
- Undying Loyalty: Marina, which leads to her death by Heroic Sacrifice.
Heroes
Mackenzie Jade/"Illumina"
Val's hero, and The Ditz. She became a superhero because she has the figure for it, despite being rather useless. Her powers are glowing and floating three feet off the ground.
- Action Girl: She has her moments, and has had more of them as the comic has gone on.
- Book Dumb: Did badly in school, but eventually gets a good understanding of physics when the Hero Agency's trainers explain how things like optics and gravity apply to her powers.
- It's likely that Mackenzie is a non-standard learner who's not suited to the typical school approach. Kirin notes that she's a natural at math and physics and began to pick them up very quickly in private tutoring once the information was framed in a way she she could better grasp.
- Boxing Lessons for Superman: After the reveal of her incredible new powers, she spends an arc away from the action to learn about her powers and how to better use them for crime-fighting.
- Brainless Beauty: She looks nice, but when it comes to the actual crimefighting she's pretty useless. This trait has slowly been going away with her Character Development.
- Can't Hold Her Liquor: Illumina is a lightweight, which causes problems when Val's in her body and overestimates her alcohol tolerance.
- Lightweight may be a matter of perspective. Val likely has a very heavy tolerance due to her healing powers and that she goes to the bar every week on Sidekick Thursday with her friends.
- The Ditz: Spacey and rather oblivious.
- Dumb Blonde: Illumina's characterization was originally basically a mix of this and superheroic cliches, though later she's been shown to have Hidden Depths.
- Dumb Is Good: As it turns out, she's not the sharpest tool in the box but is still a total sweetheart.
- Et Tu, Brute?: She was very upset when her ex-partner Sparkle betrayed her. One insult too many from her upon their unexpected reunion led her to slug her so hard she was knocked unconscious.
- Flanderization: Inverted. Illumina was originally a rather flat parody of superheroes, being an entirely useless person who looked nice for the cameras. As the comic went on, she gained emotional depth, self-awareness and a genuinely caring relationship with Val. And with that, she got a level in badass, going from a living joke with useless powers to someone who can unironically call herself a superheroine.
- Gravity Master: Her floating power seems to come from this. She gets a lot more mileage out of it after her offscreen training during the Interim arc.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Despite not being much of a hero, she's a sweet and kind soul who just wants to save the day.
- Heroic Build: She looks the part of a superheroine, which is why she became a hero.
- Hidden Depths:
- The backstory of how she lost her three former sidekicks shows that she is of better character than the joky caricature she initially seemed to be. She continues to visit Forever Boy in the asylum he's staying at and was very close to her now-Dead Sidekick Marina.
- She has issues with being considered The Unfavorite of her family because of her being a Super Zero.
- I Let Gwen Stacy Die: The death of her partner Marina was such a moment for her. She went solo thereafter and only agreed to let Valerie come along after learning she could not die.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Sure, she's ditzy and prefers to let Val do the fighting, but if you really push her you'll find that she's got quite a powerful punch.
- Light 'em Up: One of her powers is the ability to emit light. She can't focus it into lasers at first, but it does wonders for blinding opponents.
- Light Is Good: Illumina pretty much embodies this trope. She's blonde, has a pink-and-white color scheme, can emit light, and is a good person, despite her ditziness. Indeed her Alternate Self, the Light, is considered the patron saint of the city and portrayed suffused in a gentle glow at all times.
- Limited Wardrobe: Averted. While she always wears pink and white as Illumina, flashbacks show she had a range of costumes and hairstyles over the course of her career.
- Ms. Fanservice: Has a great figure and usually wears revealing costumes.
- Most Common Superpower: Has a very large bust, which was actually a large factor in her becoming a hero.
- Mundane Utility: Turns out she's been using her Gravity Master powers to hold up her breasts and hair since the beginning.
- Pink Is Feminine: Has a pink-and-white color scheme.
- Super Zeroes: She'd be really useless without Val there to cover for her.
- She is slowly growing out of this as the comic has gone on, and has actually gotten to win fights on her own. She also defeats her brother Declan, whose Gravity Master powers were negated by her ability to float.
- It's implied that the main reason for her super zero status is actually because she's The Unfavorite compared to her brother and has been overlooked by her parents the majority of her life, crippling her self-esteem and, by extension, her powers.
- The Unfavorite: Feels that she is this in comparison to her twin brother Declan, as he had actually useful powers and could live up to their family's superheroic legacy.
- True Companions: With Val.
- Took a Level in Badass: She's been slowly leveling up as the comic has gone on.
- Takes a major level offscreen during the Interim arc. Once she returns, she can levitate people, pin them to walls, focus her light into lasers, and probably lots of other tricks we have yet to see.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?/Heart Is an Awesome Power: She can glow and float, and that's all. Illumina is too dumb to put those powers to good use, but when she swaps bodies with Val, the much smarter Val gets some serious milage out of them, using the floating power as a feather fall spell, and using the glowing power to become a living flashbang grenade.
- Her floating ability appears to be a very basic form of Gravity Control as seen with her fight with her long-lost brother.
Hazel Abernathy/"Haze"
Val's friend and former roommate in superhero school. Haze was a sidekick like Val, but her hero Impact vouched for her, and now she's a full hero and Impact's partner. Likes tabletop gaming, reading, and good friends. Her power is super speed.
- Action Girl: Like all the other female sidekicks.
- Badass Bookworm: Likes reading and is as badass as any other character.
- Big Eater: Proves to be this during her date with Jasper.
- Braids of Action: Wears them as a hero.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: She gets a lot of mileage (pardon the pun) out of her super speed. Best shown in the Haze's Hero Debut arc.
- Hidden Depths: She knows a lot about tabletop games, which comes in handy during the arc when the sidekicks are forced into a virtual reality game of D&D.
- Pair the Spares: With Jasper.
- Sidekick Glass Ceiling: A notable exception, as her hero Impact put through the paper work to make her a full hero.
- Super-Speed: Her power.
- True Companions: With the sidekicks. This doesn't change even after she becomes a full hero.
Drake Deveroux/Maelstrom
A brooding rich boy, Illumina's former boyfriend, and Chris's hero. His powers are blue energy beams.
- Ambiguously Gay: It's been implied that he is attracted to Chris.
- Brainless Beauty: He's even dumber than Illumina.
- Demoted to Extra: His biggest role was being Illumina's boyfriend, with the joke that they were together in both identities but still couldn't figure out that they were both Clark Kenting. Then he broke up with her and has just kept disappearing from the plot from there.
- Energy Weapon: His power.
- Expy: Seems to be one to Batman, although he does have powers.
- Heroic Build: He's a hero, so duh.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Tall and has long dark hair.
Dakota Stone/Impact
Hazel's hero, and later partner. Dakota may have made hero because of her Most Common Superpower, but that didn't keep her from being competent. Her Super-Strength complements Hazel's Super-Speed, and they get along very well. After Hazel proved herself as Dakota's sidekick, Dakota put through the paperwork to make Hazel a full hero.- Action Girl: A powerful superhero.
- Heroic Build: She's a hero in the Sidekick Girl universe, so this is pretty much a given.
- Most Common Superpower: Like most other female heroes.
- Muscles Are Meaningful: She's very muscular and has Super-Strength.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: She's a very competent hero and a good boss to Hazel.
- Super-Strength: Her power.
- True Companions: Her and Hazel.
Marvin Compton/Cyclone
Jasper/Tornado Boy's hero. Has flight and wind manipulation powers.
- Blow You Away: Unlike his sidekick, 'Cyclone' is not a Non-Indicative Name.
- Demoted to Extra: He hasn't been seen for a while.
- Flight
- Heroic Build: It's part and parcel of being a hero.
Dion MaNatta/"Poison"
Professional hero and brother of Kyoko/Ricochet. When she is killed by the Coroner, he tears up Metropolis's criminal underworld in his search for revenge. Dion likes martial arts, silence, and vengeance, and dislikes speaking aloud and prison. His powers are telepathy and telekinesis.- Angsty Surviving Twin: After Kyoko's death.
- Berserk Button: The Hero Agency being unable to effectively avenge Ricochet because of red tape.
- Beware the Superman: The government and police are terrified of him after he goes rogue — officers have authorisation to shoot to kill. Agent Grey uses this as further impetus for the heroes and sidekicks to catch him, to avoid either party being hurt in the crossfire.
- The Bus Came Back: Val visits him in prison.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He and Kyoko have a tragic backstory.
- Despair Event Horizon: He crossed it after Kyoko's death.
- Fallen Hero: He proceeds to kill over a dozen crooks and villains before he is taken into custody, and those are just the confirmed cases. Fortunately he has had a Heel Realization and accepted that his deeds were wrong.
- Lethal Harmless Powers: Well, telekinesis was never harmless, but he uses it to rip the Coroner apart into his component molecules.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Zig-zagged. After having time to reflect on his actions in prison, he concludes that he doesn't regret killing the Coroner, but does regret killing all those other guys, admitting he did it mostly because he was hurting and needed an outlet for his feelings.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Kyoko's death he starts terrorizing Metropolis's criminal element, trying to find the Coroner. He even goes so far as to kill criminals who don't know anything to prove he's serious and to attack the Vigilante when he tries to get Dion to calm down.
- The Quiet One/Silent Bob: He prefers using his telepathy to speaking aloud.
- Suddenly Voiced: His powers are dampened while he's in prison, so he actually speaks aloud with Val.
- Vengeance Feels Empty: He realises this after killing the coroner, noting he doesn't feel any better because no matter what he did, his sister is still dead.
Kyoko MaNatta/ Ricochet
Professional hero and sister of Dion / Poison. Killed by the Coroner. Her power was creating forcefields, which the Coroner stole after autopsying her.
- Berserk Button: Hates the Fishnet Ninjas.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: Averted. The Dark has her name tattooed on her arm, and what prompts Val's visit to Dion is a memorial for her.
- Heroic Build: As a hero, she has it.
- Killed Off for Real: By the Coroner, beginning the Coroner arc and kickstarting Dion's Roaring Rampage of Revenge that's the focus of the Rogue arc.
- Most Common Superpower: Rather busty.
- Nice Girl: From what we see of her alive, she was this.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Her murder by the Coroner sends her brother on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, beginning the Rogue arc.
- Some Kind of Force Field: Her power.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: She had only a few appearances before her death.
Rhys Griffin / Shiver
Val's temporary hero while Illumina is learning to control her newly-enhanced powers. He's a transfer from L.A. and still hasn't quite settled into Metro City. He is rather rude, and has ice-creation powers.- An Ice Person: His power.
- Cowboy Cop: Deconstructed. He's a dangerous loose cannon with a laundry list of excessive force charges, mostly against young petty criminals.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Completely freezes a teenage thief named Harvey after Harvey makes a rather ineffectual threat, although he could have just as easily only frozen the thief's hands and feet to stop him. Because he did this, Harvey nearly suffocated (Val saved him), and ended up losing part of his ear to frostbite.
- Face–Heel Turn: Gets an employment offer from the Villain Agency right after he gets his Hero Card pulled. The other heroes expect him to end up on the other side the moment he gets out of prison.
- Foil: To Illumina. They are both made out to be questionable heroes, but she is a good person despite her sucky powers, while Shiver has more conventionally useful powers but is just an all-around jerk.
- Harmless Freezing: Averted. If Val hadn't smashed the ice over Harvey's face and chest, Shiver would have suffocated him. Not to mention that Harvey lost most of one ear to frostbite.
- Hate Sink: He's a smug bastard who condescends to Val and couldn't care less if he kills the criminals he apprehends (and makes no attempt to use his powers for a non-lethal takedown). No wonder posters were looking forward to seeing Val introduce him to Mr. Bat.
- Heroic Build: As is a job requirement in the Sidekick Girl universe.
- Ice King: Pun not intended, but he is aloof and a jerk.
- Killer Cop: There have been several deaths connected to him in L.A., and it's likely that at least one of them was a case of Make It Look Like an Accident. He also would have killed Harvey and a graffiti artist if Val hadn't intervened.
- Never My Fault: He doesn't seem to understand the meaning of 'excessive force', and thinks that whatever happens to criminals as the result of him completely icing them over is their fault for 'resisting arrest' (like waving bird talon-hands in his general direction, or running away). Almost immediately after he nearly kills Harvey, he tries to do the same thing to another petty criminal, and only Val's intervention saved the kid.
- Nominal Hero: The only reason he's considered a hero at all is because he's got a blue card, and he's shaping up to be the antagonist of the Interim arc.
- Pride: He seems to consider L.A. and its superheroes to be better than the Metro City superheroes. He also is very condescending towards Val.
- The Sociopath: Shows a chilling indifference to what happens to the people he apprehends.
Villains
Dr. Wright
A Mad Scientist bent on purging left-handedness from the world. Ironically, he himself is left-handed. Isauro is first introduced as his henchman.- Clipped-Wing Angel: He injects himself with a serum that causes his right arm to grow huge and muscular, which both unbalances him and necessitates the amputation of that arm when it won't stop growing.
- Harmless Villain: Isauro is the competent one, and far more dangerous than Dr. Wright himself.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: His injecting his right arm with growth serum upsets his balance and makes him fall over, causing his defeat, and because the arm wouldn't stop growing, it ended up needing to be amputated, driving him insane.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He's a rather ridiculous one-shot villain, but Isauro, Val's love interest, is introduced in his service.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: He'll do anything to purge the world of left-handedness.
- Villainous Breakdown: Ends up in a mental institution after the doctors have to amputate his right arm.
- You Are What You Hate: Ends up with only his left arm (which drives him mad), and even before that he was a leftie.
Clockwork Joe
A not-very-smart steampunk-themed villain. He causes Val and Illumina's "Freaky Friday" Flip with a malfunctioning ray gun. He is taken out when he stares down the barrel of said ray gun, and it blows his head off. Actually, his head was taken to a gender-reversed alternate universe, and later returned.. His superpower is "anachronistic genius".- Bungling Inventor: His ray gun "Freaky Friday" Flip|s Illumina and Val instead of killing them, and transports his head to an alternate universe.
- Facial Markings: Yellow rectangles on his cheeks.
- Gadgeteer Genius: His power.
- Goggles Do Nothing: He constantly wears a set, but is never seen using them for anything.
- Harmless Villain: His attempt to kill Illumina and Val merely cause them to swap bodies.
- Steampunk: Has this theme.
- Too Dumb to Live: Stares down the barrel of his ray gun and gets his head blown off.
- The Bus Came Back: Turns out, he wasn't killed by that ray gun, just in an alternate universe, which he returns from.
Becka Moore / "Sparkle"
Illumina's first sidekick. She didn't pass all her classes in Superhero school, so she didn't make Hero despite having the proper build. She was assigned to Illumina, but abandoned her in the middle of a firefight and joined the Villain Agency as a cat burgler.- Classy Cat-Burglar: Clearly what she's going for, but she doesn't quite make the grade.
- Cleavage Window: Has one in the shape of a five-pointed star.
- Everything's Better with Sparkles: Her power. May be subverted, given that said power is quite useless.
- Evil Costume Switch: Downplayed, since all she really did was add a corset and take away the star designs on her gloves and boots.
- Face–Heel Turn: Quit the Hero Agency to join the Villain Agency.
- Fights Like a Normal: Because her power is useless, she does this. Notably, when she tries to fight the Vigilante, she immediately goes for pepper spray (which is quickly whacked out of her hand).
- Foil: She's similar to Illumina, except that Illumina is a sweetheart and Sparkle is a bitch.
- Heroic Build: She has it, but didn't make hero despite this qualification, which, given some of the other people who did is quite an accomplishment.
- Most Common Superpower: Has it, but despite it, didn't make hero.
- Of Corsets Sexy: Her villain costume.
- Smug Snake: Way too arrogant for her level of competence.
- True Blue Femininity: Her color scheme is blue and black.
- The Vamp: Fancies herself as this, but really isn't up to snuff.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Her 'sparkle' power. The one time we see her use it, it just annoys her opponent (the Vigilante), and she resorts to pepper spray in a fight.
Cornelius P. Mortem / The Coroner
The winner of a 'create a villain' contest. Cornelius began as an ordinary coroner, until an accident involving the body of a dead hero turned him into a zombie and installed in him the desire to study superhuman powers- via autopsy.- Barrier Warrior: After stealing Kyoko / Ricochet's power.
- Deader than Dead: Kyoko's brother Dion rips him apart into his component molecules with telekinesis. Given that by that time he'd taken Val's power, it was the only way to be sure.
- Freak Lab Accident: How he became what he is.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Originally he was a normal man who became a coroner because he didn't want to make the life-and-death decisions involved in being a doctor. Then the Freak Lab Accident happened, and now he's obsessed with killing superhumans and autopsying them to see how their powers work.
- For Science!: His MO. He wants to see how superpowers work.
- Knight of Cerebus: The villains before him were either completely silly (Dr. Wright) or just plain incompetent (Clockwork Joe). The Coroner is neither, and he manages to kill a hero off for real.
- Power Copying: Can take powers from supers he autopsies.
- Telepathy: Says he's stolen powers from a few telepaths.
The Fishnet Ninjas
Common freelance mooks and generic criminals fought in the series. The Fishnet Ninjas are a group of women who wear ninja costumes made from fishnet, with the only enough solid fabric to prevent them from being classified as nude. They were created by Suzi Sung so that she'd always have crime to report on. Plus, there was a lot of money in briefcase theft.
- Always Female: Their organization consists entirely of women.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: While they're all women, they don't seem to disqualify based on race, as there are black Fishnet Ninjas, and their leader Suzi Sung is Asian.
- Highly-Visible Ninja: The fishnets kind of make them stand out, and they never really make much stealth efforts. They're more female thieves with a ninja theme than actual ninja.
- Stripperiffic: Their costumes. While each ninja's costume is unique, most of them have gloves, boots, enough solid fabric to cover their breasts and private parts, and all the rest is fishnet.
- Smoke Out: "Ninja, poof!"
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Ricochet separating from her brother to follow a Fishnet Ninja resulted in her falling victim to an ambush by The Coroner.
Declan Jade
The antagonist of the Gravity arc, who has power over gravity. He's Illumina's supposedly deceased brother Declan, who didn't die in the airplane accident that Illumina thought had killed him, but did get half of his face obliterated. He attacked the Hero Agency because their rules on image meant that he couldn't become a hero with his disfigurement.- Always Someone Better: Unlike Illumina, he can actually fly. He's her brother Declan, and the focus of her inferiority complex, as he had useful powers while she didn't.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: None of the heroes can stand up to him. Except Illumina, who knocks him out in one punch.
- Gravity Master: He can fly using gravity, pin opponents to the ground, and destroy buildings. But he can't hold Illumina down.
- Light Is Not Good: He wears white, and is a villain.
- No Face Under the Mask: Downplayed. Half of his face is rather normal, but the other half is a mass of scar tissue.
- Not Quite Dead: Everyone thought that he'd died in an airplane accident. He survived, but was horribly disfigured.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Oh, yes.
- Powers Do the Fighting: He usually fights by pinning people to the ground with his gravity powers. Unforutnately, ability to float trumps gravity.
- Walking Spoiler: Anything but his powers is pretty much a spoiler.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Wants to destroy the flawed Hero Agency, which focuses more on appearance than actual abilities. The way he goes about it leaves something to be desired, though.
- White Mask of Doom: Wears one to cover up the horrible scars he got from the accident that made everyone think he was dead.
Esperanza
An agent from the Villain Agency who masterminded Isauro's becoming wanted in Mexico in order to force him to work for the agency to maintain his American visa. Enjoys meddling in his life and rubbing things in his face.- Consummate Liar: Played Isauro like a fiddle, to the point where it's hard to know how much to trust her on anything she says.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Is clearly not happy when she sees Isauro out with Val. Bonus points for actually having green eyes.
- Hate Sink: Hoo boy. You don't get much more hated than masterminding the tragic backstory of the heroine's love interest, using it for continual blackmail, extorting him for sex, and mocking his girlfriend when you meet her.
- Her bio outright states that her likes are "seducing potential victims" while she dislikes letting good people stay good.
- Ironic Name: 'Esperanza' is Spanish for 'Hope'. Esperanza is the reason that Isauro's in his hopeless situation.
- Kick the Dog: Knowing how much Isauro hated being manipulated by her and how proud he was of his leadership skills, she intentionally recommended him to the agency as a henchman who's great at just following orders to hurt him.
- The Vamp: Has heavy shades of this.
Alternate Universes
The Metro City Champions
A hero team from an alternate future Metropolis. The ones we meet are from the Temple of the Light, as the Dollmaker killed off all of the Temple of the Dark division. They use military callsigns as aliases. The members met are Bravo (team leader), Echo, Foxtrot, Romeo, November, Mike/Mender, and Kilo.- Atrocious Alias: Mike is usually called Mender because Mike is a rather silly codename for a superhero.
- Charm Person: Romeo's power.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Their costumes. Bravo is blue, Echo is purple, Foxtrot is dark red, Romeo is yellow, Mike/Mender is green, November isn't seen wearing his uniform but has a dark green vest, and Kilo is bright red.
- Healing Hands: Mike/Mender's power.
- Super-Strength: Bravo's power.
- Technopath: November's power.
- Teleportation: Foxtrot's power.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Mender is a descendant of the Dark and is rather desperate for her recognition.
The Dollmaker
A villain from an alternate future Metro City. The Dollmaker can control any non-living thing with moving parts, and slaughters the Temple of the Dark division of the Metro City Champions to get to the Dark.- Antagonist Abilities: Controlling any non-living thing with moving parts, which is enough to let him kill all the heroes stationed in the Temple of the Dark. However, it's not enough to defeat the Dark herself.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Dealt one out to the Temple of the Dark's heroes, and was put on the receiving end by the Dark.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Has black hair and the palest skin in the comic.
- Everything's Deader with Zombies: His Marionette Master power includes human corpses.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: We're not really sure what his goal is, only that it involves putting the Dark's cryo tube into a robot.
- Hypocrite: The cast page lists his likes as "callous slaughter" and his dislikes as "equally callous heroes".
- Marionette Master: His power.
- Mook Maker: How he uses it.
- Last-Second Chance: Offered one by the Dark. When he rejects it, she kills him.
- Person of Mass Destruction: His quick slaughter of all the heroes of the Temple of the Dark qualifies him for this. Unfortunately, the Dark herself is even more powerful than him.
- Powers Do the Fighting: Uses his power to fight through constructs. The Dollmaker himself is rarely seen.
- The Stoic: Never really shows emotion, until his plans start going awry at least.
- The Sociopath: Doesn't care about the people he kills, and his bio on the cast page says he likes callous slaughter.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: Rejects the Dark's suggestion that he surrender, and then is swiftly killed.
- Villainous Breakdown: Shows signs of this when the Dark is awakened and easily defeats all his dolls.
The Dark/Valerie Upton
The Alternate Future Metro City version of Val, who has both a greater version of Val's power and the Vigilante's shadow manipulation power. Kind of a jerk, although this is mostly because of seeing pretty much everyone she loved die while being immortal herself. She spends the first part of the Another World arc in stasis, and is woken up to deal with the Dollmaker.- Anti-Hero: She may be a bitch and be unrepentantly pragmatic, but at the end of the day, she's still a hero.
- Badass Boast: When the Dollmaker says that she's not powerful enough to take out all his dolls.The Dark: Actually, I really kinda am.
- Brutal Honesty: Does not mince words for anyone or anything.
- Casting a Shadow: Her main power.
- Complete Immortality: One of her powers, as a stronger version of Val's inability to die.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Hands one out to the Dollmaker.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Slightly, but after our Val is gone, she does compliment Mender on his efforts.
- Due to the Dead: She has the names of her old friends tattooed onto her arms as a way to remember them by.
- Good Is Not Nice: Not a nice person by any stretch of the imagination, but she fights the good fight nonetheless.
- Healing Factor: Presumably has one, since she has a stronger version of Val's power.
- Mundane Utility: She uses her shadow powers to give herself tattoos of all her lost friends.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Oh boy, is she ever. She's one of the most powerful heroes that Metro City has ever seen.
- Pragmatic Hero: When the Dollmaker refuses to surrender, she kills him.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Certainly not the Dark.
The Light/Mackenzie Jade
The Alternate Future Metro City version of Illumina. She's the one who brought Val into the future.- Light 'em Up: As her name suggests.
- Light Is Good: She's called the Light and she's pretty much a patron saint of Metro City in her timeline.
- Nice Girl: As a contrast to the Dark's Good Is Not Nice attitude.
- Person of Mass Destruction: She's the Dark's partner and equal.
- Pink Is Feminine: Wears a pink dress.
- Time Travel: She is capable of this, and is the one who took Val to the future.
Clockwork Jane
A female version of Clockwork Joe from a gender-flipped alternate universe. Much smarter than her male counterpart.- Gadgeteer Genius: Like the regular Clockwork Joe. Unlike her counterpart, she makes things that actually work.
- Goggles Do Nothing: Subverted. Hers protect her from Alternate Illumina's light bursts.
- Other Me Annoys Me: She does not like or respect Clockwork Joe, and is very happy to send him back to the regular Sidekick Girl universe.
- Rule 63: She's a genderswap of Clockwork Joe.
- Women Are Wiser: Unlike her counterpart, she's competent.
Others
Isauro Chavez/"Coldfire"
Val's boyfriend and a professional henchman. A pretty decent guy who, due to a villain agency member's manipulation, allowed a villain to kill a lot of people, which resulted in him being wanted in his native Mexico. His visa is tied to the villain agency, which means that he has to remain a henchman or he'll be extradited back to Mexico to face charges. His power is a blade-like spurt of green energy, extending from his wrist.- Dating Catwoman: He's the Catwoman in the relationship, although he's a genuinely nice guy who's just Trapped in Villainy.
-
Fashion Victim Henchman: Not usually, but his first villain wanted him to wear an absolutely atrocious outfit. - Hypercompetent Sidekick: He's really more competent than most of his villains, especially Dr. Wright.
- Averted when working with Father Mark against vampires, which unlike supervillains are a bit outside Isauro's competence zone.
- Latin Lover: He's Mexican.
- The Lost Lenore: For Val's alternate universe future counterpart The Dark. She has his name tattooed on her shoulder under an elaborate day of the dead skull tattoo.
- Mr. Fanservice: Quoth Chris: "Even under close inspection, he remains absurdly hot."
- Must Have Caffeine: Downplayed, but he likes espresso.
- Nice Guy: Really very sweet.
- Orphanage of Love: Grew up in one after his parents died in a flood when he was a baby.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Isauro's not evil, this is just his job, and he's rather it not be.
- Trauma Conga Line: Not just his backstory, but another arc of his involves getting teamed up with Sparkler, who only hired him because she thinks he's hot and gets mad when he makes it clear he's not into her like that. In revenge, she gets him to take a job she knows won't end well, breaking into the hero agency. Even after saving Gray's life, Isauro still gets arrested by Val. And then whatever documents were involved in the robbery are so bad, Esperanza shows up to blackmail him over it, with the comic making it fairly clear she extorted sex from him for his release, with lasting repercussions as he's forced to lie about Val to Esperanza to cover for her.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: In the arc with the vampires, as assisting Father Mark's crusade is the closest he gets to being a hero in his own right. Even if he's essentially in the sidekick role and needs rescuing, he loves every minute of it and later gushes over it to Val.
- Trapped in Villainy: He has two choices: Stay in the villain agency, or leave and get executed by Mexico.
- Willfully Weak: Is eventually revealed to be the Vigilante, but restricts himself to his mundane abilities and a simple Laser Blade power when in his henchman persona.
The Vigilante
A mysterious person who fights criminals, but doesn't work with the Hero Agency. Usually, the only signs of him are the post-it notes he sticks on his victims. He has power over shadows, which is shared with the Dark from the alternate Metropolis. Is eventually revealed to be Isauro.- Aloof Ally: He's mostly going for the same things as the Hero Agency, but doesn't work with them.
- Calling Card: Post-it notes on whoever he's beaten up and left for the Hero Agency to find.
- Casting a Shadow: His power.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Setting up Sparkle to get arrested by cops during the She's A Real Gem arc, which wreaks havoc on her reputation.
- Dark Is Not Evil: He has power over darkness and works outside of the Hero agency, but he doesn't seem to be that bad a guy.
- Deadpan Snarker: Via post-it notes.
- Everyone Has Standards: Despite not being an official part of the agency, he doesn't stray too far from their code of conduct. Indeed, he is the first one to confront Dion about killing criminals he could have spared, because heroes don't do that.
- Foil: The Vigilante: Drug Wars of Justice arc sets him up as one to Shiver. They both disregard Hero Agency regulations, but the Vigilante shows mercy to teenage stoners, while Shiver doesn't care that his victim Harvey was 16.
- Karmic Trickster: What he does to Sparkle.
- Living Shadow: He usually appears as a human-shaped shadow with glowing blue eyes surrounded by blue flames.
- Person of Mass Destruction: He has the same power as the Dark, who's been shown to be one of these.
- Pet the Dog: His first speaking appearance, in the Rogue arc, has him offering to help Poison find the Coroner in exchange for Poison stopping his murder spree of the city's petty criminals. Poison rejects the offer, but still.
- Later, upon seeing that several drug addicts are teenagers, he lets them go with just a scare.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Towards Dion in the Rogue arc, after Dion kills a criminal who couldn't tell him anything about the Coroner.Vigilante: You didn't have to kill him. He didn't know anything.Dion:(telepathically) I can't sense you. Who are you?Vigilante: An ally.Dion: Ahh. The Vigilante. So it's true. You bring your own shadow with you. I didn't kill him for what he did or didn't know. I killed him so the other scumbags will know I'm not bluffing. The city will not miss one more theif or murderer.Vigilante: That's not what heroes do.
Kirin
Illumina's blind physics teacher and boyfriend.
- The Smart Guy: He has to be, to teach Illumina.
Suzi Sung
A news anchor often seen reporting on Illumina and Val's exploits. She's actually the leader of the Fishnet Ninjas, a group that she created as part of a scheme to be the first reporter on the scene of the crime by knowing about the crime in advance.
- Alliterative Name: Suzie Sung. Her successor, Kelly Kerwin, too. It must be a thing for Metro City news anchors.
- Early-Bird Cameo: She first appears as a Fishnet Ninja (with a slightly different costume) at the beginning of the Dungeon arc, where she's one of the Fishnet Ninjas who capture Val and the other sidekicks.
- Intrepid Reporter: Subverted. She gets to the scene so fast because she set up the crime as head of the Fishnet Ninjas.
- Glory Seeker: Reporter version. She created the Fishnet Ninjas because she wanted to be the top reporter in Metro City.
- To Be a Master: Wants to be the best reporter in Metro City. Unfortunately, she dislikes earning her way to the top.
- Stripperiffic: Her costume as a fishnet ninja. The only solid bits of clothing are a mask, gloves, boots, a band over her breasts, and really short shorts.
- Walking Spoiler: Her existence isn't one, but revealing pretty much anything about her character spoils that she's the leader of the Fishnet Ninjas.
Harvey
A young, petty thief confronted by Val and her new hero Shiver. His hands are bird talons.
- Innocent Bystander: Not quite, given that he was stealing when they caught him (though there's room for ambiguity in the situation Val caught him in), but when they did he had no real ability to fight back and most certainly did not deserve what Shiver did to him.
- Harmless Freezing: Averted. He nearly suffocated because Shiver froze his whole body, and suffered badly from frostbite.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Having bird talons for hands isn't much of a power, and certainly couldn't have been a threat to Shiver, making what Shiver did to him in response to his panicky, ineffectual threats even worse.
Mr. Ferret
Val's pet ferret, who showed up one day with a camera attached to his back. It later turns out that he was part of a villain's plan to spy on heroes. The plan was that the ferrets would be sent out with cameras on their backs, record what they could, and then report back. However, as none of the ferrets had any enhanced intelligence, none of them returned.
- A Day in the Limelight: Christmas '13 focuses on him and the Chia Pet.
- Arch-Enemy: The Chia Pet.
- Cuteness Proximity: Causes this in Val.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: On the cast page his power is listed as "too cute for words".
Moxie
The creators' dog. Also cameos as Kirin's guide dog, since Kirin is blind.
- Big Friendly Dog: She's a golden retriever, a breed known for being this.
