"All vigilantes are not heroes." note
From the mean streets of Moseley to the oceanfront villas of Diamond Beach, crime affects everyone in Avalon. And the presence of the superhumans known around the city as "specials" hasn't necessarily made life for the average citizen any better, since the local vigilantes are as apt to demand payment for their protection as they are to provide their services for free. The crime-fighting duo of King Ace and Fazer are true heroes, not vigilantes...All Fazer and the big guy are trying to do is make everyday life better for everyone who lives in their city. But even heroes face temptation.
Chuck Dixon's Avalon is a comic book published by Castalia House under the Arkhaven Comics imprint, in both printed and digital format. It was created in 2018 by Chuck Dixon and Vox Day and is written, in case you hadn't guessed, by Dixon. The artwork is by Frank Fosco and Renato Rei.
Avalon is a Spin-Off of its stablemate, Alt★Hero. It takes place in the same Alternate History as its predecessor, and likewise focuses on superhumans, aka 'specials', and their dealings with the Superhuman Protection Council (SPC). It is set in the fictional American city of Avalon, New Jersey, where specials fight against crime with varying motives. Some are mercenaries, some are out for vengeance, some just want to do the right thing.
Like Alt★Hero, the web version of Avalon was initially published on Webtoon before being moved to Arkhaven. You can read it free here
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Chuck Dixon's Avalon provides examples of:
- Asshole Victim: The armed robbers who force Mikey's parents to open his vault, the last straw being a veiled rape threat. They don't make it out alive.
- Big Eater: King Ace's Super-Strength demands an exceptionally high caloric intake. He orders at least eleven hamburgers at one sitting.
- Bland-Name Product: Burrito Bell.
- Blasphemous Boast: Looking to command more respect from his gang, Mindrape tells them, "I'm the Alpha and Omega."Fazer: I don't care what kind of car you think you are, bro.
- Broken Pedestal: King Ace gets to work with Big Simba and his SPC crew, thinking they'll be using their powers to rid the streets of dangerous criminals. He soon learns that Simba is just an ordinary, unpowered body-builder and, far worse, the team is a glorified hit squad.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The first we see of Big Simba is a poster on King Ace's home gym wall.
- Delicious Distraction: King Ace gives a heroic speech to a gang of adoring neighbourhood kids, who all bolt as soon as they hear the ice-cream van.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Mindrape dislikes his alias and tells people to call him Elvin.
- Fat Bastard:
- Vardanyan, the vicious, obese gangster kingpin of Avalon, and Vendetta's ultimate target.
- Mindrape got rich by working for Vardanyan, and his motives for defeating the gangster don't exactly look heroic.
- Fish People: Krilla, an amphibious humanoid with hairless, scaly, purple skin and webbed hands and feet.
- For the Evulz: Mindrape shows his mental power over Fazer by making him riverdance.
- Friendship Denial: After Fazer mistakenly thinks he and Angela are having a "moment".Fazer: But we're friends, right?
Angela: We're not friends. We're not anything! All we are is stuck with each other! - Grievous Harm with a Body: When fighting Big Simba's team King Ace hurls Kyarr at Sahir and Vogel, taking them both out of the equation.
- Hypocrite: In his newspaper interview, Fazer derides specials who expect payment for their services. Soon afterwards, he finds he can't stop helping himself to the bad guys' ill-gotten gains, leading to King Ace turning him in to the police.
- Insistent Terminology: Fazer is not King Ace's sidekick. They're partners. To his credit, Ace makes the same distinction.
- Intangibility: Fazer's power. It requires a good deal of concentration.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Vardanyan leaves one of his flooziesnote at the mercy of Vendetta and flees, only to be driven full speed by his mind-controlled mook into a truck, killing him.
- Logical Weakness: Vogel can fly because of her hollow, bird-like bones. Great for surveillance, not so good for fighting.
- Madwoman in the Attic: Mikey, a monster-like superhuman child so powerful and unfettered that his parents have to keep him locked in a vault.
- Mighty Glacier: Balaka can subdue King Ace with one hand by raw power alone, but when they meet in a straight fight Ace evades and overbalances him easily.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: King Ace is outraged that Fazer would steal money from the bad guys, and demands he give it all to the needy. When Fazer tries it again, Ace ends their partnership and turns him in.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: The SPC take the Vendetta case from Detective Lt. Church because Vendetta is a special. King Ace goes behind their backs to help Church work on the case off the books.
- Shout-Out: Fazer insists to a reporter that he is nobody's "Boy Wonder". Chuck Dixon has written many Batman family comics, including several series focusing on Robin.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: King Ace's parting shot to the SPC team:Big Simba: When we meet again you will be on the wrong side of the law. Remember that.
King Ace: And you remember who kicked all your asses. - Sure, Let's Go with That: A little girl asks Krilla if she is a mermaid. Krilla affirms, and furthermore she’s a princess hiding from the evil queen.
- Tailor-Made Prison: Fazer is imprisoned in a facility for specials. Conditions are designed to neutralize their various powers or debilitate them if they try to use them. Fazer himself, for example, is given drugs that prevent him from concentrating and if he overcomes those, the electrical charges running through his cell door and walls stop him from phasing through them.
- Taking the Bullet: Fazer intercepts a bullet from Vendetta meant for King Ace and absorbs it into his body. It contains a delayed explosive.
