The stories are set in Opole, a medium-sized city in south-western Poland (shown as a megalopolis in the comic, likely as a Shout-Out to Metropolis and Gotham City), which is constantly plagued by villains of all kinds. Wilq and his friends (most of whom are technically villains in their own rights) are the only ones to stop them with their superpowers, intellect and dumb luck. It should be noted that their superpowers are relatively modest and unpractical (Wilq, being the strongest of the group, can actually fly, but he struggles as a Flying Brick), and their intellect is best not mentioned, therefore luck plays a rather big role in their villain-busting career.
Provides Examples Of:
- Affectionate Parody:
- Wilq himself is a mix of Superman (capable of flight, wears a cape) and Batman (how he wants to be perceived).
- Commissioner Gondor: of Commissioner Gordon, obviously.
- Alliterative Name: The SS Sisters are a duo of female villains who turned from being typical Neo-nazis into ecofascists.
- Art Evolution: Zig-Zagged. On one hand, it's the same sucky artstyle for the whole run, with very consistent character design. On the flipside, the framing of panels gets much better and easier to read.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Happens in Opole rather regularly. Most cases are caused by Doctor Wyspa who, being an avid wargamer, loves humongous killer robots; Godzilla also happened to visit the city at least once.
- Bat Signal: Frequently used by Commissioner Gondor, using an actual, living turtle. Sometimes this doesn't end well for the turtle.
- Also employed by Entombed, who is much gentler with the turtle.
- Big, Thin, Short Trio: The main protagonists: Entombed, Alcman, and Wilq respectively.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Doctor Wyspa.
- Catchphrase: Entombed's "I suppose I doubt", whenever he disagrees.
- Chest Insignia: The sign of Rzuff that Wilq wears on his chest, that looks like a turtle. "Rzuff" is mispronounced "żółw", which means a turtle; similarly, "Wilq" is mispronounced "wilk", which means wolf. Just don't try to think about it too much.
- Alcman wears the percent sign, which is a reference to his (rarely used) superpower: shooting gushes of 100% pure ethanol.
- Comically Small Bribe: As part of his Informed Judaism and jokes surrounding it, Alc-man is incredibly greedy, but isn't particularly picky. He routinely sells out his friends to the Monster of the Week for chump change... and was even bribed back by Wilq for even smaller sums. Twice.
- Creator Provincialism: Most stories take place in Opole, which the authors' home town, and much effort was given to faithful depiction of locations and names around the town. On few occasions, Wilq visits Cracow, where the Minkiewicz brothers have been living since their study at the Academy of Fine Arts in the 1990s.
- The Commissioner Gordon: The Commissioner Gondor. Played quite straight, despite being a parody of the Trope Namer.
- Deadpan Snarker: Wilq, of the rather unsubtle variety. He was actually called "the most frustrated character of Polish comic books" by the Wprost magazine.
- Eskimos Aren't Real: Wilq often goes on tangents about how "it's the same sort of shit talk like [some well-known and proven fact that he doesn't consider real]".
- Everyone Went to School Together: Given that it's a shout out to authors' school friends, it's a given.
- Extreme Doormat: Mikołaj is constantly mocked by Wilq and his friends, and occasionally he becomes a victim of their practical jokes, but he's never seen fighting back or even getting angry at them.
- Fake Ending: Both in- and out of universe. Wilq after being defeated (really only hurting his back) by Rural Vocal Girl decides to fake his death and quit superheroics But Alc-man convinces him to simply retire, and avoid obsessive fans.. The series had a slight delay after that.
- Flight: Wilq's main superpower. Entombed can fly too, but only with the aid of his trusted weapon, Mini Gas Jet.
- His Powers Are So Dumb He Doesn't Use Them: Alc-Man's powers are used only once in the series - and they're really really dumb. If you must know, he can turn his hands into bottles shooting any kind of alcohol.
- Friendly Enemy: Entombed is categorized as a villain, technically. However, he is also the protagonist's best buddy, to the point that most stories involve both of them solving the problem at hand as a team. The same applies to Alc-Man, who shares a similar relationship with Wilq and is also technically a villain. Neither of these two villains seem to do much villainy though, in contrast to Wilq's real enemies.
- Funetik Aksent: During their date in an Italian restaurant, Wilq and Słaby Wielbłąd make an order for ryżotto and szpageti, the latter one being an example of Gratuitous German too.
- The Generalissimo: In one story, a beatiful woman asks Wilq to find her dad - who happens to be a leader of military junta, a part-time tyrant, and an aficionado of torture and corruption, as she proudly declares.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Despite all his heroic efforts, Wilq doesn't have much luck with the press. The authorities love him, though.
- I Am Who?: Entombed of all people loses his blase outlook when he finds out that he's a sole descendant of Teutonic Knights. Alcman luckily helps him out: that's obviously a lie, there were no female knights.
- I Call Him "Mister Happy": The story about Wilq dating and eventually falling in love with Słaby Wielbłąd is appropriately titled The Love Rapier.
- Ice-Cream Koan: They pop up from time to time, usually being utterly nonsensical. However, characters in-universe always treat them as profound and deep kernels of knowledge.
- Improvised Weapon: When Opole is under attack of a monstrous shark, Wilq tries to defeat it by throwing ten cars, a newspaper stand, and even a monument statue at it.
- Informed Judaism: Alc-man is Jewish. It's mostly used for the sake of various jokes about Jews.
- It's Personal: In one of the issues, Commissioner Gondor calls Wilq into what appears to be simple police work rather than superheroics, regarding catching a rapist... except it was Gondor's grandma corpse that was raped. In the eye. Thus making it personal for the Commissioner, and Wilq takes the case more seriously out of personal respect.
- Kaiju: A giant, headless goalkeeper that disrupts Wilq's and co. Beach Episode.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Wilq himself. He's an incredibly frustrated and just as bigoted man, who often feels just tired with the world and people around him. But whenever the day has to be saved, he's first to answer the call.
- Long-Runners: Started in 2003 and still coming out.
- Makes Just as Much Sense in Context: The comics is kind of abstract, especially in earlier issues, and apply a lot of absurdist, Surreal Humor whenever it's not just regular Black Comedy. Sometimes it does both.
- Metal Head: Entombed, to a T. He even headbangs to Iron Maiden he plays on a boom box while Wilq brutally interrogates roof tiles...
- Morality Pet: About the only being Wilq cares about is his turtle Maciuś.
- Negative Continuity: What continuity? In fact, a few of the later issues outright mock the concept of having continuity, and especially out of the kind of people who obsessively keep track of it.
- Only Six Faces: Everyone who isn't one of the main characters has the exact same, identical face and character design. That even includes Commissioner Gondor.
- Perpetual Frowner: Wilq, which perfectly matches his bad attitude. In rare instances when he actually changes his face expression, it's usually one of shock and disbelief. Or a Psychotic Smirk, when he's about to hurt someone.
- Perpetual Smiler: Alcman is always drawn with a wide smile on his face and closed eyes, no matter how dangerous or confusing is the situation.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Wilq is a rather short guy, with everyone but Entombed being taller than him. He's still your Flying Brick.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Wilq is a bigoted, small-minded, big-mouthed, always angry man that has an entire long list of people, groups and nationalities that he hates with burning, often irrational passion and is always first to tell that aloud... but he's still a genuinely good guy that stands out for the innocent and serves the public trust.
- Punny Name : "Wilq" is a phonetic pun on "Wilk" ("Wolf")
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: One of the few things that Wilq takes seriously, even if he grumbles about being dragged into such mundane cases. It's also played for some extreme laughs (ever been raped into a solar supplex?).
- Shout-Out: Apart from highschool friends of the authors and Polish comics scene, there are some. Doktor Wyspa is a shoutout to Gene Wolfe's "Death of Doctor Island".
- Smoking Is Cool: Commissioner Gondor is certainly one of the most noble characters in the series. Finding one single panel featuring him without a cigarette may be a very difficult, if not impossible task.
- The Stoic: In a sharp contrast to Wilq, Entombed rarely expresses any emotions, and when he does, it's usually just winking.
- Stylistic Suck: The comics have a very simplistic, messy design. While it started as just random doodles, it very quickly became a deliberate choice.
- Superheroes Stay Single: Seems to be so in Wilq's case; mostly of his own choice, as he can't be bothered. He had a brief fling with Jennifer Lopez (yes), and it's implied that he has a thing for Słaby Wielbłąd.
- Superheroes Wear Capes: Of course!
- Super Villain: Of all the villains, Doctor Wyspa (Doctor Island) seems to fit this trope best. He doesn't have super powers as such, but his skill and resourcefulness allows him to dish out Humongous Mecha with frightening ease (especially considering he lives in a small flat and spends most of his time "assembling assemble model kits" and playing Warhammer 40,000).
- Super Zeroes: The main four. Wilq can fly and is a reasonably stout fighter. Alc-man's powers are just too dumb to use. Entombed is too lazy to use Stout Strength and doesn't carry his gas jet. Mikołaj's main power is "Touching things with his eye" (surprisingly effective), and he briefly possessed a rare and amazing power of climbing a wardrobe. Of course their opponents aren't much better - one of villains through his dedication to kettle design gained the power to instantly heat any handle. About the only semi-competent villains are "Penis-handed electric pillow" and "three fingered pie hand".
- Take That!: There is a good chance that Wilq addressed directly just about any possible institution, group, or even real-life individuals that he finds awful for one or another reason. However, almost all of it is Played for Laughs or even reaches levels of Self-Deprecation.
- Take That, Audience!: From its earliest issues, Wilq routinely leans on or outright breaks the 4th wall and calls out people who read comics. The 20th issue starts with Wilq addressing the most faithful fans who have been reading the series since its beginning, and going into a rant, basically calling them a bunch of losers, retards and nerds. Finishing his speech, the superhero warns the fans that they will eventually end cosplaying the The Witcher while waiting for another client in a brothel for fantasy fans, located in Mysłowice - the in-universe Eldritch Location.[2nd issue]Wilq: Comics book fans, now that is a bunch of faggots!
- Token Evil Teammate: Not Entombed, surprisingly. Alc-man would sell the rest of characters at drop of the hat, for money, sex, or just for fun.
- Token Good Teammate: ... though the rest of the protagonists aren't really that better. Mikołaj and Słaby Wielbłąd stand out.
- Torment by Annoyance: As a punishment for his unhelpfulness, the parish priest from the Heavenly Keeper storyline is tied up and left in the forest, where the leaves are rustling.
- Unusual Euphemism: The long, flowery lithany of euphemisms for masturbation is a Running Gag that returns once per few issues, always with some new terms.
- Up, Up and Away!: Wilq himself uses such pose when fly around.
- Verbal Tic: Mikołaj's "Ba ba ba!" (pronunced as "buh").
- Villains Out Shopping: Or most likely out of town on some private business, usually family-related.
- Weaksauce Weakness:
- The best weapon to defeat Wilq are lame jokes, or lame words in general. He does whatever he can to prevent the villains from learning about this.
- Wilq manages to disperse a leftist demonstration against the U.S. foreign policy by reading a few basic English sentences through a megaphone, finishing with throwing a hamburger sandwich at them.
- Weaponized Animal: Maciuś, the Wilq's pet turtle, hides quite a powerful shotgun inside his shell, although he rarely demonstrates it.
