Webcomic / Black Adventures

Something like a Pokémon webcomic.^note Clockwise from top-left: Black, N, MissingNo., Joy

Black Adventures is a Pokémon fan webcomic, mainly based on Pokémon Black and White, written and drawn by one Black. It follows the story of Black and his friends Cheren, Bel, and White. Also N.

The comic began life as a sort of "choose your own adventure" game on /vp/, 4chan's dedicated Pokémon board. Black would write the comic based on suggestions from posts with dubs (in short, posts whose numbers ended with two consecutive numbers), which helps to explain the rather nonsensical beginning of the series, which includes Black getting, of all things, MissingNo. as a starter Pokémon of sorts, and traveling back in time to save Hitler from the Allies. After two chapters of this confusion, the series begins to develop its own (and marginally more logical) plot as Black finally starts his journey to become Champion of the "New York" Pokémon League.

The comic can be read here.

Now has a sequel, XY Adventures centered around a boy named Xavier and a girl named Yvonne, two fashion-obsessed teenagers who happened to be wearing the same outfit when they met. It does not end in peace.

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This webcomic has examples of:

• Ambiguously Evil: In chapter 12 Black wonders whether Joseph and Mary really believe in Team Plasma's cause or are being coersed.
• Ambiguously Gay: Half of the N-based humor revolves around N's questionable reasons for accompanying Black on his quest.

• And the Adventure Continues: White travels to other regions to challenge their Pokemon leagues, N is traveling the world with Nilbert to become worthy of redemption, and Black has teamed up with Looker to track down and arrest the remnants of Team Plasma. The final post in Black Adventures is an image of all the design changes and outfits Black has gone through over the comic, ending with him in his Interpol outfit, facing away from the reader.
• Art Evolution: The normal art style hasn't changed much, but the shifts to higher-quality, anime-style art have improved.
  • Although there is a noticeable improvement over time with proportions, backgrounds and shading. To quote a commenter and apparently good friend of Black's, ShihFu, "Oh, lawd. Look at Arti’s arm in the 3rd and 4th pattern. YOUR ANATOMY IS IMPROVING."
• Art Shift:
  • Chapter opening splashes feature detailed, anime-style artwork of one character and various other moments are punctuated by similar shifts.
  • Episode 23 features a shift to Sailor Moon's art style.
• Attractive Bent-Gender:
  • Black and N get a variety of catcalls after the cosplay incident in Episode 5. Cheren causes the entire cast to HNNNNGGG in Episode 7 when he's forced into a maid outfit.
  • Arti and Elesa in Episode 15 cause Black to fall to the floor in shock.
  • Bring me the beautiful ones! Poor Black and N...
• Ascended Meme: Kcalb, originally an obscure creepypasta about an evil version of Black started by some anons on 4Chan, gained immense popularity once Kcalb became a character in this webcomic.
• Author Appeal: N and Black spend most of episode 03 in French maid outfits. Then Panty and Stocking cosplay. Then Cheren in a French maid outfit. Then sexy gijinka Meloetta.

• Badass in a Nice Suit: Black, in his Interpol outfit obtained from Looker, with the "badass" part coming from his status as the Hero of Truth. The suit itself is also cool, being almost all black, with a black dress shirt, black necktie, dark grey vest, and black trenchcoat.
• Badass Normal: Every female character that isn't Team Plasma can take care of themselves, no Transformation Sequences, weapons powered by quantum physics, or Pokémon needed.

• Blush Sticker: Fennel is always blushing.
• Brick Joke:
  • Bel mentions that Cheren should wear a maid costume in episode 3. Then cue Moe Moe Kyun in episode 7.
  • When N and Black are first in Striaton, Pod notes that "EATING OFF OUR BODIES IS RECOMMENDED!" He's naked in his next appearance.
• Broken Pedestal: Cheren is horrified to learn that the man he has aspired to be is really a senile old man.

• Chekhov's Gun: The Chesto Berries that Cheren gave to Black during the Christmas Episode save them from Meloetta's sleep-inducing singing.
  • The Psychic TM that Cheren gives Joy ends up saving his/her life.
• Christmas Episode: N doesn't learn the true meaning of Christmas. Or money.

• Continuity Nod: The confusing first two chapters were totally canon, as later chapters reveal, although Black admits that the whole ordeal was strange and dreamlike.
  • Also, Black still retains a bit of his tan from the Beach Episode in the following episode.
• Cooldown Hug: Cooldown Kiss, actually. It's how Black gets N to calm down from his Rage Breaking Point.

• Deconstruction:
  • In the games, the loser of a Pokémon battle must give money to the winner. The Trial Triangle's restaurant is nearly bankrupt because of this.
  • The abuses Pokémon such as Nilbert suffered by trainers are not just the typical pokemon battles but also the forced breeding of what are basically children as well as the neglect of being left in the PC.

• Dirty Old Man: Thundurus is disappointed when Black and N's latest transformation doesn't include miniskirts and panty shots.
• Dissonant Serenity: Apple the Victini can talk about his broken legs in an apathetic manner and with the same face he made when he introduced himself.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Thundurus acts like a perv and wreaks havoc throughout Nimbasa. Black's Superpowered Evil Side beats Thundurus to a pulp.
• Distracted by the Sexy: N to Black when Black wears lacy lingerie to attract Tornadus.
• Double Entendre: N and Black refer to the act of riding a Ferris wheel as their "first time". N even says he's glad they waited... because it looks prettier at night.
• Dramatic Irony: In episode 19, Bel tells N that her father is overprotective because he loves her. N assumes the same about his own father. Ghetsis is actually overprotective because N learning anything that challenges his viewpoint could cause Ghetsis' plans to come crashing down.
• Dub Name Change: Zig-zagged. Some characters are called by their Japanese names (examples we can se here include Bianca^note Bel, Chili^note Pod and Burgh^note Arti) while others are called by their English names. Some use both names with one as a given name and the other as a surname.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Several times in the story, Black is mistaken for a girl. The outfits that he wears after transformation don't really help this problem.
  Black: You guys do realize that I'm a dude, right?
  Ingo: Not by Deutsch standards.
• Dynamic Entry:
  • In episode 04, Black's mother calls Black's Xtransceiver, kicks him in the face, and gives him his running shoes.
  • In Episode 13, not only do Ingo and Emmet crash through the subway windows to introduce themselves, their Pokémon just drop in through the ceiling.
• Eye Scream: MissingNo. bitchslaps Mary straight in the eye which ends being hideously bloodshot. Later, in Episode 28, Kcalb rips the same eye out.
• Faceless Masses: In one strip, an NPC Joy is tending to doesn't have a face. Just the letters NPC where it should be
• Fanservice: Black and N's crossdressing, among other things. The author also seems to know that straight males are reading this comic also.

• Flanderization:
  • The story originally focused more on the Pokemon, Team Plasma's plans and occasional crossdressing and gay jokes. Now the fic is almost all crossdressing and gay jokes, with almost all characters toned down to accommodate said jokes.
  • Black was originally the Only Sane Man who was forced to put up with N, while trying to become a great Trainer and deciding what to do with his life. Cut to now, where his crush on White, bad luck, awkward situations and crossdressing are pretty much what make up his character.
• Flat "What":
  N: Fine, I know what to do. Black, follow my lead. Cue music! (N's Menger sponge starts glowing.)
  Black: What.
• Foreshadowing: The artist's logo in her Deviantart page shows Black turning into Kcalb long before Kcalb even appeared in the comic.
  • The Subway Bosses refer to Black and White as Doubles, meaning twins, back in episode Fourteen. Episode 24 reveals that the two of them actually are twins.
• Full-Frontal Assault: Kcalb always appears in the nude.
• Fusion Dance: Kcalb appears to be a combination of Black and MissingNo.
• Gag Censor:
  • N's "Weewee" is covered by Junichi Masuda (the composer for the Pokémon Games).
  • Black's gets covered by Chris Hansen.
  • And Cheren's gets a question mark. It Makes Sense in Context...sort of.
• Gender Bender: Turning into Sailor Scouts turns Black and Joy into girls.
• Generation Xerox: White looks exactly like Black's mom, and for good reason. It makes Black's crush on White border on Like Parent, Like Spouse since the resemblance is very clear and his mom even calls him out for being blind to the evidence pointing to the two of them being siblings.
• Gratuitous German:
  • SCHWARZWALD (look it up)
  • Also, BRUDERLIEBE.
  • Since Ingo and Emmet are German here, this is to be expected. They even call Black and White, "Fräulein."

• Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act: Inverted, subverted, and whatever else. Not only do the go back to save Hitler, they succeed and bring him back to the modern era. We've yet to see any ramifications of this.
  • Make Wrong What Once Went Right
  • As of the first half of chapter 10, Hitler has reappeared to... vandalise Castelia City. Graffiti swastikas everywhere!
    • When Hitler finally makes a reappearance on screen, Team Plasma turned him into Genesect.
• Hypocrite: Ghetsis says that White is a tyrant because she's Zekrom's hero... never even mind the fact that he was just attempting to gain control over Zekrom via N. Subverted, given that being a tyrant was always his goal, and that the idea that Team Plasma was fighting to help Pokemon was always a lie to get people to follow him.
• If It's You, It's Okay: Arti is by all signs gay, but claims "love knows no gender" and was at one point in love with Elesa.
• Impossible Theft: Tornadus somehow stole Skyla's panties while she had her shorts on.
• In the Name of the Moon:
  • When Black and N transform to combat the giant Garbodor in episodes 5 and 8, they recite an altered version of Panty and Stocking's chant from Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt.
    O pitiable Pokémon born in a world not its own; receive freedom from some guys in drag; cleansed of human impact; return to your state of purity. Liberate!
  • Played straight in episode 23, where a Sailor Scout-transformed Black and Joy recite their own version of Sailor Moon's Catchphrase.
    Black: We are the protagonists.
    Joy: And we fight for love and justice.
    Black: I'm Black.
    Joy: And I'm Joy.
    Black: And on behalf of my balls,
    Both: We shall punish you!
    * In the Style of: It looks completely like something that would come from Hiimdaisy's hands.
• It Runs on Nonsensoleum: Magical Girl Transformation Sequences? Quantum physics. The Nimbasa subway still running despite the power shortage? It runs on Ingo and Emmet's Bruderliebe.

• Lampshade Hanging: The beginning of the comic made absolutely no sense, mainly because the author had to blindly follow whatever /vp/ threw at her. And Black does these nonsensical things with confused or exasperated looks on his face.
• Large Ham: Thundurus.
  Thundurus: BLACK, YOU SAY? I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU~ AHAHAHAHAHAHA AHAHAHAHA

• Living Weapon: Black's MissingNo. sword. Also a Morph Weapon and an Equippable Ally since MissingNo. is an actual character.

• Manchild: N, who is 21 and a half years old. When a sex scene comes up in Halloween (1978), he obliviously asks Black what they're doing. The fact that he calls his penis a "weewee" just cements the point.

• Major Injury Underreaction: Other than his look of surprise, Black seems rather calm about having a sword stabbed into his chest.

• Naked People Are Funny: N in Episode 20. Word of God also mentions that Black is naked everytime he becomes Kcalb.
  N: "He saw my Weewee!!"

• Navel-Deep Neckline: Episode 14 features Black in Celty's biker suit, the difference being that it's zipped down all the way to his crotch. N as well, given that he's cosplaying Vorona.

• Of Corsets Sexy: Episode 15 is an (all-male) corsets fest.
• Omake: Included on the site is a series of "bonus" comics which was, like the first two canon episodes, drawn based on suggestions from /vp/ posters.
• Or Was It a Dream?: Episodes 1 and 2 are shaping up to be dreams made reality by Fennel/Makomo's Musharna's Dream Smoke.
• Orwellian Retcon: After the English versions of Black and White came out, the author went back and corrected most of the Japanese terminology to its English equivalent.
• Parental Substitute: Played for Laughs with Looker in the epilogue. After meeting Black and his mother, Black asks him if he's his father. Looker's response? "Not yet, no" before getting him breakfast and giving him a Nice Suit.

• Perpetual Smiler: Pod and Emmet.
  Emmet: I am saddened! I cannot express sadness.

• Promoted Fanboy: Landorus has a very feminine form in the Dream World, most likely referencing the fact that the roleplayer who plays as Landorus hates being called male.
• Pseudo-Crisis: The second-to-last installement of Episode 15 ends on Black getting gruesomely stabbed with gorgeous blood splash and all and readers freaking out over the cliffhanger and going crazy with theories. Next installement, nothing at all happened on Black's side except Joy healing him with Heal Pulse.
• Psychoactive Powers: The Magical Girl transformation sequences and outfits get noticeably less flashy when N is depressed.
  Black: These outfits are kinda... plain, don't you think?
  N: I can't help it...

• Rage Breaking Point: hite, upon being told that N is the king of Team Plasma, causing her to give him a brutal "The Reason You Suck" Speech. It's what causes Zekrom to choose her as the Hero of Ideals.
  White: An ideal world is one where people like you don't exist.
  • N, after seeing White be chosen as Zekrom's hero instead of Black. Again later, when he sees that Black is Reshiram's Hero of Truth instead of himself, causing him to attempt to kill Black. Ghetsis demands that White kill N before he kills them all in his rage.
• Reincarnation Romance: Played with. It turns out that N is the reincarnation of the woman who made a pact with Kyurem in order to get her lover to stop fighting with his brother. Since Black has inherited the power of that very hero, some might speculate that their eventual romance is the result of this. However, Kcalb says that the relationships people had in their past lives don't mean anything in their new lives, unless they choose to make it that way.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: The drawing style makes this of almost all (legit) Pokémon. Special mentions go to Joy, dat Vanillite, and the Joltik that spent Episodes 10 & 11 perched on N's head.

• Screw Yourself: Kcalb, who was created by Black, seems to be awfully fond of him. Caressing his face and telling how important he is.

• Ship Tease: Between Black and White. And Black and N, of course.
  • Now Black and Arty have joined the party.
  • Black is very popular!
  • Ingo and Emmet have this in spades.
• Shoot the Medic First: Kyurem does this to Joy in episode 23, but this has less to do with ridding Black and N of their healer and more to do with Kyurem trying to prove a point to N that Pokémon do harm other Pokémon and that humans are capable of kindness towards them.
• Ship Sinking : Black and White are twins.
• Shout-Out: So many, they now have their own page.

• Snake Talk: Kyurem, since a fangirl on the board who roleplays as Kyurem has this as her Verbal Tic, influencing the author to imagine the comic's Kyurem to talk in such a manner.
• Solomon Divorce: Black and White are twins. Black stayed with their mom and White stayed with their dad.
• Spell My Name With An S: The "Genesect" vs. "Genosect" discrepancy is played with.
• Split-Screen Phone Call: N calls Black in episode 02, then reaches over the dividing line and shanghais Black into helping him save Hitler from the Allied Forces.

• Stupid Jetpack Hitler: Team Plasma modifies Hitler into Genesect.

• Surprise Incest: Black and White are actually separated twins, as their mom later reveals.
• Take That!:
  • In the third bonus comic. "I'M GONNA SAVE BLACK FROM YOU, BUT FIRST WE READ HOMOSUCK."
  • White's curbstomp battle against Cheren plays out like a typical battle sequence by any players of the game by never letting Cheren even have a token chance at defeating her Pokemon. Cheren's breakdown is a fairly accurate reaction of many players' first loss against competitive battlers, making it a Take That! against that community as well.
• Talking Animal: All Pokémon so far seem to be able to speak English fine.

• Teasing Creator: Black-the-artist is very aware of what the fans want; episode 14 was especially aimed to make the NewYorkshippers cry. And then came episode 15.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: White's Samurott has noticeable eyelashes.
• Theme Naming:
  • Episode 6 introduces a pair of Plasma grunts named Joseph and Mary. They have a Whimsicott named Jesus. Episode 19 introduces another trio named Adam and Eve, with a Victini named Apple.
  • All of Cheren's Pokémon are named after Capcom characters
  • A White's Pokémon are genderbent SNK characters.

• Uncatty Resemblance: All of Emmet's Pokémon smile while Ingo's frown.

• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Joy is actually male.
• Unsound Effect:
  • KITCHEN SINKS EXPLODING, TOILETS OVERFLOWING, TRASH CANS SPEWING SHIT TOO
  • MISS! MISS! MISS!
  • *LIGHTS*
    • *NO LIGHTS!*
  • *CLING FOR DEAR LIFE*
• Unstoppable Rage: Black or rather Kcalb starts one against Thundurus. He is neutralized by N but not before punching Thundurus's face in.
• Verbal Tic: Jesus uses "(you) dumbass(es)" as punctuation.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: In the visual novel segment of chapter 25, Black gets two dialogue options—one normal response, one Jerkass one.
  • Word of God is that the Jerkass option is how Kcalb wants to respond.
• Villain Ball: Barring the argument of Happiness in Slavery, Team Plasma's actions make even less sense in a universe where Pokemon can talk.

• Wham Episode:
  • Episode 14 with the appearence of Kcalb. The following Curb-Stomp Battle against Thundurus is a prime example of Mood Whiplash.
  • The end of Episode 27 can be this as well. Zekrom, after rejecting N, finally chooses White as its hero.
• A Wizard Did It: N's explanation for episode 05's Panty/Stocking shenanigans: "Quantum physics."
• Wholesome Crossdresser:
  • Black and N dress as Meido for Halloween because there was nothing left in the store. Confusingly, judging by the tags, these costumes were meant for men... By episode 10 they just show up in apparel of questionable gender identity from the start.
  • Arti and Elesa apparently have the hobby of cross dressing. Oh, and they look good in it.

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