While stuck in a pocket dimension, The Messiah, the greatest superhero of his generation, fell in love with the warmongering Ruler of the Galactic Empire. After they eventually got out, they ended on having eight children. Seven of these children have superpowers of their own, jumping into heroics themselves or, in the case of the youngest, being groomed to be the next ruler of of a galaxy-spanning empire. We don't care about them (okay, we care about the future ruler of the galaxy). No, we care about David, the one that has no superpowers to speak of.
Welcome to Atomic Laundromat
, the only laundromat equipped to handle the unique needs of the superpowered community. With the help of his friend Bob, an absent-minded battle drone that has been re-purposed into a walking washing machine, David runs the place while dealing whatever and whoever walks through the door. Along for the ride are Angela, a superhero defense attorney who is an old friend of David's and craves powers of her own; Juno, a former superheroine with seer abilities who takes up a job at the laundromat because she is convinced that an event of cosmic significance will soon occur; and Dani, David’s little sister who is spending the pilgrimage in which she must prove her leadership prowess crashing on Juno's couch. There's also a gluttonous mutant duck with teleportation powers that the group has come to use as a mode of travel.
The comic started July 17, 2009. As of April 5, 2017, the webcomic has been on indefinite hiatus, with the creator stating that they do plan on finishing the story at some point in the future. A backup of the current pages can be found here.
This webcomic contains examples of:
- Aloof Big Brother: David's older brother, Richard.
- Ambidextrous Sprite: Parodied when Angela points out that the duck on David has switched the hands he's biting. Turns out the duck is teleporting from hand to hand.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: David has one of these as well: she's not only superpowered she's also the crown princess of a Galactic Empire and thus a different type of trouble by a whole order of magnitude. Not that she deliberately tries to be annoying, but superpowers and adolescence are a powerful mix.
- Art Evolution: Compare early versions of David and Angela, to them a few years later, and finally today.
- Blessed with Suck: Juno, whose third eye lets her foresee everything before it happens. It can make life pretty boring, as even things as minor as the ending of films are ruined for her. It can also make life pretty horrific, as events as major as exactly when and how a loved one will die are also on the table. However, this is all past tense, as working at the laundromat slowly nullified her powers to the point they no longer work even when she isn't there.
- When her powers do function, she usually has temporal nearsightedness though: she can only see up to a certain point in the future, with events closest to the present time being the easiest to make sense of. And on a more minor note, she also can't close the third eye, meaning she can't just cover her eyes when seeing something gross. Which happens a lot even outside the job.
- Buffy Speak: Rocket Girl lapses into this when confronted with Bob.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: A slightly more literal example.
- Butt-Monkey: Admiral Invisible gets no respect from anybody. One time he's on a date with Angela, but he's lost his voice, so Angela thinks he stood her up and apparently spends the entire time badmouthing him.
- Crippling Overspecialization: One super can only talk to a type of bird that is almost extinct.
- Does Not Know His Own Strength: Kal David's other brother.
- Foreshadowing: Juno believes that Angela's resentment of seers is linked to why she's so obsessed with gaining superpowers, and directly tells her as such. Later strips reveal that her desire for power comes her wanting to prevent some horrible event from happening to David."...either you came across a seer who withheld something important about your future you felt you should have known... or you were told something you are desperately trying to avoid without any guidance as to whether it will make a difference."
- Evil Plan: Evil Chef's grand plan for world domination is...to buy up as many fast food places as possible. Using a combination of mind control and deliciousness, he plans to have the entire world gorged on his overly greasy foods so that people will be too fat to stop him.
- Fanservice: Regularly teased, with any strip promising nudity turning out to be Bob laying in a pile of roses, or the Evil Chef taking a shower.
- Four-Fingered Hands: Early strips had characters drawn in this manner.
- Gentle Giant: Bob. He's also Friend to All Living Things.
- Green-Skinned Space Babe: Dani, though she's violet rather than green.
- Hammerspace: David lampshades this when he wonders how some of his customers fit the stuff they leave in their pockets in there when they wear their underwear on the outside.
- I Just Want to Be Special: Angela, with some of her attempts to gain powers implied to be incredibly dubious and shady. When Angela reacts to Juno saying that she's aware of those more secret efforts, the latter reveals that the redhead's desperation has slowly become an Open Secret in the super community. Meanwhile, David, despite being a Muggle Born of Mages, is perfectly content with having no abilities of his own, and finds the idea that you need superpowers to change the world or even be considered a hero ridiculous. Their differing views on the matter is the cause of a lot of verbal sparring.
- Insistent Terminology: David's superhero brother Dick much prefers to be called Richard. Or "Red Bolt". Branding, you know.
- I Did What I Had to Do: David's reason to Angela for sabotaging her case and getting his dad sentenced to house arrest, all the loopholes that could be thought of closed the moment they came up.
- Magical Girl Queenliness Test: The Ha'yli'tet'h.
- Mama Bear: David's mother. That one time a galactic empire's entire army descended upon the earth to occupy it for a week? That was retaliation for a bully stealing David's lunch money.
- Meaningful Name: Dick. He's acted like one pretty much every time we're seen him.
- Mood Whiplash: There is some heartbreak amongst the laughs.
- Muggle Born of Mages: David's parents and siblings are supers. He's not.
- Mundane Utility: Evil Chef uses his mind control abilities to cook, attract customers, convince them their food is good, pacify dissatisfied clients and occasionally zap recipes directly into the readers' minds.
- No Indoor Voice: Dani, David's sister. Especially bad when you have sonic powers.
- No Sense of Direction: Dani can transverse the galaxy with ease but she gets lost indoors, because she navigates by the stars.
- Power Incontinence: Dani has trouble controlling her powers.
- Robot Buddy: Bob.
- Scary Black Man: Dani's bodyguard, though he's actually an alien.
- Samus Is a Girl: here
- Shotgun Wedding: David's parents were stuck in an alternate dimension together and his grandfather forced the issue when his older brother happened.
- Sleep Cute
- Speaks Fluent Animal: There's a group of heroes that specialize in this.
- Take That!: Once comic is titled "Suck On This, TV Tropes".
- Tastes Like Purple: Namechecked.
- Teleporters and Transporters: Bob's pet duck gains teleportation powers.
- The Real Heroes: David believes strongly in this trope, despite every other member of his family being world renowned super heroes and/or alien royalty.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Juno gives Angela one of these when the latter claims she can't possibly know a thing about her, though in an interesting variation of this trope, she follows this up by stating that despite everything she just said, she has faith Angela will eventually do the right thing.
- Third Eye: Juno has a third eye in the middle of her forehead. It is not clear if it is an actual eye or a Power Tattoo, but it allows her to see (but not change) the future.
- Truce Zone: Villains do not attack the laundromat or its superhero clientele. Not out of a moral obligation but rather because nobody else knows how to deal with radioactive material stains.
- Unfazed Everyman: David. It's practically a job requirement.
- Villains Out Shopping: The laundromat's clientele by and large fit this trope perfectly.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Debated within continuity.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Angela was not pleased to learn she lost her case defending The Messiah against indecent exposure charges because David deliberately leaked evidence against his father to the prosecution in order to get him convicted.David: He was never going to stop. Never surrender. Never shy away. I just wanted to keep him safe. Even for a little while.
- You Would Do the Same for Me: Juno's response when Angela asks why she'd bother helping her properly use the mutagen she stole so she doesn't accidentally kill herself. When Juno follows that up by saying Angela would do the same for her, despite their rocky relationship, Angela bashfully avoids eye contact.Juno: ...Seriously? Jeez, remind me not to choke on anything when you are the only one around.
