A webcomic about vigilantism and vengeance.
Long ago, during the Great War, two clans of super-powered warriors fought to the death across the world. The clan which swore to protect the people was victorious, and in gratitude, the world heralded a new Age of Heroes.
Centuries later, the Hero Clan has rotted from the inside; the Hero Clan's Elders rule the world through glitz and glamour, using the entire planet as their arena and legions of destructive minions as their champions to settle their petty disputes, while turning a blind eye to rabid Nominal Heroes who betray one another, slaughter civilians, conspire with criminal organizations, and pin all the blame on unseen villains. The world is in their thrall and does not object nearly as much as it should.
Even their own members aren't safe from their corruption. Ihwa's older sister served as a hero until she was killed by the Clan for reasons unknown. Ihwa swore to find out who did it and why, kill whomever it is, and anyone else who will stand in her way. Thus begins her story as the Hero Killer.
Now has both a characters and awesome moments pages.
- Anti-Hero: The protagonist seeks revenge by killing corrupt superheroes.
- Beware the Superman: A world ruled by superheroes isn't that ideal when said superheroes suffer no consequences for their actions, including murder for sport.
- Blatant Lies: During the debriefing of the hero trials second round, Ihwa realizes that the villain she killed in order to pass the this round was actually a disguised hero (see below under Secret Test of Character for details). Then the mummified object she had brought with her topples over, causing everyone to look at her and one lifeless arm to slip out of the package.
Ihwa: "It really wasn't me."
- Black-and-Gray Morality: Ihwa's goal is to kill anyone related to the murder of her sister, which she suspects to be from within the Hero Clan. To do this, she relies on aid from The Nameless and their unscrupulous leader Engen, but the Hero Clan are no saints either. They sanction callous and even murderous heroes who harm innocent civilians in their supression of any opposing forces, and often go to brutal measures to keep the control they have over most of the world.
- Destructive Hero: The main deconstruction of the series; while the Heroes are sworn to protect people and fight villains, they are not sworn to protect property or minimize carnage. With the world under the heroes' control, entire districts of cities are frequently evacuated and quarantined to give the heroes enough excuses to go all out and destroy everything in sight, displacing millions of citizens every year. And if you're displaced outside the sight of surveillance, said 'heroes' won't hesitate to kill you for fun or 'because it was simpler that way'.
- The Dreaded: Fear of the Steel Witch moves the plot, with Engen supporting Ihwa in hope she will one day surpass her, Victoria focusing almost all her attention on finding the Witch, and Nera's greatest downfall coming at her hands.
- Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting: Due to a series of misunderstandings, the participants of the hero trials think that Ihwa is the proctor for the first exam and they all have to fight each other in order to pass. This leads to a massive Gift-powered brawl while she watches from the sidelines, having no idea what is going on.
- Flat Joy: The protagonist has Reduced Affect Display, a condition which causes her face to appear stoic even when she's gushing on the inside. Even her peppy headspace is affected!
- Gambit Pileup: During the Hero Candidate Arc, Ihwa initially infiltrates the hero exams to act as a spy for Engen and to get info about her older sister. However, during the first round of the exams, a different group of villains led by Jintae Yang attacks the candidates as part of their plan to get the Torch, an ancient relict that grants incredible power. And he is not the only one after it...
- Engen usurps Jintae and assembles a large number of villains to go after the Torch while using Ihwa as a spy. However, his real goal is not the Torch but the reputation he gains from causing so much damage to the Clan, allowing him to unite even more people in the future and eventually reform Nera.
- Jintae is revealed to work for Castle Grey - in other words, Raegan Sinclair. After he fails, Reagans son Raxfer enters the fray and tries to get the Torch for his father as well.
- After sending her right-hand woman Hekate to secure the Torch, Victoria organizes a battle royale for ownership of the Torch because she has taken an interest in Ihwa and thinks this might be fun.
- Eventually, after the action is over, it is revealed that Bishop had organized most of the events in order to infiltrate Castle Grey. Thanks to Victoria and Ihwa, this plan fails, but he isn't bitter about it in the slightest.
- Legion of Doom: The Nameless, a guild of villains whose ancestors survived the Great War, and seek the eradication of the Hero Clan.
- Orcus on His Throne: Some of the elders, while not outright hostile, don't care one bit about the Hero Clan's affairs and only act if some personal interest moves them. Victoria in particularl seems to only care about alleviating her boredom, through fighting or finding the Steel Witch.
- Power Copying: The protagonist's main ability; she can acquire the powers of heroes by physical contact. Usually, they only last for a short time, but if she kills the original user, she gets to keep that power - permanently.
- Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Because she has dedicated her entire life to her mission, Ihwa has absolutely No Social Skills, and tends to focus on completely different goals
than sane people. - Secret Test of Character: The second round of the hero trials is supposed to be this with the candidates being tasked to capture a group of villains who actually are much stronger than the candidates and seemingly kill several of them. The real goal is to test the courage of the applicants - as long as they decide to fight one of the "villains", they automatically pass. Unfortunately, Ihwa's opponent played his part a little to well, leading to Ihwa killing him before he could unveil the ruse. note
- Really 700 Years Old: The strongest Heroes stop aging for unknown reasons. The Elders (and Engen) are said to have waged the Great War directly, which was centuries ago.
- The Remnant: One of the Nameless supers is (supposedly) a centuries-old survivor of the Great War itself.
- Revenge: The protagonist wants to avenge the death of her sister, which the Hero clan was responsible for.
- The Needs of the Many: The Hero Clan's creed is to always save the most people they can, even if it means leaving others to die. This creed has been corrupted to actively sacrificing others for the greater good, which isn't that great or good anyway.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Most "Heroes". For instance, the first superhero in the comic enjoyed murdering the hostages and pinning the blame on the bank robbers, who he also murdered. He gets lauded for saving the bank.
- Wretched Hive: Nostra is a district ruled by villains, as they've bribed, blackmailed, and threatened every hero they could get their hands on while slaughtering the few heroes who fought back.
