Insecto Nocturno is a webcomic created by writer Tony Corona and artist Jose Nieto.
Gregory Gallardo is a man trapped in mechanical armor working as the bodyguard for the mysterious criminal known as Dimitri, all with the promise of getting out of the armor and returning to his life with his child. He will have to take some life-risking jobs against the "Republic Stars", the elite force of the country.
Insecto Nocturno was a short-lived comic in its original run, lasting only some months before getting canceled for economic reasons. It included a short pilot of the titular character facing one of the "Republic Stars", and a inconclusive first chapter. The first chapter was published on Webtoons.
As of 2018, the series gained a Soft Reboot as an interactive motion comic, published on the website of Waoow Comics. You can start reading here.
Insecto Nocturno provides the following tropes:
- Banana Republic: The setting is an unspecified South American country ruled by the corruption of a paranoid government.
- Call-Back: In the first episode, Gregory states he wouldn't suffer from a poison attack again. This is a reference to the untranslated pilot, where he was ambushed by a member of the Stars.
- The Cameo: In the bonus to chapter 3, Escarabajo Marino from the untranslated pilot can be seen as the victim to Gallardo's powers.
- Lighter and Softer: The reboot is considerably more lighthearted than the original webcomic, with more jokes between the two main characters.
- Motion Comic: While the comic was originally made to be read as a standard webcomic, the reboot was made to be read as a Motion Comic in Waoow Comics.
- Microbot Swarm: Ofelia's cryptobots are small-sized robots in the shape of starfish that she can control with her goggles. They are stolen by Dimitri and Gregory after they were proven ineffective to his magnetic powers.
- Noodle Incident: Exactly what happened in Denmark?
- Powered Armor: The titular Insecto is a man trapped in an insectoid-looking mechanical armor, unable of getting out of it. Likewise, the Republic Stars are also an elite of fighters using mechanical armors based on insects.
- Superhero Sobriquets: Or in this case, supervillain sobriquet. Gallardo is known as The Insect in Rusty Armour and The Mechanical Bodyguard.
- Shout-Out: There are some references here and there.
- Gregory Gallardo, the man trapped in an insect armor, is a clear nod to Gregor Samza of The Metamorphosis.
- The title of the first episode, "The Insect with the Rusty Armour", is a nod to the book The Knight in Rusty Armor by Robert Fisher, a self-help book about a knight that is trapped in his own armor and has to make a self-discovery journey.
- As a Shout-Out to Shakespeare, the password to enter the Secret Base of Thieves was part of Act 4, scene 2 of Hamlet. Likewise, Ofelia shares her name with Ophelia.
- Gregory states that Ernest Hemingway said "that Spanish was the language of blasphemies, filled with the most profane of insults." This is a nod to chapter 27 of For Whom the Bell Tolls.The captain, standing in the open beside the boulder, commenced to shout filth at the hilltop. There is no language so filthy as Spanish. There are words for all the vile words in English and there are other words and expressions that are used only in countries where blasphemy keeps pace with the austerity of religion.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Gregory works as Dimitri's bodyguard, and is an infamous criminal in the country for facing the Republic Stars, but is otherwise just doing a job. He is considered the first "super villain" of the country because of it.
- Translation Convention: The work takes place in a South American country, so the characters are speaking in perfect Spanish, with Ofelia even saying Dimitri speaks the language without issues. However, the text is completely in English with some terms (like Insecto Nocturno) not translated while others (Republic Stars) are.
- Untranslated Title: Insecto Nocturno wasn't changed for the English translation.
