Karabear Comics Unlimited
is a superhero anthology comic on The Duck, written and drawn by Ave Messer as a supplement to her Karabear Comics main universe. Each issue is a single story, but the comic bounces amongst different characters.
The characters given spotlight so far are:
- Tempore: a guardian of cosmic order and the prime focus of the first two issues
- Time and Laser: another guardian of cosmic order, this time from an adjacent multiverse. Cameoed in issue 1 and teamed up with Tempore in issue 2 and received billing on said issue's cover
- Eiderdown: a trans woman superhero and focus of issues 3 and 4
- Fractal: a hero who constantly changes between sex, race, height, weight, and age; shown in issue 4
- Sparkle: a trans woman hero in the HUniverse with Hulk-like powers
- Astral: a trans man in the Heroes Unite universe and friend of Sparkle
- The Swimmer: a trans woman in the Superherouniverse.com universe
- The Runner: a trans man in the Superherouniverse.com universe
This series provides examples of:
- Art Shift: Issue 1 starts by using altered photos and pictures made in Hero Machine before showing Ave's art mid-issue. Ave states that this is in part because she doesn't think her art is any good and wanted to spare the reader from it for as long as possible.
- Astral Projection: how Astral's powers work: he astral projects into a Flying Brick form.
- Badass Normal: The Runner, sort of
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: Tempore may not need to breathe, but he still may qualify, as well as the chaos agents. Time and Laser seems to play this trope much straighter.
- Bilingual Bonus: The Spanish in issue 4 is supposed to describe the sexual acts that took place a little more, but they were mangled with Babelfish. One may still be able to get what was meant to be said, though
- Bland-Name Product: Eiderdown has a job interview at Burger Mania in issue 3 — an amalgamation of McDonald's (in which such an incident took place), BurgerKing (name) and Wendy's (basis for the location). In issue 4, you get Jogermiser in the background.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Order guardians and chaos agents see the world, not in "good" and "evil", but "order" and "chaos", going to whatever ends are needed to uphold said concepts.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: In a photo segment at the end of each issue, Ave (and/or the mascot, Kara Bear) will address the audience. Also, the Zx*@!!s, a race of chaos agents, will sometimes wave at the reader, look at the book binding or read a previous issue, among other things.
- Brought to You by the Letter "S": Astral's chest insignia is an A. The Swimmer has an S as the pendant to her necklace, as well as on her belt buckle.
- Chest Insignia: On her chest, Eiderdown has a picture of a feather drawing a circle like a quill. Atral has an A in a circle on his chest.
- Chrome Dome Psi: Supporting character Noggin, who has psychic powers, seems to have no hair at all, even eyebrow hair.
- Coat, Hat, Mask: A villain alters reality to make the characters go through the different comic book eras, and Fractal has such a look in the pulp and Golden Age settings (in a costume patterned after the Clock).
- Code Name: It's a superhero comic after all...
- Cosmic Entity: The order guardians and chaos agents hold this power, or at least some of them. Chaos agent Qlrn was seen flinging a planet effortlessly and having the ability to break from the confines of the comic's panels, and Tempore was ostensibly stronger.
- Decompressed Comic: Issue 1 used a lot of splash pages, which the author lamented, and still the issues have had extended establishing pages.
- Disposable Superhero Maker: Eiderdown got her powers when a chaos agent fell on her from a battle in space with Tempore, when the kid later to be called Eiderdown was just a baby. It's presumable that, even under the same circumstances, such an event would not happen again, since the chaos agents are completely unpredictable in all aspects. As well, the Swimmer got her powers from a random-circumstance explosion of a machine tapping into alternate realities.
- Domino Mask: Eiderdown wears one, complete with a string to tie it behind her head.
- Emotional Powers: Sparkle
- Flying Brick: Astral, in his atral form
- Girly Bruiser: Sparkle
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Sparkle
- It Only Works Once: Tempore lets out a burst of energy that kills all chaos agents in the vicinity in issue 2, but he states why he'll only use it once: he is risking causing chaos himself. It was originally supposed to be that it used too much energy, but Ave thought it didn't sound right.
- Magic Pants: Sparkle's outfit stays intact no matter how much her powers bulk her up. Explained in that she got them from a superhero clothing store.
- Mascot: Kara Bear, a yellow teddy bear (despite, as Kara mentions in issue 1, "Kara" meaning "black" in German and "Gelb" meaning "yellow").
- The Multiverse: Multiple multiverses, actually. Tempore is the order guardian for one, and Time and Laser is for the one that contains Eiderdown's universe.
- '90s Anti-Hero: When a villain alters reality to make the characters go through different comic book eras, the cast becomes these.
- No Biological Sex: Tempore shows no differentiating sexual characteristics. He is called by male pronouns primarily out of convenience.
- Now, Buy the Merchandise: After every issue, Ave (or rather, the mascot Kara Bear) begs readers to buy the print comics.
- Oh, Crap!: Eiderdown's response to her attempt to blast some criminals with feathers during her first night, when the wind blows them away shortly after leaving her hand: "Crap". Of course, what she was intending the feathers to do isn't explained.
- Order Versus Chaos: The order guardians in their eternal struggle against the chaos agents.
- Pstandard Psychic Pstance: done by Celine Quickenice when she cameos and then later by Noggin.
- Space Is Noisy: In the author comments, it's said Tempore can talk in space because it isn't really talking, but that chaos agent Qlrn is talking, because he's a chaos agent. It still doesn't explain a sound effect that happens later, though.
- Starfish Alien: Qlrn, a chaos agent, is decidedly inhuman, in both look and mannerisms. Order guardians Tieltal and Shal'tatal, as well.
- Stealth Pun: Eiderdown starts issue 3 at a job interview at a burger place called Burger Mania. Initialled to "BM", it means their burgers (or business practices) are likened to excrement.
- Superhero: Eiderdown, Fractal, Sparkle, Astral, the Swimmer, the Runner
- Superhero Prevalence Stages: Eiderdown, as her world's first (powered) superhero, has an example of Early Stage.
- Super-Strength: Sparkle
- Super Team: The main characters have become this.
- Three-Way Sex: in issue 4, Eiderdown hooks up with Jenny Everywhere and a superhero called Red Mind.
- Twofer Token Minority: Eiderdown is a four-fer: Mexican, Laotian, bisexual, and transgender. The Swimmer is a three-fer: Native American, lesbian and transgender.
- The Unpronounceable: Chaos agents shown so far have been the Qlrn and the race of Zx*@!!. Neither is particularly easy to pronounce.
- Utility Belt: The Runner's pouches on his belt can count—four pouches, each with a different gadget.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Eiderdown seems to have a severe weakness to wind.
- Webcomic Print Collection: Each issue is put up for sale on Indy Planet after it's finished.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Eiderdown even laments her power—controlling feathers—as stupid. She still decides to fight crime, anyways.
- Would Hit a Girl: The first thing a (male) thug does to Eiderdown on her first night is punch her.
- Writing for the Trade: Each issue is read far better as a whole than waiting for each page to update. This despite the fact that the comic updates every weekday until an issue finishes.
- You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: an attacker learns the hard way in issue 5 not to make Sparkle mad.
