Superheroines with a sense of fashion...
M9 Girls!
is a webcomic by Rulopótamo, first drawn by Kanela and later by Shadow (formerly known as Séreméla).The M9 Girls are Any, Pato, Claudia, and Karla. They are a team of college researchers who gain the ability to tap into the primordial power of the universe and become endowed with superpowers as a result. Their first story arc is the origin story, with the girls discovering the implications of their transformation. Their second story arc shows them as a budding super-heroine team.
Although the girls dress up in attires closer to Magical Girl looks, their story is more of a Super Hero one, with Mad Science overtones. The comic has been updating since 2011, and the first arc was completed in April of 2019. A second story arc started after a 1 year hiatus, featuring shorter chapters and a more episodic nature.
This comic provides examples of:
- Afraid of Needles: Pato apparently hates getting shots.
- Age-Gap Romance: Any develops a crush with the Professor very early in the history. The feelings are mutual.
- Animesque: Both the story and the art are Manga-influenced.
- Art Evolution: Shadow is the artist as of Chapter 5.
- Art Shift: Artist Kanela was fond of using chibi versions of the characters for reaction panels, in contrast to her more realistic manga style. Artist Shadow goes back and fort between a semi-realistic approach and a classic manga look.
- Beauty, Brains, and Brawn:
- Karlita/Pink Starlight - Beauty. She is the Valley Girl and The Fashionista of the group, though she is also a closeted bookworm.
- Any/Blue Destiny - Brains. She is a bookworm, the leader of the group, and the most dedicated to science in the team.
- Pato/Purple Space - Brawn. The Dead Pan Snarker, she can transform into the material she touches. She usually prefers transforming into metal.
- Body Horror: The cyborgs look like a cross between robots, zombies, and torture victims.
- Blatant Lies: Vero's excuses when she's caught sneaking into the lab are...less than convincing.
- Broken Pedestal: All of the girls are pretty disillusioned by the Prof at this point, though the revelation hits a particular emotional nerve for Any, considering her obvious admiration of him early on.
- Cheeky Mouth: Frequently.
- Color Character: All the M9 Girls hero names.
- Crossover: Several, particularly members of Webcomic Underdogs. To date the girls have met The Demon Archives, Princess Chroma, Ruby Nation, Cesium and Groovy, Kinda among others.
- The Groovy, Kinda crossover has lasting effects in both comics, with one supporting character of Groovy moving permanently to the M9 universe. The authors claim this has not been attempted before.
- Crucified Hero Shot: When Any is given her second dose of radiation, the platform she’s on strongly resembles a cross.
- Curse Cut Short: Pato, when she realizes she possesses absorbent powers.
- Dramatic Irony: Vero is laughed at for thinking the lab is involved in some kind of conspiracy. And it is.
- Elemental Powers: The abilities that the M9 Girls possess seem to be connected to the universe's primordial forces. Any controls time, Pato controls matter, Clau controls energy and Karla controls light. Vero could be considered chaos.
- The Empath: Any's other main power. She can sense other people's main feelings and can delve further into them by concentrating, which causes discomfort in the subject.
- Everything's Better with Sparkles: Karla can produce colorful sparkles.
- Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Blame Karla.
- Four-Girl Ensemble: Obviously. Any is the quiet one and Team Mom, Pato is the Deadpan Snarker, Clau is the Genki Girl and Karla is the sexy and not so dumb one.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Any is melancholic, Pato is phlegmatic, Clau is sanguine, and Karla is choleric.
- Genki Girl: Clau is the most energetic of the four, though Pato is also very plucky.
- The Glomp: Clau is quite effusive when meeting her boyfriend.
- Got Volunteered: Pato gets shoved to the front of the line for radiation treatment, despite her marked reluctance to go.
- High-Class Gloves: All girls wear gloves, though probably Any qualifies better. Again, this is because of Karla's idea of superhero fashion.
- How Do I Shot Web?: The third chapter has the girls experimenting with their powers, and the fourth chapter features a training sequence under Professor T.X.
- Identical Panel Gag: Every now and then. For example, this page depicts how exciting is the actual work at a genetics lab, and this page uses it to convey Any's time-freezing powers.
- In-Series Nickname: All of the girls are known by their shortened nicknames.
- Knew It All Along: Vero thinks the girls are part of a conspiracy. She finds out she's right.
- LEGO Genetics: A combination of this and radiation are what give the M9 Girls their powers.
- Luminescent Blush: Any blushes quite a bit around the professor early on.
- Mad Scientist: Professor T.X. does not seem to have problems with a complete lack of research ethics for human experimentation. He actually was originally part of a mad science team with the Big Bad.
- Magical Girl: The M9 Girls are the mad science-version of the trope.
- Manipulative Bastard: Professor T.X. uses his ridiculously good looks to manipulate Any, Pato, Claudia, and Karla into becoming subjects for his mad experiments.
- Mind over Matter: Claudia is a telekinetic.
- Mini Dress Of Power: Lampshaded. Karla reasons that, since they are becoming super heroines, they should all wear pretty costumes.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Any realizes that she is able to read minds and becomes disappointed in her choice of crushes.
- Nerves of Steel: Purple Space is the first to act when a threat comes up. Just don't give her a shot.
- Ninja Pirate Robot Zombie: The cyborgs have a little of everything in their design, not always for the better.
- Obviously Evil: Alpha Prime, the Big Bad, is horribly deformed as a result of being exposed to the same cosmic radiation that gives the M9 Girls their powers. Justified in that he is a result of early, not perfected, experimentation.
- Only Known By Their Nick Name: Professor T.X.
- Power Glows: Using cosmic powers results in a purple aura.
- Quirky Curls: Pato, the most contrary of the group.
- Rage Against the Mentor: The Prof may be the one who gave them their powers and started them out learning to use them, but Pato did not take kindly to finding out they were being used as counterweapons all along and has no qualms about calling him out on it.
- Shy Finger-Twiddling: Karla does this when the Professor points out the unaccounted expense on the costumes she has made for the Girls.
- Sour Supporter: Pato is the least enthusiastic member of the group. She’s also prone to teasing from the others as a result.
- Spandex, Latex, or Leather: Technically, "an unaccounted expense on high-resistance polymer fibers"
- Speech Bubbles: Each character gets a different font in the early chapters. Apparently the authors got tired of keeping track of the fonts, because they have dropped it in later chapters.
- Super Hero Origin: The webcomic itself is an origin story.
- Three Plus Two: Any, Pato and Clau are shown to be classmates and friends at the start of the first chapter, then they recruit fancy (but secretly smart) Karla for splitting homework. Eventually, Karla's friend Vero joins as the Sixth Ranger.
- Team Power Walk: The first time they wear their costumes for battle. The page even has a Theme Song.
- Time Master: Any can create a bubble inside of which time is slowed down.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Vero and Karla.
- Transformation Sequence: Averted. The M9 Girls must change themselves into their super-heroine clothes, not without some shinny effects added by the artist.
- Translation Convention: The M9 Girls actually speak Spanish. The English version of the comic is there only for readers' convenience.
- Will They or Won't They?: Any and Professor T.X.
