In Korea, there are sidekicks who are the assistants of the heroes. They all try to be the real hero to save the world.
Even if people are born with superpowers, they must serve as sidekicks of superheroes in order to become superheroes themselves. Dream Girl has the power to make people fall asleep and is the sidekick of Darkslug, a world famous superhero who is not as great as he appears. One day, Dream Girl and Theo work together to get rid of villains and save the world. This is the story of the sidekick's journey to becoming a true hero!
Sidekicks is a fantasy-action Webtoon series that had taken its own spin on the "Sidekick" trope. Authorised and illustrated by IRON Shin, it was published on Naver in 2014 and has completed its second season in 2016. It can be read in English here.
The series has its own wiki.
Not to be confused with the film Sidekicks, the trope about Sidekicks, or the similarly named webcomic Sidekick Girl.
Sidekicks contains examples of:
- Always Someone Better: Guardian was this to Dunkelheit. It's also heavily implied that Darkslug was this to Dunkelheit too, despite being the latter's sidekick at the time.
- Anti-Hero:
- Played straight with Theo while he was the "Villain Hunter". While he is apprehending Captain Rodriguez on the villain's, he completely ignores the fact that there were captured children onboard and focuses solely on taking the villain down.
- In Season Two we have the former hero Dire, a once mighty and just hero who has now been let out of prison as a mere enforcer of now secretary-general Lightning's regime. His first action? Thank Lightning for allowing him to kill villains again. Oh and he eats the villains he kills. Thank God he gets better.
- Ax-Crazy: In most of Pluton's appearances he's seen with an unnerving smile on his face and he quite clearly takes pleasure in brutalising and killing people.
- Bad Powers, Bad People: Pluton kills for fun, enjoys challenging fights and has a deadly superpower that either drains life force or just outright kills the victim.
- Badass Boast: Darkslug while he is overwhelming Metheos.Metheos: The First Prana's power is incredible.Darkslug: Nope. I'm just naturally strong.
- Bequeathed Power: Darkslug transferred all of his power and the First Prana into Lamia in the season 1 finale. Lamia then went from Dream Girl the sidekick to Nightmare the superhero.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Ryan, a new Under Corps member, who turns out to be the villain Phantom.
- Black Dude Dies First: Afrostar was the first superhero to die onscreen; he also happens to be black. This decent hero lasted only four chapters.
- Clark Kenting: Played straight by all superheroes and sidekicks. In season 2 it's lampshaded by Lamia's colleague when she walks into the office after having defeating a villain as Nightmare.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Any battle that Darkslug participates in. This trait has been passed on to his sidekick-turned-superhero, Lamia Lilith, who is now the superhero "Nightmare".
- Nightmare provides a notable one to an army of Alex clones despite having drained her powers beforehand.
- Afrostar provided one to two villains in quick succession before being killed by a sneak attack.
- Cyborg: The villains Metaroid and Goldrush.
- In season 2 we have Alex from the "Alex Project". The cyborgs from the Alex line are special in that they also possess superpowers.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Darkslug, who is one of the most famous superheroes, wears an all black hero outfit. Oh, and his name also happens to be "Darkslug". Zig-zagged by One-Eyed Shadow who used to be a villain but now works under Camilla as her sidekick. He may or may not have returned to villainy after the four-year timeskip.
- Dirty Coward: Lightning all the way. Despite being a superhero, he never puts himself in the line of fire unless he absolutely has to or he is provoked into doing so. It's no wonder that three of his previous sidekicks have died.
- Face–Heel Turn:
- Olivia, a supublic who was highly rated in Justice College but ended up in the Under Corps anyway, turned to the side of evil when Metheos gave her Phantom's Mind Control superpower. She then took on the name "Iblis".
- Gale did so too after being dismissed as a sidekick.
- Fallen Hero: Subverted by Guardian, who was believed to have betrayed the Committee, but played completely straight by Dunkelheit who was the real betrayer and soon became the villain Metheos.
- Fanservice: Most female characters wear pretty Stripperific costumes and most of the male characters are noticeably muscular. Notable mentions go to Iblis, Lamia and Theo, who has had his fair share of topless moments.
- Grand Theft Me: Metheos is actually Dunkelheit inhabiting Guardian's body. At the end of season 1 he jumps into Theo's body after Guardian's body is perforated by Darkslug.
- Heel–Face Turn: Kyle, aka One-Eyed Shadow, is implied to have done one prior to becoming Camilla's sidekick.
- Hero Killer:
- Pluton was introduced as a villain who had killed 4 superheroes and 5 sidekicks before finally being subdued.
- Metheos' crew turn into hero killers whilst collecting superpowers.
- Hidden Depths: Darkslug. He's initially portrayed as a complete Jerkass of a master who only cares about his image and his next bottle of wine, but when we see him pick Lamia over Olivia as his new sidekick, despite Olivia being all-round a better candidate, we start to see Darkslug is not as bad as he seems.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Darkslug was this to Dunkelheit In Season Two, Limpid recruits the ever-reliable and determined Phoenix.
- Idiot Ball: Camilla held it right at the end of season 1 and paid the price for it. Even if the main villain is currently inhabiting your former master's son's body, never try to protect a villain by standing with your back to them, when the villain only wants to kill you and take your superpowers.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
- Limpid gets a hand through her chest courtesy of Metheos and the latter receives his karmic retribution when Darkslug does the same to him.
- Afrostar does this to a villain with a h-bar steel.
- In a Single Bound: Supublics can't fly but every supublic is capable of doing a high jump, a super jump and a free fall. There are similar skills but only the unique superpower of Flight allows one to fly freely in the air.
- Jerkass: While most superheroes seem to come across this way, Lightning takes the cake. So much so, that he caused one of his sidekicks to defect to the side of the villains.
- Jerkass with a Heart of Gold: Darkslug. In the season finale he protected Dream Girl from Metheos' Beam Burster, at the cost of a severe injury, revealed why he picked her over Olivia as his sidekick and finally transferred all his powers over to her.
- Kamehame Hadoken: Every supublic is capable of firing Beam Bursters from either their hands, eyes or mouth.
- Meaningful Name: Some heroes, sidekicks and villains are given names that reflect their superpower. Lightning and Gale are the best examples.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Lightning is indirectly directly responsible for the Humankind Security Committee heardquarters being destroyed by the villains and the subsequent deterioration of the system that kept supublics in check. Having fired Gale from his sidekick position, Gale became a villain and then later tricked Lightning into leaving the Committee completely exposed.
- In season two Nightmare ends up solving the power problem of the "Alex Project" after inadvertently imbuing her superpowers into all the Forcebites due to her annihilation of the Alex clone army. And thus the complete Alex was born.
- No-Sell: Theo manages to do this to Monk every time the latter tries to use his superpower.
- Obviously Evil:
- Pluton's got the Villainous Widow's Peak, dark stony skin that looks like it's decaying, an almost permanent Slasher Smile and was introduced as a dangerous villain who mercilessly killed a child, destroyed a city, massacred its population and killed 4 heroes and 5 sidekicks before being subdued and put in prison. Just look at his face. If that doesn't scream evil, I don't know what will.
- Metheos counts too, with his bull-horn helmet, glowing red eyes and massive blood-coloured cape.
- Older Than They Look: As a result of his superpower manifesting, Hacky looks like a young child despite being well over 20 years old.
- One-Man Army: Nightmare proves to be as effective as a whole army when she effortlessly annihilates an army of Alex clones despite previously draining some of her powers on the way.
- One Person, One Power: All supublics are born with a single superpower. Superheroes subvert this by gaining a second superpower thanks to their hero capes and the villains working with Metheos do so via the Third Prana.
- Power Limiter: Alcohol suppresses a supublic's powers. It's the reason why Darkslug (and later Nightmare) is always drinking wine; so they don't annihilate opponents so quickly.
- Power-Strain Blackout: Having flew all the way from the Committee to the prison Pluton was being kept at, and thus exhausting all of his power, Darkslug suffered one after a brief fight with Pluton.
- Power-Upgrading Deformation: Certain supublics suffer from deformations when their superpower manifest, due to their genetics. Snatcher and Hacky are two examples.
- The So-Called Coward: A villain calls Darkslug out as being an alcoholic coward who hides behind his sidekick; before the villain knows it, he's on the receiving end of a beating.
- Squishy Wizard: Iblis has powerful mental powers but was knocked out by a single punch from Kyle.
- Stripperific: Most of the female heroes' and sidekicks' costumes. The villain Iblis probably wins as the most stripperific though.
- Super-Empowering: The First Prana is able to create superpowers and imbue them into things. The Third Prana can steal superpowers and then transfer them into others.
- Superhero School: All supublics are sent to Justice College the moment their superpower manifest.
- Superheroes Wear Capes: Their capes grant them an extra superpower, so it's win-win.
- Talking Is a Free Action: Averted by Snatcher who attacks Lightning while he is in the middle of a speech. Later lampshaded somewhat in season 2 by a villain while he is fighting against Lamia and Jina.
- Thanatos Gambit: Gale successfully performs one on Lightning which ends up leaving the Committee headquarters utterly exposed.
- Tragic Villain: Snatcher and Gale. Snatcher just wanted to get rid of her powers which she viewed as a curse and Gale felt hard done by after being coldly dismissed as a sidekick since his father died making him into one.
- Wine Is Classy: Darkslug drinks expensive, classy-sounding wines it all the time. We later learn it was to constantly keep his power levels down.
- Would Hit a Girl:
- Every supublic in the series. Justified in that most villains actively try to kill superheroes (and their sidekicks) and vice-versa, regardless of gender, so not hitting a woman back would just be plain stupid.
- Lightning seems to have no problems with physically abusing his most recent sidekick Succubus.
- Would Hurt a Child: In his introduction, Pluton was seen choking and killing a little girl, all with an creepily satisfied grin on his face. It's disconcerting to say the least.
