Turbo Defiant (previously known as Turbo Defiant Kimecan) is an online graphic novel written and illustrated by Dono Sanchez Almara (best known for his work as a colorist for Marvel for titles like Rage of Ultron and the Attack on Avengers crossover story). Turbo Defiant used to update weekly but is currently on hiatus. It can be found at turbodefiant.net
.note Two parts have been released so far with a third part on the way. Only part one is available on the Turbo Defiant site as of October 2018.
Lucas keeps having this strange dream where he's running from a giant brute and gets saved by a mysterious girl. Other than that, his life is average with rowdy friends, mixed romantic signals from one of them, his single father, meeting the girl in his dream on the train...
Ah yeah, and the Fantastic Friends of Sam are in town too. This popular circus show is so popular, they extended their stay. These acrobatic clowns are actually dangerous monsters from another world that want to merge our world with that of dreams. Little does Lucas know that deep within him lies Icario, a Kimecan, a super powered robot that can help stop them, along with the eccentric trio of Barett, Ozman, and Gala, the girl from his dream.
Turbo Defiant was originally presented presented in both traditional HTML format and an interactive "Turbo" mode, a graphic narrative experiment Dono called "Progressive Sequential Art". The Turbo Mode allowed for pacing and certain presentation elements that don't work in print. While the comic is still developed for print and available for reading online in a regular webcomic format, Dono is still looking into reviving Turbo Mode, possibly with HTML5.
Tropes:
- A Mech by Any Other Name: Lucas refers to Icario as a giant robot, but nobody else makes the connection. Those that can transform into a giant robot are referred to as Kimecans.
- Animesque: Inspired by classic giant robot anime and early Gainax.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Lucas' first battle as Icario leads to all of the Shidur besides Sioran being taken out.
- Calling Your Attacks: Of the video game style where they show up onscreen.
- Icario's Exploding Kentron Shock Stinger, Warping Turbo Vortex, and Monster Karma Canniban
- Azdruba's Thermomania Razorbeam
- Barret's Jaswinder Knockout
- Casual Danger Dialogue: On the other side, people there really care more about seeing a Kimecan battle instead of getting to safety, with one even asking people to "PLACE YOUR BETS"!
- Catapult Nightmare: Lucas experiences this in the beginning.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Morgan, the benefactor of Azdruba and his "brothers"
- Dream Land: The Umbra. Gala describes it as such: "All human beings visit the Umbra while they sleep, all the sleeping minds create it and sustain it."
- Eye Scream: The baddies use eyes to conduct the Vigris Tar spell to summon Persecutors and hone in on targets, at the expense of the humans who were originally using it.
- Expy: Gala is one for Haruko and Icario serves as one for Canti. Unlike in FLCL, Gala is less antagonistic, more grounded behavior wise, and her relationship with Icario is more positive.
- Averted for Lucas, which he's similar to Naota in that he has a distaste for beer and cigarettes in the same way Naota does for sour and spicy stuff, he lacks Naota's desire to be a "mini-adult" and asserts himself more often in the beginning.
- Fandisservice: Sioren strips down naked only to transform into monster form and start cutting Lucas' face.
- Get A Hold Of Your Self Man: The first time Gala does this to Icario, she slaps him right in the face. The second time she does this, SHE THROWS A CAR AT HIM. Him being "a giant robot".
- Goofy Print Underwear: Gala has some...of multiple chibi Icarios.
- In Medias Res: The story starts with Lucas repeating the same dream he's always had of escaping from Frakornen and meeting Gala, then he wakes up.
- Interspecies Romance: Between Lucas' dad and Cecilia.
- Ms. Fanservice: Gala, unsubtlely in-universe and out of it. Her Stripperific outfit choices only apply to the real world though.
- Take That!: A channel flipping sequence lightly takes the piss out of Hollywood gossip news shows, reality TV, telenovelas, and very subtly, the official story for the assassination of Bin Laden, shown as a text crawl during a weather segment.
- In another example of news stories current to the pages they appear in sneaking into the comics, STOP SOPA appears in the bar as a poster.
- Transformation Sequence: For Icario when he first awakens.
- Urban Fantasy: Advertised as such.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Gala keeps asking this of Icario multiple times when she asks him to quit absorbing people.
- Word Salad Title: Defied, all the words in the title make sense in context. Defiant refers to the group that Lucas joins that Ozman, Barrett, and Gala belong to , Lucas' mother was one too, along with the Rogue Defiant, Azdruba, Boe and Gezco. Turbo refers to the site's Turbo Interactive Mode. It's later revealed after Lucas manifests as Icario in the real world that a Turbo Defiant is a Defiant that can manifest as their Other World form on Earth. Previously, the comic was titled Turbo Defiant Kimecan, Kimecan referring to the species of Barret, Azdruba, Boe and Gezco. Barret refers to Lucas as a Kimecan too though due to his mother being one while his father is human, he's really only half-Kimecan.
