Webcomic / Wicked Awesome Adventure

You are in a WINE CELLAR with a DEAD RAT, a STARVING RAT, and a FRANKLY DISGUSTING ROSE from a VERY BAD YEAR.

Wicked Awesome Adventure is a webcomic/webgame created by Andrew Heil for the consumption of any viewers familiar with text-based adventure games. It features four "playable character" adventurers (Rhys O'Callihan, Jill "Jet" Thunderson, Cadungery Muffinbottom III, and Alan) who, after surviving a Darwinian Apocalypse, awake to a peculiar world. Read/play it here!

After a post in October 2017 indicating updates would become sporadic (most likely due the creator's new baby) nothing more was posted until August 2019 when the creator posted that it was unlikely the comic would ever be updated again.

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This work provides examples of:

• After the End
• Action Girl: Jet.
• A Glass of Chianti: The Zommelier is Wicked Cultured.
• Apocalyptic Log: The whole "Haunted House" storyline lampshades and revolves around one of these.
• Bavarian Fire Drill: Alan seems to have an effect on Rhys and Jet where telling them to do something will result in their compliance (if they understand the order in time). The extent of this effect on other characters is unknown.
• Because Destiny Says So: Cad, according to the Queen, is destined to be/was a fabled wizard and awesome guy. Someone may have stolen Alan's temporospatial device to induce this prophecy.
• Brown Note: Alan finds an Irrational Portal in the Haunted House, which turns into a Brown Note if observed for too long.
  • The Duck may also be one of these.
• The Cameo: Certain well-known adventurers appear in Rhys' interludes.
  • Indiana Jones appears dead during turn 238.
    • Considering the Film Noir connection fedoras hold in this, "Indy" may be a post-Holmes detective.
  • George Washington Carver runs a peanut shop in the desert.
  • The zombie in turn 253 may be an homage to or cameo of Edvard Munch's "The Scream."
  • Manny the skeleton bartender bears a striking resemblance to another adventure game skeleton.
  • John Clark cameos as a ninja in turn 289.
  • The Red Heavy from Team Fortress 2 works for the pirates.
• Cow Tools: Subverted because the characters do know what they are, but when Rhys, Cadungery, and Jet awake they are in rooms stuffed with strange and sometimes useful implements.
• Design-It-Yourself Equipment: A speargun out of a vevuzela and sharp stick? No problem. A... brusherhang? Apparently also useful.
  • Spirit of the trope most closely followed by the customizable sidekicks. Standard/elective equipment: horns; fangs; claws; tusks; helmet; weapon.
  • Equipable weapons are of the sort created not found (i.e. vevuzela spear gun).
• Didn't Think This Through: A hazard of exploring or escaping.
  • Jet sets off a trap while trying to escape disaster with the unwilling help of a Candimp.
  • Rhys sets off a trap while solving a puzzle in the Haunted House.
• Divided States of America: One player asked for an exposition bomb and got this.
• Failed a Spot Check: Not a single character, with the possible exception of one of the Alan clones, sees the Duck.
• Fantasy Character Classes: Each PC has one.
  • Cad may be a Summoner Magician.
  • Rhys is a Gunslinger - ahem! - Guileslinger.
  • Jet is possibly a Rogue_Pirate or Rogue_Scout
  • Alan is an Engineer.
  • Many NPCs are Ninja.
• Funetik Aksent: Rhys assumes a pseudo-Texan patois to get into Fort Ferris by shorting the Confederbots' conversation circuits.
• Friendly Enemy: Certain Confederbots.
• Game Over: You Have Died! — Characters die, but continue to live on in an alternate reality where the players made a different choice.
  • Death Count Rhys: 1
    • It's not the falling: it's the short stop.
  • Death Count Cad: 2
    • Shear-forces in Rubik's Hypercubes.
    • Listening to Kitchenware Barbershop Quartet.
  • Death Count Jet: 1
    • Advice you need like a hole in the head: Don't tease the dangerous pirate.
  • Death Count Alan: 0
• Gargle Blaster: Mule Kick Vision Quest Potion.
  • Consumed twice by Rhys. Automatically indicates the end of Rhys' "turn" for a while.
• Guardian Entity: The "Duck? What duck? You're getting off track" duck Rhys accidentally summoned during his first few "turns."
  • The duck rarely approves of anything, subverting any Anonymous Benefactor tendencies, and may in fact be a Fnord.
  • Entries featuring Alan hint that the duck may be an antagonist or villain.
• Guile Hero: Rhys.
• Hollywood Board Games:
  • When Rhys consults his wicked awesome pockets (aka, his inventory) while hopeful about something, said pockets snark at him telling him there's no hope by means of nonexistent, black-and-white, crossed-off Scrabble tiles. This detail works both as foreshadowing (for the tiles to come) and to highlight the setting's all-encompassing silliness.
  • The Scrabble tiles on the puzzle box spell "PEON" which Rhys struggles to rearrange into "OPEN". He first goes with "NOPE", which causes his imaginary duck to be disappointed. Rhys is very cunning, but that's a trait he develops during his adventure. For context, this happens very early in the game.
  • Guile Hero Rhys successfully bribes a literal rat cop with the Scrabble tiles he'd been encountering and collecting up to that point. He spells the word "DOLLER" (as in, dollar) and then bargains for that price to be lowered to just "LER" because his tiles amount to just "C-A-D-L-E-R". The cop accepts it and splits the tiles between himself and his partner. The narration even lampshades this lack of common sense by stating that the rats think of themselves as cunning — the implication being that they are not. Rhys holds onto his remaining tiles which spell "CAD", the name of the friend he wants to reunite with. Hence why he doesn't use the "A" tile up.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: The inventory system may be one of these: no limit yet found on Cadungery's bottle capacity.
• Idiot Hero: Cad (somewhat).
• It May Help You on Your Quest: Red rubber stoppers, saucy literature, Scrabble tiles... it has them all.
• Mind-Control Eyes: Alan develops these when he stares into an Irrational Portal in turn 262.
  • Jill and M. Bison develop these when staring into the Irrational Map.
• Moon Logic Puzzle: Admittedly co-created by players and author, several of these have occurred. Cad and Jet experience them the most.
  • Lampshaded.
• Ninja: They're everywhere! They're everywhere! So far, Jet has encountered a Darwinian ninja and Rhys has encountered Unionjas.
  • Our Ninja are Different. They can hide in nuts with fruit, and may look like John Clark.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Each PC (assumed, in Alan's case) has a teddy-something sidekick.
  • Rhys has a teddyboar which he lost soon after gaining.
  • Jet has a teddybison.
    • She also has a mouse (with furniture) that took up residence in a pocket and willingly assists her in hacking. Said mouse could be a Chessmaster Sidekick.
  • Cad has a teddyhippo and also a teddywhale.
  • Alan has a teddyunknown.
• Noodle Implements: In turn 123.
• Our Demons Are Different: Literally. They're red and live in hierarchies, but they're made of-... well, they're Candaemons.
• Our Presidents Are Different: Union States President Philemon Rapsknuckle, the masked wrestler President Action.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Cad has created an army of Type V/F-P zombies.
  • The Zommelier may be a Type R zombie, re: Brian.
• Pit Trap: Trap Doors have been triggered by the successful solution of a puzzle in a hostile environment.
  • Adventurer bait? Inevitability? Only the author knows.
• Schedule Slip: It generally updates on the five weekdays (a challenging schedule few webcomics and no adventure games can claim to keep) and updates realtime / in response to player input (removing any chance of buffering). Therefore, when technical difficulties strike (most to be blamed on Blogger), the update schedule stands no chance.
• Science Hero: Alan.
• Slept Through the Apocalypse: Each of the playable characters survived in a Darwinian refuge as a Human Popsicle.
• Talking Is a Free Action: The Exposition Bomb only takes a single turn. Lampshaded.
  • Even the author suggests skipping this Wall of Text.
• Time Stands Still: Cad exerts magic to freeze time and subvert statistics to save the Queen during his first interlude.
• Time Master: Alan jumps through time, alternately with minimal control and maximal control (depending on his personal timeline).
• Utility Belt: All the characters have pockets and use what's in them in Utility Belt ways.
  • Cadungery tries to turn his into a Bag of Holding. Lampshaded.
• Variable-Length Chain: Jet's length of rubber hose.
• Wig, Dress, Accent: In Rhys' case, it's more of a "Hat Uniform Accent," but he nevertheless assumes it to infiltrate Fort Ferris.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: The author takes reader suggestions for every daily update, and Word of God, he's mostly just making it up as he goes along.
• You Wake Up in a Room: Rhys, Jet and Cad have all woken up in Darwinian Refuges without immediate explanation.

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