History ComicBook / PS238

* HealingHands: Dr. Newby, the school medic, has this -- fortunately for Tyler. He needs it. A lot. It's limited to physical injuries, however, and she can't do much when [[spoiler:Ambriel]] is very sick.

* MindOverMatter: From the [[http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/04062009/ 04062009 comic]], one of the Rainmaker kids can repair things with the ability to move molecules around with her power.

* {{Teleportation}}: Multiple:
** [[spoiler:Charles]]
** The Earth Defense League has a teleporter linked, among other places, to the principal's office of [=PS238=].
* ThirdPersonPerson: Tyler slips into this once, when [[spoiler:confirming that he, as Moon Shadow, is going to stop Charles]]. It marks his transition from being an ActionSurvivor to a BadassNormal.

* ConspicuousCG: Quite intentional with the Determinant and the Balagan, Entity of Order and Aspect of Chaos respectively, hinting at YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm. Later depictions are just drawn, rather than being CG'ed onto the page. Whether this is supposed to represent something or is just a cost-cutting measure is unknown.

** Flea, who is probably a collective {{Expy}} of similar characters SelfDemonstrating/{{Deadpool}} and ComicBook/AmbushBug. (He also has elements of Franchise/SpiderMan, ComicBook/TheTick, and the most recent ComicBook/BlueBeetle -- there's a whole big arthropod-themed hero mashup going on here.)

** After the Mister Extraordinary issue, it's implied that Tom keeps going back to the past to visit Naomi, leaving her gifts and even taking her to other time periods, and, much later, it's heavily implied that they will be married or at least in a relationship as adults.

* LoopholeAbuse: The Crystal Skull weasels out of giving Zodon $100,000 by giving him store credit instead of cash, since his lawyers noted that they never specified what form the payment would take. Technically this would actually be more expensive due to the way casino gift shops work, but the Crystal Skull was probably worried about 1) not giving a budding super-villain a leg up, and 2) staying in the Revenant's good graces.

** Zodon, a bald, quadriplegic, supergenius supervillain who looks lik a baby in a floating egg, makes his first grand entrance by hacking into the school's infomercial broadcast: "BEHOLD YOUR FUTURE MASTER AND TREMBLE,YOU WHO CALL YOURSELVES HEROES!!" He's '''five'''. The school tries to rein in his profanity-laden hamminess with an implanted microchip that auto-censors his outbursts with random words and Broadway showtunes -- which makes Zodon's ham even '''bigger''':
-->'''Zodon:''' You '''FLOWER GARDEN!''' I'll '''FOXTROT''' all over your '''DRINKING FOUNTAIN!! UMBRELLA! CRUNCHBERRIES!! CORDLESS TELEPHONE!!!'''

(''beat'')\\

* {{Reconstruction}}: As much as Williams enjoys deconstructing superhero tropes, his affection for them shows through and he often follows up by quickly reconstructing them all over again. Not everything is rosy for the heroes and often RealityEnsues from their powers and experiences, and some have rather shallow motives and fairly JerkAss-ish behavior (such as within the Finster extended family). Yet at the same time they remain firmly committed to doing the best they can as well as they know how, and remain ''heroes'' that they and their families and friends can respect.
** The first new story since moving online focuses strongly on Julie, AKA 84, and is busily reconstructing the "generic good guy" attitude around the F.I.S.S. (FlyingBrick) types, though it's been building up to this for a while now. As the most common super type, many of them are very social and supportive partially to spite the low opinion others have of their power set, partially because they've gotten over the self-importance found in so many other supers, and are really just good people. They're also starting to fall prey to WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer less often as a result.

* SealedEvilInACan: [[spoiler:Aurora, one of the former members of the Union of Justice, 'haunts' the school's basement as a ghost made of {{Nanomachines}}. She's kept in there by solid-steel walls with EM fields. It's currently unknown why she's locked in there, though judging by her current personality she underwent a HeelFaceTurn at some point.]]

* SimilarSquad: A trip "sideways to the seconds, underneath the third and fifth dimensions" takes Malphast and Cecil to a school occupied by [[MonstrousHumanoid tentacled aardvark-snouted children]] ... two of whom, arguing about who will kneel before the other's intellect, are the bowler-hatted Von Phtago and the thick-spectacled Zodthulu.

* StableTimeLoop: Vashti "Spell Siryn" Imperia's origin story. She was kidnapped by a witch as a little girl (In the era of ''Webcomic/{{Nodwick}}''), and eventually stole the witch's spellbook and used it to become a powerful mage. Thousands of years later, she ended up going back in time, where she kidnapped her younger self, and deliberately left a copy of her early spellbook lying around to be stolen.

* StrangerInAStrangeSchool: Tyler doesn't pretend to be anything else, but between the fact that both his parents are legendary superheroes and the school being a constant WeirdnessMagnet, he has no choice but to become an ActionSurvivor in order to, well, survive. Currently in training to become BadassNormal.

* IncomingHam: Since it's set in a school for the children of superheroes and supervillains, PS238 is stuffed full with delicious hams who love huge dramatic entrances, no matter what their age:

** Also the subject of a story arc, when [[spoiler:Von Fogg starts using ([[EvenEvilHasStandards uninhabited]]) alternate universes as fuel sources for a machine that basically makes him omniscient (and at full capacity, [[AGodAmI omnipotent]]), while destroying universes in the process. Von Fogg targets a universe that Zodon had disguised as uninhabited, due to the fact that Zodon hid his birth parents there. Despite using the system on that universe regardless, this isn't a subversion of EvenEvilHasStandards, as said omniscience enabled Victor to obtain full godhood within a limited area using parts of the universe specifically targeted for being uninhabited and at a rate that in astronomy terms is basically next to nothing (see WritersHaveNoSenseOfScale for the commonality of works where the rate of usage ''would'' be in relatively significant portions). Though apparently Victor's standards don't have an issue with transforming a Mayor into a lamp [[ZigZaggedTrope but do have enough of an issue]] with AndIMustScream to make it painless and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick said Mayor to like it]].]]

* TeleportersAndTransporters:

* SuperheroSchool: Naturally, [[CaptainObvious the eponymous school]]. Praetorian Academy is a privatized version, as well has having heavy military-school overtones.

** [[http://ps238.nodwick.com/?p=907 Don't rip Julie Finsters' cape]]. Justified in that due to the way it's made, once broken it can't be repaired, and her family can't afford another one (another part of it is that her mother apparently worked ''very''hard to earn the money to buy the first one).

* ActionSurvivor: Tyler. [[spoiler:Although, as time goes by, he is slowly approaching BadassNormal. He's already running toward danger of his own volition.]]

* AnimalEyeSpy: The Flea and insects.

* AuthorAvatar: While there haven't been any explicit versions of the author himself in the series, Miss Kyle is modeled after his wife.

* BadassLongcoat: Cecil Holmes. The longcoat becomes Badass unto itself as well as making Cecil Badass.
* BadassNormal:
** The Revenant, Tyler's mentor (who bears a [[CaptainErsatz striking resemblance]] to Franchise/{{Batman}}[=/=]ComicBook/MoonKnight, right down to most powered heroes not trusting him or thinking he's crazy).
** Tyler himself can be considered a BadassNormal in training. (A time-travel storyline offers a glimpse of his adult self in which he's Revenant's partner.)

* BunglingInventor: Angie. In a variation, her gadgets all work, but they're ''too powerful''. TimTaylorTechnology is her Hat.
* ButtMonkey:
** Zodon. He ''deserves'' it.
** Tyler has moments of this as well, but in his case, it's more to [[TrainingFromHell toughen him up]].
* CapeWings: Cecil

* TheChessmaster:
** The Revenant is involved with practically every storyline in the comic one way or another, although so far he's avoided trying to bring them all together.
** [[spoiler:The Headmaster is in the middle of a decades-long project to prevent the destruction of Earth by a future metahuman arms race, and founded Praetorian as one way to prevent it. He currently looks to be using the Von Foggs as pawns in his scheme.]]

* TheComicallySerious: American Eagle during her tenure with Tyler's impromptu "superhero team".

* ConspiracyTheorist: Cecil Holmes. He actually gets pretty close to figuring out the truth about [=PS238=], but Tyler derails him with alien stuff. Ironically, Cecil can unconsciously detect superpowered beings (who he thinks are aliens) unless they are, in fact, aliens. He thinks Propero, the resident alien kid, is a normal, if weird and foreign, kid.

* CoolPet: Argo the super-dog

* DaddysLittleVillain: [[spoiler:Alexandria Von Fogg, Victor's sister and a student at the Praetorian Academy.]]
* DeadpanSnarker:
** Zodon
** Miss Kyle resorts to it sometimes:
--->'''Victor Von Fogg:''' (''to Zodon'') You will '''pay''' for this, '''oh''', yes...\\
'''Miss Kyle:''' Let's keep the vendettas down to a dull roar, okay?
** The Singularity:
--->'''Singularity:''' Approach, chosen of Argos, chosen of the Emerald Ones!\\

* DumbMuscle: Bernard

* EvilChancellor: [[spoiler:Dax-Ra]]

* OutsourcingFate: The PowersThatBe, with the time-traveler Tom acting as its agent, needs to decide whether humans should continue to gain Metahuman Powers, or if superpowers should gradually fade and disappear into myth - until next time the choice has to be made. But Tom isn't the one who'll make the choice - he merely chooses WHO gets to choose, and he picks Tyler Marlocke, the only normal boy in the 'School for Metaprodigies'. In the end, while he gets to summon various acquaintances to get their opinion of the issue, it's up to Tyler to decide whether superpowers should continue to exist. This has happened many times in the past, explaining why myths and legends are so full of impossible magic and heroes. Spell Syrin is from one of those older eras.
-->'''Spell Syrin:''' I was put in stasis, to sleep until the power would finally return for good.
-->'''Tyler:''' Yeah, sorry that took so long.
-->'''Spell Syrin:''' What?

* ParentalNeglect: Tyler. His parents largely ignore him for the majority of the plot, later [[spoiler:forgetting about him completely in favor of his actually super-powered clone-slash-brother, Toby. Toby is the only one who actually cares for Tyler at all, and actually attempts to help him at several points, including when Tyler was stuck on the Argosian starship millions of lightyears from home. Toby replaced Tyler with a construct that was implied to be barely anything like Tyler, and acted "Odd". The worst part? HIS PARENTS NEVER NOTICED.]]

* OurGhostsAreDifferent

* TrackingDevice: Moon Shadow has some to stick onto things, given by the Revenant, and Zodon has a [[http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/07042007/ homing beacon]] in his floating chair that he's in, all the time.

Created by Aaron Williams, who is also known as the maker of ''Webcomic/{{Nodwick}}'' and ''Webcomic/FullFrontalNerdity'' -- all of which can be viewed on [[http://www.nodwick.com/ Nodwick dot com]] -- it has been described as "Take the kids from [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Springfield Elementary]], give them ComicBook/{{X-Men}} powers, and send 'em to [[Franchise/HarryPotter Hogwarts]]."

Name a superhero-related trope. ''Any'' superhero-related trope.

** Another interpretation of that is that that much energy might cause Green Gauntlet to self-detonate.

** [[http://ps238.nodwick.com/?p=907 Don't rip Julie Finsters' cape]].