Slain by a vampire, but brought back to life by arcane magic, Solomon Hitch is Halloween Man, a flesh-eating zombie with the power of the horror movie sequel! Now, with the help of his glamorous super-scientist girlfriend Lucy, reprobate Necromancer Morlack, and hedonistic demi-god Man-Goat, he defends Solar City, Texas from evil.
This comic provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Halloween Man has Lucy Chaplin, the titular hero's love interest, but also a non-costumed Badass Normal superhero in her own right; she's a voluptuous, bespectacled and brilliant "weird scientist" who is also a crack shot and a well-trained martial artist. Lucy recently underwent a transformation into a mid-sized BBW at the hands of an rival (from "weird science university") Olympia Moreau. This has only made her a bigger (no pun intended) Action Girl, as Dr. Chaplin gained aggression, height and considerable muscle mass to go along with her new, amply curvy flab (see Stout Strength). It could be argued that she is an Action Girlfriend or a more recently a Girly Bruiser.
- Acrofatic: Lucy Chaplin has some serious moves for a buxom gal. Mastering several martial arts and often swiftly out moving slim foes.
- Big Beautiful Woman: Lucy Chaplin of Halloween Man had a major weight gain along with most of Solar City's supermodels after an old schoolmate of hers filled the city with a weight gain gas in an attempt to make an army of Rubenesque amazons to kill all men while simultaneously ending body image issues. After failing to reverse the gas's effect, Lucy Chaplin became a celebrity role model for overweight women and the models found success in full-figured clothes modeling. Despite being initially upset about the transformation, Lucy is now Fat and Proud. Could be seen as a Weird Science version of Real Women Have Curves or even a plus-sized variation of Amazonian Beauty. Either way, she retains her retro-inspired Form-Fitting Wardrobe from her thinner incarnation.
- Beauty to Beast: Solomon. Went from a ruggedly handsome cowboy to a hideous living corpse. Not that it's slowed down his love life at all.
- Black Comedy Cannibalism: Slightly inverted, since Solomon tends to eat other monsters. Which of course keeps it clear of I'm a Humanitarian.
- Captain Ersatz: During a cross-comic-book-universe crossover with Action Girl Cassie Hack and her partner Vlad, Halloween Man and his friends face off against a much more belligerent and ruthless group of superhuman undead monsters, slavering for human flesh. Arachnodude, the Creep, Black Power, Animal, Behemoth, and Technocrat all hail from yet another parallel world where all super-humans succumbed to a plague which killed and then revived them as cannibalistic eating machines, after which they proceeded to devour all normal humans and then turn on each other. Sound familiar to any set of characters who hail from a dark side-street in a certain comics-verse with a rather marvelous degree of market share?
- Creepy Good: Solomon is basically a good guy, for an undead,cannibalistic, killing machine.
- Cursed with Awesome: Halloween Man, the eponymous hero of Drew Edwards' indie comic, is a pretty good example; though Solomon Hitch's "origin story" disfigured half his face and left him with a skeletal hand, he gains superhuman strength and agility, virtual immortality, and even vague psychic powers. In addition, his wealthy, attractive, and brilliant girlfriend Lucy and demigod best friend Ron (son of Pan) accept him without hesitation, even if many of the other, more "mainstream" heroes of Solar City do not. Subverted to an extent, as Halloween Man is still one of the undead and needs to gruesomely consume fresh organs from other monsters to maintain himself (rather than reverting to eating humans). It is also hinted that in at least some future time lines he flips to the dark side anyway, becoming a Jason Voorhees type slasher.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Solomon and to a lesser degree, Lucy.
- Halloween Episode: It's in the name isn't it? A Halloween themed superhero no less.
- Halloweentown: Solar City blends this with Raygun Gothic.
- Hero of Another Story: Numerous. Aside from Lucy (whose solo adventures are depicted with some regularity), Halloween Man's friend the Man-Sized Goat presumably has his own career as a superhero, one which predates Solomon Hitch's origin as Halloween Man. There are other super-heroes as well, including an "official" American hero team, which is usually stated to be handling some other crises whenever a situation arises where their intervention might prove timely for Halloween Man and his friends.
- Healing Factor: Solomon is extremely hard to kill or even injure for very long. He even survived being nuked once. Though his healing powers come with a price, he has to eat people.
- Home of Monsters: Monster Town, an ruined city underneath Solar City is filled with various monsters and other supernatural creatures like gnomes and dwarves.
- Idiot Hero: Man-Goat is a bit of a buffoon.
- Monster Mash: This happens often an awful lot. Not only is the main character a monster, but he's run across the Invisible Man, a thinly veiled version of the Gill-Man, various types of vampires, and most recently a descendant of both Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Moreau.
- Ms. Fanservice: Lucy. Even more so since becoming plus-sized, which has given her the Most Common Superpower in spades due to Breast Expansion as well as becoming a Big Beautiful Woman. A lot of this has been played for laughs, recently leading to a few My Eyes Are Up Here moments.
- Not Wearing Tights: Solomon's "costume" is made up of a motorcycle jacket, jeans, converse sneakers, and a jack-o-lantern themed t-shirt. Although this could be seen as a case of Civvie Spandex. Lucy wears different outfits every issue and doesn't have a code name.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Vampires in Halloween Man are more monstrous in appearance. Including the six-armed Dr. Owl. Also, in recent issues, mutated "vegan" vampires were featured. They ended up being just as much trouble as your regular, garden variety, vampires.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Solomon is the undead, but seems is certainly not of the shambling, mindless, variety. He is rather quick on his feet and is capable of remorse.
- Raygun Gothic: Much of Solar City and Lucy's inventions use the Raygun Gothic aesthetic.
- Retro Universe: The look of Halloween Man borrows a lot from the 1940's-60's.
- Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman: In Hackoween (a Crossover with Hack/Slash), Cassie grabs an entertainment magazine off a newsstand and discovers that on Halloween Man's world, Rob Zombie is a big band leader.
- Stripperiffic: Lucy's battle armor from her self-titled one shot falls under this, since it's basically fetish gear. The character is also fond of Combat Stilettos and the Impossibly-Low Neckline even when not dressed in her "battle armor."
- Super-Intelligence: Lucy and a few of the other characters have this. There is in fact of entire school for super-scientists in Solar City.
- Weird Science: Plot lines often spring from this. Solar City itself is something of a product of weird science. Lucy is something of a Mad Scientist as well.
