Hero in Training

Hero In Training was an Adventure webcomic exploring ideas about heroism.

While the predominately teenage lead characters, their relationships with each other and colorful character backgrounds may remind people of El Goonish Shive and The Wotch (and the author likes those comics), Hero in Training itself is darker and less wacky.

The comic centered around the main character's transformation into a hero, via the tuition of a godlike entity who apparently does this for all heroes, everywhere, anywhen. The powers are mostly not active, and the hero has no idea he's using them, but they alter luck and probability to create strange and implausible situations, from alien encounters to run-ins with paramilitary. Eventually, events begin to spiral out of control and the dramatic events that were originally thought to be due to the protagonist become more far-reaching and sinister.

Hero in Training included a significant amount of trope subversion and aversion, the author created the early plot as a satire of Sunnydale Syndrome in other web comics. The cast of Hero in Training typically react more realistically to events like angels dropping out of the sky and getting their butts kicked, which causes a raft of interesting problems.

": "You've heard of ISEC, right?" Jack: "That's the international ethics councel thingy, right?"
 * Action Girl Anne
 * Art Evolution (the early strips were completely redrawn after the author's art progressed)
 * Bait and Switch Gunshot: When
 * Buffy-Speak:
 * "Yes. We usually drop the 'thingy' in casual discussion, though.""

"Jack: "No, it couldn't have been him, I locked his door." Anne: "Koops, the window." Jack: "And boarded up the window." Anne: "Well, he could've..." Jack: "And booby-trapped the landing, rigged hairtrigger alarms on all the exits, bugged the bathroom and snuck a webcam into his room while he was changing. I've got nine hours of footage of him sleeping like a baby. Trust me, he didn't do it." Anne: "I don't know whether to be reassured or very, very, very scared.""
 * Bullying a Dragon: Yes, Sebastian, spend all your time picking on the most ripped guy in school, a martial artist, the guy who used to to threaten you with a homemade flamethrower, and their new friend who attacked you with a sword. There's no possible way that that could backfire.
 * Catgirl:
 * Compulsory School Age: Gareth suggests this for Sanyiel. Jack points out why it's stupid. They end up going with it anyway.
 * Crapsack World: Well, city anyway. Ashville has been described as "dystopian" on at least one occasion, and the heroes don't find it at all odd that a group of supposed thugs would have a sniper rifle because hey, it's Ashville.
 * Crazy Prepared: Jack, or Koops as the others call him.

"Gareth: "Can't you just hack the door open?" Jack: "It's a stick of metal with a screen, how the hell am I supposed to hack that?""
 * Cutting the Knot: Sebastian, here.
 * "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Chapter five.
 * Historical Villain Upgrade: Sanyiel gives Ariel (of Disney's The Little Mermaid) this when he misinterprets the phrase "stole the hearts of a whole generation", leading to the "Everybody Laughs" Ending of chapter five.
 * Hollywood Hacking: Subverted.

"Jack: "I'm not going to trust anyone who can trick me into thinking he's an idiot.""
 * Meaningful Name: Sanyiel means "God hates me" in Hebrew. It's... fairly accurate.
 * No One Could Survive That:, after falling off a building. You'd think that Gareth would at least look at the corpse before declaring this, though.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity:  isn't quite the   that he appears to be. This does backfire on him in at least one respect, though.

"Jack: "I swear, whenever you need that girl, she's always..." Anne: "Right behind you.""
 * Pals with Jesus is pretty much the basis for the entire comic.
 * Pet the Dog: When . He's still kind of a dick about it, though..
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: Sanyiel, when he was wielding Choran..
 * Red Pill, Blue Pill (but Gareth only remembers it when dreaming)
 * Self-Made Orphan:
 * Series Continuity Error: In chapter seven, Anne says her traumatic backstory happened when she was five, but in chapter four it happened when she was six. Considering she's a senior in high school and it's apparently been ten years, six is more likely.
 * Shout Out: Sharks with Frickin' Laser Beams.
 * Stealth Hi Bye:
 * Stealth Hi Bye:


 * Taking the Bullet:  does this for  . It doesn't hit anything vital, though..
 * Talking the Monster to Death:.
 * Tempting Fate: Anne remarks that if the thugs chasing them only have knives and sidearms, she can handle them in close quarters. Cut to the "thugs" unpacking a rocket launcher.
 * They Would Cut You Up: Jack seems to think this might happen if Sanyiel gets found out.
 * Trauma Conga Line: Is revealed as Annes backstory in the fourth chapter, where the line of trauma is finished off in a tragically brutal manner.