Antihero for Hire: Difference between revisions

* [[Action Girl]]: Crossroad.

* [[Affably Evil]]: Almost all of the villains are to some degree, with a few exceptions like M.A.N.T.I.S. Agents.

* [[An Ice Person]]: <s>King of Ice</s> <s>Froster</s> <s>The Cubinator</s> <s>Icicle Man</s> <s>Coldular</s> The Sub-Zero Righteousness of the Frozen North.

* [[Anti-Hero]]: While the titular antihero is Shadehawk, in some ways Crossroad better fits the term.

* [[Arch Enemy]]: Hector.

* [[Backstory]]: Shadehawk's backstory is appropriately angst-ridden and a key plot point. We don't know all of it, but one important bit is that technically he's considered dead (right up to having a tombstone). Meanwhile, the setting's backstory is that Canada annexed the adjoining states of the US, using genetically engineered dinosaurs, which worked partially because no one minded, and partially because "the US was so busy protecting themselves against Weapons of Mass Destruction that they never made anything to protect against dinosaur attacks".

* [[Badass Longcoat]]: Lampshaded.

* [[Batman Gambit]]: Domarelli pulls one off. Knowing that Crossroad always tries to foil his plans, he hires the extralegal Vengeful Sisters to deliver supplies to an orphanage, which for all appearances is a front for drug smuggling with the sisters as unwitting patsies -- but the delivery is real and the result is that Crossroad is distracted from his real objective, with the bonus of damaging her reputation.

* [[BFG]]: Shadehawk has one.

* [[Bond Villain Stupidity]]: Subverted. Dr. Nefarious is so depressed that his plan didn't even require heroic intervention to foil that he decides to [[Just Shoot Him|just shoot Shadehawk]] instead of using a [[Death Trap]], as usual.

** Actually that serves more to lampshade Hector's [[Wrong Genre Savvy]] - he's referring to his two assistants Rose and Angelson, but while Rose definitely ''is'' a [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]], Angelson is really [[Dragon with an Agenda|something else altogether]]...

* [[Casual Danger Dialog]]: Practically every fight.

* [[The Chessmaster]]: Wizard, Hector.

* [[Christmas Episode]]: "A Jollybot Carol".

* [[Crazy Prepared]]: Jack.

* [[Cult]]: A cult of machines.

* [[Cut Lex Luthor a Check]]: [https://web.archive.org/web/20100104121747/http://antiheroforhire.com/d/20060717.html Lampshaded]

* [[Cyberpunk]]: The setting is classic [[Cyberpunk]] with a twist.

* [[Dark Action Girl]]: Malvagia, possibly Airmistress. The Vengeful Sisters fall somewhere in between this and regular [[Action Girl]].

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: If it talks, it snarks. No exceptions.

* [[Determinator]]: M.A.N.T.I.S. Agents.

* [[Double Entendre]]: Airmistress loves these, probably unintentionally. Example: "I'm gonna blow you so hard!", "He once did me in a men's bathroom!".

{{quote|'''Wizard:''' See how my coat blows in the wind?

'''Shadehawk:''' Yes, and?

** Later, he dresses up as the [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|Crimson Boomerang]], {{spoiler|only to be detected by Wizard}}.

*** He tries it again and is found out within minutes.

* [[Embarrassing Middle Name]]: Dr. Albert Charious Airious Nefarious-[[Odd Name Out|Smith]]

* [[Embarrassing Rescue]]: Crossroad rescuing Shadehawk from a severe state of [[James Bondage]].

** He didn't seem all that embarrassed.

* [[Enemy Mine]]: Has happened with [[The Cracker|Neon]] and [[An Ice Person|Coldular]] (or Frozen North or whatever he's calling himself this week) both. They were both somewhat surprisingly amiable about it. Neon even seemed on the verge of a [[Heel Face Turn]].

* [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: Occurs throughout the coffee arc, reaching ridiculous extremes in [https://web.archive.org/web/20100104123341/http://antiheroforhire.com/d/20050720.html this strip.]

* [[Five-Man Band]] / [[Five-Bad Band]]: The Vengeful Sisters fit the 5 Band dynamic, although since they're more like [[Tweener|Tweeners]] than anything else, it's hard to say whether they're good or bad...

** [[The Hero]] / [[The Big Bad]] - Dragon

** [[The Chick]] / [[The Dark Chick]] - Snow Angel

* [[Flat What]]: [https://web.archive.org/web/20100104115756/http://antiheroforhire.com/d/20080516.html], [http://www.antiheroforhire.com/d/20100412.html\]{{Dead link}}

* [[Freudian Excuse]]: The Vengeful Sisters.

* [[Friendly Enemy]]: Okay, but [[Enemy Mine]] or no [[Enemy Mine]], Shadehawk and "Frozen North" have been downright ''chatty'' lately.

** Also Hector and Wizard, two villains who are only interested in their own goals. And also meet to play chess once a month.

* [[Hand Cannon]]: Silver Arrow, the data page even uses those words to describe it.

* [[Heel Face Turn]]: {{spoiler|The Vengeful Sisters}}.

* [[Hired Guns]]

** [[Bounty Hunter]]: Most of Shadehawk's assignments. Jack is one on the [[Evil Counterpart|villain's side]].

** [[Private Military Contractors]]: M.A.N.T.I.S. are basically these.

* [[If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him]]: Subverted with Crossroad. Slightly subverted with Shadehawk who doesn't kill simply because live criminals bring in more money.

** Also, live criminals often escape and come up with new schemes, so you can get ''more'' money when you thwart them ''again''.

* [[Implacable Man]]: Golem and Simile.

* [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]]: About half the Card Carrying Villains.

* [[Insulted Awake]]: Sort of, a water pistol is used.

** A more traditional example happens with Crossroad.

* [[James Bondage]]: Lampshaded.

* [[The Juggernaut]]: Simile

* [[Kill You Last]]: Wizard, to Charles. Although he still [[Eye Scream|ripped his eyeballs out]] there and then as a part of his [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] for all those weeks of [[Cold-Blooded Torture]].

* [[Large Ham]]: Shadehawk has a definite melodramatic streak: hence the [[Badass Longcoat]], [[Sunglasses at Night]], and love for dramatic entrances, once even involving a dry ice machine.

* [[Little Miss Badass]]: [https://web.archive.org/web/20100221221213/http://www.antiheroforhire.com/d/20071210.html Malvagia].

{{quote|'''Hector''': You think I would actually tell you that? Are you insane?

'''Wizard''': Yes.

* [[Manipulative Bastard]]: Hector and Angelson. Lampshaded by Hector himself.

* [[Mission Control]]: Wrench.

* [[Must Have Caffeine]]: The subject of an entire arc when Shadehawk had to get up in the daytime.

* [[Noodle Incident]]: Several of Shadehawk's adventures, including stopping a gerbil from stealing a diamond.

** Also an incident with a cruiser his organisation doesn't know about.

* [[Not a Morning Person]]: Shadehawk really needs his coffee if he's to get up in the morning.

* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: Could Dr. Nefarious be... [https://web.archive.org/web/20100104111612/http://antiheroforhire.com/d/20080125.html competent]?

* [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness]]: [https://web.archive.org/web/20100104114854/http://antiheroforhire.com/d/20080128.html Lampshaded].

* [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You]]: Wizard to Dechs, Dechs to Hector.

* [[Painting the Medium]]: Panel border colors have changed hue based on the character focused on.

* [[Playful Hacker]]: Wrench.

* [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]]: The "Vengeful Sisters".

* [[Red Eyes, Take Warning]]: Wizard.

* [[Schedule Slip]]: Not too many when the comic first started, but there are frequent lapses now due to the author's personal life.

* [[Sequelitis]]: [[Invoked Trope]]; when facing a character who narrates everything in the third person, Shadehawk comes up with a plan to "sequel her so hard her cousin will be assassinated by critics".

{{quote|"Elementary, my dear Jeckyll. We are going to rip his [[Precision F-Strike|fucking]] head off."}}

* [[Spanner in the Works]]: Practically in Shadehawk's job description.

* [[Strapped to An Operating Table]]

* [[Sunglasses at Night]]: Shadehawk's light-''amplifying'' shades.

* [[Super Registration Act]]: Joining up with SHAB gets you a steady paycheck based on commissions (a.k.a. how many criminals you catch and what their crimes are.) and is strictly optional. In fact, Crossroad was rejected.

* [[Sword Fight]]: Anytime Crossroad is involved this is likely to happen.

* [[Techno Babble]]

{{quote|"I'm bored. (pause) It seems like a quiet night. (pause) I ''said'', it seems like a quiet night. (nothing happens) [[Genre Savvy|Well damn, that usually works]]."}}

* [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]]: The superheroes are strongly encouraged not to kill, mostly by paying less for kills than for live capture. But they understand that these things happen, and so they do offer an "[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Executioner's Fee]]", as long as he doesn't do it too often.

* [[Troperrific]]: Dr. Nefarious. I mean, just ''look'' at that name.

* [[Unlimited Wardrobe]]: Shadehawk has a new superhero uniform for each passing month. Sort of defeats the purpose of a uniform, doesn't it?

* [[UST]]: Crossroad and Shadehawk. Possible subversion, given the attitude of the comic, and that the characters personalities do NOT mesh well, particularly in Phase 5. Its implied that the same exists for their respective hacker sidekicks, and may not be unresolved at all.

* [[What Measure Is a Mook?]]: In the first arc with Nefarious, Shadehawk very casually kills one of Nefarious's henchmen (Alphonse), but specifically asks Crossroad not to kill Nefarious himself. However, this had less to do with [[Moral Dissonance]] on Shadehawk's part than rather cold-blooded economics -- Nefarious is an easy source of income. His henchmen aren't worth much, and tend to be more dangerous besides.

* [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity]]: Wizard and, temporarily, {{spoiler|Waterfall}}.

* [[Worthy Opponent]]: Jack. "There but for the grace of God and about twenty-five years go I."

* [[You Fight Like a Cow]]: Dragon and Crossroad.

* [[You Have Failed Me...]]: Double-subverted repeatedly. Ironically, the one time it's merely subverted is at the end of an arc about henchmen unionizing over bad working conditions.