Material Girl

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

...is a Web Comic hosted on Deviant ART. Material Girl follows the story of Noah, a teenager forced to live as a Wholesome Crossdresser after brushing off the local beggar girl. Failing to spare some coin, Noah finds himself a slave to Karma when his sister's wardrobe (somehow) acquires life and, in her absence, decide he'll make an acceptable replacement.

Unnatural forces aside, the comic stays mostly slice-of-life comedy with a bit of drama and some messages to give to the readers.

You can start reading it here.

Tropes used in Material Girl include:
  • And I Must Scream: A minor version of this -- one of the animated clothing's favorite tricks is to simply gag him with an animated ribbon and them drag him where they want him to go.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Mars and Ribbon during the final part.
  • Broken Aesop: Remember, your sexuality is a choice! Someone else just has to choose it for you and then condition you into following said sexuality. A retcon to Noah's past tried to fix this, but it still seems to contradict the overall message of the comic and turn very veeeery freaky.
    • The creater did address these concerns, sort of.

"While I could explain it all, give my take on the situation and why it's taking place this way, and how this is still fulfilling my initial goal to 'Do something different,' I won't. I don't intend to insult the intelligence of my audience by hand-feeding reasons and deprive them of any personal discovery or vested interest."

  • Brother Chuck: Scotty and Chet disappear after a seemingly unresolved fight.
  • Cassandra Truth: Telling the truth just won't help Noah's case. He becomes aware of that later.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: The comic starts out as a joke a day panel each time, and then becomes much darker until Noah gets attacked by Rex and his goons
  • Disproportionate Retribution: So he ignores a gypsy beggar and ends up having his entire life shattered and put back together in response? Harsh.
    • It depends on how much you read into the comic. With the symbolism, it could be that the gypsy was completely unrelated to a later nervous breakdown, or her harsh words caused it.
  • Dropped a Bridget On Him: That's how it starts.
  • Gender Bender: A variant. Noah's doesn't change gender per se, but is forced into being a Wholesome Crossdresser by magically animated clothing. Unless you buy into the theory that it's all in his head and he's having a breakdown due to repressed gender issues, that is. When pressed by a bully, he claims to be both a boy and a girl (a concept known as genderqueer). The epilogue shows Noah going through the rest of high school as a woman, presumably voluntarily.
  • Gypsy Curse: In this case the Gypsy is a cute young-ish girl instead of an old crone, but it still fits.
  • Hello, Nurse!: Just look at the goddamn picture in the article!! ( Does not actually happen in the comic proper.)
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Noah's solution to Rex swinging a heavy bat at Mars's head is to jump in the way, suffering a concussion for his troubles. It does apparently cause Rex to come to his senses, however.
  • Homage: To Alice in Wonderland.
  • I Didn't Mean To Turn You On: Noah certainly didn't mean this with Rex, but had to pay the consequences.
    • He also kind of does it here
  • If It's You It's Okay: By the end, Mars has figured out Noah's gender. He doesn't care. Also, shown in the epilogue, Rex is still fairly torn over his attraction to Noah.
  • It Got Worse: One of the epilogues shows Noah's male clothing animating in much the same way as his sister's clothing, demanding equal access to him. The author's note suggests that they all start getting along afterwards. Symbolism, much?
  • Laser-Guided Karma
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Ribbon's response to seeing Noah get the everloving crap kicked out of him by a bigoted bully. Also Rex's apparent offscreen reaction to Noah taking a bullet -- er, bat for Mars.
  • Overprotective Dad: That collects medieval torture devices.
  • No Name Given: 'Mars', with no name given in the comic proper, the fans just followed the artist's lead and named him from his shirt.
  • Stupid Sexy Flanders
  • Suddenly Sexuality: Despite originally being freaked out about dating a boy and showing no tendencies to transvestism, homosexuality or transgenderism, by the end of the series, it's clear that Noah has began to have feelings for Mars.
  • Take a Third Option: Which was possibly Noah's Crowning Moment of Awesome.
  • There Are No Therapists: Averted - As the Cerebus Syndrome kicks in and Noah's new quirk goes from funny to disturbing, the "have you called a therapist" joke between Noah's parents becomes "we're locking you in the back of the car and making you go to one".
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: Resolved with a bat to the head. Sorta. In the epilogue, it's shown that Rex is still pining over Noah.
  • What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: Mars' shirt.
  • Where Are They Now? Epilogue
  • Wholesome Crossdresser