Establishing Character Moment/Web Comics

• Gunnerkrigg Court: Antimony realizes that she's somehow acquired a second shadow. She proceeds to calmly take the shadow aside and ask if he needs her help. Clearly she's a helpful soul, and not one to be fazed by weirdness.
• Sluggy Freelance: Bun-bun calls Torg a "nerd-boy," beats him up, and threatens to neuter him with a spoon during his second appearance in the series. Pretty much everything you need to know about Bun-Bun right there.
  • Note for non-readers: Bun-bun is a rabbit. A Killer Rabbit, but still a fluffy little bunny. Who's way scarier than anything the main characters have to fight.
  • The whole story "The Bikini-Suicide Frisbee Match" serves to establish Zoë as the relatively normal person and Chew Toy of the group. It's almost an exaggeration of what she's going to be like, but her being a dump for the consequences of the weirdness in the world of the comic is a pretty much permanent thing, even though she learns to deal with it and stand up for herself.
• In an early installment of The Order of the Stick, Belkar responds to being told of Roy's plans by stating that he was under the impression that they were simply there to "wander around, kill some sentient creatures because they have green skin and fangs and we don't, and then take their stuff." This is the first indication we get that the Belkster isn't going to be your standard, jolly halfling.
  • An even more telling moment (well, for those who know Dungeons & Dragons well enough to pick up the implications) comes two strips earlier, when a goblin attempts to incapacitate Belkar with an Evil-aligned spell...and it doesn't affect him.
  • Xykon gets two in the Start of Darkness origin comic. The firs comes when a Professor Xavier expy visits him and wants to teach Xykon how to use his sorcery powers to protect a world that hates and fears him; Xykon isn't interested and so electrocutes and zombifies the man and sics him and Xykon's zombie grandmother on his parents.
  • His second moment comes when he reveals to Redcloak he knew in advance of Right-Eye's plan to betray Xykon, and had protected himself against it. The reason he didn't stop Right-Eye was to see if Redcloak was loyal enough to kill his brother to protect Xykon; he then brings the moment home with an Eviler Than Thou speech about how he doesn't need any sort of justification for being evil, destroying Redcloak's will to resist in the process.
  • The very first moment occurs on the first page. Little boy Xykon is crying over his dead dog Barky, then a burst of magic causes the dog's corpse to zombify and eat a bird's brain. Lil' Xykon's reaction? "That was so COOL! C'mon, let's go find some more birds!"
  • When Elan's father, Tarquin shows up, he gives a long, eloquent explanation for recent events to Elan, and ends with the line, "I am your father," as a Shout-Out to Star Wars. Then immediately enthusiastically yells "Oh MAN! I've always wanted to say that line!" Which establishes him as a very Genre Savvy character that exists to make the fourth wall cry.
• Something*Positive: Davan. First strip. Sends a coathanger as a baby shower gift.
  • The very next strip shows Aubrey stealing from Santa Claus...
  • And the one after that establishes Pee-Jee as the voice of reason in the group by showing her objecting to Davan and Aubrey's attempts at creating pornographic snow sculptures.
• Eight Bit Theater did this with almost everybody. Especially Thief, Red Mage, Garland, Vilbert...
• Mr. Mighty of Everyday Heroes starts out in typical Large Ham mode, giving us a typical monologue including his powers, his personal philosophy...and his aversion to paperwork.
• Looking for Group: Richard incinerates a bunny
• Schlock Mercenary has one for Torture Technician Colonel DeHaans.
  • And later General Apala Bala-Amin practicing "Speak softly, and carry a big stick" doctrine.
• Susan of El Goonish Shive is introduced as a Straw Feminist.
• Gabry's first appearance in This Is the Worst Idea You've Ever Had has him asking a total stranger if she's okay after he sees her date pushing her and talking down to her.
• Spacetrawler: The humans all reveal something about their personality in their first appearance:
  • Martina is feeling ennui over being "common", and hoping that an adventure is out there somewhere for her. When given a choice to join Interplanet Amity, she jumps at the call.
  • Pierrot is riding in a car, and he punches the driver for deliberately running over a mole, and the car crashes as a result. Thus establishing that Pierrot really cares about animals, and that he has a tendency to act impulsively on his principles.
  • Emily is confronted by muggers with knives, and she responds by whipping out two handguns and robbing her would-be assailants, driving their Vespa into the desert until it runs out of gas, then shooting a coyote and eating it for her dinner. Badass.
  • Dmitri is shown in a boat with two bikini-clad women. Sure enough, Dmitri turns out to be a shameless hedonist who mainly joins Interplanet Amity for the opportunity to sleep with hot alien women.
  • Yuri is chatting on the internet when Nogg arrives, and the posters on her wall indicate that she's a well-rounded Geek. She joins Interplanet Amity because she wants to see alien technology, and she eventually becomes a Cyborg.
  • Dustin is introduced by brandishing a shotgun at Nogg and threatening to turn him over to the government. This establishes that he's annoyingly loud and xenophobic, and foreshadows his dangerously uncritical trust in "the government".
• In General Protection Fault, Trudy is initially smiling through her entire interview, but when Dwayne is away, and Ki feels like she shook hands with the devil, Trudy tells her that she has that effect on "inferior life forms". Soon afterward, Trudy is shown literally kicking a dog.
• Remus introduces Seth by having him murder one of his own double agents against the will of his superiors. It's implied that he'd coerced the man into the position in the first place.
• The Wulfenbachs in Girl Genius. The baron is menaced by someone with a giant robot. What does he do? Leave his son handle it as an exercise. Said son gives a complete exposition of the situation, direct troops to suppress the danger… Then when a bomb is thrown in his direction, he send it back while protecting both the young assistant (our heroine, actually) and the goldfish. Establishing Character Moment of Awesome.
• Homestuck:
  • Dave's introduction involves him slicing his Enter Name panel in half when the reader tries to name him "Insufferable Prick".
  • Jade's involves her politely telling the reader she takes offense at their choice of name and introducing herself properly - via notecard while she's asleep.
  • Karkat's very first conversation involves him insulting Jade, telling her that she's going to screw something up horribly that day, and ask if there's nothing he can do to change her mind.
  • Vriska is introduced by mindcontrolling a guy into jumping off a cliff.
  • Likewise, Meenah's very first action on-screen is to try and kill Roxy for the heck of it.