Mr. Hero: The Newmatic Man
... but even the Devil can err in his works and in place of a demon... create a hero.
Jennifer Hale, a struggling performance artist, opens an unallocated crate in the museum where she works part-time and discovers a one-handed steam-powered Victorian automaton named Mr. Hero, a gentleman boxer with a cockney accent. After several attacks from interested parties, they're visited by the enigmatic sorcerer Adam Cain, who presents Mr. Hero's other head, known as the Ratiocinator. International and international travel, anti-technology cults, alchemy, an enigmatic sorcerer, chameleonic ninjas and an evil immortal dinosaur bent on corrupting the human race follow.
Based on a concept created by Neil Gaiman, Mr. Hero: The Newmatic Man ran for 17 issues under the short-lived "Teknocomix," and an 18th issue under BIG Entertainment (which went under before a second volume could begin). Its humble presentation notwithstanding, Mr. Hero was well-received and later mourned by the few people who read it. Mr. Hero is dead; long live Mr. Hero.
- Achilles' Heel: Mr. Hero's is submersion in water. Steampunk would just be "punk" without fire, after all.
- Alchemy
- Another Dimension: Kalighoul.
- Big Bad: Teknophage.
- The Chessmaster: Teknophage, though his endgame is really only peripherally related to the events in Mr. Hero's story.
- Everything's Better with Dinosaurs
- Genius Bruiser: Mr. Hero is alternately one half of this trope or the other.
- Glorious Leader: The Atavar, a hairy, ape-like, charismatic leader of men with his eye on a Luddite paradise as his goal. In his first appearance, he steals the Pugilist head to represent technology as a symbolic head on a pike to rally his army of Crazy Homeless People.
- Mind Control Conspiracy: Mr. Phage's Earth-based agents hypnotize Jenny's best friend with his TV and reprogram his personality.
- Multiple Head Case - Mr. Hero has two interchangeable heads: the Ratiocinator, whose specialty is Holmsian deduction, and the Pugilist, a cockney chap trained in Queensbury rules.
- Older and Wiser - Adam Cain.
- Old Master - Adam Cain
- No Ending - Unfortunately, the series was cancelled before it could reach a resolution.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent - The Teknophage himself.
- Ridiculously-Human Robots
- Steampunk - Mr. Hero is an artificially intelligent robot powered by steam. Also, the technology on Kalighoul is predominantly powered by steam and alchemy.
- Villain with Good Publicity: The Atavar is backed by a number of wealthy captains of industry who'd like to dial back the world's technological level so they can enjoy their wealth in peace. When the Atavar betrays them, they betray him right back and find a new charismatic leader of men to prop up.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human? - Averted: the main cast's presumption is that Mr. Hero is sentient; even his enemies generally tend to kill him, not dismantle him, and Teknophage's plans to keep him out of the way involve the presumption that he is self-aware, if a bit predictable.