Special School

Welcome to Special School.

This is the tale of a government-sanctioned class for super-powered humans, offered as part of the curriculum in a small-town university in upstate New York. The university gets extra funding, the students get course credit and special powers training, the government gets a well-trained, civic-minded generation of super-powered humans with some measure of debt and/or gratitude toward them; everybody's happy. At least, in theory.

Special School is a web comic by Andy Mason, which has been running since 2005. It can be read here.

Tropes used in Special School include:

• A God Am I: Nefarius. He's more or less right.
• Anything That Moves: Manny. Bisexual and not picky, although he's currently kind of dating the bouncer of a local nightclub for supers.
• Badass Teacher: Coach Julian. He is a superhero, after all.
• Casanova: Manny.
• Code Name: They're not supposed to have them.
• Cool Teacher: Again, Coach Julian.
• Cyborg: Karne, Manny's kind-of boyfriend.
• Dope Slap: Ruby to Iain.
• Extranormal Institute: Obviously, although it's more of a "course" than an "institute."
• Fan Service: The shower scene.
• Mistaken for Gay: Iain.
• Mundane Utility: Ruby uses her power to start the stove because the ignitions broken.
• Nigh Invulnerable: Iain. It's not his skin that's invulnerable, though - whenever he's hit with something, purple armour appears on the area of impact before he can be hurt.
• Power Trio: Iain, Ruby, and Manny.
• Psychic Powers: Manny, although not in the typical sense. He knows subconsciously exactly what to say/do to get what he wants. This makes him very good at talking people into bed. He's also used it to talk a veritable god out of leaving Earth, at least temporarily. He is, according to his bio on the cast page, "potentially the most powerful telepath on the planet."
• Secret Identity: It was Iain's secret identity being penetrated that set off the plot.
• Shock and Awe: Ruby.
• Shout-Out: The Apartment that they live in is called Christopher Reeves Residential. Also Iain wears shirts referencing other superheros.
• Super Registration Act: ARMS.
• And Then What?
• Flat What: 5 Jan 2010