Supermegatopia

"Welcome to Supermegatopia, Kiwi Capital of the World, Kwijybo's largest city and a haven for tourists and travelers the world over...

...So, if you're looking for introspective stories about people dealing with inner conflicts and realistic situations, find another website 'cause you're not gonna find any of that intellectual crap here!"

—Introduction on Supermegatopia.com

What do you get when you mix in superhero comics, furry art, and more cheesecake than New York (season with parody to taste)?

Supermegatopia (not to be confused with Megatokyo) is a website and comic by the Brothers Grinn dedicated to affectionate parodies of everything good about superhero and fantasy comics. The main story of Supermegatopia is that of Weasel Boy, the young Robin Expy; his clueless sidekick, Mighty Yak; Tiger Lass, a reformed (or else) second generation catburglar-turned-hero who's chasing after Mighty Yak (who's absolutely clueless); and Weasel Boy's inherited mentor, Mongoose Guy. Years after Ferret Man has vanished off the scene, Weasel Boy is doing his best to keep the nefarious villains of Supermegatopia in check.

Of course, Weasel Boy isn't the only hero in Supermegatopia. Often called "The City of Heroes of Webcomics", there are literally dozens of heroes and villains running around at any given time, often affectionate parodies of existing characters. Some notable entries amongst the "spandex rats":

• Ferret Man: Supermegatopia's first vigilante, missing for the past three years. Combination Expy of Batman and The Punisher. Take a second for the implications of that to sink in.
• Avatar: An archaeologist who stumbled onto an ancient sentient alien spaceship shaped like a turtle. Unfortunately, in her rush to take advantage of the Turtle Ship's amazing powers, she forgot the medication for her multiple personality disorder, and now flits between believing she's various goddesses. While the Turtle Ship can provide the power she needs to play Zeus or whatever, it has limits (and is sane), turning her into a mostly Harmless Villain.
• Buxom Gal: Given strange energy powers by aliens (who were trying to augment her breasts), Buxom Gal can fly, shoot beams of energy, and has super strength... But if she doesn't use her powers, her breasts grow to absurd sizes. Recently split into 3 clones based on hair color, the red head is evil and the black-haired one is an Anti-Hero. There is also the younger (but still well-endowed) Buxom Girl and the cojoined Buxom Twins, who were apparently part of a rash of Buxom Gal clones created by SMT's Mad Scientist population. A rather obvious parody of Power Girl, down to the costume design.
• Dr. Ghoti: Archrival of Weasel Boy. Supervillain who's been turned into a fish. Not an anthromorphic fish, just a fish. Uses a mechanical suit with a fishbowl head to fight. (Imagine a smarter Bob the goldfish if he'd actually obtained Jim's suit)
• Delilah: An amazingly tall, massively strong Valkyrie from the frozen norths. She challenged the strongest male in the group, Mongoose Guy, to a fight and trounced him, only to be saved during from certain death by Weasel Boy. By the traditions of her people, they are now married...so he runs like a scared dog back to the city. She finds him. Notably, she's a rabbit, and it's rather fitting. An Affectionate Parody of Urusei Yatsura's Lum.
• Greasy Monkey: The tomboy engineer friend of Weasel Boy. In love with him, but he's clueless. No superpowers, just talent.
• She Male: Parody of The Hulk and She Hulk and member of The Offenders. Green skinned superheroine with super strength. Unfortunately, the transformation gave her something else, too (see her name if you can't figure it out). She doesn't seem to mind, but her teammates are really creeped out about it, largely because it keeps making appearances...
• Distraction Damsel: a.k.a.: Misty, a character from another furry webcomic. Gets her name and powers from... well... damn...
  • Wait, that didn't come out right. Craig, Smokey?
• Captain Mayfly: One of the smallest, but most dedicated superhero legacies in the city. Captain Mayfly is, well, a Mayfly, which means Exactly what you think it does. To their credit, however, the good Captains have kept this legacy unbroken for years. The Legacy Character taken to the extreme.
• The All-Stripper Squadron: A group of superheroes who decided to take up exotic dancing. Not really much else we can add to that.
• Mad Dr. Nesbit: Supermegatopia's other resident Mad Scientist. Still has her job at Supermegatopia Labs because, unlike other Mad Docs we could name, she has no interest in ruling the world--just in donuts and a bit of sadism now and again. You're just in for a world of pain if you ever cross her. Last we saw her, she was completely occupied by the captured Mongoose Guy, and was fitting him for a saddle...

In addition to the Supermegatopia comics and art, Supermegatopia also hosts Crushed: The Doomed Kitty Adventures, an Affectionate Parody of RPGs of all types, much in the same way that Supermegatopia is a parody of Superhero comics.

Crushed follows the young adventurer Tiger-girl Crushed around as she goes on adventures, farms loot, and generally tries (and fails) to avoid dying and being sent back to the Temple of Infinite Lives. Along the way, Crushed recruits Red Stephie, a "pleasantly plump" lesbian thief turned wizard, as well as Knaw, a very short Assassin/Thief with an axe to grind -- and poisoned cupcakes to share. Purity, a (very strong) priestess from the Temple of Infinite Lives joins the cast after the clergy gets tired of seeing their adventuring party die repeatedly. (It doesn't work, by the time the high priest has turned around, Crushed and crew -- including Purity -- are back in the resurrection circle.)

Crushed has even spawned its own d20 sourcebook, allowing DMs to add The Temple of Infinite Lives to their own games. No, really.

Supermegatopia also hosts hosted two other sub-comics, They Might be Giant Robots, which parodies the Transformers (and sometimes G.I. Joe), and By Way of Booty Bay which has it's fun in the World of Warcraft.

The site has recently undergone a revamp, and has such lost a great deal of its art. Pity.

Luckily, someone has put up the main "Weasel Boy" storyline on wikispaces.

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Tropes used in Supermegatopia include:

• Author Appeal: Most Common Superpower, Big Beautiful Women and tan lines, to name a few.
• Author Avatar: The Brothers appear as themselves from time to time, usually as their in-world furry counterparts, though Brian & Stu have appeared as themselves a few times. In turn, Mad Dr. Nesbit is based on the original editor for the comic, and The Lindsey-Dillo was a friend of The Brothers.
• Art Evolution: Many of the earliest comics from The Brothers were coarse, oddly inked, and difficult to follow. By the time they started Weasel Boy and Crushed, the artwork had improved, and all one needs to do is read through the former from start to (current) end to see the progress.
• Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: Worse, atomic bomb dropping anarchists. Where the hell did an anarchist even get an atomic bomb?
• Brain In a Jar: Jim, Dr. Nesbitt's assistant. She adds fish sometimes, as a punishment for screwing up, or just making too many smart remarks.
• Canon Immigrant: Several fanart characters and one-shot jokes were merged into official canon later.
• Captain Ersatz: Too many to count, essentially every major Superhero in Marvel and DC comics (and a few minor ones) has one.
• Celibate Hero: Subverted more than a few times--most everyone involved is trying to get laid with varying results. Two of the "heroes", appopriately-named Slut Puppy and Horn Dog, tend to foil plots and conquer foes through amazing amounts of sex.
• Church Militant: Holy Cow, a mace toting spandex-and-wimple wearing fighter of evil.
• Cliff Hanger /LeftHanging/ Cut Short: As of April 2010, Weasel Boy has not been updated since "Secret Destroyers" in 2003, despite a plug for the next chapter "Dawn Of The Doomed". As Stu, the writer for the Supermegatopia comics, no longer works on the franchise, it's likely that it'll never be picked up again. The other half of The Brothers, Brian, focuses on one-off artwork and the Crushed franchise (which has moved to mostly print comics) these days. This means that a huge number of plot threads going back to the beginnings of the comic are dangling forever more.
  • And now it's March 2012; the site was converted to a simple gallery in 2011, removing all the comics and artwork. There hasn't been an installment of Crushed since Issue #2 of the Angry Viking Press comic in 2009, By Way of Booty Bay and They Might Be Giant Robots disappeared along with Crushed and Supermegatopia itself; Brian took significant time away in 2011 to recover from illness, move, and get married, greatly reducing his output.
• Cloning Blues: Buxom Gal let her DNA get into the hands of a lot of people who've used it and abused it. Now there's dozens of near-clones of her running around--Conjoined Twins The Buxom Twins, Loli Buxom Girl, Evil Knockoff Buxom Gal Red, Heroic Mime Buxom Gal Dark (who's since merged with Buxom Gal to become Buxom Gal Fusion), Buxom Gal-rilla, Buxom Guy, Buxom Gal Metal, Intercontinuity Crossover Buxom Elephant Girl from Meshworld, Gorkorian Girl from an alternate dimension, Canon Immigrant Buxom Knaw, even an army of Empty Shell versions called The Buxom Skippies. Together, they form The Buxom Legion.
• Clothing Damage: Played Straight, but with an emphasis on the female characters and robots.
• Creator Breakdown: Not a severe example, although if you listen to the forums, the original brothers are no longer on speaking terms. This may tie into the archive purge the website recently went through. At least one brother is still doing pinup art (without any of the Supermegatopia IP) on Fur Affinity (NSFW).
  • Word Of One Of The Gods is that this is completely incorrect... the two brothers are still good friends, and never stopped talking to each other.
• Defictionalization: By Way of Booty Bay featured a trio of gnome priests years before they were made playable for real in the game.
• Disappeared Dad: Subverted -- Weasel Boy's (and his adopted siblings) father is so busy being a rich shadowy government type that he hasn't been seen for years. But that's ok, cause he sent his receptionist home to fill in for him around the house and in the bedroom. No, really! It works, too. No, we're not making that up, either.
• Enfante Terrible: Hell Kitty is a pre-teen who can beat up ANYONE in the setting, even the biggest of supervillains -- to the point that if people notice her around, they'll stop fighting and find someplace safer.
• Funny Background Event: Almost every page has a gag in the background somewhere, usually an Incredibly Lame Pun.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: When Buxom Gal first gets her powers, she complains loudly about how she's going to have to give up her job, how she doesn't want to have to find a costume, etc etc.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: Double Subverted (That is to say, subverted on both counts, not a Double Subversion) with Buck Naked -- he's NOT innocent and male, to boot.
• Intercontinuity Crossover: Of sorts. Near the end of SMT: Deviations, a "Master Fjord" is given a five mile long spacecraft, which he claims he can pilot. Inevitably, he plows through a moon and crashes the vessel clean into a planet, leaving with him with "a world to myself, five miles of alien technology" and a Dungeons & Dragons Player's Guide. Fast forward, and the planet is now Char-Mon, where Crushed takes place; Fjord is still alive as The Priest Of The Temple Of Infinite Lives.
• Killer Rabbit: A number of characters are a lot more dangerous than they appear, including Zippy the Sloth and the aforementioned Hell Kitty.
• Loads and Loads of Characters: And How! So many that a large number have one appearance, and some have never showed up at all.
• Love Dodecahedron: Weasel Boy is in love with Tiger Lass. Tiger Lass is in love with Mighty Yak. Greasy Monkey is in love with Weasel Boy, even though Delilah already has a claim on him. Gretchen Vayne fancies Delilah quite a bit. Mighty Yak really likes cheese.
• Mad Scientist: Mad Dr. Nesbit, along with most of the staff of Supermegatopia Labs in various degrees, where tourists are often used for questionable purposes.
• Missed the Call: One of the bit characters is a superperson with godlike powers who could easily dominate the setting... but he's a shy computer geek too busy playing on FurryMUCK.
• Most Common Superpower: The patron saint of this trope. Lampshaded in Buxom Gal -- her breasts really are a superpower!
• Ms. Fanservice: AND HOW! Buxom Gal may be the biggest example of this, her powers are directly related to her breast size, though others are more blunt about it, like Topless Lass from The All-Stripper Squadron.
• Naked on Arrival / Naked on Revival: Any time Crushed's party ends up back at the Temple of Infinite Lives, they're completely reincarnated, sans equipment, requiring they not only go recover their clothing and gear from their previous bodies, but also dispose of the old bodies afterwards. Lampshaded, as Crushed complains loudly about this and her consistent absentmindedness preventing her from leaving a replacement outfit at the temple for future use.
• Nineties Anti-Hero: Ferret Man. Usually played for laughs since the usual villains in SMT are goofy and ineffectual parodies of Silver Age villian tropes, and as such usually get shot by him very quickly.
• Parental Incest: Dark Iquana and Sunflower are not subtle about being...close.
• Puppet King: Mayor Dave, whose simply acts as a figurehead while a shadowy figure-- in reality the long-missing Ferret Man, Bruce Vayne--runs the real show. Dave's responsibilities seem to be getting high, surfing, hugging bikini models, attending press events, and having sex with aforementioned bikini models.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: Even with an editor, there's issues on most every page.
• Stealth Pun: Dr. Ghoti's name.
• Stripperiffic: There's even a superhero group dedicated to Stripperiffic outfits -- The All-Stripper Squadron, a group of superheroes and superheroines who gave up superheroing to become exotic dancers, because it's safer.
• Superpower Meltdown: Just about any time a villain is beaten, their mecha/powers/magic green rock will explode, just big enough to cause property damage and wreck the clothing of any nearby women.
• They Killed Kenny: Crushed and company.
• Total Party Kill: Has happened to Crushed and company too many times to count.
• Yandere: Greasy Monkey, Played for comedy. When Delilah shows up she decides that Delilah needs to die, cause she's horning in on her man, even going so far as to draw up plans (including a mech, which she actually builds!)