United States Angels Corps

"Each individual story would follow the same basic theme of the two girl agents faced off against the bad guys, and being graphically slaughtered."

—Dave Cheung, at the USAC Thread in Gurochan's Artwork Archive

United States Angels Corps was a commission-based Guro webcomic made by the artist David Cheung, of Chugworth Academy fame. The premise featured a military group of scantly clad female agents entering in action against a terrorist faction, anywhere, in modern times and failing.

Starting as a thread with an open project to Dave's fans at Gurochan's website and eventually moving on to a separate website, the series first introduced four main Angels (their real names in the brackets): Bikini Girl (Alex Winters), Princess (Samantha Appleton), Strawberry (Cacie Brennan), and Silver (Tanya Riley). Following the success of the first comic, new angel agents and Big Bads were soon introduced along with expanded backgrounds and settings.

Due to its main themes and production basis, the comics usually never featured explicit continuity between themselves so as to avert the Killed Off for Real trope, and only sought to maintain the common background plot... Despite eventually retconning details regarding some of its characters.

The series ran for about four years through a gallery of single images, several mini-comics and two major releases (one of which remained incomplete) before Dave shutdown the series in favor of his next project, Vanilla Comics. It's the artist's most (in)famous work bar Chugworth Academy, to the point that commissioning and for more of the releases of the series continue long after its end - though far less often and no longer focusing on guro. As of late 2017, such feedback has lead to a shy resurgence of the series through the artist's Patreon and the Vanilla Comics website itself, dropping the guro element to match the project's modus operandi.

Tropes used in United States Angels Corps include:

• Absolute Cleavage - Silver's catsuit and Bubblegum's opened swimsuit.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade - Daniel Toshida's blade. In all of his appearances he has shown to be able to cleanly slice a person's entire body.
• Acid Pool - Chemical Plant features an entire factory filled with these, and the first Silver's gallery picture presumably takes place on it as well. Skinny Dipping takes place in the exterior part of another plant.
• All There in the Manual - As a consequence of the comic's focus, most of the characters' backgrounds, personal life, relationships and such could only be found at discussion posts and the website's own wiki.
• All Women Are Lustful - Played straight at first with the more sexually active agents of the cast. Later on an Applied Phlebotinum is introduced with this side effect.
• Amazon Brigade
• Amazonian Beauty - So far, Leaf and Peppermint show it, with Leaf being a bit more bulkier.
• Animesque - Typical of Dave Cheung's artworks.
• Applied Phlebotinum - Troy Hancock comes up with them all the time.
• Art Major Biology - In one of the Freebies, Princess' torso and head are treated with a liquid that turns flesh into a rubber-like substance. The purpose? It is in the comic's name, not said here for the sake of the page and the viewers.
• Artificial Intelligence: Tessa, which is a simulation software created based on all of the Angels' specialties and actions they could register in the bank, made to test all sorts of weapons, tactics and traps against them with 99.8% percent of accuracy. Word of God states it was created by Troy Hancock.
• Asskicking Pose - Bikini Girl. Since she's basically the best all-round fighter of the main group, it comes as no surprise.
• Avenging the Villain - Shigeru, whose goal is not to wipe the Angels as much as simply settle the score with Silver.
• Awesome But Impractical - Most of the inventions Troy Hancock comes up with, as explored in-universe.
• Bait and Switch Lesbians - The image above is pretty much an example. Calamity Rose and Bubblegum are equally cozy on their title page.
• Barely-There Swimwear - Many of the girls' swimsuits, again as seen in the image above.
• Bastard Bastard - Zachary Phillips, one of the most trusted members of the Vanguard, son of an English Earl and an American Nanny.
• Beard of Evil - The Unnamed Commander, Enoki Shigeru, Abhrams and Troy.
• Better to Die Than To Be Raped - Some of the more prideful agents follow the motto. Regardless...
• Big Bad - The Vanguard, mostly.
• Big Eater - Leaf, much to the surprise and envy of her fellow mates. The scene where this trope is played is priceless.
• Bittersweet Ending - Your Mileage May Vary since the sole purpose of the comics was to send these characters to death as you wished by commissioning. Naturally, your feelings toward their deaths may go from depression to lust.
  • Averted at the "Teacher's Pet" comic. See Erotic Dream below.
• Blond Guys Are Evil - Troy Hancock, period.
• Bonus Material - For those who donate to the website, HD versions of the comics, plus extra pictures and mandatory info.
• Boobs of Steel - Peppermint for sure.
• Brainy Brunette - Princess.
• Break the Cutie - Princess, in Chemical Plant. Fortunately, unlike other cuties, she takes it quite well, but doesn't live long to enjoy much. Averted when the situation is revisited in "Double Team".
• Canon Immigrant - Cacie Brennan, Mia Kuchiki, Heather Grant, Katrin Simpson, Millia and Sara Bennet, and Emily Marshall all come from several of Dave's previous works.
  • Linna Sil becomes this in Broken Hilt Inn.
• Cold-Blooded Torture - Troy Hancock from Bikini's intro comic. He has her cornered at his gunpoint for the mere pleasure of breaking her down, and the fact that he has the data she retrieved and that he knows her name pretty much emphasizes it.
  • Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique - Enoki Shigeru invokes it on Nutmeg with a baseball bat, however subverted and overlapping with Cold-Blooded Torture because we don't actually see any of the talk, but instead given only certain indications.
• Combat Stilettos
• Continuity Snarl - For what little continuity the comics follow, a lot has been reworked or Retconned since its inception: Characters personalities and statuses, the way the agency works, so on so forth.
• Conveniently an Orphan - Basically, the backstory of the agency. The Government decides to restart the failed project from the Second World War, and in order to get its members, they go after female orphans and raise them all the way into young adulthood. Peppermint is the only exception, hailing from a Senator's family.
• Cruel and Unusual Death - That's what happens when you let the guys of GUROCHAN create the plots.
• Dance Battler - Bamboo is a proud one.
• Dead Guy on Display - What some of them end up like, especially because of the 'DFD' technology, though they usually have an unusual purpose.
• Death by Sex - Quite common due to the premise.
• Diabolus Ex Machina - Silver's Intro Comic. After eliminating an enemy recon team, she is stealthily taken out by Toshida.
  • Assassination's prologue final page states that Princess got a false pendrive, while the one with the information is in their hands, already using it to send killing teams to the 4 S-Class girls' homes.
• Distracted by the Sexy - One of the fundamentals for the Corps, but with complete aversion most of the times: The mooks usually prefer to dominate the girls before distracting themselves with the sexy body in front of them.
• Downer Ending: You Should Know This Already, as it is typical for a Guro comic. But here are some examples:
  • Chemical Plant ends with Cacie receiving some package and delivering to the unamed General. The package's contents are humiliating photographs , with the message: "Your little Sluts couldn't stop us. NOW WHAT?". If that's not enough, considering the backstory, not only is this a complete demoralization to the Agency, but it will cost the lives of millions of Americans since now the Terrorists are able to execute their plan. "We have a problem" indeed.
  • Every Intro Comic for an Angel, with the Vanguard Faction's one taking the cake.
  • Later releases during the Vanilla Comics era also avert this, for the most part.
• Dual Tonfas - Peppermint proudly uses them.
• Elite Mooks - Mostly the named characters, though some Mooks manage to score quite a lot.
• Erotic Dream - Princess in her "Teacher's Pet" freebie comic.
• Even Evil Has Standards - Elite Mook L.T. repudiates the USA's government for sending someone as young and apparently, inexperienced as Princess to do their job in Chemical Plant. Now, if you read about his sociopathy...
  • Daniel Toshida has a honor code, despite being a ninja from a CIA project, and most of the times feels disgusted when facing with some of his fellow's actions.
• Everyone Calls Her "Insert Codename"
• Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry - To the point of using toe rings, tiaras and Combat Stilettos, and that's just the beginning.
• Everything's Better with Princesses - Princess
• Evil Counterpart - Troy Hancock from the respective intro Comic to Bikini Girl. Given the blonde hair, cocky attitude and other details, it's pretty much her evil Spear Counterpart.
• Expository Hairstyle Change - Bikini does it a lot. It started with two ponytails, but as the project went on, she started to get new looks and, with them, new hair styles, only keeping the color intact. Princess is also subject to this, but not as noticeable, going from mere Princess Curls to a ponytail.
  • Waterlily, period. She's from long before the series started, and her exotic hairstyle generated lots of discussions. Eventually, not only had Dave had to explain it visually, but also include the option of an updated version of the style, OR have it completely down.
• Fan Nickname:
  • United States Angel Corpse, for the title.
• Fan Service with a Smile - They all do it for the profile photos.
• Fatal Flaw - Commonly explored for each Angel.
• Faux Action Girl - Princess at first, though this was eventually retconned.
• Femme Fatale
• Finagle's Law - Imperative in this webcomic.
• Four Is Death - The original main team of girls (S-Class).
• Green Eyes - The often chosen alternative to the most blue-eyed characters, with Princess and Leaf being the lead.
• Girls with Guns - Most of the girls, though the brawlers obviously prefer to use their fighting skills rather than the guns.
• Good Bad Girls - All of them to varying degrees, either due to their modus operandi or their actual promiscuity.
• Good-Looking Privates - Each Angel goes through intensive military training once they join the Corps.
• Good Old Fisticuffs - Abhrams prefers to fight and break apart his opponents rather than use guns or any other weapons.
• Gorn
  • Boom! Headshot! - {{spoiler|Strawberry]], passive and active. Princess in one of the pictures and the comics. Aurora, Zodiac, Crystal and Calamity Rose as well, in the Vanguard comic...
  • Clean Cut - Princess by Razor Floss, Bubblegum by Daniel's blade, etc.
  • Gory Discretion Shot - Played with Octavia when she finishes off a defeated Zodiac with a Headshot in the Vanguard Intro Comic, complete with a Slasher Smile.
  • Half the Man He Used To Be - An unfortunate Bikini has such a death picture in the Gallery.
  • Ludicrous Gibs - Heads, arms, legs and what's left of them.
  • Off with His Head! - Silver and Shimmer by the blade of Daniel, Princess and Bikini with the razor sharp strings... And the list goes on.
  • Nail'Em - Bikini's Intro comic... Alex is shot in both hands by the Troy's Nailgun after failing to atract the villain. Then is finished by being shot multiple times.
    • Nutmeg also suffers a similar fate: She's tied by her scarf to the chair, then gets both hands nailed to it while being interrogated by one pissed of Enoki.
  • Razor Floss - One of the Freebie Comics with Princess has her losing head, arms and legs with these in the DFD comic.
    • In the Vanguard Comic, it is visually implied that Peppermint and Waterlily went through the same progress.
  • Slashed Throat - Strawberry's Dummied Out fate for a comic.
  • Ryona - From beatings to goreful deaths.
  • Stripped to the Bone - In the first official comic, both Princess and Bikini's bodies are disposed of in this particular fashion, thanks to a nice acid bath.
  • Aurora ends up having an MK-style acid bath thanks to Abhrams.
  • Stuffed Into the Fridge - A common trope here as well. Especially with Princess.
    • And in Chemical Plant, seven photographs of Alex and Sammy's bodies are sent to Washington.
    • DFD and Vanguard gives us the agent's bodies being transformed into... "love" dolls.
  • Vampiric Draining - Hoho, boy... Troy will make you think he was actually merciful with Bikini in her Intro Comic when you see the giant cans sucking a captured Coral's blood until she's just flesh and bones, and then seeing he also did it with Leaf...
  • Your Head Asplode - Princess in one of the gallery pictures, Mia Kuchiki and Zodiac in the Vanguard Comic. And the list... You know the drill.
• Government Agency of Fiction - The titular one.
• Groin Attack - So far, no Angel has managed to deliver one. But Abhrams does deliver a world of pain to Bikini in Chemical Plant. And that was only his first hit on her.
• Hollywood Acid - Chemical Plant's. In the comic, the victims are Princess and Bikini, but their clothes, skeletons and gadgets don't dissolve. It is explained though, in the Skinny Dipping comic, that this is a "Smart Acid" created by Professor Hancock.
  • From the same comic that explains it, Aurora ends up experimenting a real acid pool.
  • Speaking of which, one of the gallery pictures feature an unfortunate Silver receiving some acid bath on her chest.
• Holographic Terminal - Chemical Plant reveals that Bikini has a portable one... On the right breast of her bikini. It is hinted Princess has the same, as the bonus material says she invented a mini-computer fittable inside of a ring toe. Only function shown in the comic was as a tracker.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty - Commonly invoked.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl - Princess and Bubblegum.
• Interactive Comic - As mentioned above, the deal is to pay the artist to get your plot into a comic/picture.
• Lighter and Softer - All Angels Corps-related public releases post Vanilla Cookies, dropping the Gorn element to match the tone of his recent works.
• Lovely Angels - Well, this is United States Angels Corps, remember?
• Mad Scientist - Troy Hancock... And his intro page in the Vanguard's Intro Comic just gives you a little demonstration. Read Vampiric Draining above.
• Mama Bear - Tanya (A.K.A. Silver), the most experienced and the idol of the group. Bamboo and Dixie as well towards the rookies.
  • And maybe, even the reader.
• Name's the Same - Hey, isn't there some other comic with "Angels" in the title about a squad of improbably young girls, one of whom is codenamed "Bubblegum"?
• Nature Abhors a Virgin - Pretty much Princess, part of her extra charm. Judging by how much you may have read about this comic, you know this will not end well.
• Nebulous Evil Organisation - The Vanguard.
• Neck Snap - Bikini's fate at the first comic, after having fought against an old rival mook: Abhrams.
  • Bamboo, as mentioned above.
• Negative Continuity - One of the bases of the project, just to have the Angels back for more stories.
• Never Bring a Knife to A Fist Fight - Bikini's weapon of choice for emergencies is her knife. But in Chemical Plant, after suffering a blow that injuries her hip-bones, grabs her knife only to miss the stab and have her arm broken, then become a human punchbag for the Big Bad.
• Ninja - Daniel-san Toshida, capable of even killing off Silver, the best of the Angels. As for the girls, Nutmeg.
  • Conservation of Ninjutsu - Played in two ways on the same comic: Silver alone can kill a bunch of Elite Mook Ninjas, but not The Ninja that is Daniel, as he is the only one that stalked on her successfully.
• Nightmare Fetishist - Troy.
• No Dead Body Poops - Played for the sake of the comics, according to Dave. However, in the majority of the deaths, they eventually let some yellow juice come out.
• Punched Across the Room - Abhrams does it to Bikini... with a groin punch.
• Odd Couple - Calamity and Aurora: An energetic and pervy Cowgirl with a cold, sophisticated and serious agent.
  • Similarly, Silver and Strawberry: The Major and the pervy athlete.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome - Quite common actually:
  • Silver standing victorious after flawlessly taking down several Vanguard ninjas on her own, in her Intro Comic.
  • Princess walking away after a victory in the same fashion, in the Prologue Chapter of Assassination.
  • Bikini dominating Zachary in his own game in one of the Gallery pictures.
• Oh Crap - Several, and quite common since we're talking about often deaths here. But then, averted as many of the cases happen when they actually injure or kill them.
  • Basically the last words of Leaf before the deployment of More Dakka to her body.
  • Princess' Intro Comic, when she finds herself surrounded by enemies.
  • Bikini's Intro Comic, when Hancock shows he has the disc she was using as a blackmail.
  • Zachary has a less apparent one at the end of Assassination's prologue, when his General shows that one of the killing team targets was his beloved Princess.
• Post-Rape Taunt - Most of the villains here do that, if not all of them.
• Quick Draw - Leaf against LT in her Intro Comic. Pointless, though.
• Reality Subtext: The Lighter and Softer approach and dropping of the guro element from 2017 onwards at least in part reflect the changes in Dave Cheung's creative direction in real life.
• Rounded Character - Played with in the Promotion Poll, where the winners of each "fight" on the poll would also win a bigger description.
• Rose-Haired Girl - Bubblegum.
• Sex Is Violence
• Sexy Mentor - Silver being the main example as she is the oldest of the Angels, but the rest of the team end up as that to each other or to other soldiers they work with.
• She Is All Grown Up - Cacie Brennan, Mia Uchiki (if you disconsider Spiky Box), Katrin Simpson, Emily Marshall, Millia Bennet and Heather Grant, all from Dave's previous works.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog - We're talking about a comic with a plot revolving around the main characters utterly failing, what did you expect?
• Shout-Out - Aside from already having Canon Immigrants, we actually have a few shout-outs to other works from Dave.
  • Alex's "Everyday" clothes, for example, makes her look like a revisited Ellice Matthews, with changes going from a smaller size of breasts to a silver bikini instead of a top. Adding the hair style change, we have a Winry lookalike Bikini Girl.
    • To a lesser extent, Samantha is a mix of Sally Richards with one of his other less known characters, Lily Elliot (Also NSFW for nudity). Note the body and other minor details such as gloves, socks and shoes.
  • "(Coral's) Costume colour scheme shamelessly ripped off from Blazblue's Noel Vermillion. Whatchu gun do bout it?!"
  • Abhrams throws Aurora in an acid pool in Skinny Dipping. The shots of Aurora's death from the last page are asking for Shao Kahn's 'Fatality' narration.
• Spy Catsuit - Thanks to the first "wardrobe" created by Dave, Silver is the only one to get it so far.
• Spy School - The Fairweather School for Girls's secret function.
• Strawberry Shorthand - Cacie Brennan is pretty much the incarnation of this trope. While bearing a most young and cute body and face, her Intro Comic pretty muchs shows us that she is far more than meets the eye, managing to be an experienced user of rifles while also being the most lustful girl there.
• Sword Fight - The beginning of Silver's Intro Comic. She has found some Elite Mooks in a certain point, and surprisingly, she won.
• Take Over the World - Subverted. The Vanguard's true wish is to take over the USA's government and return it to its glorious potential from decades ago.
• Teacher-Student Romance - Teacher's Pet. However, All Just a Dream from Princess.
• Teen Superspy - Bikini Girl was one, as the Bonus Material indicates she started at the age of 16!
• The Chick - Some of the most submissive Angels, such as Princess.
• The Medic - Bubblegum.
• The Rival - Bikini is this to Bamboo and Leaf inside of the agency, and to Abhrams outside. Her answer to whenever this is brought up goes respectively from Deadpan Snarkering to the traditional mockery.
• Theme Naming - They're mostly nicknamed after their looks or personalities and values.
• Time Stands Still - The main plot point behind the two first issues of the Vanilla Comics era.
• Too Dumb to Live - Some of the actions that condemn the characters vary from Fatal Flaw to a stupid mistake.
  • In one example, Strawberry's urge for the other sex in the middle of a mission, at a forest at night. Nothing could go wr- Hey, isn't that a sniper?
  • Leaf taking an elevator directly to the Vanguard Depot's Main Floor, without readying herself or hiding.
• Underboobs - Leaf's uniform is an example.
• Unknown_Rival - Leaf tries to be The Rival to Bikini through their training and sparring sessions, but the latter always dismisses it.
• Unmoving Plaid - Part of the girl's school uniform.
• Vapor Wear - Even when it's not the swimsuits.
• Western Terrorists
• White-Haired Pretty Girl - Silver. Oh God, Silver...
• Yandere - Octavia, the first Dark Action Girl, for her half-brother Zack "The Lady Killer" Phillips. She doesn't even care about the Vanguard, she's only there because she loves her brother, and comes with Slasher Smile and a taste for torturing and disfiguring her defeated enemies that rivals the Sonozaki twins!