Zodiac (webcomic)

Super-Anthro-What now?

Zodiac ^{[dead link]} is a furry superhero comic. Those who have "Extraordinary Powers and Abilities" are required to register with the government; these persons are then often hired by major corporations to protect their interests, with the caveat that they must also perform public service.

The New Dawn corporation is one such business, who are branching out into hiring supers for the first time. Lead by an enigmatic, probably insane board, Zodiac is a team still learning to work together, while many of the established heroes are finding that going public only has drawn their old enemies to them once more.

Also branches off into two other comics, Quetzalcoatlus featuring the Zodiac team and Second Chance featuring Saurus.

Tropes used in Zodiac (webcomic) include:

• Action Girl: Scorpio, Taurus, Aquarius and Sagittarius on the hero side. On the villain side, the female ones are more crafty and seem to prefer to act behind the lines (such as Slaver and Legion), but Nightmare, Basilisk and Razor are straight examples.
• Addiction Displacement: Lesonne, one of the board members of New Dawn, who acquired a sweet tooth after he quit smoking.
• Affably Evil: Jigsaw. He's one of the villains with the more monstruous appearance, but also very polite and suave, and he praises his foes while fighting them.
• A God Am I: Nightmare considers herself and other superpowered whasnames to be gods because of their powers.
• Appendage Assimilation: Jigsaw is an interesting case, as he doesn't particularly have to do this - he simply wants to.
• Ascended Extra: Leo's daughter Imani was very popular in her first visit.
• Badass :
  • Badass Normal: Sagittarius is just a very talented soldier.
    • Gemini would qualify as a Badass Abnormal if his special technique, briefly appearing to be two rabbits, counted as a power.
• Barrier Warrior: Virgo.
• Berserk Button: If you value your health, DO NOT call Taurus fat. - From the Quetzalcoatlus comic
• Better Than Sex: Hell Hound finds burning someone to death quote "Better than any drug or sexual act."
• Big No: Id in Second Chance.
• Black Magic: Ghoul seems to be a master in this discipline.
• Blood Knight: Razor.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Razor, you really shouldn't have stabbed Pisces...
• Calling the Old Man Out: Ghoul attempts to do this to Ramas... Who put him back to his place.
• Captain Patriotic: Aries, and not just for his costume.
• The Chessmaster: Ramas.
• Chest Insignia: Celsius.
• Chekhov's Gun: Cancer puts a hidden camera on Libra's sunglasses as part of an elaborate scheme to get a... erm... "look," at Taurus. It's how he eventually discovers that a group of super-villains is attacking Chops' club.
• The Chick: Imani.
• Code Name
• Cleavage Window: Taurus to compliment her Most Common Superpower.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: Virgo's religion, the Holy Light.
• Curb Stomp Battle: Saurus vs Libra. Almost literally.
  • Ghoul totally dominated Aquarius during all their fight, until he was distracted by the stars. Aquarius managed to rip off his left arm, and punched through his body, but he didn't seem worried at all, and left, having other business to attend to.
• Cyborg: Leo.
• Dangerously Genre Savvy: Jigsaw.
• Dark Action Girl: Basilisk.
• Deadpan Snarker: Leo, Saggitarius.
• Damsel in Distress: Imani in the current arc, being one of the hostage of the villains.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Ghoul's big on these. According to his bio, he's killed more people for doing something he considered rude than he has from them attacking him. In the actual comic, he killed one of the bouncers at Chops' bar for making a pass at Nightmare.
• Eccentric Mentor: Ramas
• Eldritch Abomination: Pisces. Turns out the DNA he gained doesn't really belong to a "prehistoric sea creature". It is more likely that it came from an alien origin. And, slowly but steadily, this DNA is beginning to take over him, Pisces having troubles controlling his powers.
• Elemental Powers:
  • Casting a Shadow: Scorpio to a certain extent.
  • Dishing Out Dirt / Magma Man: Igneous.
  • Light'Em Up: Virgo.
  • Making a Splash: Aquarius, in addition to Blow You Away.
  • Playing with Fire / Wreathed in Flames: Hell Hound. Nightmare uses her Psychic Powers to give this effect, but it's just for show.
  • Shock and Awe: Leo.
• Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: The "Quetzalcoatlus" side comic introduced geneticaly modified species, which are all dinosaurs. As for Jenna Martinez, she became a Quetzalcoatlus (winged snake) and embraced the career of Super Hero.
• Evil Is Petty: The primary reason Nightmare decided to attack Zodiac ahead of schedule was because Taurus stole a guy she was flirting with.
• Extroverted Nerd: Cancer.
• Extreme Omnivore: Don't let Libra choose pizza toppings.
• Eye Beams: Basilisk.
• Expy: Gemini used to be a Punisher style vigilante, right down to the skull on his shirt.
  • The band at Chop's club, Guns 'n Rodents, is practically a Shout-Out to a similar-sounding band. They are indeed rodents. All that's missing are the guns.
• Fantastic Racism: Nightmare is of the "Supers vs Muggles" variety.
• Finger-Snap Lighter: Hell Hound when he first appeared.
• Flying Brick: Taurus.
• Fog of Doom: Wraith.
• For the Evulz: By his own admission, pretty much the only reason Hell Hound killed a bunch of bystanders during the fight between Zodiac and the bad guys.
• Four Is Death: The team can be split up into four "elemental" teams (Earth, Air, Fire, and Water). Leo hates the fact that this makes no sense.
• Fragile Speedster: Scorpio, thanks to her teleportation powers. However, if she happens to be grabbed by someone and under pressure (as Jigsaw guessed), her powers fail her.
• Fridge Logic: In-universe example, when Virgo wonders how Cancer knew about the band at the club when he was "grounded" by the team leader.
  • In context, it also doubles as Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking.
• Funny Background Event: Poor Morris.
• The Fundamentalist: Virgo. Played quite seriously - Virgo has a hard time dealing with the fact that her powers do not come directly from God, and she has a harder time working with her teammates, who range from agnostic to anti-religious, but she has so far shown no signs of becoming a Straw Man, even admonishing herself at one point for being overly judgmental of the others' choices.
• Funetik Aksent: Hell Hound has an Irish accent.
• Gender Blender Name: Aries' real name is Kelly.
• Genre Savvy definitely Jigsaw, who may even go as far as being Dangerously Genre Savvy in the future if isn't already there
• Genki Girl: Taurus.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Taurus' eyes glow blue when she gets angry.
• Gonk: Before gaining her powers, Taurus.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: Pisces.

Libra: Dude! I mean I know he's got regeneration but did you have to break his arm?!
Gemini: He can regenerate?

• Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!: Libra immediately takes quite a liking to Natalia. Learning she is Cancer's grandmother does little to stop him.
• Green Lantern Ring: Libra, who got his power from Green Rocks.
• Hard Head: Aries, the ram.
• Hannibal Lecture: Ramas to Ghoul.
• Healing Factor: Pisces.
• The Heart: Imani, as comic 240 shows.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Leo's main supernatural ability is to "heal" his cybernetic implants like they were actual flesh and push them beyond their normal limits; besides this and a few Required Secondary Powers that stem from it, he's basically a Badass Normal.
• Heel Face Turn: Saurus. It hasn't happened yet in the main comic, but it's in the works in his own spinoff.
  • This seems pretty conclusive.
• Heroes-R-Us: Just what does the New Dawn Corporation do besides fund an incredibly expensive superhero team?
• Hurricane of Puns: Morris and Libra, all the time.

Leo: One more like that, Morris, and I will end you.

• I Cannot Self-Terminate: Pisces' main reason for joining Zodiac is this; in case he ever loses control of his powers, he's surrounded by a team capable of taking him down.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Capricorn.
• Immune to Bullets: Nightmare. Notably, the Chest Shots Only rule is averted, as Saggitarius shoots her in the face.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Aquarius managed to do this to Ghoul with her own arm... Though Ghould didn't seem that much annoyed by this.
• Jack of All Stats: Jigsaw is big, cunning, powerful, and seems to be quite fast, as Cancer observes. Word of God mentions that while he is not the strongest, fastest or toughest of the villains, his performances in all those categories are above-average, and he seems to have some hidden abilities up his sleeve.
• Kid Hero: Cancer, who's in his early teens.
• Load-Bearing Hero: Saurus during Second Chance.
• Loads and Loads of Characters: Twelve main characters, their co-workers at the New Dawn corporation, and each one of them has their own family, friends, and rivals, and a twelve person villain team.
• Lovecraftian Superpower: Capricorn and Pisces. Both are Cursed with Awesome and good people, despite the source of their abilities.
• Lovecraft Lite: Id, the antagonist of Second Chance.
• Magical Native American: Played to the hilt by Aquarius.
  • Though he doesn't appear to be as close as Aquarius, Sunspear in Second Chance also qualifies.
• Mass "Oh Crap": YOU STINK OF FEAR!
• Me's a Crowd: Gemini and Bi-Polar.
• Mini-Mecha: Cancer's Crab-bot.
• Mix and Match Creatures: Jigsaw.
• Morality Chain: Imani is one for Pisces.
• Most Common Superpower: Taurus.
• Muggles: All non-supers.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
  • Nightmare to Taurus. Though others team members have a rough time, this is nothing compared to the humiliation Taurus is suffering, who is completly unable to protect herself from Nightmare, and is so paralyzed in fear that the idea to fight back or flee Nightmare doesn't even cross her mind.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Taurus exaggerates her ditziness.
• One of Us: Eggplantman, the author, acknowledged the existence of TV Tropes, giving direct links to this page in his Deviant ART commentary, and provided the current image.
• Oh Crap: The Celsius phantasm in Second Chance #3, and Saurus in Second Chance #17.
  • Aquarius did not expect Ghoul to talk back at her after she punched him through his body.
  • Slaver when she discovers that Gemini's multiples personalities are more complicated that she thought, and that she unwillingly released the one personality which should have been left asleep.
  • Libra, upon seeing Cancer’s robot, but before anyone else knew that’s what it was:

Aries: Is there a problem bud?
Libra: Could be… There is a damn big robot in the hallway. Is that a problem? ‘Cause if it is, I’m totally prepared to start freaking out anytime.

• Omnicidal Maniac: Wraith.
• The Omniscient: Ramas tends towards this.
• People Puppets: Slaver's powers.
• Petting Zoo People: All of the characters are this on the Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism.
• Powered Armor: Master Blaster
• Psychic Powers: Nightmare.
• Puberty Superpower
• Pyromaniac: Hell Hound in spades. He's even called a pyromaniac in his official bio.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: In this case, the justification is subverted: Gemini, being an albino, would naturally have red eyes, but he's also the kind of character where this trope takes full effect. Especially when his true evil side is released by Slaver: his pupils and iris disappears, and his eyes become completly red.
• Say It with Hearts: Scorpio occasionally, particularly around Gemini.
  • Taurus uses this more notably.
• Self-Made Orphan: Capricorn. Her biological parents involved her in a occult ritual, and shockingly it apparently didn't go too well. Some foster parents are also suggested to have met a similar fate.
• Sizeshifter: Saurus.
• Spit Take: Aries, upon Scorpio's sudden appearance. She even calls the trope by name on the next page!
• Stock Superhero Day Jobs: Subverted; many were government agents, some worked for New Dawn in a non-powered capacity, one was military (Pisces), and one was a graphic artist (Libra). Played straight with the career superhero Aquarius and the student Cancer.
• Super Mode: Capricorn's demonic form.
• Super Registration Act: As mentioned above. So far it hasn't been portrayed in a negative way at all aside from Nightmare's probably biased description.
• Super Serum: Subverted with Pisces. In trying to create a Super Soldier formula, they injected him with the DNA of an Eldritch Abomination from outer space.
• Super Senses: Pisces can smells fear in others.
• Super Strength: Aries, Nightmare, Saurus, Taurus. Just to name a few.
• Symbol Swearing: “No #@$%&’n way!” which about as close as it gets to a Precision F-Strike from Sagittarius.
  • Leo then proceeds to echo it on the same page.
• Team Prima Donna: Scorpio, and Gemini early on.
• Tele Frag: Scorpio's way of attacking people. Sadly for her, it's useless against Jigsaw, who doesn't have a "normal" body, so to speak.
• Terms of Endangerment: Ghoul is very, very polite. It's quite disturbing to see him call Aquarius "dear" while fighting her.
• The Chew Toy: Morris seems to be headed in this direction.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Nightmare to Taurus, again. The poor girl clearly is badly outclassed here.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Saurus.
• Western Zodiac: The team theme. For all characters who know their birthdays, their team insignia is also their birth sign. Virgo and Sagittarius find this highly suspicious.
• What the Hell, Hero?: While the team is out at Chops' bar, Gemini and Sagittarius argue and Gemini yells at her. A drunk college student jumps to her defense.
• Wizard Duel: Aquarius vs Ghoul.