Sidekick Girl

From Comixpedia

Sidekick Girl[1] is the creation of Laura Cascos and Erika Wagner. The webcomic follows the life of a sidekick, Val, and her struggle to fight crime while keeping her incompetent hero, Illumina, alive. The comic updates every Wednesday.

[edit] Main characters

• Valerie Upton aka Sidekick Girl - A young athletic woman, she never quite grew out of her tomboy mentality. Val is gifted in mechanical engineering as well as in various forms of street fighting combat. When she was stuck being a sidekick after not measuring up to the "standards" of the hero agency, she decided to work as hard as she could to do her best, even if her efforts came with little to no recognition. POWERS:: The ability to immediately regenerate after a fatal wound. Additional healing to non-vital wounds is accelerated beyond a normal humans ability to heal, but not fast enough not to put her out of commission for a few days after a particularly brutal battle. LIKES: Guinness. DISLIKES: Girly clothes and makeup.

• Mackenzie Jade aka Illumina - Mackenzie simply loves to reinforce the stereotype. Born to superhero parents, Mack grew up knowing she was going to be a hero. Entirely unprepared for the realities of real criminals, Mack has relied on her string of skilled sidekicks to do her job for her as well as to keep her alive. To date, she has lost three sidekicks. Two quit after a few weeks on the job. One was tragically killed in the line of duty. While extremely dim and incredibly useless, Mack is also very sweet and kind. POWERS: The ability to emit limited quantities of light from her body as well as the ability to float up to five feet off the ground. LIKES: Makeup. DISLIKES: Books.

• Hazel Abernathy aka Haze - Hazel made her first appearance as Val's mousy roommate at Super Hero Community College.[2] Since graduating, she has come into herself as a lovely and confidant young woman. Blessed with a competent and appreciative hero, Impact, Haze hopes to one day use the Hero Crisis clause to elevate herself to hero status as Impact's equal partner. POWERS: Superspeed and agility. LIKES: Table top gaming. DISLIKES: Mean people.

• Jasper Belmont aka Tornado Boy - Jasper received the short end of the stick at superhero college as well thanks to his naturally large gut. It's genetic. He can't help it. [3]Jasper is one of Val's oldest sidekick friends, though the origin of the friendship has not yet been discussed. Jasper is laid back and easy going and has a habit of teasing Val about her boyish figure. POWERS: Superstrength. LIKES: A good, strong scotch. DISLIKES: The cruelty of genetics.

[edit] Allies

• Drake Devereaux aka Maelstrom - Drake Devereaux is handsome, rich, sophisticated and ranks a bit below Mackenzie on the idiot-meter. They are the perfect match. Upon meeting each other in superhero guise, neither of them recognized the other as their mysterious lover. Val, on the other hand, recognized Drake immediately though she was at first unsuccessful in her attempts to help Mack realize that her boyfriend Drake was actually the hero Maelstrom. POWERS: Emission of blue power beam. LIKES: Money. DISLIKES: Working with others.

• Chris - As Chris first appears in Riley's Pub on Sidekick Thursday's, there is a high possibility that Chris is also a sidekick. However, it was Chris' gender, not occupation, that was initially called into question when both Val and Jasper found themselves checking Chris out at the bar.[4] POWERS: Confusion. LIKES: Boys. DISLIKES: Girls.

• Impact - Haze's hero. Her secret identity is unknown to all but herself and her sidekick. What is known is that she is a competent and accomplished hero who is completely supportive of Haze and wants to see her become a hero someday. POWERS: Superstrength. LIKES: Weight lifting. DISLIKES: Unnecessary B.S.

• Cyclone - Tornado Boy's hero. Cyclone opted to name his sidekick after his own power instead of Jasper's power (superstrength), in a generally accepted effort to connect them as a duo. Little else is known about Cyclone other than the fact that he was fabulous hair. POWERS Weather elemental abilities. LIKES: Really silly costumes. DISLIKES: Earth elementals.

• Shield - Shield is the sidekick of Sword. When he hero became superpowered enough to take down entire gangs by himself, Shield found himself becoming fairly indifferent. That is, until his hero was kidnapped while Shield was sitting on the curb playing his DS. In his attempt to find his hero, he teamed up with Sidekick Girl and her friends who were trying to recover their own stolen heroes. [5] (note: Shield is a reader-made character that appeared in a full story arc when he won a design-a-sidekick contest). POWERS: The ability to absorb various forms of energy and use them to become strong, faster and smater. LIKES: Sidekick Girl. DISLIKES: Sword's puns.

• Agent Grey - An agent of the Hero Agency and Val and Mack's personal hero agent.

• Detective Brown - A young but skilled detective in the Metro City Police Department, Dt. Brown is the lead case manager for the Vigilante case. Because of this, he has come into contact with Sidekick Girl at least twice, though it is possible they were acquaintances beforehand. POWERS: None. LIKES: Being bald. DISLIKES: The Vigilante.

• Dr. Grandpa - An ancient but brilliant scientist who is the fall back to any hero in a scientific jam. His age is unknown but what is known is that he loves to rock bow ties. Dr. Grandpa was first introduced during the storyline in which Val and Mack switch bodies due to a defective disintegration ray. POWERS: Being really old and smart. LIKES His splash guard. DISLIKES: Whippersnappers.

• Mr. Ferret - A mysterious ferret that managed to sneak into Val and Mack's apartment with a camera strapped to its back. Various scientific tests were run but it was concluded that it was just a plain ole ferret. Although the plan was to turn the ferret into an animal shelter, Val decided to keep it because it was very cute. The person who placed the camera on the ferret and sent it into the hero's apartment has yet to be uncovered. LIKES: Val. DISLIKES: Val's closet.

• Joh Riley - The owner and bartender of Riley's Pub. His name is pronounced "Joe." A ring on his left ring finger suggests that Joh is married. LIKES: Men. DISLIKES: Boobs.

• Father Mark Hernandez - The pastor and principal of St. Martin's catholic church and high school. He is the kind soul who agreed to let Coldfire live in his rectory and also gave him a day job right after he arrived from Mexico. Aside from being Isauro's spiritual guide and mentor, Fr. Mark also happens to be Isauro's best friend. [6]POWERS: Holiness. LIKES: Good beer and the Metro City Moose. DISLIKES: Satan.

[edit] Villains

• Isauro Chavez aka Coldfire - Coldfire first appears as a mysterious voice on the other end of Dr. Wright's phone. It was quickly discovered that he is the doctor's henchman but has far more sense and smarts than his villain. He is the Sidekick Girl to Dr. Wright's Illumina. Sidekick Girl found Coldfire a formidable adversary not only intellectually but physically. Her broke her bat. She dislocated his arm. Coldfire later turned up at Val's favorite neighborhood coffee shop but instead of attacking him as she had initially planned[7], she instead sat down and chatted with him, much to her confusion. Since that first civil talk, they have spoken more and have actually begun to date, much to the unhappiness of ALL of Val's friends. POWERS: Green plasma blades. LIKES: Double espresso. DISLIKES:His job.

• Dr. Wright - An evil 'genius' who plans to wipe left-handed people and their sinister ways off the face of the earth. It can be easily assumed that he was only in business for so long because of the competency of his henchman, Coldfire. He was eventually captured after injecting his right arm with a growth serum that caused him to collapse to the floor under it's weight. It is later discovered that Dr. Wright is simply a self-hating left hander. POWERS: None. LIKES:Evil science. DISLIKES: The sinister left hand.

• The Vigilante - This mysterious figure has only been seen by the criminal he or she defeats. Because heroing without a license is illegal, the Vigilante has drawn the ire of criminals, the police, and Sidekick Girl alike. Described as "Shadow and blue light",the Vigilante's calling card is messages on postit notes tacked on the victim's bodies. POWERS: Unknown. LIKES: Heroing. DISLIKES: Crime.

• Esperanza Macedo - Initially posing as a member of the American Hero Agency in Mexico, this beautiful woman tricked Coldfire into joining the Villain Agency. In Isauro's flashback origin story, we found out that she made him fall in love with her and then got him to help a villain who had been hiding out in Mexico. When the villain than preceeded to blow up full city blocks of people, Isauro's own government put out a bounty on his head, leaving fleeing to America and the Villain Agency his own choice. [8] POWERS: Unknown but assumed evil. LIKES: Seducing men. DISLIKES: Heroes.

• The Fishnet Ninjas - The Fishnet Ninjas are a group of scantily clad female ninjas with a preference for fishnets. They are thieves for hire.

• Clockwork Joe - A handsome but ineffective villain, Joe only lasted for two pages before blowing his head off with his own defective disintegration ray. For some reason, he became a popular fan favorite even though he didn't last very long. POWERS: Ineptitude. LIKES: Anything and everything Steampunk. DISLIKES: His own head, apparently.

• RoboButler - The RoboButler turned out to be the brains behind the kidnappings of the heroes Illumina, Maelstrom, Impact, Cyclone and Sword. He revealed himself to be the creation of one Clockwork Joe and came online in the inevitable event of his creator's death. [9] Why RoboButler kidnapped and froze the heroes is uncertain. What is certain is that he must be smarter than his creator, because he managed to escape the sidekicks. POWERS: Aside from being a punchcard-run automaton, he has a dapper fashion sense. LIKES: His creator, Clockwork Joe. DISLIKES: Unknown.

• Dungeon Master Adam - A villain who kidnaps sidekicks to test out his linked-mind dungeon simulation. [10] Based off the creators' real life Dungeon Master, Adam.

[edit] Cameos

• Party Girls [11] The ladies from the party include Jenny Breedin from Devil's Panties, Miya from Such Rubbish and Mary, Amy and Franny, all personal friends of the creators.
• Coffee Girls [12] - The creators Laura (dark hair, bangs) and Erika (brown hair, glasses) cameoing as their real life counterparts: Baristas.
• Lightning Lad and Remix [13]. Second and third place winners of the Create-a-sidekick contest.

[edit] Setting - Metro City

While the name of the city is purposefully contrived and generic (see Metropolis, Gotham City), the skyline hints that the comic is truly set in the city of Detroit, Michigan, the hometown of the comic creators.

[edit] Upcoming Projects

• Plans are in motion to create a series of Origin comics that will be printed in black and white comic book format and available at comic conventions and at the online Sidekick Girl store. Five comics will include the origins of: Sidekick Girl, Illumina, Haze, Tornado Boy and Coldfire.

• The Sidekick Girl board game.