History Comicbook / PS238

* CloningBlues: Averted. [[spoiler:Tyler's clone gets a name (Toby), develops cosmic powers, and is adopted by his parents, who are delighted -- to the point where Tyler is worried they'll like his new "brother" better.]] However, [[spoiler:Cecil rejects Toby, though he remains close friends with Tyler. It also helps that Toby feels BAD for Tyler, and attempts to assist Tyler whenever he can]]. [[ZigZaggedTrope Possibly played straight, however]], [[spoiler: given that Toby implies he had to use his reality warper powers to ensure that their parents ''wouldn't'' favor him over Tyler, with the equivalent exchange being any possible friendship with Cecil.]]

[[quoteright:229:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ps238a.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:229:With Liberty and Recess for All]]

* CaptainErsatz: ''[=PS238=]'' is ''made out of'' this trope. Two of the more outstanding examples are [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Atlas]] and [[ComicBook/GreenLantern Emerald Gauntlet]], although both have developed points of distinction from the originals as the series progresses. Among the students, there's also [[ComicBook/TheSandman1989 "Murphy"]], the "Prince of Daydreams" (whose older sister is often mentioned in passing...), and Victor Von Fogg, heir of the Von Fogg family of supervillains.

** Flea, who is probably a collective {{Expy}} of similar characters ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} and ComicBook/AmbushBug. (He also has elements of Franchise/SpiderMan, ComicBook/TheTick, and the most recent ComicBook/BlueBeetle -- there's a whole big arthropod-themed hero mashup going on here.)

* MagicalProfanityFilter: Zodon, a foul-mouthed kid genius, has a "[[Comicbook/TheAdventuresOfBarryWeenBoyGenius Barry Ween]] [[RestrainingBolt chip]]" that censors his swearing. Individual swearwords are replaced by random words, long rants by show tunes.

* GrapplingHookPistol: Tyler's still getting the hang of it. HilarityEnsues. Interestingly, it's about the size of the ''Series/MythBusters'' model, and thus is worn as a sizeable forearm bracer rather than sitting in the utility belt. The winch on that thing is incredibly powerful, able to pull creatures that outmass Tyler by at least 100:1 -- by the ''tooth'' (Which also implies a lot about how strong the tooth was).[[note]]It's possible that the winch isn't quite ''that'' strong. Any extended tooth like the one the winch grabs is going to be very sensitive to being pulled on, not matter how well anchored it is. The dragon, feeling a sharp tug on a sensitive spot, instinctively jerks his head in that direction to relieve the pressure, and ends up putting his head through the wall.[[/note]]

** Being a Batman {{Expy}}, Revenant spends a lot of time swinging through the city and looking over the area from the rooftops. The logo on his uniform is a stylized R, combined with the logo from an old [[Music/TheAlanParsonsProject Alan Parson's Project]] album. The name of said album? ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_in_the_Sky_(album) Eye In The Sky.]]''

* CaptainErsatz: ''[=PS238=]'' is ''made out of'' this trope. Two of the more outstanding examples are [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Atlas]] and [[ComicBook/GreenLantern Emerald Gauntlet]], although both have developed points of distinction from the originals as the series progresses. Among the students, there's also [[ComicBook/TheSandman "Murphy"]], the "Prince of Daydreams" (whose older sister is often mentioned in passing...), and Victor Von Fogg, heir of the Von Fogg family of supervillains.

Originally a print comic, Aaron has followed the example of [[Webcomic/GirlGenius the Foglios]] and released it as a webcomic. The online version has now caught up to the print version and new content is being released. In 2008, a licensed RolePlayingGame using the ''[[TabletopGame/{{Champions}} Hero System]]'' was published.

* AcademyOfEvil: Praetorian Academy is a private school for metahumans that's not publicly traded, looks regimented and militaristic, dresses its students up in uniforms and faceless masks and gives them codenames, and its headmaster is a shadowy, enigmatic figure. [[spoiler:Subverted, as the [[BewareTheSuperman intent]] behind it involves [[MutantDraftBoard anything]] ''[[FantasticRacism but]]'' [[CapePunk releasing more supervillains]] into the wild.]]

* CoolPet: Argo the super-dog.

* CasualDangerDialog: The Revenant is perfectly able to take calls while in the middle of fighting bad guys, and has been known to ''make'' them as well.

* {{Wingdinglish}}: Alien tongues are in strange font, but otherwise readable. Prospero's walls of text in his introductory chapters starts off with "If you can read this" and goes on with Creator/MontyPython quotes, a recipe, etc, to avoid heavy spoilers, but in the rest of the series, his utterings are often hilarious. (some of them are available [[http://pastebin.com/sSH4Sr3q here]].)

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters

Created by Aaron Williams, who is also known as the maker of ''Webcomic/{{Nodwick}}'' and ''Webcomic/FullFrontalNerdity'' -- all of which can be viewed on [[http://www.nodwick.com/ Nodwick dot com]] -- it has been described as "Take the kids from [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Springfield Elementary]], give them ComicBook/XMen powers, and send 'em to [[Franchise/HarryPotter Hogwarts]]."

* FiveFiveFive: As seen in the [[http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/08062012/ 08062012 comic]], the PS238 phone number ends in 555-1234.

-->''Flea:''' The ''Flea'' stops for ''no one'', especially not someone dressed as a ''stink bug.''\\

'''Power:''' They ''hate'' being that.\\

** As much as Williams enjoys deconstructing superhero tropes, his affection for them shows through and he often follows up by quickly reconstructing them all over again. Not everything is rosy for the heroes and often RealityEnsues from their powers and experiences, and some have rather shallow motives and fairly {{Jerkass}}-ish behavior (such as within the Finster extended family). Yet at the same time they remain firmly committed to doing the best they can as well as they know how, and remain ''heroes'' that they and their families and friends can respect.

* FacePalm: Frequently used by Ms. Kyle and the other teachers.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Averted; one of the main problems for the Revenant is that many of his wealthy cover identities have [[FridgeLogic problems with tax evasion charges]].
* SealedEvilInACan: [[spoiler:Aurora, one of the former members of the Union of Justice, "haunts" the school's basement as a ghost made of {{Nanomachines}}. She's kept in there by solid-steel walls with EM fields. It's currently unknown why she's locked in there, though judging by her current personality she underwent a HeelFaceTurn at some point.]]

* WorldOfCardboardSpeech: [[http://ps238.nodwick.com/?p=970 By Ron.]]

* MagicMap: From comic [[http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/08222012/ 08222012]], in the past, they were made by companies, and some of them aren't that good at it.