Line #30 Webcomic/WhiteHeron


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/white_heron.jpg]]
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3	''White Heron'' is a superhero webcomic written by Krazy Krow under the pseudonyms [=LindsayXian=] and Sara Parks, illustrated by Fernando Furukawa, and published on WEBTOONS and the ''Spinnerette'' website beginning in 2018.
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5	Initially billed as a prequel to ''Webcomic/{{Spinnerette}}'', ''White Heron'' is an alternate-universe spinoff set in 1982 and chronicles the adventures of Kim Jeong, a teenaged supersoldier with time-manipulation powers who defects from North Korea and joins the South Korean military's 707th unit under the command of Captain Park, eventually becoming the eponymous superheroine.
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7	Unlike ''Spinnerette'', which started as a tongue-in-cheek parody of ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' and retains its comedic roots, ''White Heron'' is a serious military drama with superhero trappings and is light on the comedic elements. In 2023, an attempt was made to secure funding on Kickstarter for ''White Heron'' to be published as a graphic novel, though it did not meet its goals.
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9	Links: [[https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/white-heron/list?title_no=212440 WEBTOONS]], [[https://www.spinnyverse.com/comic/white-heron-issue-1-cover Issue 1]], [[https://www.spinnyverse.com/comic/white-heron-issue-2-cover Issue 2]], [[https://www.spinnyverse.com/comic/white-heron-issue-3-cover Issue 3]], [[https://www.spinnyverse.com/comic/white-heron-issue-4-01 Issue 4]]
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11	!! ''White Heron'' contains examples of the following tropes:
12	* AlternateContinuity: ''White Heron'' is set in an alternate timeline from Krazy Krow's other shared-universe webcomics ''Webcomic/{{Krakow}}'' and ''Webcomic/{{Spinnerette}}''.
13	* AsianFoxSpirit: Corporeal Chae prefers to go by her nickname Kumiho, after the Korean version of the multi-tailed fox-spirits. When Park Seong nervously asks if she actually is one, she quips that she enjoys eating her enemies' livers to scare him--though Captain Park reveals that the nickname actually comes from her taste for chicken livers.
14	* BadassNormal: Captain Park--who in ''Spinnerette'' is Marilyn Seong's elderly butler--easily overpowers Kim Jeong in a sparring match while trash-talking her... at least until he lets her tap into a bit of super-speed.
15	* BoomHeadshot: Kumiho headshots a pair of traitorous guards using a .50 caliber M2 Browning machine gun as a sniper rifle.
16	* CantHoldHisLiquor: While the bulkiest of the team's members, Ozawa is a featherweight when it comes to alcohol--after only one glass of bear, he is horrified to learn that owning a Bible is illegal in North Korea and promptly gifts Kim Jeong his copy, then immediately passes out.
17	* CoverBlowingSuperpower: When North Korean agents bomb a dam to flood Hwacheon, Kim Jeong is forced to blow her cover to save the citizens, earning herself the moniker of White Heron in the process.
18	* CultureClash: Kim Jeong is awestruck by all the amenities available in South Korea, having never even seen a vending machine before, and she assumes that Pepsi is an American SuperSerum.
19	* DarkerAndEdgier: As opposed to the supernatural harem comedy of ''Webcomic/{{Krakow}}'' or the superhero spoof of ''Webcomic/{{Spinnerette}}'', ''White Heron'' is a largely serious military drama that features gratuitous violence.
20	* DatePeepers: When Captain Park learns that Kumiho let Park Seong take Kim Jeong on a tour of Seoul, he tails after them like an overprotective dad.
21	* DeathFakedForYou: Captain Park tries to pull this at the end of Chapter 3 by faking Kim Jeong's death so that she can live a normal civilian life instead of being exploited by the military for her superpowers, but it doesn't last more than a couple of weeks before she's forced to blow her cover.
22	* DefectorFromDecadence: What inspired Kim Jeong to defect from North Korea was a South Korean ''manhwa'' her brother swiped from a South Korean military base. When he got caught and was punished by being publicly beaten and transferred to Research and Development, Jeong's loyalty continued to fracture until she assumes that Hyun had killed her brother to create the Omega Serum from his organs.
23	* FemmeFataleSpy: Agent Byul is a busty red-haired secret agent who wears a slinky dress under her military coat, and when Jeong asks how she gets her top-secret intel she smiles sultrily, winks, and asks how Jeong thinks she got it.
24	* GoodCopBadCop: White Heron ''attempts'' this when interrogating a captured spy, after the concept is explained to her by Park Seong. When Captain Park's threats of seeing the spy hang fail to get him to talk, Jeong volunteers to take over. The spy is unimpressed at first, mockingly asking if Heron is going to have sex with him in exchange for his intel... until she smashes the steel interrogation room table like it's made of wet cardboard and threatens to [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique do the same to him]] unless he talks.
25	* HeadCrushing: In Chapter 3, Captain Park delivers a FinishingStomp to the treasonous interrogator's head, crushing it like a grape.
26	* HiddenInPlainSight: In Chapter 4, Captain Park attempts this by signing himself and the other members of the 707th unit up as members of the Civic Defence Force stationed in Hwacheon, though Kumiho compains that her new hat isn't as cool looking as her black beret.
27	* InnocentBigot: Jeong is initially leery of working with Americans due to being raised on North Korean propaganda, and accuses them of being perverts when they make her dress in a skintight leotard to test her powers.
28	* MilitarySuperhero: Kim Jeong was part of a North Korean supersoldier program before she defected, only to be co-opted by the South Koran military as a supersoldier of their own, with her white bodysuit and red cape being used as propaganda for the war effort.
29	* TheMole: The South Korean government's interrogator is revealed to be a North Korean spy, injecting himself with Omega Serum and giving Kim Jeong the SadisticChoice of killing the 707th's troops--to whom she just spilled North Korea's military secrets--or having her arms and legs chopped off and being taken back in a suitcase. Jeong decides to TakeAThirdOption and triggers the bunker's countermeasures to incapacitate the interrogator long enough for the serum to wear off, with Captain Park summarily executing him for treason.
30	* MonstrousHumanoid:
31	** Lieutenant Dalgyal of the North Korean Metahuman Special Forces is a metahuman supersoldier who looks like an alien out of ''Anime/DragonBallZ''--with pointed ears, no nose, no hair at all, and a third eye on his forehead.
32	** One of the metahuman supersoldiers who debuts in Issue #4 can [[spoiler:transform into an amphibious humanoid monster with a tail, a feline face, and needle-sharp fangs... and has a taste for human flesh to go with it]].
33	* MoodSwinger: Director Cho goes from furiously berating Captain Park for disobeying her orders to keep Kim Jeong's existence a secret to smirking while noting that once the South Korean President gets over his fury that the 707th tried to keep Jeong a secret he was thrilled that South Korea finally has a superhero of its very own, before snapping at him to not screw up again.
34	* MultinationalTeam: In Chapter 5, Director Cho assigns PFC Park Seong and SPC Ozawa--the former an American of Korean descent and the latter third-generation Hawaiian of Japanese descent--to work with the team.
35	* MySensorsIndicateYouWantToTapThat: When Park Seong and Ozawa dress her in a skintight leotard to test the limits of her powers, Jeong calls them perverts and lies her powers will let her know if they're ogling her by sensing the flow of their blood to ''any'' part of their body.
36	* NotQuiteDead: Jeong believes her twin brother Pak to be dead as a result of General Hyun's horrific experiments to replicate and weaponize their powers, but it's revealed that he's still alive... barely, having been reduced to a seemingly-comatose dessicated husk with PrematurelyGreyHaired suspended in a vitrine.
37	* PoliticallyIncorrectHero:
38	** Kim Jeong is initially prejudiced against Americans due to North Korean propaganda, though Kumiho assures her that she has nothing to be afraid of.
39	** Park Seong's nickname, the Kimchi Cowboy, was given to him by American troops stationed in South Korea. Kumiho notes that it's more than a little racist, but Park doesn't mind.
40	** After learning that Park Seong has taken Kim Jeong on a sightseeing tour of Seoul, Captain Park is horrified and berates Kumiho for playing cupid before going into overprotective surrogate dad mode, saying American men [[AllMenArePerverts only have one thing on their minds]].
41	* PowerAtAPrice: Kim Jeong's powers work by altering her personal flow of time to give her superhuman strength, speed, and durability... though overusing it comes at the cost of a backlash effect that leaves her effectively frozen in time from anywhere for a few hours to potentially years.
42	* SensualSpandex: When Park Seong and Ozawa have her dress in a skintight white leotard, Kim Jeong complains about how skintight it is, calls them perverts, and says her powers will let her know if they're getting any "strange ideas". Later, when her measurements are being taken for her White Heron costume, she complains about how form-fitting it's going to be and the tailor remarks that any loose fabric would risk a WardrobeMalfunction, but adds a cape to somewhat preserve her modesty.
43	* ShipperOnDeck: Kumiho quickly notices that Park Seong and Kim Jeong are crushing on each other and goes out of her way to pair them off by suggesting Seong take Jeong on a tour of Seoul, calling herself "Cupid with a .50 caliber arrow". When Captain Park finds out, he's less than amused and acts like an overprotective dad whose teenaged daughter has snuck out on a date.
44	* SuperSerum: General Hyun vivisected Kim Jeong's brother, Kim Pak, to produce the Omega Serum--which temporarily gives those injected with it similar time-warping abilities to the siblings.
45	* SuperSoldier: Kim Jeong and her brother Kim Pak were inducted into the North Korean Metahuman Special Forces under General Hyun alongside Lieutenant Warthog, Lieutenant Dalgyal, and others.
46	* SuperSpeed: Kim Jeong's time-bubble powers let her run fast enough to move horizontally on walls and even run on water.
47	* SuperStrength: Kim Jeong's time-bubble powers let her life massive weights single-handedly with barely any effort.
48	* YouFightLikeACow: While sparring with Kim Jeong, Captain Park does ''not'' hold back when criticizing her fighting technique... or lack thereof.
49	--> '''Captain Park:''' ''Sloppy!'' Is ''that'' how they train soldiers in the DPRK? I can see how that ''fat old man'' almost ''beat'' you! You ''broadcast'' your every move, you're ''too reliant'' on your super speed.

Context Webcomic / WhiteHeron