Line #22 Webcomic/RobertRankinsEmpires


1	''Robert Rankin's Empires'' (first page found [[http://beyondrealitymedia.com/robert-rankin-s-empires/issue-1/page-1/ here]] [[note]]Due to the host website's design, there is no automatic link to the current page.[[/note]]) is a pulp ScienceFiction webcomic by (you guessed it) Creator/RobertRankin. Like most of his work, it relies heavily on MindScrew and strange elements to drive the plot.
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3	Said plot is centered around tales of a masked vigilante named Lady Raygun, on a quest to defeat the enemies of the glorious interstellar British Empire, almost all of whom share the name Jack. The one non-villainous Jack is a young servant, and the whole story is presented as [[FramingDevice this Jack's grandson sharing the stories his grandfather used to tell]]. Naturally, it only gets stranger from there.
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6	!!This webcomic provides examples of:
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8	* ActionGirl: Lady Raygun, as the equivalent of a super heroine.
9	* AlternateHistory: One based loosely on the events of ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' actually happening, and the British Empire becoming an interstellar power as a result.
10	* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:Spring-Heeled Jack, saving Lady Raygun and the Venusian ambassador from One-Eyed Jack's magic.]]
11	* BreakingTheFourthWall: Lampshaded by name, as this is apparently bad form for a story according to Dawkins.
12	* BrownNote: Whatever Lady Raygun's real face looks like, it's enough to drive Jack [=McMad=] insane.
13	* ForcedTransformation: Dawkins gets turned into a chicken briefly. [[spoiler:This was a test run, as the crux of One-Eyed Jack's EvilPlan was to turn all of Parliament into chickens so he alone could rule with his dark magic. He succeeds...and they don't get turned back after he is beaten.]]
14	* GroinAttack: Lady Raygun demonstrates that it's ''really'' nasty to do this when you wear heels.
15	* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Lady Raygun]], prior to the story's start. See TheMole.
16	* UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper: Yeah, he's one of the villainous Jacks (the first one to be defeated, in fact).
17	* KickChick: If she isn't using a raygun, this is what Lady Raygun is doing.
18	* LongLostRelative: Spring-Heeled Jack certainly seems to think that Lady Raygun [[spoiler:is his sister]]. Unfortunately for him, she pulls a StealthHiBye before he can finish his sentence.
19	* MagicSkirt: Lady Raygun wears a fairly short one, but readers never get to see anything. However, within the comic itself...
20	* MaleGaze:
21	** When Lady Raygun [[spoiler:is banished to the dimension of Phelamanga]], a little male...creature gets to look [[PantyShot directly up her skirt]], and goes wide-eyed as a result.
22	** The servant Jack also quite enjoys watching Lady Raygun kick [[spoiler:One-Eyed Jack]] around brutally, mainly because she has said short skirt.
23	* MeaningfulName: Lady Raygun does prefer [[RayGun a certain type of weapon]], of course.
24	* TheMole: [[spoiler:Lady Raygun herself was specifically raised and reshaped (through experimentation) to serve as this. She fled to Earth, switching sides in the process.]]
25	* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Lady Raygun [[spoiler:after being freed from Phelmanga]] delivers a nasty one [[spoiler:to One-Eyed Jack]].
26	* OneSteveLimit: Averted from the get-go. In fact, it causes the servant Jack much anguish, knowing that the name is often associated with villainy.
27	* SecretKeeper: As it turns out, [[spoiler:the servant Jack knew all along that Lady Raygun's civilian identity was the upstairs maid he worked with]].
28	* ShoutOut: One block of narration is a paraphrase of the opening lyric from Edwin Starr's [[WarIsHell "War"]].
29	* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: The servant Jack is only ten years old when these events take place, and yet MaleGaze (see above) is in full effect for him.
30	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Heavily lampshaded, as the servant Jack specifically left out quite a few details when telling the story, only to get called out on it by his grandson.
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Context Webcomic / RobertRankinsEmpires