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trope is renamed Prefers Going Barefoot. Dewicking old name
Deleted line(s) 33 (click to see context) :
* DoesNotLikeShoes: Boo's species is always seen barefoot, probably because it affords them increased utility from the opposable toe.
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Corrupt Hick has been cut per this TRS tread:[1]
Appropriate examples are moved to Small Town Tyrant
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* CorruptHick: Benjamin Hickory, the owner of the copper mine, is clearly accustomed to throwing his weight around with the mayor and sheriff to get special treatment. When Clara makes it clear she's not going to give, he tries to go over her head.
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* SmallTownTyrant: Benjamin Hickory, the owner of the copper mine, is clearly accustomed to throwing his weight around with the mayor and sheriff to get special treatment. When Clara makes it clear she's not going to give, he tries to go over her head.
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None
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* KnifeNut: Zolo often menaces with his curved knife. Oddly, the void in its design looks like it would never be able to slide in and out of the matching scabbard.
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* PsychoKnifeNut: Zolo often menaces with his curved knife. Oddly, the void in its design looks like it would never be able to slide in and out of the matching scabbard.
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None
Changed line(s) 9 (click to see context) from:
* ActionMom: Clara Bronson's son Zeke is a major factor in her decisionmaking, both before and during her tenure in Copperhead.
to:
* ActionMom: Clara Bronson's son Zeke is a major factor in her decisionmaking, both before and during her tenure in Copperhead. [[spoiler: Though biologically, Clara is Zeke's Aunt]].
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* HappilyAdopted: [[spoiler: Clara and Zeke are actually aunt and nephew, but latter was an infant and wasn't told about the truth.]]
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* MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler: For Clara, she shot her own sister to save one of the two truck drivers and taking her infant nephew, Zeke, as her own child]].
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None
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/copperhead.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:There's a new sheriff in town.]]
The planet Jasper is a remote outpost bordering human and alien civilizations, and the mining town of Copperhead is on its back end. The frontier town is populated by those who couldn't live anywhere else: mostly loners, rejects, criminals, and a healthy number of alien species. And Sheriff Clara Bronson has just arrived.
Copperhead is a SpaceWestern created by writer Jay Faerber and artist Scott Godlewski. It is an ongoing series by Image Comics launched in 2015 to critical and commercial praise. The series focuses on Sheriff Bronson and her deputy Boo navigating the complex racial, political, and criminal networks of the town in classic Western fashion.
----
!!This work provides examples of:
* ActionMom: Clara Bronson's son Zeke is a major factor in her decisionmaking, both before and during her tenure in Copperhead.
* TheAlcoholic: Horrifyingly, the best way to find the town doctor is to check the local bar for the drunkest man.
* AlienBlood: Whatever species the Sewells are, they bleed green.
* AnimalStampede: Zolo sends a herd of trectorras running at the posse to hold them off his tail.
* ArtificialHuman: They were manufactured during the war as killing-machine foot soldiers. After the war they were granted full legal rights as people. Many, including Clara, distrust them since they were literally built for violent ends.
* BadGuyBar: There's one in Bastion that appears to host a constant, low-intensity barfight.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished:
** Averted. Bronson gets banged up several times, and takes a particularly bloody beating during a fistfight with an assassin in issue #14.
** Averted again immediately after said assassin is killed, when Clara, still bleeding, gets accosted by Clay and Martineau. In the ensuing scuffle, Clara busts open Martineau's nose as they duke it out.
* BigDamnHeroes: Bronson and her posse arrive in the nick of time to resolve Budroxifinicus' standoff with Zolo.
* BulletproofVest: Clara wears the same one her predecessor died in. From a gunshot.
* ByTheLightsOfTheirEyes: Used to reveal the Natives in the Badlands immediately before they attack, probably a low-level glow effect.
* CategoryTraitor: Brex considers Boo one. The war matched their species versus humans; the humans won, and now Boo works for them.
* CleanUpTheTown: Clara's objective on arrival. Copperhead isn't exactly a WretchedHive but it is corrupt and frequently targeted by criminals operating out of the Bastion as well as Natives.
* ClonesArePeopleToo: Ishmael is an outlier among the town's artificial humans: he doesn't like working for a boss, living near other people, or warfare (though combat's ok). Bronson attempts a diagnostic of some kind to determine if he's "gone bad" when she first meets him, but the scarring over his eye makes it inconclusive.
* ColdSniper: Stoic Ishmael certainly appears to be one. Another artifical human states that they're superior soldiers because they don't let emotions get in the way of the objectives.
* CompanyTown: Everyone in town either works for Hickory's mine or works for those employees.
* CorruptHick: Benjamin Hickory, the owner of the copper mine, is clearly accustomed to throwing his weight around with the mayor and sheriff to get special treatment. When Clara makes it clear she's not going to give, he tries to go over her head.
* CreepySouvenir: Ishmael has a necklace of what look like teeth. What species they're from is unclear.
* {{Cyclops}}: The Sewells have only one eye in the middle of their foreheads.
* DamselInDistress: Martineau is kidnapped by Clay to aid his escape from prison.
* DeadlyRoadTrip: Villain version in Zolo's gang. They capture Boo and attack Bronson as well, but after she fights them off the gang retreats. She and her posse pursue them across the rough terrain as they desperately try to reach Bastion before [[DwindlingParty they're all killed off.]]
* DeathByFallingOver: Gus' fate after Bronson knocks him down the stairs in Thaddeus' house.
* DeepSouth: The Sewells are repping: large family with a self-sufficient farmhouse in the middle of nowhwere prone to fistfights and hostile to authority, outsiders, and authoritarian outsiders.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: Clara and Ma Sewell immediately descend into a fistfight on their first meeting. Clara manages to cuff her and throws her in jail for the night. [[spoiler:As a result Ma survives the Sewell massacre. She's grudgingly impressed by Clara and Boo's work tracking down the killers.]] Clara and Ma bury the hatchet and Ma starts babysitting Zeke.
* DoesNotLikeShoes: Boo's species is always seen barefoot, probably because it affords them increased utility from the opposable toe.
* DomesticAbuse: Clara's first call out is to one at the Sewell home, where Pa is roughing up one of the kids.
* TheDreaded: Ishmael is able to live outside town only because the Natives are too terrified of him to attack. When they finally do he lives up to his reputation.
* DueToTheDead: Inverted with artificial humans, who specifically request no acknowledgement or ritual to one of their own who dies. It's probably an outgrowth of [[TheStoic their shared nature.]]
* DwindlingParty: Villanous version in Zolo's gang after they kidnap Boo. One by one they are killed either by the pursuing posse or Boo himself until Zolo's last stand.
* EmbarrassingNickname: Zeke trips over Budroxifinicus' name and Clara immediately dubs him Boo. He doesn't care for it.
* EvilSmellsBad: The whole planet of Jasper smells like rotten eggs to Clara and Zeke on arrival.
* TheExile: After running up enormous gambling debts [[spoiler:and being disowned by his family]], Floyd Sewell is kicked out of town. The only place he can safely go is the anarchic Bastion.
* ExtraEyes: Natives have five symmetrical sliver-shaped eyes.
* FakedKidnapping: Clay takes Martineau as a human shield against the guards to aid his escape from prison; turns out she's a willing participant.
* FantasticRacism: Boo claims his people aren't allowed responsibility over humans due to the recent war between the species.
* FantasticSlurs: "Artie" for artificial humans.
* FashionableAsymmetry: Brexinfoyle wears only one shoulderpad and arm guard to protect his dominant arm in combat.
* FlyingCar: Everyone in town uses them. Major transportation is by magnetic levitation train. Handwaved that using levitation technology is somehow cheaper and faster than trying to build and maintain roads.
* FrontierDoctor: Given Copperhead's species diversity, the town doc Levi Mosley is either incredibly competent or heavily assisted by high tech. He's also [[TheAlcoholic the town drunk]].
* TheGamblingAddict: Floyd lost everything gambling in town. Then he lost everything gambling outside town. While he's a persona non grata due to his debts, he's an OK guy otherwise: he is genuinely hurt when [[spoiler:his mother disowns him]] and he assists Bronson immediately when he encounters her undercover.
* HandyFeet: Budroxifinicus' species has three large toes on each foot, one opposable.
* TheHermit: Ishmael lives outside town largely because he's sick of the FantasticRacism against artificial humans and doesn't want to work for Hickory.
* HeroicSacrifice: An artificial human leaps down to push Cletus clear of the stampede and is immediately crushed to death. His motives are unexamined but could range from selflessness (protect the teenager) to cold logic (protect the hostler).
* HighAltitudeInterrogation: Employed by Boo while hunting down Floyd.
* HollywoodLaw: Hickory calls Clara to recapture his stolen blueprints. Bronson catches the suspect after a high-speed chase, but Hickory claims he's not pressing charges and the suspect goes free. While Copperhead may not be under American jurisprudence, at minimum the fleeing suspect resisted arrest and assaulted an arresting officer. These are crimes that Hickory cannot legally dismiss and that should allow Clara to arrest him.
* HonorBeforeReason:
** The guards at Clay's prison know that human shield Martineau acknowledged her life would not be protected when she entered the prison, and that Clay is a dangerous felon who will escape and likely do harm to many people if they do not shoot him. Nonetheless they allow him to escape to protect her.
** Zolo promised their father that he would protect his brother Nestor. He continues to rescue Nestor from himself despite it costing Zolo substantial capital with his own gang over several years. The gang is obviously sick of it and Zolo knows Nestor is a lost cause but a promise is a promise.
* HumanShield: Clay uses his interviewer Martineau as one to escape prison. The guards yield despite her having signed off her right to protection in order to enter the prison in the first place for ''exactly this reason.''
* HumanoidAliens: A number of Copperhead's residents are depicted as these, usually in the background. Of them Budroxifinicus gets the most screen time.
* HypercompetentSidekick: Boo certainly thinks of himself as such, having served as interim sheriff before Clara arrived.
* IHaveNoSon: After his selfish actions result in his family being murdered, [[spoiler:Floyd]] is ejected from his family with this line.
* IShallTauntYou: Part of Budroxifinicus's ploy to get free of Zolo's gang is insulting Brexinfoyle into assault that gives him an escape opening.
* TheInfiltration: Bronson launches a very brief one into the Bastion brothel to snag Nestor while he's separated from the gang.
* InterruptedIntimacy: Clara can't turn off her danger-sense even in the middle of sex with her date. Good thing too, because otherwise they'd have been caught and killed by Zolo's gang.
* KnifeNut: Zolo often menaces with his curved knife. Oddly, the void in its design looks like it would never be able to slide in and out of the matching scabbard.
* LivingCrashpad: Budroxifinicus uses Brexinfoyle as one when he bails out the back of the car in an escape attempt.
* LocalHangout: Drinking at the Copper Top bar is one of the few things to do in town.
* LoopholeAbuse: The Natives attack a house outside town and massacre everyone inside - but because the house was outside the city limit it doesn't violate the treaty and there are no repercussions.
* MeaningfulEcho: When Zeke complains about Clara being assigned to Copperhead, she says that people need their help. When Clara asks why Zeke left the house, he responds that Annie needed help.
* MistakenForProstitute: Played intentionally by Bronson in the Bastion brothel to get close to Nestor.
* MrExposition: Thaddeus Luken, local schoolteacher, is more than happy to lecture on any subject that seems relevant.
* MultiArmedAndDangerous: Sewells' species has four well-developed arms that give them an extraordinary advantage in any fistfight.
* NeckSnap:
** Budroxifinicus manages to kill Josiah like this when he gets his hands free while held captive by Zolo's gang.
** How Clara kills [[spoiler:Martineau.]]
* NonActionGuy: Thaddeus Luken is completely useless when criminals break into Clara's home.
* NotAfraidToDie: Hickory's artificial human guards claim they have no emotions, only the objective.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: The Mayor's receptionist is a professional dedicated to preventing anyone from meeting the mayor. According to her his schedule is always impossibly crowded and any meeting that makes it to the calendar is subject to abrupt cancellation due to last-minute travel or simple double-booking.
* OrganicTechnology: There is a root growing down from the ceiling in Budroxifinicus' house that forms a hanging chair and chandelier.
* OutlawTown: The Bastion is an outlaw fortress settlement that seems to follow only two rules: anarchy and kill all the cops.
* {{Posse}}: Played very straight when Bronson goes to rescue her captured deputy. Members include the town badass, a couple of hired guns on loan, and a local kid who's providing the steeds.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: Clara was assigned to Copperhead due to "not having a lot of options". Her superior claims she was a suspect in a murder of a corrupt politician, but he might just have been intimidating Hickory.
* RubberForeheadAliens: Copperhead is home to an extraordinary variety of nonhumans. Some species like Thaddeus are identifiable by skin color, or unusual ears.
* TheSavageIndian: The Natives are borderline StarfishAliens who murder anyone caught outside town after dark. No form of communication is available in town though there is apparently a peace treaty that stops them from slaughtering everyone in broad daylight.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Possibly Ishmael, given his physical scars and experience with warfare.
* TheSheriff: Clara Bronson, new sheriff in town. Boo was acting sheriff for a time after the last one was killed in the line of duty.
* ShippedInShackles: After Budroxifinicus' breakout attempt Zolo's gang wraps him in chains and gives him tighter seating.
* ShootTheHostage: [[spoiler:Gang leader Zolo]] goes for this when his sibling is held to compel him to stand down.
* SociopathicSoldier: The artificial humans straddle types 2 and 3.
** Hickory's guards make reference to how combat feels good to them since they've been genetically programmed for it; this sounds like the Psychopath.
** On the other hand they're intellectually aware these emotions were created to serve the ends of their superior officers. They don't really like being cannon fodder in a war never for their own benefit, like the Unwilling Conscript.
* ShutUpGunshot: Clara tries one on arrival at the Sewells' domestic abuse call. It doesn't work.
* SpaceWestern: Frontier town? One employer for everyone? Hardnosed lawbringer? Space cattle? Corrupt local government? Limited access to the larger world? Violent natives just outside town? Checks all around.
* SpikesOfVillainy: Criminal Brexinfoyle wears a spiked shoulderpad and arm guard.
* StaircaseTumble: Bronson knocks Gus down a one-story flight in Thaddeus' house, breaking Gus' neck.
* StarfishLanguage: The Natives' speech occurs in scribbled runes that don't even get speech bubbles.
* TheStoic: All artificial humans seem to be this. Most of them count it as a combat advantage.
* SurveillanceDrone: Boo has one he uses to survey crime scenes with digital mapping.
* TalkingYourWayOut: Attempted by Budroxifinicus when he's captured by Zolo's gang, primarily by agitating Brexinfoyle into a physical fight that could break him free. [[spoiler:It does work briefly.]]
* TooDumbToLive: Nestor believes he's the smartest person in the room, but his plans are always the straightest, dumbest way to pick a fight.
* TropeyComeHome: Zeke meets Annie when she's out looking for her dog Hugo in the badlands. Clara finds Hugo at the end of the first arc for one of her few actual successes.
* UndercoverCopReveal: After Bronson grabs Nestor's attention in the Bastion brothel she immediately pulls her gun and takes him hostage.
* TheUnpronounceable: Clara and Zeke find Budroxifinicus unpalatable, though no one else seems to mind it.
* VillainousValour:
** Depite Budroxifinicus' escape attempt that resulted in injury to Brexinfoyle, the latter refuses to take it personally and offers a painless end to Boo when it's time to execute him.
--> '''Brex:''' I take no pleasure in this. You cooperate, I'll make sure it's over quick.
** Zolo fearlessly faces down the posse sent to kill him knowing he'll only get one shot off. [[spoiler:He spends it on his brother, ensuring Nestor won't suffer the justice system.]]
* WoundedGazelleGambit: Boo is flagged down by a citizen while on patrol. When he gets out to inspect an injured man, several people (including the bait man) pull guns on him.
* WretchedHive: The Bastion, the only town farther south than Coppertop. It's inhabited exclusively by criminals in no semblance of order.
* ZerothLawRebellion: Boo has been acting sheriff for some time, so Clara asks that he not undermine her authority in front of the citizens to earn their respect. On their first call she gets into a fistfight and calls for backup, but Boo refuses to respond.
--> '''Boo:''' Didn't want to undermine your authority.
----
[[caption-width-right:350:There's a new sheriff in town.]]
The planet Jasper is a remote outpost bordering human and alien civilizations, and the mining town of Copperhead is on its back end. The frontier town is populated by those who couldn't live anywhere else: mostly loners, rejects, criminals, and a healthy number of alien species. And Sheriff Clara Bronson has just arrived.
Copperhead is a SpaceWestern created by writer Jay Faerber and artist Scott Godlewski. It is an ongoing series by Image Comics launched in 2015 to critical and commercial praise. The series focuses on Sheriff Bronson and her deputy Boo navigating the complex racial, political, and criminal networks of the town in classic Western fashion.
----
!!This work provides examples of:
* ActionMom: Clara Bronson's son Zeke is a major factor in her decisionmaking, both before and during her tenure in Copperhead.
* TheAlcoholic: Horrifyingly, the best way to find the town doctor is to check the local bar for the drunkest man.
* AlienBlood: Whatever species the Sewells are, they bleed green.
* AnimalStampede: Zolo sends a herd of trectorras running at the posse to hold them off his tail.
* ArtificialHuman: They were manufactured during the war as killing-machine foot soldiers. After the war they were granted full legal rights as people. Many, including Clara, distrust them since they were literally built for violent ends.
* BadGuyBar: There's one in Bastion that appears to host a constant, low-intensity barfight.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished:
** Averted. Bronson gets banged up several times, and takes a particularly bloody beating during a fistfight with an assassin in issue #14.
** Averted again immediately after said assassin is killed, when Clara, still bleeding, gets accosted by Clay and Martineau. In the ensuing scuffle, Clara busts open Martineau's nose as they duke it out.
* BigDamnHeroes: Bronson and her posse arrive in the nick of time to resolve Budroxifinicus' standoff with Zolo.
* BulletproofVest: Clara wears the same one her predecessor died in. From a gunshot.
* ByTheLightsOfTheirEyes: Used to reveal the Natives in the Badlands immediately before they attack, probably a low-level glow effect.
* CategoryTraitor: Brex considers Boo one. The war matched their species versus humans; the humans won, and now Boo works for them.
* CleanUpTheTown: Clara's objective on arrival. Copperhead isn't exactly a WretchedHive but it is corrupt and frequently targeted by criminals operating out of the Bastion as well as Natives.
* ClonesArePeopleToo: Ishmael is an outlier among the town's artificial humans: he doesn't like working for a boss, living near other people, or warfare (though combat's ok). Bronson attempts a diagnostic of some kind to determine if he's "gone bad" when she first meets him, but the scarring over his eye makes it inconclusive.
* ColdSniper: Stoic Ishmael certainly appears to be one. Another artifical human states that they're superior soldiers because they don't let emotions get in the way of the objectives.
* CompanyTown: Everyone in town either works for Hickory's mine or works for those employees.
* CorruptHick: Benjamin Hickory, the owner of the copper mine, is clearly accustomed to throwing his weight around with the mayor and sheriff to get special treatment. When Clara makes it clear she's not going to give, he tries to go over her head.
* CreepySouvenir: Ishmael has a necklace of what look like teeth. What species they're from is unclear.
* {{Cyclops}}: The Sewells have only one eye in the middle of their foreheads.
* DamselInDistress: Martineau is kidnapped by Clay to aid his escape from prison.
* DeadlyRoadTrip: Villain version in Zolo's gang. They capture Boo and attack Bronson as well, but after she fights them off the gang retreats. She and her posse pursue them across the rough terrain as they desperately try to reach Bastion before [[DwindlingParty they're all killed off.]]
* DeathByFallingOver: Gus' fate after Bronson knocks him down the stairs in Thaddeus' house.
* DeepSouth: The Sewells are repping: large family with a self-sufficient farmhouse in the middle of nowhwere prone to fistfights and hostile to authority, outsiders, and authoritarian outsiders.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: Clara and Ma Sewell immediately descend into a fistfight on their first meeting. Clara manages to cuff her and throws her in jail for the night. [[spoiler:As a result Ma survives the Sewell massacre. She's grudgingly impressed by Clara and Boo's work tracking down the killers.]] Clara and Ma bury the hatchet and Ma starts babysitting Zeke.
* DoesNotLikeShoes: Boo's species is always seen barefoot, probably because it affords them increased utility from the opposable toe.
* DomesticAbuse: Clara's first call out is to one at the Sewell home, where Pa is roughing up one of the kids.
* TheDreaded: Ishmael is able to live outside town only because the Natives are too terrified of him to attack. When they finally do he lives up to his reputation.
* DueToTheDead: Inverted with artificial humans, who specifically request no acknowledgement or ritual to one of their own who dies. It's probably an outgrowth of [[TheStoic their shared nature.]]
* DwindlingParty: Villanous version in Zolo's gang after they kidnap Boo. One by one they are killed either by the pursuing posse or Boo himself until Zolo's last stand.
* EmbarrassingNickname: Zeke trips over Budroxifinicus' name and Clara immediately dubs him Boo. He doesn't care for it.
* EvilSmellsBad: The whole planet of Jasper smells like rotten eggs to Clara and Zeke on arrival.
* TheExile: After running up enormous gambling debts [[spoiler:and being disowned by his family]], Floyd Sewell is kicked out of town. The only place he can safely go is the anarchic Bastion.
* ExtraEyes: Natives have five symmetrical sliver-shaped eyes.
* FakedKidnapping: Clay takes Martineau as a human shield against the guards to aid his escape from prison; turns out she's a willing participant.
* FantasticRacism: Boo claims his people aren't allowed responsibility over humans due to the recent war between the species.
* FantasticSlurs: "Artie" for artificial humans.
* FashionableAsymmetry: Brexinfoyle wears only one shoulderpad and arm guard to protect his dominant arm in combat.
* FlyingCar: Everyone in town uses them. Major transportation is by magnetic levitation train. Handwaved that using levitation technology is somehow cheaper and faster than trying to build and maintain roads.
* FrontierDoctor: Given Copperhead's species diversity, the town doc Levi Mosley is either incredibly competent or heavily assisted by high tech. He's also [[TheAlcoholic the town drunk]].
* TheGamblingAddict: Floyd lost everything gambling in town. Then he lost everything gambling outside town. While he's a persona non grata due to his debts, he's an OK guy otherwise: he is genuinely hurt when [[spoiler:his mother disowns him]] and he assists Bronson immediately when he encounters her undercover.
* HandyFeet: Budroxifinicus' species has three large toes on each foot, one opposable.
* TheHermit: Ishmael lives outside town largely because he's sick of the FantasticRacism against artificial humans and doesn't want to work for Hickory.
* HeroicSacrifice: An artificial human leaps down to push Cletus clear of the stampede and is immediately crushed to death. His motives are unexamined but could range from selflessness (protect the teenager) to cold logic (protect the hostler).
* HighAltitudeInterrogation: Employed by Boo while hunting down Floyd.
* HollywoodLaw: Hickory calls Clara to recapture his stolen blueprints. Bronson catches the suspect after a high-speed chase, but Hickory claims he's not pressing charges and the suspect goes free. While Copperhead may not be under American jurisprudence, at minimum the fleeing suspect resisted arrest and assaulted an arresting officer. These are crimes that Hickory cannot legally dismiss and that should allow Clara to arrest him.
* HonorBeforeReason:
** The guards at Clay's prison know that human shield Martineau acknowledged her life would not be protected when she entered the prison, and that Clay is a dangerous felon who will escape and likely do harm to many people if they do not shoot him. Nonetheless they allow him to escape to protect her.
** Zolo promised their father that he would protect his brother Nestor. He continues to rescue Nestor from himself despite it costing Zolo substantial capital with his own gang over several years. The gang is obviously sick of it and Zolo knows Nestor is a lost cause but a promise is a promise.
* HumanShield: Clay uses his interviewer Martineau as one to escape prison. The guards yield despite her having signed off her right to protection in order to enter the prison in the first place for ''exactly this reason.''
* HumanoidAliens: A number of Copperhead's residents are depicted as these, usually in the background. Of them Budroxifinicus gets the most screen time.
* HypercompetentSidekick: Boo certainly thinks of himself as such, having served as interim sheriff before Clara arrived.
* IHaveNoSon: After his selfish actions result in his family being murdered, [[spoiler:Floyd]] is ejected from his family with this line.
* IShallTauntYou: Part of Budroxifinicus's ploy to get free of Zolo's gang is insulting Brexinfoyle into assault that gives him an escape opening.
* TheInfiltration: Bronson launches a very brief one into the Bastion brothel to snag Nestor while he's separated from the gang.
* InterruptedIntimacy: Clara can't turn off her danger-sense even in the middle of sex with her date. Good thing too, because otherwise they'd have been caught and killed by Zolo's gang.
* KnifeNut: Zolo often menaces with his curved knife. Oddly, the void in its design looks like it would never be able to slide in and out of the matching scabbard.
* LivingCrashpad: Budroxifinicus uses Brexinfoyle as one when he bails out the back of the car in an escape attempt.
* LocalHangout: Drinking at the Copper Top bar is one of the few things to do in town.
* LoopholeAbuse: The Natives attack a house outside town and massacre everyone inside - but because the house was outside the city limit it doesn't violate the treaty and there are no repercussions.
* MeaningfulEcho: When Zeke complains about Clara being assigned to Copperhead, she says that people need their help. When Clara asks why Zeke left the house, he responds that Annie needed help.
* MistakenForProstitute: Played intentionally by Bronson in the Bastion brothel to get close to Nestor.
* MrExposition: Thaddeus Luken, local schoolteacher, is more than happy to lecture on any subject that seems relevant.
* MultiArmedAndDangerous: Sewells' species has four well-developed arms that give them an extraordinary advantage in any fistfight.
* NeckSnap:
** Budroxifinicus manages to kill Josiah like this when he gets his hands free while held captive by Zolo's gang.
** How Clara kills [[spoiler:Martineau.]]
* NonActionGuy: Thaddeus Luken is completely useless when criminals break into Clara's home.
* NotAfraidToDie: Hickory's artificial human guards claim they have no emotions, only the objective.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: The Mayor's receptionist is a professional dedicated to preventing anyone from meeting the mayor. According to her his schedule is always impossibly crowded and any meeting that makes it to the calendar is subject to abrupt cancellation due to last-minute travel or simple double-booking.
* OrganicTechnology: There is a root growing down from the ceiling in Budroxifinicus' house that forms a hanging chair and chandelier.
* OutlawTown: The Bastion is an outlaw fortress settlement that seems to follow only two rules: anarchy and kill all the cops.
* {{Posse}}: Played very straight when Bronson goes to rescue her captured deputy. Members include the town badass, a couple of hired guns on loan, and a local kid who's providing the steeds.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: Clara was assigned to Copperhead due to "not having a lot of options". Her superior claims she was a suspect in a murder of a corrupt politician, but he might just have been intimidating Hickory.
* RubberForeheadAliens: Copperhead is home to an extraordinary variety of nonhumans. Some species like Thaddeus are identifiable by skin color, or unusual ears.
* TheSavageIndian: The Natives are borderline StarfishAliens who murder anyone caught outside town after dark. No form of communication is available in town though there is apparently a peace treaty that stops them from slaughtering everyone in broad daylight.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Possibly Ishmael, given his physical scars and experience with warfare.
* TheSheriff: Clara Bronson, new sheriff in town. Boo was acting sheriff for a time after the last one was killed in the line of duty.
* ShippedInShackles: After Budroxifinicus' breakout attempt Zolo's gang wraps him in chains and gives him tighter seating.
* ShootTheHostage: [[spoiler:Gang leader Zolo]] goes for this when his sibling is held to compel him to stand down.
* SociopathicSoldier: The artificial humans straddle types 2 and 3.
** Hickory's guards make reference to how combat feels good to them since they've been genetically programmed for it; this sounds like the Psychopath.
** On the other hand they're intellectually aware these emotions were created to serve the ends of their superior officers. They don't really like being cannon fodder in a war never for their own benefit, like the Unwilling Conscript.
* ShutUpGunshot: Clara tries one on arrival at the Sewells' domestic abuse call. It doesn't work.
* SpaceWestern: Frontier town? One employer for everyone? Hardnosed lawbringer? Space cattle? Corrupt local government? Limited access to the larger world? Violent natives just outside town? Checks all around.
* SpikesOfVillainy: Criminal Brexinfoyle wears a spiked shoulderpad and arm guard.
* StaircaseTumble: Bronson knocks Gus down a one-story flight in Thaddeus' house, breaking Gus' neck.
* StarfishLanguage: The Natives' speech occurs in scribbled runes that don't even get speech bubbles.
* TheStoic: All artificial humans seem to be this. Most of them count it as a combat advantage.
* SurveillanceDrone: Boo has one he uses to survey crime scenes with digital mapping.
* TalkingYourWayOut: Attempted by Budroxifinicus when he's captured by Zolo's gang, primarily by agitating Brexinfoyle into a physical fight that could break him free. [[spoiler:It does work briefly.]]
* TooDumbToLive: Nestor believes he's the smartest person in the room, but his plans are always the straightest, dumbest way to pick a fight.
* TropeyComeHome: Zeke meets Annie when she's out looking for her dog Hugo in the badlands. Clara finds Hugo at the end of the first arc for one of her few actual successes.
* UndercoverCopReveal: After Bronson grabs Nestor's attention in the Bastion brothel she immediately pulls her gun and takes him hostage.
* TheUnpronounceable: Clara and Zeke find Budroxifinicus unpalatable, though no one else seems to mind it.
* VillainousValour:
** Depite Budroxifinicus' escape attempt that resulted in injury to Brexinfoyle, the latter refuses to take it personally and offers a painless end to Boo when it's time to execute him.
--> '''Brex:''' I take no pleasure in this. You cooperate, I'll make sure it's over quick.
** Zolo fearlessly faces down the posse sent to kill him knowing he'll only get one shot off. [[spoiler:He spends it on his brother, ensuring Nestor won't suffer the justice system.]]
* WoundedGazelleGambit: Boo is flagged down by a citizen while on patrol. When he gets out to inspect an injured man, several people (including the bait man) pull guns on him.
* WretchedHive: The Bastion, the only town farther south than Coppertop. It's inhabited exclusively by criminals in no semblance of order.
* ZerothLawRebellion: Boo has been acting sheriff for some time, so Clara asks that he not undermine her authority in front of the citizens to earn their respect. On their first call she gets into a fistfight and calls for backup, but Boo refuses to respond.
--> '''Boo:''' Didn't want to undermine your authority.
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