Local Man is an ongoing series published by Image Comics, by Tim Seeley and Tom Fleecs.
Jack Xaver was once Crossjack, an upcoming hotshot superhero and newest recruit to superteam Third Gen. The biggest claim to fame of Farmington, Wisconsin, Crossjack had everything going for him.
Then it all came crashing down when he was caught in a scandal between himself, team leader Camo Crusader, and Camo Crusader's wife Neon. Legally barred from calling himself "Crossjack" and ever being a superhero again, Jack returns to his hometown a disgrace. Forced to move into his parents' basement, the only person willing to talk to him is his ex-girlfriend.
When someone murders his former archenemy Hodag, Jack tries to find the killer. He might not be able to call himself Crossjack anymore, but can Local Man save the day?
Local Man is a combination of extreme 90s superhero clichés blended together with urban horror, featuring back-up stories in every issue, modelled after classic Image titles like Youngblood (Image Comics) in the first arc with the second arc shifting the back ups to being modelled on classic Image romance comics.
Local Man provides examples of:
- Ambiguous Situation: Whether or not Inga was responsible for killing Jack's dad. He had a heart attack right after she gave him a muffin. Neon suspects she did it, and if she did, it makes Neon's threat of promising to tell Jack where she is if she misbehaves more devastating.
- Anti-Hero: Third Gen were classic examples stylized after many of Image's original superheroes such as Youngblood. The back-up feature in the first issue shows them indiscriminately battling a bunch of mooks and villains, but by the end Crossjack realizes he has no idea what the team was fighting for in the first place. The rest of Third Gen doesn't care, because they "won."
- Art Shift:
- The back-up sequences emulate the artwork of the original Image titles done by Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. Later stories also emulate Todd McFarlane and Greg Capullo's art.
- Local Man: Gold features each member of Jack's team-up drawn to resemble the style of the comics they originate from (Street Angel, Dynamo 5, Firebreather, etc.).
- Bad Liar: In Bad Girls, Inga tries to tell Neon that Jack was stalking her and has gone insane in regards to the recent events that drove her from Farmington. Neon bluntly tells Inga to cut the bullshit, as she knows Jack well enough that despite his flaws he's not that bad and he's definitely not capable of something so insane.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Softkore doesn't wear clothes, which gives a good look at how she has no nipples or vagina, a probable side effect of her body being coated in that experimental polymer.
- The Cameo: Bootleg from New Men has consistently made several cameos throughout the series, being name dropped on the back cover of issue 2, appearing in Local Man: Gold and in Bad Girls. It stands out because she's the only member of the New Men to appear at all rather than the entire group being mentioned.
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': The first issue features Jack fighting Hodag using a garbage can lid as a makeshift shield. Third Gen shows up that same night serving him papers, reminding him he was legally barred from using anything that could resemble a shield and from ever fighting crime again.
- Captain Ethnic: Big Aloha, a deliberately cringeworthy Hawaiian character who got superpowers when he fell into a volcano and received cybernetic implants from aliens.
- Cleavage Window:
- Neon has a huge star-shaped one in her cropped top.
- Minor character Burnout has a circular one in her T-shirt, with charred edges that make it look like it was made with her fire powers.
- Composite Character: The back-up in Local Man: Gold showcases members of Third Gen and their rogues gallery being combined with various public domain Golden Age characters. Crossjack and the Flame, Neon and Miss Masque, Camo Crusader and Black Terror, and Frightside with none other than Fantomah.
- Crisis Crossover:
- Local Man: Gold is an homage to the original Deathmate miniseries, featuring appearances of characters from other Image titles (including Seeley's own Cassie Hack and Vlad).
- The Bad Girls special has all the males of the world sent to another dimension leading to a team of superheroines including Witchblade, Velocity, Cyblade and Ballistic from Cyber Force, Racket from Shadow Hawk/The Others, Lovebunny from Lovebunny And Mr Hell, Supervision from Dynamo5, She-Dragon from Savage Dragon teaming up in the absence of the male heroes. Mr. Hell and Ripclaw have quick cameos when it is reversed.
- Cruel Mercy: At the end of Bad Girls, Neon decides to spare Inga's life but warns her that if she steps out of line, she won't kill her. Neon will tell Jack where she's hiding, and let him do it.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Neon's backstory involved her parents and everyone on their commune being killed when an ex-government agent deployed a substance from outer space onto the area. She gained powers from the exposure while everyone else slowly melted. Neon went on a rampage as "the neon demon," when Camo Crusader approached her. Having realized what awakened her powers, he gave her the name of the man responsible for what happened. She hunted him down and took sweet vengeance on him.
- Evil All Along: Inga is colluding with an organization that plans to mass market the stolen abilities of Fourth Gen to create disposable workers, and is part of the conspiracy involving the Aphek Engine.
- Godhood Seeker: Twisted around with. For all of Camo Crusader's unwavering faith in the word of God, he recognizes that he cannot fulfill a role similar to Jesus Christ. He instead planned to take on the role of Joseph as the "father of God," believing if Jack impregnated Neon he could raise their child to be the next savior. When Neon had an abortion, well, Camo didn't take it very well.
- Hated by All: Jack is not greeted warmly when he returns to Farmington. Save for Inga, her husband, and Hodag's mother Berenice, just about everyone has little to no patience with him. Even his own parents aren't too happy to have him back.
- Hero with an F in Good: Jack's biggest problem is that he is trying to be a better person, but there are still slip-ups here and there. Like the fact he's sleeping with Inga despite knowing she's married and her husband being one of the few people in Farmington willing to give him some benefit of the doubt.
- Heteronormative Crusader: Camo Crusader is a violent, militant-styled superhero who is a firm believer in Christianity and has something of a God Complex going on. The back-up feature in the fifth issue shows he did not approve of two members of Fourth Gen being in a same-sex relationship.
- Homage: Third Gen are a homage-cum-parody of 1990s superhero comics, especially early Image Comics.
- Humble Hero: Played with, as Jack is humble now after experiencing a major Break the Haughty moment. For the most part he's aware that the complaints against him are at least somewhat valid and is trying to be a better person.
- I Coulda Been a Contender!: The killer is revealed in the fifth issue to be a townie who managed to get teleporting abilities copied from a member of Fourth Gen. He gives a Motive Rant blaming Jack for how Farmington never became as popular as it should've been when he left, and plans to become a "real" hero by murdering more villains.
- I Hate Past Me: In Local Man Gold, Jack loathes his younger self Crossjack when they have to team up with several other displaced heroes. Crossjack represents everything Jack hates about himself, and the two end up coming to blows because he believes the younger version can never change.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Crossjack's power, much like his inspiration Shaft. It's implied in that Crossjack's ability to "never miss" goes into Psychic Powers territory: in issue 7 he throws a billiard ball while investigating a mystery, and it somehow lands directly on his next clue.
- It's All About Me: Camo Crusader's still livid about Neon's abortion because he thinks Jack cost him his one chance to get to be "father of God." Jack is still willing to call Camo out on this by reminding him it was Neon's choice due to it being her body.
- Jaded Washout: Jack Xaver went from superstar A-list hero Crossjack to a town pariah.
- Loser Protagonist: Jack was living the high life as a superhero until a public scandal ruined his name and he was sent packing to his home town. However, this is viewed as a much needed case of humbling him, with Jack realizing he was an insensitive asshole.
- Love Triangle: Everyone believes Jack was kicked out of Third Gen for being in one with Camo Crusader and Neon, but the truth is more complicated. Camo gave Jack his blessing to be with Neon because Camo's powers and invulnerability make him incapable of being sexually aroused and thus unable to satisfy Neon's needs. But that wasn't Camo's only reason for allowing the affair to happen...
- Maddened Into Misanthropy: The Local Girl back-up reveals Inga's desire to save Farmington ultimately broke when she began to realize the town couldn't be saved despite her best efforts, so she decided she would save herself from being dragged down with it.
- Mama Bear: Seascape was a water fae who personally killed The Sixth after the villain unleashed a "sex bomb" that vanished every biologically male individual on the Earth, specifically because it erased a group of small boys whom Seascape was fond of. She's later shown playing with some of the babies of the other heroines, indicating she's naturally protective of children.
- Misplaced Retribution: Camo Crusader directed all his anger over Neon's abortion at Jack, blaming him for it because he figures Jack "could've talked her out of it" if he cared.
- Older Than They Look: Compared to Jack and Inga, who have clearly visibly aged since Jack's first days as Crossjack, Neon barely looks any older than she did in the 90s.
- Only Friend: The only person willing to associate with Jack is his ex-girlfriend, Inga.
- Our Cryptids Are More Mysterious: Hodag is named after and his costume inspired by one of America's lesser-known cryptids, particularly associated with the state of Wisconsin.
- Our Fairies Are Different: Seascape is hinted at and revealed to be a water fae in Bad Girls, specifically a type of vila which explains why she rotted the way she did while being held in stasis for so long.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Seascape of Fourth Gen has turned into a water-based wraith after her death, manifesting in the bodies of water around Farmington as a rotted corpse. It's unclear if she actually did die and became a zombie, or this is some sort of half-functioning immortality that led to her body rotting without her dying for real.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Jack visits Hodag's grieving mother in the second issue, who bitterly talks about how Third Gen spent millions on monitoring equipment to keep watch on him instead of doing anything about the massive brain damage he received from Camo Crusader. Berenice openly thanks Jack for sleeping with Camo Crusader's wife Neon.
- Powers as Programs: The remaining members of Fourth Gen were kept in stasis so their abilities could be harnessed and transferred to other people as part of a conspiracy to create disposable, superpowered workers.
- Protagonist Journey to Villain: The Local Girl back-up feature starting in the sixth issue focuses on how Inga became immersed in the conspiracy with Camo Crusader and the Aphek Engine.
- Reused Character Design: According to backmatter in the first TPB, many of the character designs, including Crossjack, Neon and Camo Crusader, are based on sketches both Tim Seeley and Tom Fleecs did in the 1990s as teenage superhero comic readers.
- Sense Loss Sadness: Whatever process made Camo Crusader invulnerable, it also made it impossible to experience touch. He bemoans the fact that he can't get aroused by his wife Neon.
- The Reveal: The reason Jack was kicked out of Third Gen wasn't because he slept with Neon. Camo kicked him out because when Neon got pregnant, she decided to have an abortion. Jack got blamed for her choice, Camo arguing he could've talked Neon out of it.
- Stripperiffic:
- Neon's costume is incredibly revealing. Supposedly it's because her powers involve absorbing light through her skin to charge herself up, but it's really part of the whole '90s superhero comics homage.
- One of Hodag's villainous team-mates who makes a brief appearance has an even skimpier costume, apparently consisting of a continuous piece of black tape across her crotch, up one side of her torso, and then across her bosom.
- The Scapegoat: Played with. It's obvious that Jack's messed up a lot in the past, and is still making mistakes now, but other people seem just a bit too eager to blame him for things that weren't technically his fault. The Deliverance Killer blames him for Farmington never gaining more attention when the Fourth Gen facility shut down, despite that it's shown Camo Crusader's the one who terminated the project. And Camo Crusader blames Jack for Neon's abortion just because Jack didn't talk her out of it, rather than Neon herself for making the decision.
- Token Good Teammate: The more that's shown of Third Gen in the past and present shows, even with Jack's moral failings, he's still more likable than the rest of the team. Though Neon's revealed to have some Hidden Depths that make her moral standing a bit more complex.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Jack's father was always disappointed that a bow and arrow was the one weapon Jack couldn't properly utilize as a fighter.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Inga, as the back-up features in the second arc demonstrate, started working with Camo Crusader for the sake of trying to save Farmington from dying.
- Wham Episode: The eighth issue. Jack figures out Inga's been heavily involved with Camo Crusader from the beginning.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Jack tends to get one of these in almost every issue to the point it's practically a Running Gag, people are that fed up with him and his past misdeeds.
- Where Did We Go Wrong?: Jack's parents have little to no faith in him and aren't happy about his return. Mr. Xaver is more openly hostile towards him, while his mother tends to be passive aggressive. For his part, Jack doesn't argue against their complaints about his character.
- With Friends Like These...: Third Gen's completely turned their back on their former teammate, and Neon especially does nothing to come to Jack's defense despite that Camo Crusader's anger is about her decision to have an abortion.
- Subverted with Neon, whose feelings about Jack in the present are complicated. That said, she still goes out of her way to hunt Inga down as she's pissed at the way she fucked with Jack. Neon doesn't kill Inga, but promises she'll tell Jack where she's hiding if she steps out of line again. She also sounds legitimately incensed at the possibility that Inga poisoned Jack's dad, coupled with what she did to poor Seascape and the other Fourth Gen recruits. All in all, it's the most consideration Jack's been shown.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Subverted. Jack loathes his past self because he believes he'll always be a self-centered asshole, one who never even took his mom out for Mother's Day. Imagine Jack's surprise when his mother tells him not to worry about coming home late, saying he always takes her to church on Mother's Day and the flowers he sent her this year are lovely. Jack is left astonished his younger self could change.
