Serial Killing Cannibal Furries.
After finding out his fiance is cheating on him, Devin Fulcher tries to take his mind off things by heading with his friend Levi to the local furry convention. Any chance of relaxation there is ruined when he discovers a gang of suited attendees in a back alley, cannibalizing their fellow fur. Across the course of the night, he ends up on the run with these furries from a gang of Dirty Cops after him, and comes to find a strange sense of kinship with them along the way.
Plush was a six-issue miniseries written in 2022 by Doug Wagner and Daniel Hillyard, and is the third in a loose Subculture of the Week trilogy also including Vinyl and Plastic.
Plush contains examples of:
- 11th-Hour Costume Change: Upon finally deciding to be a part of the clan, Devin switches to a Unicorn head he was eyeing up earlier. This one in particular was a trophy from a previous kill, and doesn't cover a full suit; he wears it over a T-shirt and pants instead.
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: All of the blades the furries use, on any weapon, are sharp enough to slice people in half effortlessly.
- Affably Evil: The furries seem keen to only kill those who they feel are deserving of it (from a Blue-and-Orange Morality standpoint), and Scratch talks politely with both victims and those he intends to spare alike. He does steal one cop's donuts, though.
- Ambiguous Gender Identity: Keebs seems to be a transgender woman, but when out of costume, Edie briefly refers to her with male pronouns before quickly switching. Whether or not this was a mistake on Edie's part, or Keebs considers her fursuit identity a separate one from her identity out of costume, is unknown.
- Annoying Arrows: Justified. Scratch takes three arrows, including one to the forehead, but survives thanks to his fursuit armour. Afterwards, he fights the cops with said arrows still stuck in him.
- Arsenal Attire: Edie's fursuit comes with weapons built in, like spikes on the tail and teeth in the head.
- Battle Strip: The cover for issue #6 has Devin recreate the famous Superman example, tearing open his fursuit chest to reveal the Princessa Fancy Pants shirt underneath.
- Beta Outfit: Devin's 'bird' suit, which he wears out of the convention and during his trip to the family's home. He admits from the moment he puts it on that it doesn't feel right on him, and his 11th-Hour Costume Change represents his coming into his own identity.
- Beware My Stinger Tail: Edie's suit comes with a spiked prehensile tail she can slice people up with.
- Bulletproof Vest: The fursuits come with kevlar armour underneath, which allows them to survive a few point-blank shots.
- Cannibal Clan: The furries were all adopted/kidnapped by one man and brought up on his beliefs, which included ritualistic flesh eating.
- Changing Clothes Is a Free Action: In the final issue, Devin and Edie have to put on their suits exceedingly fast, while being hunted in their mansion. Devin's is just a head, but Edie has to switch from casual clothes to a full-body fursuit, which is not an easy task on a good day.
- Circus of Fear: The furry's mansion comes with a light-up carnival in the back. They light it up to give Edie and Devin a romantic backdrop... Which immediately gives away their location.
- Collapsible Helmet: Edie's head can open and shut on command, hinged at the mouth, which also lets it bite down on people along with her.
- Cool Helmet: Edie's flops open and shut on command in a biting motion and is lined with razor sharp teeth.
- Cool Versus Awesome: Cowboy Cops versus Furries.
- Creepy Mascot Suit: All of the furries, by definition, ranging from actively outfitted with weapons to just having a creepy frozen face. They're also usually bloodstained.
- Crowbar Combatant: Devin's chosen weapon going into the final fight.
- Disney Death: Edie is shot in the chest and collapses, but turns out to be fine when her head is opened up. Slightly averted in the surprise department, as it was established earlier the suits have kevlar in them.
- Dirty Cop: All of the cops at the station save one. They beat up prisoners, eagerly jump at the chance to hunt humans, and insult Devin's fursuit.
- Dirty Coward: The cop who banged Devin's fiance runs from the station fight as soon as it begins and hides out in the girl's restroom.
- Eaten Alive: All of the furry clan's victims are eaten while still alive. When told about it, Devin asks if he has to be alive when it happens.
- Elective Mute: Keebs never talks in her suit, nor is her face ever shown.
- Embarrassing Animal Suit: Devin is not fond of his first bird suit he borrows from his friend, but ends up wearing it for most of the comic.
- Embarrassing but Empowering Outfit: Averted. Devin's unicorn head may embarrass most wearers, but he feels genuinely powerful in it and holds his own well thanks to the spike on the nose. It's also probably the reason he was able to get beaten in the head and get back up so quickly in the final issue.
- Evil Versus Evil: Bloodthirsty cops eager to hunt humans so long as they get off scot-free versus a Cannibal Clan killing innocents.
- Eye Scream: One of the attacks on the officers at the station smushes his eye against the fire extinguisher, where it sticks.
- The Faceless: Keebs' face is never seen. Even when she's out of costume, she's viewed from the back with a Face Framed in Shadow.
- Fan Disservice: Keebs' suit is of a woman in a bikini, but the grotesque facial features and constant gore it's covered in ruin any potential titillation.
- Fiery Cover Up: When they're done with it, Keebs sets the cop van on fire behind them.
- For Doom the Bell Tolls: A variant; Not a church bell, but a jingle bell. Edie's suit holds a bell around her neck, which jingles whenever she's near. This ominously foretells her approach, but also gives away her position once people learn to recognize it, leading to her getting shot.
- Fun T-Shirt: Keebs' "PRINCESSA FANCY PANTS" shirt becomes a part of Devin's outfit after he borrows it from her.
- Gag Lips: Keebs' suit comes with a pair of giant fish lips.
- Gruesome Goat: Scratch's suit is a demonic-appearing goat. When Devin points out the Satanic imagery, Scratch is genuinely surprised, but comes to lean into it.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Several cops are split in half, both vertically and horizontally.
- Happily Ever After: Implied. In the final panels, Devin picks up his wedding ring again before following Edie.
- Hope Spot: After first meeting the furries, Devin runs from them straight into a cop car. He begs for help, only for the police officer to turn out to be in the pockets of Devin's father in law, who wants to ensure he marries his daughter.
- Human Head on the Wall: Played with. The furries take suit heads from each of their victims, and hang them up in a room in their house.
- I'm a Humanitarian: One-third of the premise. Edie's family hunts people in fursuits and eats their flesh, raw.
- Impossibly Cool Clothes:
- Edie's fursuit looks badass, and somehow comes with both a prehensile tail and a head with a mouth that opens and shuts at the user's will, seemingly without pressing a button of any kind.
- When you think too hard about it, every fursuit would be near impossible to keep up in a fight in in real life. Ignoring just how heavy and hot kevlar-lined fur would be to run, dodge, and punch in, the eye coverings would make it excruciatingly hard to see your enemies with any real accuracy. The comic even shows from the perspective inside a traditional suit at one point, showing the mesh eye coverings and how obstructive they are. While it's possible the custom suits have accomodations for this somehow, Devin's unicorn head should most certainly not, since it was taken from a normal con user and wasn't meant at any point for combat.
- Improbable Weapon User: Among the weapons Scratch uses at the end is a bladed Stop Sign.
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: The local police department apparently had many members chomping at the bit for a chance to do this, and gladly accept the opportunity to hunt the furries when it comes up.
- Impromptu Tracheotomy: Brottman's death, run through the neck by Devin's unicorn horn.
- In the Back: When Devin confronts Brottman, he doesn't get a chance to fight him before being punched in the back of the head by a hidden cop.
- It Only Works Once: Edie sneaking up on Brottman to attack him. The second time, he learns the sound of her bell, and shoots her.
- Kiss of Death: Keebs kisses one of her victims in the final issue, holding his body as his comrades collapse.
- Knight Templar Parent: Sheriff Brottman will go to any lengths to ensure his daughter is happy, chasing down Devin to make sure he marries her. By the end, he gives up, and just decides to kill Devin.
- Let's Meet the Meat: The furries closely consider who they eat, and may hold full conversations with their prey before deciding (Scratch is implied to be considering Devin's friend as food at the end of the series). Devin in particular discovers he's not wanted as food, and demands to know why.
- Loafing in Full Costume: Keebs is the only one who never takes off her suit, except for the one case where she needs to clean it, and then immediately puts it right back on to do everyone else's laundry. She even changes clothing over the suit, somehow.
- Lock-and-Load Montage: Issue #6 opens with the furries changing into their suits and grabbing weapons, Devin included.
- Love at First Sight: Edie's gang chases Devin initially because they're convinced he fell in love with Edie as soon as he saw her, this being while she was tearing into a man's throat. As it turns out, he did.
- Magical Star Symbols: Scratch's final battle getup included a neon Pentagram hanging around his neck, leaning into the Satanic look Devin pointed out.
- Man Bites Man: All of the furries, but Edie especially is fond of tearing into people's necks with her teeth.
- Marshmallow Hell: One of the cops running from the furries at the station smacks into Keebs' suit's breasts, and is killed by her instantly.
- Mouth Cam: The camera is set inside the mouth of Edie's fursuit head when Devin pries it open after she's shot.
- Mummies at the Dinner Table: The patriarch of the furry family is finally seen in the sixth issue, a corpse propped up in a chair as if he were still alive.
- Near-Rape Experience: The cop who fucked Whitney tries to do the same to Edie when he discovers her too lethargic to resist, but is cut off by a sudden explosion.
- I Own This Town: Quoted almost word-for-word by Brottman. If Devin doesn't marry Whitney, Brottman threatens to pin any crime he can on Devin. Later, Brottman decides to kill Devin, and intends to use his influence to not only incriminate Devin's entire family, but to seize their money anyway.
- Picky People Eater: When Devin finds out the furries don't intend to eat him, he's partially offended. As it turns out, the furries take careful consideration into who they eat (Unless they have to, like the cops they eat while breaking out Devin), and Scratch in particular only eats vegans.
- Police Brutality: Once Devin's in prison, the cops bind and gag the only member of their rank who wants to leave him alone, and head in to take turns beating him.
- Politically Correct Villain: The furries accept Keebs' chosen gender identity, and she briefly wears a 'Love is Love' shirt over her suit.
- A Real Man Is a Killer: Brottman expresses disappointment in Devin at the end, primarily because he lacked a 'killer instinct' that makes murder so easy for Brottman.
- Recruitment by Rescue: Devin becomes one of the furry clan after they rescue him from prison, where he would have been murdered.
- Rule of Cool: See Impossibly Cool Clothes and Useless Accessory. Most of the suits demonstrated would be less than useless in real life, and were clearly drawn for intimidation and coolness factor first and foremost (Not that it's a problem).
- Scary Black Man: Gender-flipped. Keebs is a transgender woman (Probably), but still appears as a muscular black male the one time we see her outside of costume.
- The Sheriff: Brottman as a villainous example. He's cruel, bloodthirsty, and has enough power to implicate Devin in any crime he wants.
- Shipper on Deck: Scratch and Keebs eagerly try to hook up Devin and Edie throughout the comic, freeing Devin from prison, taking him back to their place, and lighting up the carnival while the two of them are on it. When it finally happens, the two linger in a doorway to watch with excitement.
- Short-Range Shotgun: Brottman shoots Edie at point-blank with a shotgun. She survives.
- Shotgun Wedding: Played with. Someone else got Whitney pregnant, but her father is dead-set on making sure Devin marries her anyway, up to and including at shotgun point.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: When Devin comes back to protect the furries, he finally decides on his own fursona, switching into the Unicorn head before confronting Brottman.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: A cop approaches Edie, ready to rape her. An explosion goes off, distracting him, and when he turns back she's gone from the balcony.
- Suit Up of Destiny: Devin putting on the unicorn head in the final issue, which is implied to become his Iconic Outfit in the future.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Seconds after the carnival behind the mansion is lit up, the furries' location is given away, and the cops begin making their approach.
- Edie's neck bell is cool and ominous, but any attempt to sneak around is instantly ruined by it, which leads to her getting shot.
- Tragic Keepsake: Devin's ring, which came from his grandmother before she passed. His attempt to give it to Whitney was harshly rejected, which was his final straw for loving her.
- Unholy Matrimony: By the end, Edie and Devin become an Official Couple.
- Useless Accessory: Scratch's neon pentagram, which would probably be worse than nothing in a fight, since the glowing would give away your position to anybody with eyes. Looks damn cool, though.
- Weaponized Headgear: Devin's final outfit comes with a horn on the nose he can stab people with via Use Your Head.
- You Said You Would Let Them Go: Devin makes Brottman promise to let the furries go if he turns himself in and marries Whitney. Brottman agrees, and then goes back on it as soon as Devin's in custody.
