Packin some holy heat.
Soda is a European comic written by Philippe Tome, with art from Luc Warnant for the first two books and, from book 3 onward, Bruno Gazzotti. It elegantly mixes serious business, religious themes (often tongue-in-cheek or parodied), guns and the results of their use, extremely spectacular accidents, and humour. Soda is likely one of those comics that could come into existence only outside the United States, as it has all the elements to totally infuriate any religious person.David Solomon is a priest in New York. At least, that's what he tells his kind and old mum. Because she has heart problems and would get a heart attack if she ever discovered he is a police officer. Commonly known as "Soda" to anyone in New York who is not his mother, David's daily life is filled with violence and death. Both of them often involve a handgun that could put down an elephant with one bullet — Soda's handgun, obviously. Assisted by fellow cop (and romantic partner) Linda Tchaikovski and other fellow cop Babs, Soda has numerous adventures in New York, as well as a few back in his home town of Providence, Arizona. Each adventure is served with copious amounts of bullets, destruction, death, religious terminology, and, of course, humour.
Soda provides examples of the following tropes:
- Amnesiac Costume Identity: One story has Soda suffer a milder form of amnesia in which he doesn't forget who he is, but what he does: instead of a cop pretending to be a pastor for the sake of his sensitive mother, he acts like an actual pastor, condemning the violence of his fellow cops and being nice to his mother's evil cat.
- As the Good Book Says...: One story has Soda dress as a priest in order to get in a prison. The warden calls his bluff and quotes a line from the Bible, but Soda gives the following one correctly.
- Auto Erotica: Soda and Linda in a BMW Z1 without a roof in the rain: referred to as a bathtub. Complete with interruption by cop (who asks whether he should film everything and sell the story to Real Police Stories).
- Badass Preacher: Soda, obviously, but his uncle (an actual priest) is a contender as well. At one point when visiting Soda, the uncle is caught in a gang war and is almost ready to throw a mook into a burning car.
- Blood from the Mouth: Played realistically with most wounds to the body.
- Bullethole Door: Averted. It takes a lot of bullets, and the only door to break down is a wooden one that was pumped full of bullets from a submachine gun.
- Bullet Holes and Revelations: The source of a repetitive nightmare David has.
- Bulletproof Vest: Again, played realistically. One character only survives being shot multiple times at point blank range by wearing two vests (and he still gets hurt by the impacts). In a later book, two cops are not so lucky and are badly wounded despite wearing bulletproof vests and kevlar helmets.
- Calling Parents by Their Name: Soda often refers to his mother Mary by her name. However, he does directly adress her by "mom".
- Canon Discontinuity: The Blood-Stained Pastor completely ignores what happened in Resurrection. Case in point: the Twin Towers are still standing and Pronzini is still alive. Not only that, but it and the 2023 reprint of the first 12 volumes no longer list ''Resurrection''.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Every book gets darker, but Pronzini gets hit with it the worst: He goes from Da Chief to it being revealed he lost a few toes in Vietnam and his wife to some other guy, to having lost his daughter in the World Trade center attacks, and the CIA has blackmailed him into shooting cops who show insufficient patriotism ever since 9/11 by threatening to kill his daughter, who survived, and being killed by Soda.
- Chronic Pet Killer: Pronzini has a different pet in each books who never last long.
- Comic-Book Time: The first twelves volumes were published between 1987 and 2005, with the setting and technology evolving accordingly. Case in point: Soda uses a typewritter in the second issue and owns a flip phone in the latter ones. The prologue of Resurrection (published in 2014) explicitely takes place on the fateful September 11, 2001 before a Time Skip to 2016. Yet none of the characters have significantly aged since the first volume. The Blood-Stained Pastor, that ignores ''Resurection'', suddenly brings the setting back to the 80s.
- Couple Theme Naming: Coincidentally, Mary's late husband (and David's father) was named Joseph.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Soda. Also his father, who was a sheriff in Providence and took bribes.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: In the first book, Mary locks her apparement and forces Soda to gives the password. This routine is dropped later on.
- Easy Amnesia: In the 11th book, an accident causes Soda to become amnesiac. As a result, he starts to behave like a real stereotypical, perfect priest. Justified in that he's played the part so well for his mother, it's likely become ingrained in his subconscious.
- Every Episode Ending: The last panel of each book shows the lift of Soda's building with an item he left behind.
- Everybody Lives: Thou Shalt Not Rub-out is the only volume without any death making it Lighter and Softer than other issues. A corrupt cop is seemingly shot dead by gangsters but he's later revealed to have survived thanks to a Bulletproof Vest.
- Fingore: Soda is missing two fingers on his left hand from an accident. The accident is never explained, but it happens somewhere between his moving to New York and him becoming a cop, since he still has all his fingers in the flashback parts of Letters to Satan.
- Gorn: Sometimes crosses over into Bloody Hilarious.
- Guns Akimbo: And how. Once combined with a coffee cup.
- Hand Cannon: Soda's weapon of choice is a massive six shooter. In fact, due to the comic's art style, his Colt Python looks even larger than the Real Life version, being as long as David's shoulders are wide.
- Highly-Conspicuous Uniform: Soda wears a priest's suit and carries a large gun. Lampshaded repeatedly.
- Kavorka Man: Babs, a short overweight middle-aged man, manages to sleep around with just about any woman (including Linda once).
- Leap and Fire: Not so effective as it usually is in fiction.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: In Letters to Satan, Soda apparently causes the death of several deaths by writing about their fictional deaths on a cursed typewriter. It turns out that the writer Williams is the actual killer. However, years later, when Soda faces a criminal, the latter gets struck by lightning while his mom writes "Heaven help you" with the same typewriter. This causes Soda to freak out and throw the item away.
- Muse Abuse: Writer Williams checks people around him as inspiration for the characters of his books. He suggests Soda to use the same trick as his ghostwriter.
- Ready for Lovemaking: Soda calls Babs during an emergency... just as Babs and his wife were lounging on the bed with champagne glasses.
- Revolvers Are Just Better: Soda's gun, a massive Colt Python.
- Samus Is a Girl: One of the bounty hunters who are after Soda's mom.
- Secret Identity Change Trick: Usually in the lift of David's apartment building. Hilarity Ensues when an old lady steps into it while he's not wearing any trousers.
- Shooting Gallery: Using (a picture of) Captain Pronzini's head as the target.
- Shoot Out the Lock: Only possible with Soda's Hand Cannon.
- Showdown at High Noon: In a dried riverbed. With a storm coming up. Interrupted by flood.
- Sniper Rifle: Usually used by killers for hire.
- Southern-Fried Private: If one were to take this comic strip seriously, Columbine-style shoot-outs caused by cops dressed as priests would be daily world news. On the other hand, most things without guns are portrayed fairly realistically.
- Thememobile: High Performance Three-wheeled Police Scooter chasing trike at over 60 mph in rush-hour New York. Yes, it ends with a massive accident that kills one bad guy and leads to the above-mentioned Easy Amnesia.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Providence, AZ, where Soda's family comes from and which doesn't exist in reality.
- Villain Over for Dinner: Soda comes across a hit man he was after — amiably chatting with his mother.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Soda, sort of. His father told David he'd be a man once he managed to throw a horseshoe on a clock so it flipped around and landed on top. When he finally succeeds, he finds a posthumous letter from his father, who was always ashamed of taking bribes as sheriff.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: The mistress of New York City's mayor turns out to be a man.
