Comic Book / The Uniques

Most of the characters on this cover are dead before the story even begins

The Uniques is an ongoing superhero comic book series by husband and wife creative team Comfort Love and Adam Withers. Set in a world where people with superpowers, known as "Uniques" are commonplace, but genuine superheroes are rare, with most having been killed in a Supervillain attack on New York City in 1994. The series focuses on Hope Sage, the daughter of famed superheroes Mentor and Kinetic, who awakens from a two-year coma to find that she's the last psychic alive on the entire planet. As she comes to terms with her parents' deaths in the attack on New York city, she begins assembling her own superhero team to be the beacon of hope people need in these dark times.

The series is organized into 10 issue arcs, referred to as "seasons". The writers have planned for the story to continue for a total of ten seasons, by which point the protagonists will all be in their forties and fifties.

The Uniques provides examples of:

• All for Nothing: Hope and Michael's investigation into Shawn's journal only leads to the First Psion killing their informants, covering his trail and erasing their memories of both the investigation and their relationship.
• All There in the Manual: Comfort and Adam's blog posts and deviantart accounts provide a great deal of background information on the world of the Uniques not mentioned in the story itself.
• Alternate History: One where not only have superheroes been commonplace since 1939, but a supervillain attack on the UN in 1994 completely destroyed New York City.
• Ancient Conspiracy: The series' as-yet-unnamed antagonistic faction has been working in the shadows towards their goals for at least a century.
• Animal-Themed Superbeing: Several minor characters, including the Annihilgator, Oxford and Dragonfly.
• Armored Closet Gay: The current Countryman, Shawn, is gay, and used to date Motherboard's older brother Billy, but since he technically serves in the military, he has to keep his sexuality a secret from everyone.
• Badass in Distress: Issues 5-7 revolve around everyone except for Kid Quick and Singe being captured and the duo being forced to rescue them.
• Badass Normal: Motherboard and her parents. Season 2 villain Decibelle also counts.
• Batman Gambit: Issue 10 reveals that Countryman broke free of the First Psion's control long enough to plant the idea for a super team in Hope's head to ensure that she would be in the right place at the right time to stop him and his fellow brainwashed superheroes.
• Betty and Veronica: With Telepath/Hope as the Archie you have:
  • Soft spoken, inexperienced Michael as the Betty.
  • Attractive, anarchic bad boy Quake/Jack as the Veronica.
• Big Bad: Issue #10 identifies the mysterious villain introduced in the first issue: The first Psion, who has been alive for several decades working towards an as yet unrevealed goal.
• Big Damn Kiss: Kid Quick and Scout in Issue 10.
• Boom, Headshot!: Countryman puts a gun against his head as he begs Hope to kill him.
• Breather Episode: Issue #8 focuses on the team relaxing with a barbecue while they start installing furniture in their new headquarters.
• Bullet Time: One of the villains, Idle, has the ability to cause everyone around him to move in slow-motion, while he can move normally.
• Butch Lesbian: In the non-canon short story "After the Club", Telepath is a bisexual in a relationship with Kid Quick. The accompanying art shows her with sidecut and more muscular build and Kid Quick with a mullet and tattoos.
• Canon Discontinuity: Comfort and Adam have released a few Patreon-only stories that are explicitly non-canon, including one about a tryst between Motherboard and Shardzz and another about an alternate timeline where the New York explosion never happened and Telepath and Kid Quick grow up to be lovers.
• Comic-Book Time: Thoroughly averted. Word of God confirms that the cast will all be in their forties and fifties by the time the series ends.
• Compelling Voice: Vixen's power allows her to make all the men around her do whatever she tells them to.
• Corporate-Sponsored Superhero: The Teen Force 3.
• Create Your Own Hero: Charles Vaughan killing Matt's parents is what led to Ghost taking him in and making him Scout, who's determined to take Vaughan down.
• Dating Catwoman: Speed used to date Penelope Zasz back in college, but they broke up. Now she's become one of his enemies, the villainess Pizzazz.
• Death Equals Redemption: Subverted. Countryman and the Task Force were brainwashed pawns of the Big Bad, but only Hope and Michael are aware of that, meaning that until the main villain is stopped, they will be remembered as traitors, rather than victims.
• Death Is Cheap: Also averted. Everyone who dies in this setting stays dead.
• Didn't Think This Through: Because Hope and her team were unregistered when they took down the Goth Girls, the evidence they collected against the villains is considered inadmissible, and the Goth Girls are allowed to go free.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Quake can cause earthquakes and manipulate the earth around him.
• Dying as Yourself: Shawn convinces Hope to kill him before the Big Bad can regain control of his body.
• Elemental Powers: Singe and Quake both have powers themed around fire and earth respectively.
• Energy Absorption: Siphon displays this ability and combines it with lighting attacks.
• Expy: Countryman is one of Captain America, and Virtue seems pretty similar to Superman.
  • Ghost is clearly based off Batman, with Scout as Robin. This makes it all the more surprising when she is revealed to be a woman.
• First-Episode Twist: Several.
  • The attack on New York City and all the subsequent Cape deaths.
  • Countryman is working for the Ancient Conspiracy. Subverted when Issue 6 indicates that he's a Manchurian Agent
• Go-Go Enslavement: Michael is stripped naked when he's taken prisoner in Volume 2.
• Going Commando: In the first issue, Hope tries to escape from the hospital wearing only a hospital gown. It's not until about several minutes into her escape that she realizes that she isn't wearing any underwear beneath the hospital gown.
• Happily Adopted: Conscience Sage, Hope's adopted sister.
• Hero Insurance: All superheroes and teams in this setting are required to have a license. Telepath has hers suspended until she turns 21 after the first issue, although Countryman pulls some strings to have it reinstated in the following issue. When her team gets taken by surprise in issue 4 and has to fight off a giant alligator in public, they get let off with a warning.
• Hostage Situation: Issues 5-7 revolve around Hope's team ending up as the hostages in one of these.
• Killed Off for Real: Besides everyone who died in the New York disaster, All members of the Task Force are psychically killed by the Big Bad when they outlive their usefulness after the death of Countryman.
  • Flashbacks in Issue 9 reveal that Current was killed shortly after the attack on New York.
• Kid Hero: Scout (16), Kid Quick (15) and Singe (15).
• Last of Her Kind: Hope is the last psychic alive after the backlash of the New York attack kills all the others, including her parents. Or so she believed, with Issue 10 revealing that there's one more, who deliberately orchestrated the attack to kill all the rest.
• Legacy Character: Both Ghost and Countryman are roles taken on by several people. Subverted with Agent One, since in that case the role is inherited by a clone of the original.
• Love Triangle: Both Michael and Quake are set up as potential love interests for Hope. She first gets together with Michael, but later starts dating Quake when the First Psion erases her and Michael's memory of their relationship. Michael claims to be happy but struggles with lingering feelings.
• Manchurian Agent: Issue 6 reveals that Countryman and many of his teammates on The Taskforce are being mind controlled by the mysterious conspiracy, and none of them are aware of it.
• Mind over Matter: Mentor, Kinetic, and Hope all have this combined with Telepathy.
• Move in the Frozen Time: Downplayed. Idle has the power to create fields that slow down anyone inside them. When he tries to use this power on Kid Quick, all it does is make her move at normal speed.
• Mr. Fanservice: Quake is an attractive, chiselled young man who rarely wears a full shirt.
• Older Than They Look: Virtue first began his career as a superhero in 1939, yet still looks young in 1996.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: For most of volume 1, Scout is only called Scout, with his real name being a mystery. In the final issue, he finally tells Katie his real name: Matt Smith.
• Our Presidents Are Different: In the Uniques universe, the US is currently being presided over by President Harrison and Vice President Hollis Richards. Bill Clinton is currently running against him in 1996.
• Playing with Fire: Singe.
• Plot-Triggering Death: The destruction of New York City and the death of most of the world's superheroes are what kick off the story.
• Posthumous Character: Hope's parents, Katie's mom... pretty much every superhero who died in the destruction of New York City.
• Power Duplication: Covet has this ability.
• President Evil: While not the Big Bad of the series, President Harrison is still a Jerkass if Motherboard's comments about him trying to dismantle the Unique Rights Act is any indication.
• Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman: Newt Gingrich was the US President in the 1990s, while Bill Clinton is still just the Governor of Arkansas, as of 1996.
• Samus Is a Girl: Ghost is a woman.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: A recurring problem with Hope's team in the first seven issues is that they keep getting into trouble for fighting bad guys when they haven't registered for their team license yet.
  • In Volume 2, the Team Force 3 leave to save the day when their team manager is more focused on the good PR than doing something because it's the right thing to do.
• Secret Identity: Superhero identities are almost all common knowledge, so only Scout bothers to conceal his. This turns out to be because he's legally dead, and he and Ghost have gone after enough corrupt politicians to be arrested on sight the moment he registers for his superhero license.
• Secret-Keeper: As of Issue 10, only Hope and Michael know the truth about Task Force and CALIBRE being brainwashed.
• Secret Relationship: Jack and Hope decide to keep their relationship a secret, as she fears being known as "Quake's girlfriend" would undermine her authority. They're not very good at keeping it subtle.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Discussed at the end of Issue 10. Hope's team, now dubbed New Guard, has saved the life of the President and stopped the brainwashed Task Force's attempted coup of the US government. However, given how unpopular the man is, and that the coup attempt leaked proof of the full extent of his corruption to the press, he's likely to be impeached soon anyway.
• Ship Tease: Hope gets several moments with both Quake and Michael. Both ships sail at separate times.
  • Chris (aka. Shardzz) and Motherboard are usually close, especially in the background of scenes. In the non-canon timeline where the New York Disaster is prevented they even get married.
• Shock and Awe: Siphon combines this with energy absorption.
• Shoot the Dog: Hope has to shoot Shawn in order to stop the Big Bad
• Starter Villain: The Annihilgator serves as one for Hope's team in Issue 4.
• Steven Ulysses Perhero: One of Speed's rogues is Penelope Zasz, who calls herself Pizzazz.
• Superheroes Wear Capes: Virtue and Kinetic both wear them, as does Scout.
• Super Powerful Genetics: Telepath and Kid Quick both inherited their parents' powers.
• Super-Speed: Speed, Celerity, and their daughter, Kid Quick.
• Super-Strength:
  • Rage, one of the villains of issues 5-7
• Super Team: So far four different teams in the setting:
  • The League of Seven: The world's most famous superhero team, responsible for helping to prevent World War III and end the Cold War. It's members include Virtue, Mentor, Kinetic, Speed, Celerity, Countryman, and Comrade.
  • Telepath begins putting one together in the first season consisting of herself, Kid Quick, Singe, Motherboard, Michael, Scout, and Quake. At the end of the first season they take the name "The New Guard".
  • The Teen Force 3, a trio of Corporate-sponsored superheroes created in the wake of the New York disaster of 1994.
  • The Task Force, a superhero team that operates on behalf of the American government.
• Telepathy: Mentor, Kinetic, and Hope all have this combined with Telekinesis.
• Tag Line: Where the super is common but the heroes are not.
• The Cowl: Ghost.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: While not explicitly stated, the majority of superheroes (the New Guard included) prefer to incapacitate enemies and then leave them to the justice system, which is why registration for superheroes is important (otherwise their testimony can't be used in court). Ghost breaking this rule is how Scout realises she's losing herself.
• Token Good Teammate: Oxford and Decibelle are much more sympathetic than the rest of Gnashville.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Jacqueline Pryde attempts to discredit teenage superheroes while presenting herself to the public as a humble philanthropist.
• Voice with an Internet Connection: Motherboard serves as mission control for Hope's as-yet-unnamed team.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Conscience, Hope's little sister, has this as her superpower.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Quake for almost all of the first season. In season 2 he gets chest armour for fights.