Comic Strip / Star Fox

A monthly comic strip based on Star Fox, printed in issues 45 to 55 of Nintendo Power in 1993.

Written and illustrated by Benimaru Itoh, the comic is a canonical expansion of the original game's backstory and plot, following Ace Pilot Fox McCloud and his elite mercenary team, from their days as outlaw resistance fighters on Papetoon, to their becoming the heroes of the Lylat Star System. The first issue was published before the actual game was released anywhere in the world, making it the very first glimpse that Nintendo players and comic readers alike would see of the Lylat System. Despite being made in Japan, the comic was specifically intended for the English-speaking fanbase and was printed entirely in a left-to-right text format just like any western comic book. Benimaru Itoh also had a hand in the Star Fox Mission File Printout, a strategy guide that also depicted an expanded Canon.

Because it is an expansion of the story, the comic features several exclusive characters like Fara Phoenix, a vixen who becomes the fifth member of the Star Fox team after they save her from Venom's Imperial Guard.

A copy of the comic can be found at this link.

Not to be confused with Starfox from the Marvel Universe.

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Tropes:

• Ace Custom: Fara's black Arwing. After it gets blown to pieces, she gets a pink replacement.
• Action Girl: Fara Phoenix. Though she makes her first appearance as a hostage, she is the Arwing's chief test pilot for a reason. She is a member of Star Fox, and just like the rest of the team, she demonstrates an amazing level of skill. Her only mistake was to greatly underestimate the power of the Battle Attack Carrier, a mistake she never repeated in any other instance.
• Adaptation Expansion: It's a canonical retelling and expansion of the original Star Fox. The comic was able to reveal the Star Fox universe in far greater detail than was possible in the game: in fact, one of the strategy guides in Japan had illustrations by the same artist detailing even more of the game's storyline. However, thanks to Star Fox 64 being a Continuity Reboot, everything before its release isn't canon to later games.
• Air-Vent Passageway: Inside Andross's base, Slippy and Peppy manage to break into Venom's control center via a vent.
• Almost Dead Guy: As the crippled freighter ship crashes, a lizard stumbles out of the smoking wreck. He cryptically says, "Beware the Stingrays...!" before collapsing.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing
  Fox: Flat as an ape crepe!
  Falco: Yahoo! Papetoon pancakes!
• Angels Pose: Just look at the header pic.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Andross warns General Pepper that McCloud is trying his patience.
  "He has destroyed my Cornerian army, wiped out my space defenses and kidnapped my favorite android pig, Herbert!"
• Attack Its Weakpoint: Fox spots some blinking red transmitters on the stingrays' tails, and orders his team to target those. This comes in handy later when Andross sics a dragon on them.
• Badass Biker: Falco used to be one.
• Batman Cold Open: Fox and his desperadoes shooting down one of Andross's ships in the prologue.
• Berserk Button: Do NOT imply that Fox McCloud and the band that he leads are thieves, or suggest raiding anything other than Imperial freighters. He does NOT take kindly to it.
  • "WE
    ARE
    NOT
    THIEVES."
  • Also, don't call him Junior. Only his father can call him that.
  • Fox gets even more furious upon finding out that Andross killed his mother with a car bomb meant for his father, and that his father being lost in the Black Hole was the result of Andross's sabotage of his ship.
• Best Served Cold: Andross rose up the ranks in the Academy to get revenge on those who wronged him.
• Big Damn Heroes: Star Fox leaping out of a cargo container to kick some lizard tail. Falco comments that they probably weren't expecting such "hazardous cargo."
• Big "SHUT UP!": Andross does not take kindly to his sanity being questioned.
• Bond One-Liner: After Slippy takes out the kidnapper, Falco complains that they could have used his help earlier. Peppy cheerfully says to go easy on him; "He really cleaned up!"
• Call to Adventure: General Pepper's holo-telegram.
• Call-Back: When Fox radios 'Flippy' to ask if he has enough leg room, Slippy replies, "It's b-b-better than Peppy's saddlebag!" (Slippy was crammed behind Peppy's cockpit seat in a previous chapter.)
• Celebrating the Heroes: Papetoon throws a huge party for Star Fox in the last act.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: Herbert, Andross' favorite android pig. Turns out, he's the main battery for Andross' psychic amplifier.
• Child Prodigy: Young Fox was in the best of his class at the academy. "He could fly circles around a flea, endure days of gravity training, recite the Cornerian Constitution backwards and belch on command." Fox's father was justly proud.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Fox McCloud takes it upon himself to right every wrong he encounters, regardless of how it affects him. As leader of Star Fox, he leads the team according to his own loosely defined and chronically heroic standards.
• Cliffhanger: The team cockily chases Slippy's kidnapper to Sector Y, only to find that he's disappeared from radar. Making matters worse, they're running low on fuel. And the stingrays are moving in...
• Conveniently an Orphan: Fox. They Never Found the Body of his father, but Fox's mom Vixy was confirmed to be (accidentally) killed by Andross.
• Cool Shades: One of General Pepper's most distinguishing features, along with his distinctive uniform and the lollipop he was always sucking on.
• Crazy Enough to Work: The Team laments that they can't get to Andross without first getting to Venom, which is impenetrable. Fox knows of a route that Andross might not have considered: "We'll go through the Black Hole!"
• Custom Uniform: Fara wears a unique green and purple spandex flightsuit.
• Cut the Juice: After discovering that Herbert is a battery, Peppy blasts him to smithereens, removing Andross's power supply during his duel with Fox.
• Danger Deadpan: With her Arwing on fire and missing a wing◊, Fara talks as if everything is peachy keen, even though her somber facial expression shows plainly that she's fully aware of just how bad the damage is. She's a test pilot, so it's likely she was trained this way: her flight data would be of future utility even if she died.
• Darker and Edgier: Just like the game it's adapted from, this comic is much darker than the later Star Fox games and comics. Andross' parents were killed in a military accident, Fox's mother is unambiguously killed with a car bomb that was meant for his father, and at one point the rest of Star Fox has to restrain Fox because "he's beyond reason and he'll kill himself unless we stop him!"
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: Vixy Reinard and Fox McCloud Sr. are both dead before the events of the story. Andross was wholly responsible. Also, Fox McCloud Sr. isn't actually dead.
• Derelict Graveyard: Fox notices many other floating ships that have gotten lost in the Black Hole, freaking him out.
• "Die Hard" on an X: Fox, Falco, and Peppy stowaway on a cargo tube being loaded into a star freighter. After the ship exits Papetoon's atmosphere, the three climb out of the cargo hold to hear a battle happening on the floor above them. Some lizards have taken over the ship.
• Died Happily Ever After: Inside the Black Hole, Fox finds himself lost, unable to find a way out. Suddenly, the image of his father appears in front of him, calling out "Junior! Follow me!" Fox flies into a white light at the end of the tunnel. He makes it out okay.
• Distressed Dude: Poor Slippy gets nabbed by Andross in Act 6. He then proceeds to rescue himself. Apparently, Slippy has been subject to some Badass Decay.
• Divided We Fall: When Andross started building power on Venom, Fox protested. The leaders of Corneria were very scared of Andross, so Fox and his friends were labeled as "dangerous radicals" and denounced for attempting to incite a rebellion. They fled Corneria and lived as outlaws on Papetoon.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Do not call Fox "Junior." Just don't.
• Don't Sneak Up on Me Like That!: General Pepper's lieutenant bursts into his room to alert that Fox has hijacked an Arwing; Pepper is so surprised that he spills his coffee.
• Driven by Envy: Falco chafes at Fox's leadership. Hasn't he gotten enough glory?
• Dynamic Entry: At the Papetoon spaceport, Peppy mentions that Slippy is spending the trip in a cryo-mud bath. Later, as the hostage-taker is about to escape, Slippy bursts out of one of the bath tanks. The lid falls on top of the lizard's head, knocking her out cold.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: This comic is a tie-in to the original Star Fox. Since the franchise was rebooted and retooled with Star Fox 64, the characterizations of the Star Fox team and even the Lylat system itself are substantially different.
  • Fox McCloud is already fiercely self-reliant, having already launched his military career, and subsequently wrecked it when he provoked Corneria's powers-that-be to exile him and his friends. Fox is also much less In It For The Money than he is in the reboot, believing that the assets they stole from Andross should be liquidated for the benefit of Papetoon's needy downtrodden. At the time, this was Nintendo's official stance on his personality, as it's even on his official trading card.◊
  • Falco Lombardi is not a Pretty Boy. His head sports more of a feather mohawk than the pointy tip in his later appearances. All this works to make him more masculine in appearance. One thing that didn't change much about Falco's characterization, was that he is Only in It for the Money both here and the games, much to Fox's annoyance.
  • Peppy Hare appears to be barely middle-aged, and not old enough to be a Parental Substitute to a Fox who is already fully-grown. However, Peppy is still the best friend of Fox's father, so he is still the team's Cool Old Guy, and his affection towards Fox makes him the perfect Big Brother Mentor. His perky chirpy personality also makes him a lot more...peppy. In addition, Peppy has telepathic powers, which he uses at least twice to find both the positions and numbers of enemy soldiers without directly seeing them.
  • Slippy Toad was notable for having no gender confusion possible, being unambiguously male and boyish (reflecting his deep baritone voice in the original game), all the while constantly wearing a bead necklace filled with various grenades. Later on, when Slippy's voice become more feminine, his necklace had to go. Slippy also had a constant stutter, and periodically punctuated his lines with "ribbit" — which vanished entirely from his rebooted persona.
  • In the rebooted continuity, Star Fox is the name of the mercenary team run by James McCloud, and revived by his son Fox McCloud after Pigma's betrayal. In this continuity, they were initially a group of freedom fighters on Papetoon organized by Fox McCloud Junior, while Fox McCloud Senior was part of the military, and had no mercenary team to speak of.
  • In both the game and comic, Andross' forces are almost all lizards, which are the brainwashed and enslaved natives of Venom. While lizards are seen in Andross' forces in Star Fox 64, the lizards are apparently outnumbered by primates, and appear to be willing participants.
  • In this continuity, Arwings are new, experimental Cornerian-developed fighters. General Pepper did not have time to train pilots experienced enough to handle them so he hastily hired Star Fox for the job. In Star Fox 64 and onward, Arwings are custom high-tech combat ships that have been synonymous with Star Fox from the start.
  • In this continuity, Fox McCloud Sr. is presumed dead because Andross designed a gravity bomb that generated a massive artificial Black Hole, which actually trapped him in some sort of alternate reality, which Fox used as a Warp Zone to reach Venom. Inside, Fox found a graveyard of lost ships. While the game's description of the black hole is very simplified, going there in-game reveals it to be a ship graveyard and warp zone that can indeed reach Venom. In later games, James McCloud and the original Star Fox team (including Peppy Hare and Pigma Dengar) were sent to Venom to investigate strange activity, but Pigma betrayed them, leaving only Peppy to limp home.
  • The planet Titania is a giant artificial freezer controlled with a Weather-Control Machine, instead of a naturally occurring desert. Both versions are still single biome planets.
• Ejection Seat: Fara is able to bail out of her Arwing as it goes down. Her cockpit deploys helicopter rotors to slow her decent, while Fox swoops in with his Arwing and catches her between his wing.
• Elaborate Underground Base: Star Fox's hideout on Papetoon.
• The Empire: Andross is explicitly said to rule an empire, with friends and foes alike referring to him as "Emperor" Andross.
• Evil Gloating: Fara's hostage-taker. "Some hero you are, Fox McClown! Ssss..."
  • Andross can't resist crashing General Pepper's HQ to deliver one of these.
• Evil Laugh: Andross, of course. We also see a lizard laughing after stealing Fara's Arwing, with Slippy in tow.
• Exact Eavesdropping: Fara overhears Falco's intent to usurp Fox as team leader. This is likely due to the size of her ears.
• The Exile: As per the games, Andross was exiled from the Lylat Star System. In a dramatic twist, the pilots who would become the Star Fox team were also exiled, after being deemed "dangerous radicals" on Corneria.
  • Fox McCloud and his companions were originally Ace Pilots in the Corneria Defense Force. When Andross - the Mad Scientist who created the Black Hole and caused Fox Senior's disappearance - started gaining military power on Venom, Fox and his friends protested. The Cornerian leadership was terrified of Andross, so they exiled the crew to Fox's ancestral home planet Papetoon to try to avoid Andross's wrath. It didn't work, and Venom soon conquered Papetoon and invaded Corneria, turning the latter into a tense war zone while Fox and his friends spent the next few years as freedom fighters, trying to hide and survive while occasionally stealing from Andross' forces and distributing the goods to Papetoon's inhabitants. At the beginning of the main story, General Pepper suspends their exile and they smuggle themselves back to Corneria.
• Expospeak Gag: "I'm thinking it is our sacred duty to relieve these lizards of the burden of command."
  • "Call it a professional assessment."
• External Combustion: Vixy Reinard's death was because of a car bomb rigged for Fox Sr. Not to be outdone, Andross rigged Fox Sr.'s ship to blow.
• Fanservice: Fara has a very visible cameltoe under her jumpsuit.
• Flirting Under Fire: At one point, Fox and Fara flirt with each other while dogfighting in their Arwings.
• For Great Justice: General Pepper calls on Fox to prove that he stands for "honor, decency and freedom of species."
• Forgot to Pay the Bill: General Pepper's telegram remarks that the "Communications Cartel" shut off Fox's phone service due to nonpayment.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: The starship which saved Fox's father can only manifest in our reality as a Space Whale.
• Freudian Excuse: Andross is steamed about his pig foster parents getting blown up in a military accident.
• Fun with Acronyms: The full designation of the iconic spacecraft is "SFX Arwing", which may mean "Super FX" or "Space Fighter, Experimental".
• Generation Xerox/I Am X, Son of Y: Fox McCloud is always being compared to his missing father Fox McCloud Sr., and in Flashbacks Fox Sr. looks practically identical to his adult son. (This was before the later games gave James his trademark Cool Shades.)
• Glad I Thought of It: Fox's "insane" plan to modify the Arwing to survive the Black Hole. After knocking Fox unconscious and sticking him in solitary confinement, Falco tells Slippy to get to work on the modifications.
• Glory Days: Falco reminiscing about being a thief. He's never happy.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Fox gets these whenever he gets really pissed.
• Good Is Not Soft: Fox and his friends are not averse to getting their hands dirty.
  Fox: I'm thinking it is our sacred duty to relieve these lizards of the burden of command.
• Hero Insurance: General Pepper's lieutenant reports the team's success on Venom. Pepper marvels that he was "going to discharge the lot of them," but now he predicts parades and medals.
• Higher-Tech Species: Thanks to Andross, the Venomian Empire is far more technologically advanced than the rest of civilization in Lylat.
• Hot-Blooded: Fox, particularly where Andross is involved. Falco is also quite driven.
• Hoverbike: Fox and the rest of the Star Fox team attack a freighter in the opening, using hoverbikes.
• Huge Holographic Head: Andross first appears to General Pepper in this form. For added effect, he smashes all of the windows.
  General Pepper: What an ape!
• Human Shield: Peppy wonders aloud why imperial troops were sent to hijack a freighter. Suddenly, they notice a lizard holding a woman hostage. Fox asks Peppy who she is, and he replies that she is Fara Phoenix, the spaceship magnate's daughter.
• Hypno Trinket: Andross's transmitters.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: The lizard attempting to kidnap Fara has shades of this. "Move your tail, precious."
• I Take Offense to That Last One: General Pepper states that Corneria needs all the help it can get, even if it's from "mangy outlaws."
  Fox: Who is he calling mangy?
• I Work Alone: Fara, concerned about Fox, follows him into the Black Hole against his wishes. Needless to say, the rest of the team is in hot pursuit.
• Identical Stranger: When Fara gets into one of Fox's mother's outfits, Fox remarks that she could be his mother's twin sister. This sets up an important reveal when the first Andross clone mistakes Fara for Fox's mother, whom the original Andross loved long ago but mistakenly killed in his attempt to Murder the Hypotenuse.
• In the End, You Are on Your Own: In Andross's lair, a force field goes up right after Fox's Arwing flies through an entryway. The others are left behind.
• Insistent Terminology: Fox's gang aren't thieves! They are a "People's Appropriation Committee."
• Invisible to Normals: As they exit the Black Hole, Fox asks if Fara saw his father, too. Fara says she just followed Fox into the light; she saw no one.
• It Runs in the Family: Peppy glowingly (and sometimes not-so-glowingly) draws comparisons from Fox to his father. "Impatient like your dad."
• Just Like Robin Hood: The story begins with Fox and co. eking out a meager living in exile on Papetoon, raiding Andross's scows to give aid to Papetoon's oppressed people.
  Peppy: Friends of the poor. Heroes to downtrodden aliens. Snappy dressers.
• Keep the Reward: Following Fara's rescue, Mr. Phoenix's valet comes over to inform Fox that Mr. Phoenix is very grateful. His teammates' eyes light up with dollar signs. Fox, remembering his uncomfortable stay in a cargo pod... asks for First Class tickets.
  Falco: You could have asked for a MOON!
  Fox: Moons aren't nearly as comfortable.
• Lame Pun Reaction: Fox radioing General Pepper for some salt — because "these ships really cook!" Pepper says to quit being a wise guy.
• Loners Are Freaks: Andross has only a robot pig for a friend.
• Love Triangle: Between Fox Sr., Vixy Reinard, and Andross.
• Murder by Mistake: The first Andross clone mistakes Fara Phoenix for Vixy Reinard, the woman the original Andross loved, which sets up The Reveal about their past and sends Fox into Unstoppable Rage mode.
• My Country Tis of Thee That I Sting: As Andross' power grew on Venom, Fox protested. But, the leaders of Corneria were terrified of Andross, so they forced Fox and his friends to flee and live as outlaws on Papetoon.
• Never Found the Body: The sabotage that created the Black Hole which sucked Fox McCloud Sr. into it. He lived.
• Noble Male, Roguish Male: Fox is the noble one◊, Falco is the rogue◊. This trope is the source of some major conflict◊ between them.
• Oh, Crap!: The team realizing they're adrift in space, with stingrays about to chow down on their Arwings.
  • Andross losing contact with the Monarch Dodora. Whoops.
• Official Couple: Fara is very unambiguously Fox's◊ love◊ interest◊.
• Ojou: Fara's background certainly leans towards this trope, but it's not an overwhelming part of the character.
• Opaque Lenses: General Pepper.
• Oral Fixation: General Pepper is almost never seen without a lollipop.
• Our Time Travel Is Different: Slippy proposes using a gravity dilator in the Black Hole to create a shortcut through space. This fits into the real-life "gravity donut" theory of time travel.
• Ow, My Body Part!: When Fox saves Fara's escape pod, Slippy is stunned at the stunt; his brain hurts just thinking about it.
• Parental Bonus: When first told about General Pepper, Fox recalls him being a sergeant. In case this is too stealthy, it is reused and expanded upon when Pepper explains the backstory between Fox's parents and Andross, ending with the revelation that he was unable to help because he was only a sergeant at the time. Complete with a picture of him and his associates, resembling a certain album cover.
  • General Pepper was also shown singing "Hound Dog" while shaving.
  • General Pepper isn't the only character who likes lollies. At the start of Act 6, we see a freighter captain enjoying one — the Captain is an owl.
• Percussive Prevention: Falco expresses concern that Fox is "beyond reason" and that unless they stop him from going into the Black Hole, he'll kill himself. Better knock his lights out, then. *cracks knuckles* Falco almost decks him a third time, when the others remind him that putting Fox in solitary confinement is a more sensible option. Fox later returns the favor! Falco's real motive is revealed a few pages later, when he tries to steal Fox's Arwing to go make history himself.
• Phantom Zone: The Black Hole.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Fara cockily compares one of Andross's carriers to a trash compacter. "Time to take out the garbage!" (She gets shot down immediately.)
  • Falco, sitting in Fox's cockpit, says to himself, "I've got to concentrate. This isn't going to be easy." Fox suddenly pops up and says "Easy enough, Falco!" He jumps in and knocks Falco out on his ass.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "How about some stir-fry?" [zaps a lizard]
  • Slippy reminds Peppy of the android pig they captured on Papetoon, and says that the pig they're looking at is a literal "piggy bank" of data and the nerve center for the base. Peppy says it's time they "made a withdrawal," and shoots Herbert with his blaster.
  • Fox taking out both of the Andross head's eyes. "Keeping an eye out, Andross?"
• Pun
  • Fara performing — wait for it — A BARREL ROLL and waving at Fox through her cockpit window. "Mind if I drop in?"
  • Falco is impressed at the length to which Fox will chase a girl. "Talk about flirting with danger!"
• Punny Name: Fara Phoenix's surname is similar in pronunciation to "fennecs".
  • Then there's Vixy Reinard, whose first and last names are both fox terms.
• Reformed Criminal: As a cadet, Fox met a gangster "with enough street savvy to fill an encyclopedia." Falco wanted to fly, too, so he cleaned up his act and enrolled in the academy.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The Imperials consist entirely of red-eyed lizards. Subverted, as they were once a peaceful people before Andross brainwashed them.
• Rescue Romance: Fox and Fara. Although the first time, Slippy technically did the saving.
• Robot Buddy: Herbert and Herbert II.
• Rule of Cool: Falco dislikes Fox always getting the last shot.
• Samus Is a Girl: Fox mistaking a black Arwing for an enemy bogy ("Who is that clown?"). Turns out it's Fara Phoenix, and she's the Chief Test Pilot.
• Sci Fi Name Buzz Words: Hyper-Twinkies.
  • Holo-telegram.
  • Anti-gravity underwear.
  • Cryo-mud baths.
  • Astro-Hockey.
• Shout-Out:
  • General Pepper was once a Sergeant. In fact, in one panel, they recreate the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ("Sgt Pepper Happy Heart"), but with anthros in the place of The Beatles.
  • Herbert II's color scheme resembles that of the original Gundam (save for the head).
  • Andross' monster, the Monarch Dodora, is clearly just a two-headed, green, King Ghidorah.
  • Most of the Act titles are taken from popular songs from the 1960's and 1970's:
  Act 1: Desperado - 1973 song by The Eagles
  Act 2: Silver Wings - 1969 song by Merle Haggard
  Act 3: The Thrill is Gone - 1969 song by B.B. King
  Act 5: Fixing a Hole - 1967 song by The Beatles
  Act 8: Fire in the Sky - 1972 song by Deep Purple (Smoke on the Water)
  Act 9: Here Comes the Son - 1969 song by The Beatles (Here Comes the Sun)
  Act 10: Close to the Edge - 1972 song by Yes
  Act 11: Hello, Goodbye - 1967 song by The Beatles
• Single-Biome Planet: The whole planet Titania is merely a "freezer" with "the best frozen yogurt in the system!"
• Slave Mooks: Andross's lizard henchmen are nothing but Brainwashed slaves. The majority return to civilian life once Venom is destroyed; the remaining few are still under the Telekinetic Amplifier's thrall.
• Sound Off: "Land of my species pride / World without ecocide / Evolution we won't abide / Let freedom bark!" ♪
• Space Whale: Fox McCloud Sr. survived, but became permanently trapped in a parallel dimension. He is now part of the crew of an inter-dimensional space ship that can only manifest itself in the normal universe as a giant baleen whale that can emerge temporarily from the Black Hole.◊
• Speech Impediment: Almost all of Slippy's dialogue contains stuttering.
• Squashed Flat: Andross by the Dodora.
• Sssssnake Talk: All of the lizards and reptiles under Andross's command speak this way.
• Sufficiently Advanced Aliens: The Black Hole aliens.
• Suicide Mission: Everyone thinks going through the Black Hole is this. Disingenuously, the team quickly agrees to snub Fox (who is too passionate) by having Falco lead the mission.
• Surprise Difficulty: An in-universe example: Fara makes ready to polish off the Battle Attack Carrier, but as Fox warns, she's badly outmatched.
• Surprisingly Elite Cannon Fodder: Star Fox were already a group of undesirables thanks to Fox's political views. When they got hired by Corneria as pilots, they were sent off to combat by themselves, with no support of any kind. They won in spectacular fashion, which allowed them to keep their contract.
• Tap on the Head: Falco lays out Fox with a few punches.
  • While the rest of the team grab some ice cream, Slippy continues to work on Fara's Arwing. Suddenly, he is approached by an unseen figure and knocked out with crowbar.
• Techno Babble: Falco asks if they can modify the Arwing to be strong enough to withstand the Black Hole. Slippy holds to his theory that they could "triple the output of the G Induction Coils."
• Telepathic Spacemen: In this incarnation, Peppy is a psychic with limited Clairvoyance and Clairaudience. When using this ability, the background always turns solid black, and he typically raises both of his hands to the sides of his head. He uses this as a radar of sorts at least twice: once to warn the team about invading enemy soldiers◊ on the freighter to Corneria, and another to detect a lizard piloting Slippy's Arwing.◊ He also used it to identify Fara Phoenix on Fox's request.◊ Andross is psychic as well, and uses a telekinetic amplifier both to communicate at faster-than-light speeds and seriously harm his enemies.
• Tempting Fate: One of Venom's soldiers warns Fox not to attempt one of his "famous last-second rescues"... just before Slippy ambushes her from behind.
• Terms of Endangerment: Andross is impressed that Fox made it all the way to Venom. "Your valiant effort should be rewarded, Junior!"
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Slippy shows off a photo of his girlfriend "Croakella," who gave him his first wart. (Aside from the red ribbon in her hair, she's totally identical to Slippy, much to Falco's dismay)
• Things Get Real: Fara boast that she's "been flying since [she] was a kit," and challenges Fox to a race. Peppy notices they're headed the wrong way, though. Back at base, General Pepper is alerted that two Arwings have entered Imperial Space.
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Fox yells this at his team when he loses his mind during the final attack, after he learns that Andross killed his mother.
• Too Desperate to Be Picky: Star Fox was explicitly hired due to their skill as pilots, and the fact that Corneria was short on personnel, not because they were desirable.◊
• Tracking Device: Falco and Peppy are next to emerge from the Black Hole. Falco gloats, "I told you I'd get us through the hole!" Peppy reminds him that Slippy's tracking device was what locked onto Fox's route.
• Tragic Keepsake: Fox keeps photographs of both of his lost◊ parents◊.
• Troubled Sympathetic Bigot: Andross developed an utter hatred of Corneria after his foster parents were killed by a Cornerian a military experiment gone wrong. He joined the Cornerian Military Academy to find the most effective way to destroy them.
• Unique Protagonist Asset: The Arwings. An Arwing is the only ship that has the power to effectively fight Andross' forces, and only team Star Fox can effectively use them.
• Unrealistic Black Hole/Our Wormholes Are Different/Warp Zone: Created when Andross sabotaged the device Fox McCloud Sr. was taking into the Asteroid Belt. The Black Hole sucked in fully a third of the Asteroid Belt, and remained in interplanetary space. Unlike real black holes, this one was fully visible as a purplish maelstrom in outer space, and it functions more-or-less as a Warp Zone to other locations in the Lylat system.
• Unstoppable Rage: Fox goes into a supremely awesome one of these near the end of the comic when the first Andross clone reveals that not only was the original Andross after his father from the very beginning, but that he was responsible for killing his mother with a bomb that was meant for his father. "Payback time is overdue," indeed.
  Peppy: ...Fox? He's boiling over!
  Falco: I've never seen him so... twisted! I'm glad I'm not Andross!
• Utility Necklace: Slippy's necklace beads contain knock-out gas and grenades, as needed.
• Vehicular Sabotage: Fox and co. are a bit hasty in chasing down Fara's stolen Arwing. When they arrive at Sector Y, they find their fuel tanks have been emptied.
  • Done to the car of Fox's parents as well, intended for McCloud Sr. It didn't quite end well and killed Fox's mother Vixy instead.
• [Verb] This!: After Slippy escapes captivity, he comes across two of the reptiles at the control center, and one of them says, "Engage invadersssss!"
  Slippy: [grabs the necklace of Knockout Gas beads] Engage this! [tosses the necklace at the foes, knocking them out]
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Fox and Falco have a tendency of pressing each other's Berserk Buttons and exchanging moments of Percussive Prevention, but they're still good friends in spite of it all. Falco seems to express his most honest words of caring towards Fox while busy beating the shit out of him.
• Walk-In Chime-In: Peppy does not initially see who kicked Falco out of the Arwing. Fox pokes his head out the cockpit to remind them that he's the only one qualified to navigate the Black Hole. Fara chimes in and says that he's "not the only one qualified!" She and Fox start up their Arwings.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: The Venomian Army is composed of lizard men which are under the influence of a very powerful Mind Control device. After Andross's first defeat, most of the lizards are glad to be free from his control while a few are still loyal to him.
• With Friends Like These...: Fox and Falco.
• You're Insane!:
  "You're m-m-mad! Fox will stop you!"
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: As exiles on Papetoon, Fox and his team generated quite a reputation among the inhabitants for their heroic behavior.◊ Andross' soldiers, however, knew them as desperate pirates,◊ and even General Pepper calls them "mangy outlaws"◊ while in the very act of hiring them.

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