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"Mad Scientists rule the world. Badly."
A Web Comic (originally a print series) by Phil and Kaja Foglio, which has become one of the classics of the Steam Punk genre.
The titular character of the story is Miss Agatha Clay, who begins as a young apprentice to a type of Mad Scientist known to the world as a "Spark". After a series of mishaps, she comes to discover that she is not only a Spark herself, but is in fact the daughter of one of the Heterodyne brothers (two of the greatest heroes in the world) and Lucrezia Mongfish, formerly ( ?) evil Mad Scientist turned good.
Can be found at the Studio Foglio website, accessible through this elegant and finely-crafted link .
Provides examples of:
- Affably Evil
- Airborne Aircraft Carrier
- All There In The Manual (the Secret Blueprints)
- Antagonist In Mourning
- Archive Binge: It had what was probably one of the biggest in history when the version for people who started reading it online caught up with the version for people who'd read the print comics
- Bad Ass: Too many to count. Baron Wulfenbach clawed his way to being ruler of Europe atop God knows how many others, and it shows.
- Bad Ass Boast (Several, this is the most effective example.)
- Badass Bookworm (After Vole mashes Gil's Berserk Button, hard, he totally blows his top. And it is wicked sweet.)
- Bar Brawl (Apparently there's one every evening in Mamma Gkika's.)
- Except on Thursdays; then it's Poetry Slam night.
- Berserk Button - Gil HATES not being taken seriously...
- Beware The Nice Ones (Somewhat applies to Agatha, but it's Gil who's the shining example.)
- BFG ("Clenk Gon", Agatha's Death Rays)
- Bleached Underpants (Prior to Girl Genius, Phil Foglio was best known for his pornographic comics, and unlike many artists with a similar background makes no attempt to hide it - they're quite good, Or So I Heard.)
- Bold Inflation (Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer!)
- Caffeine Bullet Time (Agatha's first experience with coffee)
- Campbellian Hero (Darn near everyone)
- Cats Are Mean (Krosp on occasion)
- Changeling Fantasy (subverted)
- Character Blog (Othar Tryggvassen's Twitter, Gentleman Adventurer!)
- Character Name And The Noun Phrase
- Chekhovs Gun (Gilgamesh's lightning generator)
- Cheshire Cat Grin (The Heterodynes frequently sport these, as do many other Sparks when in the Madness place, sometimes reaching the level of Slasher Smile)
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder ( The entire Sturmvoraus family, particularly Tarvek once he's the only one left.)
- Compelling Voice (Most sparks have a mild version; The Other has a much stronger version that works on the geisterdamen.)
- Crouching Moron Hidden Badass (Gil)
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome (These seem to happen with alarming regularity, with each one topping the last.)
- Cut His Heart Out With A Spoon ("Mess with me, and your shoes are mine.)
- Cyanide Pill (One is offered to Moloch, but he obviously has yet to use it.)
- Death Ray (Just about every spark has made one or something like one)
- Double Entendre (The Castle teasing Agatha about her attraction to Gil: "All the Wulfenbach Sparks are known for their oversized machinery...")
- Dysfunction Junction (The Sturmvoraus family. Dear God, the Sturmvoraus family. These people make The Sopranos look like The Brady Bunch.)
- Their name, when translated out of german, does mean "Storm ahead" so that's no surprise.
- Enemy Within
- Estrogen Brigade Bait (Gil)
- Evil Laugh (or sometimes, not to much an evil laugh as an insane one; basically every Spark at some point while they're in The Madness Place)
- Faking The Dead
- Fanservice (so very, very much gratuitous Agatha-in-her-underwear. On the other hand, it is only Victorian underwear...)
- Which just makes it Rule Thirty Six territory.
- And let's not forget the rather lengthy section of Volume 8 where Gil was entirely naked save for a strategically placed bedsheet. I know I haven't.
- Floating Continent (Castle Wulfenbach, sort of; it's an enormous zeppelin surrounded by a fleet of smaller airships, but in most ways is a genuine castle)
- Flying Dutchman (Embi, of the Wandering Jew variety)
- For Science!
- Frying Pan Of Doom
- Funetik Aksent (The Jagermonsters)
- Gadgeteer Genius (the title character, and other 'Sparks')
- Genre Savvy (Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer!, who points out more than one of the tropes on this very site to Agatha)
- There are also a few other practically NORMAL characters, such as Lars, who's read ALL the Heterodyne stories - which, pulpy as they are, still have some basis in that world...
- Giant Spider (one of the many creepy albino monsters the Geisterdamen use for transportation.)
- Heel Face Revolving Door ( Tarvek Sturmvoraus)
- Hellish Horse (The aptly named Monster Horse Beastie)
- Heroic Sacrifice: Lars
- Hidden Elf Village (the Lost Kingdom of Skifander)
- I Just Want To Be Normal
- Implacable Man (Five words: "Airman Third Class Axel Higgs". Any guy who gets "Unstoppable" added to his name- by literally everyone, including the cast page- deserves the title.)
- Intellectual Animal (Krosp)
- Large And In Charge (Klaus and the Jager Generals)
- Large Ham (Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer!)
- Last Dance With Mary Jane ( Anevka to a degree.)
- Mad Scientist ('Sparks', whose erratic genius has literally reshaped the world)
- Mad Scientist Laboratory (several)
- Mad Scientists Beautiful Daughter Lucrezia Mongfish is officially referred to as The Villain's Beautiful Daughter in the stories told about Agatha's parents. Agatha herself is arguably one, and she runs into at least one Mad Scientist's Handsome Son.
- Magnificent Bastard ('The Other' who apparently was also Lucrezia Mongfish, Agatha's mother. Also, Tarvek Sturmvoraus.)
- Malevolent Architecture (the insane Castle Heterodyne in the city of Mechanicsburg)
- The
Man Jäger They Couldn't Hang: This strip.
- Mary Sue (Maria Antonia Fantasia Philomel, and her mother, Raven Moonsdaughter. As you have probably guessed, a parody.)
- Maximum Fun Chamber (Also Castle Heterodyne.)
- Midair Repair (Gilgamesh and Agatha while testing Gil's flying, or rather falling, machine)
- Monochromatic Eyes (The geisterdamen have all-white eyes.)
- More Than Mind Control (Sparks "command voice" makes them almost irresistibly charismatic)
- My God What Have I Done (Specifically Aaronev Sturmvoraus and his dying daughter, though certainly said by others in this world.)
- Names To Run Away From Really Fast (Wulfenbach, Lucrezia)
- Necessarily Evil (Baron Wulfenbach rules with an iron first because it's the only way he sees to keep Sparks from causing complete anarchy.)
- Necromantic
- Nice Hat ('Nuff said.)
- Non Human Sidekick
- Number One Dime (a.k.a. said Nice Hats)
- Oddly Visible Eyebrows (pretty much everyone)
- Of Corsets Sexy
- Offhand Backhand (Used by both Wulfenbachs and Wooster.)
- Older Than They Look (Embi)
- Orphans Plot Trinket (Agatha's locket)
- Our Hero Is Dead (and buried, complete with digging up the body and cloning a replica to make sure it's really her. The corpse was doctored to make it look like her.)
- People Jars (Dr. Beetle in Beetleburg put criminals into giant glass jars to perish)
- Politeness Judo (Getting Moloch to help in the kitchen)
- Porn Stash (Apparently teenage boys really are the same everywhere. Even steampunk mad scientist ones.)
- Power Perversion Potential (I'm just sayin', Sparks gotta have some interesting bedroom toys, given their tendencies when building anything else.)
"D'Omas' taste in women was, well... Let's just say it was lucky for him he could build his own."
- Psycho For Hire (Captain Dupree, and to a much lesser degree, the Jägermonsters)
- Rebus Bubble
- Religion Of Evil (The Geisterdamen worship The Other)
- Replacement Goldfish (Anevka)
- Restraining Bolt (Agatha's locket)
- Right Hand Versus Left Hand
- Rodents Of Unusual Size (The Sturmhalten guides' description of "normal" sewer rats.)
- Science Related Memetic Disorder (the Spark)
- Shout Out (numerous, most notably in this strip and the following, where several other Web Comics are referenced)
- Steam Punk (everywhere. The authors prefer to call it "gaslamp fantasy".)
- Super Soldier (the Jägermonsters, who were created by the old 'bad' Heterodynes as shock troops but then had to obey the 'good' Heterodynes due to a loyalty imperative that was built into them)
And don't forget Von Pinn.
- Take Over The World (Subverted in two ways: Baron Wulfenbach has already taken over the world - or at least the bulk of Europe, where the story is set - by the time the story starts, and he never wanted to.)
- The Igor (Basically the entire populace of Mechanicsburg)
- The Virus (the slaver wasps, which turn humans into zombie-like Revenants under the control of The Other)
- Thisis SPARTA "What. Do. You. WANT."
- Too Much Information (Two Words: Tea cozy)
- Translation Convention (Word of God and incidental writing in the background says that everything is actually in German and Romanian, translated for the benefit of the audience.)
- Wacky Marriage Proposal: "You want to marry me to annoy your father? How romantic."
- Weird Science (All over the place)
- Well Done Son Guy (Baron Wulfenbach, to his son Gilgamesh)
- Well Intentioned Extremist (Baron Wulfenbach; Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer!)
- What Do You Mean Its Not Awesome - volume Seven, Page 51. That must be good coffee.
- What Measure Is A Non Human (The Muses, Anevka)
- The second is actually a bit of an aversion, at least as far as Tarvek is concerned: "That was harder than I thought."
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity (the Sparks, almost by definition; Baron Wulfenbach seems to subvert this by pure force of will)
- World Of Cardboard Speech (Gil, more than once.)
- You! (Klaus' reaction to Zeetha)
- Zen Survivor (Baron Wulfenbach once more)
- Zeppelins From Another World
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