Webcomic / The Pocalypse

The Pocalypse is a Flash webcomic story where Class 1 Zombie Apocalypse meets Robot Apocalypse meets Plant Apocalypse meets Vampire Apocalypse meets way too many other apocalypses at once. In fact, this apocalypse is so bad, quite a few people have begun to refer to it as The Pocalypse. The comic is an exercise in Tropes Are Not Bad, as it hits every major monster/disaster/post-apocalyptic trope while remaining highly entertaining and original.

Joe wakes up in a hospital several years after the start of the Pocalypse, with no memory of what he's been doing in all that time. When he meets up with other survivors, they notice that something is different about him. Joe has been endowed with super strength, speed, and healing abilities among other things. The story follows Joe and his new companions as they try to survive and Joe slowly taps into his new powers.

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Provides examples of:

• After the End: The entire world suffered from multiple apocalypses, ranging from zombies to plants to robots uprising, at the same time.
• Abandoned Hospital: Where Joe begins the story.
• Action Girl: Jess/Sentinel.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Robot Apocalypse
• Air Vent Escape: As the second group in the mall tries to flee the mutants.
• Attack Drone: Bernie and Jess's father uses some with devastating effects.
• And This Is for...: Joe delivers this kind of line right before killing a vampire that was hunting his sister-in-law.
• Apocalypse How: Planetary Type 1 (Societal Disruption) and Type 2 (Societal Collapse) as the humans still lived in well-defended settlements that still had varying degrees of technology (New Hammerston being one of the few modern settlements) and communication between each settlement (New Hammerston already a part of trade pact that unifies their currency with many more still being isolated).
  • Somewhat unusually, the reasons for humanity still surviving despite the multitude of apocalypses all occurring at once are explained in detail: While the zombies, vampires, mutants, plants, and robots would have wiped out humanity during the simultaneous apocalypse, various factors ^Explanation The zombie hordes keep the mutants from spreading uncontrollably, as the zombie virus is a poison to the mutants. The mutants and plants stand against the machines, who spread slowly due to their need for extensive infrastructure. The mutants and the machines keep the plants in check (the former by eating them, the latter by constant scorched-earth operations), so that they cannot simply overrun the planet due to them requiring only sunlight to grow. The vampires are mostly content to keep on feeding on humans, as they have for centuries, rather than trying to wipe any single faction out. interceded to prevent this outcome.
• Audience Participation: Character names and sometimes major plot decisions are left to reader polls.
• Author Avatar: Author Joe makes frequent appearances in the Filler Scenes.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Joe has it explained to him why they don't use the tanks sitting in town.
• Badass Normal: George lives outside the barrier, travels on his own to acquire exotic trade goods, and holds his own against a zompire.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Jess starts to activate the self-destruct on Sentinel when she thinks she and Terry are doomed to the vampires.
• Big Damn Heroes: Bernie saves Jess and Terry from the vampires at the last second. Jess was just about to activate Sentinel's self-destruct.
  • Scrufflebeck stops the missile from destroying the colony after Bernie can't catch it.
• Big "YES!": Nina's reaction to Doc's offer to make her the next operator of the Sentinel armor.
• Black Eyes of Evil: Victor/Inner Joe sports these whenever he appears.
• Black Guy Dies First: Chapter 3 starts this way, with the black survivor (Mark) being killed by the mutants.
• Brain Bleach: Jake begs for mercy after The Doc offers to show them that "size doesn't matter."

• Brought Down to Normal: Joe once Inner Joe is sealed. It doesn't last.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Chapter 2 is much more plot-focused than the first, featuring several new characters. Also, Chapter 3 focuses on a new pair of survivors.
• The comic has definitely experienced this over time, with an increasingly intricate and darker plot in which long-time characters like Bernie, Mayor Ludo, and Cross being killed off, forcibly modified into cyborg slaves, or otherwise majorly and permanently affected.
• Character Portrait: Any important character has one.
• Clothes Make the Superman: Bernie/Stinger, Jess/Sentinel, and their father Bernard Sr./Obliteration.
• Comically Missing the Point: Joe when Renaissance artists are mentioned.
  Jess: Joe, I'm surprised you know who they are.
  Joe: What, Ninja Turtles? Of course I know who they are.

• Crapsack World: Well, with four different apocalypses taking place at once...
• Crazy-Prepared: Doc wears 3D glasses because you never know when you'll need to see the third - and best - dimension.
  • Bernie and Jess's father built The Base with everything needed for his family to survive anything.
• Cursed with Awesome: The fate of those infected with the zombie-vampire hybrid virus. Their powers are immeasurable, but their bodies become grotesque and the bloodthirst is multiplied.

• Deal with the Devil: Dominik is fond of these.
  • Joe makes a deal with Dominik in exchange for getting his body back from Inner Joe.
  • Doc makes a deal with Dominik that he can study him if he helps him escape and gives him an army to control.
• Decoy Damsel: The girl "captured" by vampires in chapter 2, scene 26 is actually Genovera, Dominik's apprentice..
• Dirty Old Man: The Doc asks to watch Jess change into her battle suit and offers to show her that "size doesn't matter."
• Disappeared Dad: Bernie and Jess's father left a year ago, they haven't heard any news of him since.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Joe and Rosa have a conversation about him being "too rough and too fast." Turns out he's pushing a car.
• Dream Sequence: The Dreamworld.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Lieutenant Cross. He eventually becomes a drill sergeant zompire nasty.
• Driven to Suicide: Rosa tries to open the curtains to end her existence as a vampire.
• Dude, She's Like in a Coma: Non-physical version. Joe asks Rosa to marry him while she's passed out. He says if she consents to say nothing. He then insists that she's his wife.
• Elaborate Underground Base: The supermarket base. Also, The Base, which serves as the main characters' initial, well, base.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: Scrufflebeck. It takes a lot for people to listen to him though.
• Exact Words: Andrius's mother (whom he betrayed to the Church) forced him to promise he would not kill his brother. So he has Cross kill him instead.
• The Faceless: Andrius, whose face is always completely framed in shadow except when he gets really angry.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Vampires, Zombies, Plant Monsters, Killer Robots, and Mutants.
• Freak Out: Bernie has a major one after the Stinger is stolen.
• Gaia's Vengeance: Greybane muses that the plagues might be the Earth's way of cleansing herself of humanity.
• Glory Hound: Lieutenant Cross was perfectly willing to ignore distress calls and attempt murder just because the main characters got the missions he wanted.
  • Nick was willing to drug at least four guards (during, not that he was aware of it, a situation where they were really needed) just so he could sneak out and prove that he was a capable warrior.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Zig-zagged. All of the Eight seen so far have these, though exactly how 'doomy' this is varies depending on the character.
  • Curiously, the colour of the glow seems to differ based on their order of creation, with Simon and Joe's eyes glowing green while Bob and Bertha's both glow yellow.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Nick steals the EMP weapon, drugs a bunch of guards, and takes off on his own to prove to Jess that he's more worthy of her love than Terry or Joe.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Rusty. Bernie notes that he shouldn't put him in a room with Joe.
• How Did You Know? I Didn't: Rusty kills Zombie Justin Bieber in the Chapter 6 recap.
  Conan: You killed Zombie Justin Bieber!
  Rusty: He was a zombie?
• I Call It "Vera": Doc's gun is the "Little Fucking Bastard."
• Idiot Hero: Joe is... not exactly the brightest.
• I Lied: Bernie killing Gregory after interrogating him (during which he promised to spare his life).
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Andrius and Dominik are fond of doing this. Scrufflebeck can produce spikes from his body and uses them against vampires.
• It's All About Me: Joe.
• Jerkass: Joe. (The character, not the author.)
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Joe does have his moments of being a decent human being, one of the examples is how he is disgusted at Cross and his delusions of glory, despite Joe himself stating earlier that he hated the survivor city.
• Karmic Death: Genovera is killed when she attacks Terry and Jess despite them not meaning her and her vampires any harm. Unfortunately, Bernie was nearby. She threatens to call an army, but Bernie shoots her through the heart before she can do so.
• Kick the Dog: The one thing to get Joe really angry during the church fight is when Dominik hurts Scrufflebeck. Later on, when a squadron of Machine soldiers attempt to incinerate Scrufflebeck, Joe briefly taps into his Psychic Powers and absolutely decimates them.
• Kiss of Life: Joe tries to invoke this with Rosa.
• Last Request: Andrius's mother made him swear never to kill Dominik.
• Mad Scientist: Doc.
• Madwoman in the Attic: Chapter 6 reveals Geoffrey, Greybane's zombified friend.
• Manipulative Bastard: Andrius.
• Morality Pet: Scrufflebeck is apparently the only being Joe actually cares about, other than himself.
• Never Split the Party: Jess makes it clear that things won't turn out well if they don't work together.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Andrius, Cross, Rosa, and Dominick the Zompires, and Scrufflebeck the Plant Puppy.
  • At the very beginning of chapter 9, Rosa also becomes part plant.
• Not What It Looks Like: Joe walks in on Bernie comforting Rosa. He doesn't take it well.
• Our Vampires Are Different: The Vampire Apocalypse.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Hello there, Greybane.
• Overly Narrow Superlative: Nick's hospital is the best in New Hammerston. Of course, it's the only hospital in New Hammerston.
• Parental Abandonment: Bernie and Jess' mother died during a zombie attack and their father left three years before the start of the comic, presumably to hunt down vampires.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner:
  Inner Joe: Lets go make some fucking salad.
• Recap Episode: After each chapter wraps, there is a recap episode in the frame of the cast being interviewed by Conan O'Brien.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The vampires and zompires have red eyes. the Decoy Damsel keeps hers closed until Terry is close enough to grab.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Scrufflebeck.
• Satellite Love Interest: Rosa for Joe. He's only interested in her because she makes amazing tacos. Subverted in a more general sense, as Rosa develops as a character.
• Shout-Out:
  • My gun will shoot the fleas off a dog's back at two miles, vampire! And it's pointed straight at your head!
  • The second group of survivors starts out at a mall.
  • Joe collects bottle caps.
  • The mental powers to create blocky worlds is called "mindcraft."
  • Joe wakes up in an Abandoned Hospital full of zombies.
  • "Tell me your name, rider, and I will tell you mine."
• Slept Through the Apocalypse: Joe.
• Split-Personality Takeover: Joe
• Sociopathic Hero: Joe sometimes borders on this.
• Super Powered Evilside: Joe
• Suspiciously Specific Denial:
  Doc: It's definitely not a vampire!
  Jake: Jesus, Doc, shut up!
  Doc: And, it is definitely not an elder vampire!
• The Quisling: Gregory.
• Took a Level in Badass: Scrufflebeck transforms from his cute puppy form into a doppelganger of the mutants he kills.
• Unwitting Pawn: Joe, manipulated by Andrius into freeing him.
• When Trees Attack: The Plant Apocalypse.
• Worldbuilding: The mindcrafting.
• Zombie Apocalypse: Guess which Apocalypse this is.

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