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Webcomic / Agents of the Realm

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Agents of the Realm is a Magical Girl comic set in college. The protagonist, Norah Tanner, finds a strange brooch on the ground one day while walking home, setting off a weird chain of events that eventually lead her to four other women, who all become magical girls with the help of a woman named Jade. Jade has a twin sister named Ruby, who happens to be Norah's teacher in her mythology class, and serves as one of the villains of the story (at least, she's being used by the main villain).

Jade and Ruby both come from an alternate dimension that was once connected to Earth. However, the gem connecting the two planes was shattered, and became the brooches the girls picked up, as well as an identical set on the other plane for five women in the alternate dimension. Only the magical girls entrusted with the special brooch may pass from one dimension to the other, making it a mystery how Jade and Ruby were able to come to Earth.

Originally published as a webcomic starting in 2014, in 2021 it changed to an ebook/physical release, with whole volumes being published as they are completed.


Tropes:

  • Always Chaotic Evil: The bleeds' first and apparently only instinct is to attack the Agents.
  • Amazon Brigade: The Agents are five girls and their mentor, Jade, is a woman as well. The interlude with Camel and Folami implies that on the other side the Agents are also women-only.
  • Bears Are Bad News: Norah is attacked by a magical translucent spiky bear thing which clearly means no good to her.
  • The Big Damn Kiss: Camel and Folami share one when the latter proposes to the former.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Adele is speaking on the phone in Portuguese when introduced, and in chapter 6, Paige calls her brother and they exchange some words in Spanish.
  • Black Magician Girl: With exception of Norah's shield, all of girls' magic seems to be offensive.
  • Cast Full of Gay: Four out of five of the agents are gay, bi, or similar, as well as several side characters.
  • The Chooser of the One: The amulets decide on who the next Agents will be, while Jade Blackwater finds them.
  • Clingy MacGuffin: The amulets tend to turn up when they're needed, even if they were previously being kept somewhere else. Good thing for Norah, too...
  • Color-Coded Speech: The agents each have their own text color for when they're talking.
    • Norah = fuchsia
    • Adele = orange
    • Paige = purple
    • Kendall = green
    • Jordan = blue
  • Cool Car: Adele has a pretty awesome sports car. Norah is so enraptured with it, for a moment she's afraid to touch it. Fandom also loves it and many wanted it to be part of Adele's transformed equipment.
  • Crash-Into Hello: Jordan and Kendall bump into each other in the corridor while one carries a beer and the other a phone. This is engineered by Kendall so that she can get to know Jordan and find out why she's working with Ruby.
  • Evil Is Petty: Ruby in the "Ice Cream Sandwich Bandit" intermission story. Jade and the agents are shopping for ice cream sandwiches, but Ruby has collected the entire store stock in her shopping cart… except for one box which she emptied before leaving it for them to find. And just to rub it in even more, she makes eye contact with Jade and takes a big bite of one of the sandwiches before walking away with her cart.
  • Frills of Justice: The dresses are admirably nice. Spoofed, however, when the girls pursue the bird-bleed on foot and one of them has her dress entangled in branches.
  • Group Hug: At the end of chapter 4, a distraught Jordan hugs Norah in apology for mistrusting her. As Norah awkwardly pats her on the back, Adele beckons everyone to turn it into a group hug, to Norah's consternation. Paige offers Norah an apology as she joins the hug.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Paige when she's about to drop four-page long Info Dump:
    Paige: This is going to be a hell of an exposition.
  • Literal Surveillance Bug: LBB - short for Ladybug Bot - is not only the way for Jade to communicate with the girls, but also her method of tracking both Agents and bleeds.
  • Made of Iron: All the Agents, it would seem - Norah survives being thrown a good few dozen metres and crashing into the ground with no problem.
  • The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life:
    • Jordan's called away from Mackenzie on agent business twice—and at the Halloween party, you can see her exasperation.
    • By Chapter 7, Mackenzie is genuinely upset about things like this and asks for some time apart.
    • Norah's introduction to Rowan is cut short thanks to a bleed outside.
  • Mineral MacGuffin: The amulets are shown to be made of parts of the Provenance, a giant purple gem.
  • Mission Control: Thanks to LBB, Jade is this, as she searches out the bleeds and provides the girls with information on their powers and enemies, especially Ruby.
  • Mistaken for Romance: Kendall (not in on the secret at this point) thinks Adele and Norah are in a relationship, due to them abruptly leaving the museum in a hurry (they actually leave to fight a bleed).
  • Mr. Exposition: Jade when it comes to Magical Girl business and Paige when explaining the Divide, Provenance and the Agents.
  • Mystical High Collar: As seen here, Old World's Agents have high collars as part of their armor.
  • Nervous Wreck: Camel acts like this by the start of chapter 4.5, the fear of being kicked out apparently ruling her life to the extent she initially mistakes Folami's marriage proposal for attempt to remove her from the Agents.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: If the bear-bleed hadn't attacked Norah, the amulet would've stayed with Ruby.
  • Not So Above It All: Kendall berates the others for trying to eavesdrop on Jordan and Mackenzie, but she shows a bit of curiosity herself.
    Norah: Are you really going to say you're not curious over how this is going?
    [Beat Panel]
    Kendall: I mean… is there any yelling, or…
  • Only Sane Man: In the "Ice Cream Sandwich Bandit" intermission story, Norah is the only one flabbergasted at the absurdity of the situation, while Paige is the only one to point out that they can just go elsewhere for ice cream sandwiches.
  • Our Spirits Are Different: Bleeds seem to be translucent creatures intent on attacking the Agents.
  • Purple Is Powerful:
    • The Provenance, from which the amulets were made, was purple.
    • The Alchemist's magic, strong enough to break the Provenance and possess Ruby, is purple as well.
    • Kendall, the strongest of the agents, has purple eyes.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: All the girls have their flaws: Norah is extremely awkward and introverted, Adele is Innocently Insensitive, Paige is more than slightly aloof and pathologically obsessed with her grades, Jordan is overly trusting and Kendall is described as an Extreme Doormat. Not to mention it took quite a bit of effort to get them not to jump down each others' throats while all in the same room.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni:
    • Cheerful, energetic Folami is Red to Camel's pragmatic, withdrawn blue.
    • Among agents, Adele and Kendell are happy and optimistic Reds, while Norah and Paige are two varieties of Blue - introverted and aloof.
  • Resigned to the Call: Norah, and eventually the others, understand that joining the Agents is mandatory.
  • Rousing Speech: Norah dives the rest of the team one after The Reveal leaves them absolutely terrified. Made even more impressive when you remember that she has social anxiety issues.
    No. No. We are not going to sit and spiral like this. There's five of us. Or... well... there's going to be. We all have to go and talk to her - to Jordan - and just get this massive mess sorted.
  • Shared Universe: Norah's cousin is Matt from Radio Silence.
  • Statuesque Stunner: Both Camel and Folami are much taller than the crowd in which they're standing.
  • Talking in Your Dreams: Norah has a short, but confusing conversation with what seems to be the ghost of Folami when she takes a nap in chapter 3.
  • Technicolor Eyes:
    • Paige's seem to be bright orange.
    • Folami's one functioning eye is pretty clearly pink.
  • Technicolor Magic: Purple seems to be a go-to color for non-elemental magic, as both Provenance and Alchemist's magic are purple.
  • Title Drop: During Paige's exposition in chapter 3.
    "This event is what began the cycle of the agents of the realm — warriors chosen by the amulets to maintain balance and order."
  • Transformation Sequence: We get to see Norah transform into her Frills of Justice for the first time, but later she and all the other girls change off-screen.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: No one seems to be noticing the bleeds. It's implied only Agents can see them.
  • Visual Pun: Jordan and Kendall's Halloween costumes. Jordan is an egg with devil horns (deviled egg) and Kendall is a cow with a halo (holy cow).
  • Wham Line: Norah in chapter four:
    Norah: The bleeds are Agents, aren't they. Something made them turn into those... those things.
  • Wham Shot: The second-to-last page of chapter three shows Jordan is already an Agent and is working with Ruby. She switches over to Norah's team after learning Ruby isn't the best person to be working with.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Perks: Norah is quite happy to see that the great power comes with a great outfit.

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