Exterminatus Now is what happens when you mix Sonic the Hedgehog, Warhammer 40,000, and a truckload of Black Comedy.Yes, seriously. See for yourself.This webcomic is the story of two members of the Mobian Inquisition, a parodical version of theInquisition of Warhammer 40,000, and their two mercenaries, and together make a group who remain living and employed only by luck, blackmail, and occasional violence, along with their superiors, alternate numbers, associates, and foes.The comic alternates between a gag a day style, and full blown Story Arcs. It began on the 29th of September 2003, and has been ongoing ever since.
Accidental Truth: In the "Cesspool" arc, concerning the illegal trading of weapons to some cultists, Eastwood learns that the firearms in question were sold through eBay. He twists this and tells Shaefer that ruthless weapons dealer E. Bay was the one who had actually sold the guns in question. Well, as it turns out, he's half right.
Amusing Injuries: Painful things happen to just about everyone all the time. They're almost always hilarious.
And This Is for...: Lothar does this after he gets fixed after being possessed by a technology daemon. He punches Rogue in the stomach then smacks him in the head with his knee for cutting his old prosthetics off, then punches Eastwood for pushing him down the stairs in a wheelchair. Then he kicks Virus in the groin just so he won't feel left out.
Angrish: Schaeffer falls into this when he realizes that he can't punish the protagonists for the destruction of Black Halo since due to the latter having been an illegal top secret facility, there isn't any remaining evidence that it even existed.
According to the cast page, the more serious offenses on Lothar's rap-sheet include "assault and battery, murder one, large scale video game theft and piracy".
Also, mooning His Majesty the King of Crownshead on 43 separate occasions (treason).
Art Evolution: The art has gotten quite smoother and more detailed as the comic goes on, especially when the artist gets some new tech to use.
Artificial Limbs: Lothar has two artificial legs, an artificial arm and one artificial eye (with record feature)
Badass: Lothar and Rogue. Eastwood and Virus also have their moments.
Badass Army: The Black Guard. Sure, their combat effectiveness often makes them disposable mooks, but damn if they don't look intimidating. They're pretty much the Inquisition's Stormtroopers.
Badass Longcoat: Eastwood wears one along with Virus. Eastwood ditched the black leather trench for a more, well, Columbo look.
Bad Boss: Inquisitor Lord Antonius Schaeffer is this, with a generous dose of Pointy-Haired Boss to taste. He's made no secret of trying to kill Eastwood, Virus, and Lothar by sending them against impossible odds (well, he did, and did it poorly), and barely treats his other subordinates any better. Despite the bluster, he's an incompetent pervert who almost totally relies on his adjutant, Inquisitor Riktor Simmons, to do anything.
Although he does beat up, chase, and eventually kill an evil "Weapons distributor" named Edward Bay (The whole thing started as a lie Eastwood told him to get the Inquisition off a friend of Lothar's who'd made a mistake and accidentally sold a shitton of weapons to cultists. Turns out, there WAS a Mr. E. Bay.)
Battle Aura: Eastwood gets one when Lothar tries to separate him from his coffee. It's daemonic red.
BeamKatanas Are Just Better: As any member of the Daemon Hunters will attest to. Considering how often Eastwood, Virus, and Lothar used Rogue's for Mundane Utility, everyone agrees.
Antelope Bastard: The last guy they caught snitching got turned into a chair of screaming undead bone and flayed hide, locked in a perpetual torment and praying for a death that will never come. He's still under a tarp in the attic.
Born Lucky: The whole group. This is one of Simmons's reasons for selecting the group for a mission. As he puts it, it's not because their uniqueness makes them effective, but because they seem to have a bottomless supply of luck which he "wishes to capitalise on."
Reaches Ciaphas Cain levels in recent comics. The reason they're being selected for a Suicide Mission is their ability to survive no matter how hard their superiors try to kill them how severe the odds ranged against them are.
Briefcase Full of Money: A chameleon hiring mercenaries offers plenty of those around...until he realises he has gone overbudget. Luckily for him, couple bottles of booze and a carton of cigarettes work just as well for his last acquisition.
Bring My Brown Pants: Eastwood wets himself at the prospect of being flattened by Morth's Collapsing Lair. An example of the Black Comedy of the series, as the circumstances were actually very somber and serious and the joke was most likely used to lighten the mood.
Eastwood: Oh, I assure you I'm pissing myself with fear.
Virus: Well, I wouldn't go that far.
Rogue: I would. Just noticed. Watch your step there.
A much more minor example: not only does Jamilla make a minor appearance in "Test Card FFFFFFFFFFFFF", but so do two girls who were previously seen in the background in "Brings New Meaning To Flipping Them Off". (Although the two girls have gotten some cosmetic updates to their design.)
The Cavalry: Are summoned to Lothar's aid in the form of about a dozen mercenaries he's befriended through his time as a mercenary during his battle with Rogue. Despite this, they still charge him; the comic isn't called "friends and family discount" for no reason.
Chainsaw Good: Lothar recently upgraded his arm's circular saw to a chainsaw; apparently, they're more robust and just look cooler. And the circular saw had just been wrecked anyways, seeing as the rest of the group was forced to smash up Lothar's bionics to force a Fernexite demon that had possessed them to return to the Void.
Chekhov's Gun: All of Lothar's cunning plans involve these, be it living creatures, phobias, transvestites, and actual guns. Most of them end in violence.
During a chase, Virus says he doesn't care Eastwood lost sight of him and Rogue, because he can always track his Cabal unit. A few pages later he hides the Cabal unit in the bag containing the Bookend of Unimaginable Power before giving it to the enemy, so that they can be tracked back to their base.
Cluster F-Bomb: From Lothar as he bounces down a highway after falling off an armoured car.
Lothar: Shit...cock...dammi...motherfuck-k-k-k...-unt... Either Virus or Eastwood: You screwed it up! What do we do now? Lothar: I just fell off a moving vehicle and bounced down half a mile of tarmac, but I'm FINE, THANKS FOR FUCKING WELL ASKING!
Collapsing Lair: Thanks to Wildfire and her latest escapade with the circuit-breaker switches, the entire Black Halo facility counts. So does Morth's lair after the villain's departure.
Cerebus Syndrome: Regarded by Eastwood (the person, not the character) as the sign to start murdering his co-creators.
Virus: Never turn a funny comic into a serious epic drama. We have a murder-suicide pact that says if we ever turn into a drama, we're going to end it all rather than inflict that on the world.
Eastwood: No, I said I was going to murder the rest of you, change my name and spend the rest of my days as a painter in Brazil.
Interestingly, the comic's existence is an inversion of Cerebus Syndrome. It's based off a project that took itself extremely seriously, which most of the creators can't believe they were so serious about in the first place. In a funny way, the whole of EN is a parody of its creator's own work. Probably why the comic is unlikely to get dramatic, because in a way it has already been there.
Cult: The Inquisition's enemies. And, in Eastwood's opinion, their allies.
Crapsack World: It's not overtly shown, given the comedic nature of the comic, but there seems to be a lot of horrible things going on, even without the regular invasions from chaos; for example, Lothar's adopted brother Kyle was apparently orphaned after an "Overlander" attack. See World Building.
Plus, you know, the Inquisition are considered to be the good guys.
Cutting the Knot: Double Subverted: When confronted with a rift that's going out of control, and being told the scientist in charge can't just shut it down, Yuri just smashes the terminal with her beam swords. This causes the rift to grow, and dozens of demons to spill out. The double subversion comes because this gives the scientist a small opening to Reverse The Polarity and seal up the rift, also sucking said demons back through. Of course, then she has to try it again on the circuit breakers... which need to be carefully disengaged one at a time in the correct sequence... Dammit Wildfire!
Divided We Fall: Rogue seems to be at the brink of trying to kill Lothar in one of the few completely serious strips of the comic, due to Lothar's sheltering of his brother Kyle. What is surprising is that Rogue isn't just taking a hard line and overriding Lothar's family concerns, he really thinks Lothar is lying about the entire business.
Does Not Know His Own Strength: Lothar's friend Rob. If you're lucky, you'll end up with an injured hand. If you're perceived family, you'll end up with an injured back.
, by the way]] is when Lothar is asked by a panda kid how he "got the cool parts." Both cases are subverted with the person(s) on the receiving end of the lecture learning nothing from it at all.
Eastwood: Nothing much, just attacking Lothar with my mighty cock.
(Virus and Rogue share an extremely uncomfortable look)
Virus:Oh! That clockwork chicken thing!
Rogue: Oh thank gods.
Drives Like Crazy: Nobody ever lets Virus control any kind of vehicle. Even the Inquisition's own private army, the Black Guard, go pale at the thought of Virus having a chance of driving anything. They're an entire army of special forces trained to combat the paranormal, and they are terrified of his driving.
Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Facility Sixteen (a.k.a. Black Halo) had a open dimensional rift which allowed daemons to enter the EN world freely. Exterminatus on the facility would destroy the world and everyone on it (protagonists and Inquisition included), so the rift has to be closed manually. More than that, it would render the entire region uninhabitable for "slightly less than the life of the universe."
Fate Worse than Death: This comic shows an artifact with many innocent souls inside and is stated to reek "of suffering and torment". The Knight in Shining Armor character does not want it destroyed as that would destroy the souls inside, and says he will have it guarded until its prisoners can be freed... the artifact remains two thousand years later, and the artifact's purpose has clearly been forgotten since Eastwood is using it as a bookend.
Despite the fact that anthropomorphic birds exist, Schaeffer's chicken fetish is treated as legit bestiality.
When a couple cultists mention that they bled some chickens for their spell, the characters initially believe that wouldn't be enough... until they're told that they were actually the cultists' classmates.
Genre Savvy: Simmons, given that he utilizes the group's insane luck to both complete dangerous missions and win him large bets in the company pool.
He also predicts the events of comic 372. At the same time, Schaeffer plays this straight, giving Rogue the order to arrest or kill Lothar if there's a betrayal because he knows Eastwood or Virus would not have it in them to attack/kill Lothar.
Mostly averted; the majority of the characters we see wear standard clothes or uniforms appropriate to a modern setting. Lothar and Rogue, on the other hand, don't.
Headbutting Heroes: Lothar and Rogue. It gets played more straight as the comic goes on, coming to a climax in this strip.
Heal Thyself: Spoofed in this comic as Virus encounters a health pack after the group fights off a group of bug monsters, which Lothar points out is also rather cliché....
Although he is the worst, the rest ain't much better.
The new member, Yuri, is not sociopathic, at least, as far as we can tell, but she isn't above using excessive force.
Hollywood Tactics: First panel here. It's helpful to fit the battle in one panel but moving in a tight box formation like the soldiers on the left against machine gun emplacement is probably not very smart.
Homage: It's not clear at the outset, but the whole Black Halo arc is a reference to Half-Life.
Horrible Judge of Character: Virus falls into this when he considers whether Schaefer is liable to hold a grudge over the extremely expensive Black Halo incident.
Virus: And I don't think he's the kind of bear for personal vendettas.
Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja: Ryoushi's approach to getting the toast out of the evil possessed toaster is to dress up in full ninja fatigues and steal it from above. Also subverted when Rogue mocks the ubiquity of the association of Taika with ninjas in this comic here, noting that there are far cooler things in the Mobian equivalent of Japan. Like Humongous Mecha and police dressed like samurai. (Shown giving a parking ticket.)
Eastwood: Lothar, do you think your wraith has enough firepower to blast a hole in the dome? Lothar: Do bears shit in the woods? Virus: Well, you'd think so, but you never actually hear anybody complaining they stood in bear shit while out hiking do you? Lothar: Huh, I guess I'd never really thought of it like that... Rogue: Well if they don't shit in the woods, where do they shit? Eastwood: Could we FOCUS here people?! Virus: Also, isn't our boss a bear?
Leeroy Jenkins: Yuri. She has no patience for complex planning and does whatever enters her head. Needless to say, this frequently causes headaches for the team. This eventually gets her expelled, which is a boon to the team's performance and its sanity.
Let's Get Dangerous: The team does seem to display a certain degree of competence when the chips are down and they stop goofing around. Usually mixed with complete ruthlessness and pragmatic cowardice.
Schaefer gets a moment of this in the comic "A++, Would Heroically Struggle To The Death With Again" as, after Eastwood sends him after one "E. Bay" to get him off Kyle's case after it turns out he has been dealing with cultists, as it emerges there really is an Edward Bay, and, judging from the parody of dramatic action movies everywhere, he really is a supervillain. Schaefer doesn't just win, but does so in style.
Eastwood: Schaeffer might be a moronic sexual deviant, but he’s an Inquisitor, and part of that involves being nigh-on impossible to kill and having a punch that can cold-cock a rhino.
The Merch: Subverted, as even if the writers wanted to sell printed collections or merchandise, the things the comic is parodying make it awkward. This is, if Sega's lawyers don't go after them first, Games Workshop will.
Eastwood uses an ancient artifact which contains thousands of souls as a bookend. Even after it's stolen and he finds out what it really is, his primary motivation for getting it back is because he needs a bookend.
Rogue: Will you stop calling it a bookend! We've established that it's an ancient evil artifact, a vessel of souls, the key to a dark ritual! Eastwood: That is the best sodding bookend I've ever owned, and I'll be damned if I'm forking out upwards of ten quid for a new one!
Must Have Caffeine: You touch Eastwood's coffee, he will break your arm. He even refers to Nescafe as "her". Eastwood is holding Lothar's robotic arm when he threatens to break it.
Naïve Newcomer: Yuri seemed to be. On her first mission, not satisfied with being a reserve wincher in a helicopter based operation where melee isn't an option, she bugged the remaining members for a bigger role. Lothar gave the rookie one: looking after his hat while acting as a reserve wincher. While she didn't lose the hat, she did screw up the mission, and later freely admitted she's new at this.
Yuri:Success rate... uh, I'm new.
Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Non-evil variant in Yuri's codename, Wildfire. It sounds like some sort of pretentious, narmy name that this comic pokes fun at all the time. It'snot.
Nice Hat: Lothar certainly wears one (now with asbestos coating!). Two if you count his Firefly Viewing Hat.
This gag is pulled pretty frequently, but the most obvious one (largely due to its status as a Running Gag) is some horrific vehicular accident caused by Virus in the past.
And it still hasn't been said what happened to Smitty and Jonesy (who Rogue and Lothar were hired to replace, due to some no doubt horrible incident).
When Jamilla has infiltrated a demonic cult and is transmitting footage from the leader speaking to his followers
Morth: We need but one more sacrifice to bring about the great daemon of our lord, the Patterner. Now we only need to ask ourselves: Who shall this person be. Who shall be the last person to give their life for our cause. Who.... is that bitch with the video camera.
When their boss realizes that not only has he lost billions with the destruction of the facility, but he can't blame it on the team because it was an illegal black ops facility and therefore did not officially exist.
When Rogue goes so far as to say he would not only kill Lothar, but his entire adopted family, over what he perceived to be a cover-up of criminal activities; Eastwood and Virus have a very appropriate reaction (namely, staring wide-eyed and slowly shuffling away from the carnage about to unfold).
When Eastwood remembers he became connected to the antique dealer Marley, the guy he left the artifact with, through Silas Morth.
They are also quite critical of their old work, especially anything before Morth's introduction, which they cite as the point the comic Grew the Beard.
Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?: This happens to Eastwood after Jamilla kisses his cheek after he distracts a would-be assassin long enough for him to be captured.
Morth: And now, as promised... your reward. Janus:Wait! I poisoned your chalice! Morth: Of course you did. That's why I took the antidote before you arrived. Janus: The antidote vial was also poison. Morth:This vial was. You didn't know about this one. Janus: But you didn't know your handmaiden was loyal to me. Morth: (Is stabbed by handmaiden, but stands up unharmed as she grins at Janus) Had you going. She's loyal to me - trick blade. Janus: The IED in your bed? Morth: Already in your sock drawer. Janus: Sarin in your shower stall? Morth: Check your cologne spritzer. Janus: (draws gun) Replaced with blanks? Morth: Afraid so.
Out-of-Character Moment: In the Cesspool arc, Rogue goes from a snarky, but loyal friend and ally to an ultra paranoid Knight Templar willing to betray his allies just to satiate his grudge against Lothar.
Painting the Fourth Wall: Barring Schaeffer, characters with an otherworldly presence are given specialized speech bubbles based on what jurisdiction they're from.
"I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favourite position on the Citadel."
Pet the Dog: Lothar's surprising preparedness to bust his adoptive brother Kyle (a platypus) out of captivity, turning instantly against his employers to do so. Eastwood, of course, doesn't miss an opportunity to have a dig at the echidna for showing a glimmer of empathy.
Eastwood: I know what it's like to be willing to do anything for people you actually... care about.
Lothar:(with angry pointing)You shut your whore mouth!
Porn Stash: Eastwood has the biggest known porn stash in the world, to the point where it once crashed the Inquisition's database.
Product Placement: Everything from Irn Bru to Intel technology. Look closer at the supposed Intel logo.
Revolvers Are Just Better: Eastwood's Magnum. Yes, he thinks he's Dirty Harry. Though according to him, they only call him that when he hasn't washed for a week, or because of his Porn Stash, his personality... No-one's ever called him that, he just made it up.
Virus's tail getting caught as the team escapes, and Virus's apparent vehicular ineptitude.
The team messing up their missions by either killing/injuring people they intend to bring in for questioning, or blowing up needed evidence.
The toaster getting possessed by technology daemons.
A recent one is Yuri being unable to identify or remember details about daemons, despite being a daemon hunter.
Schedule Slip: Originally updated every Monday and Friday, then just every Friday, then it's every Saturday. And then it's every "Weekend". Aaaand now it seems it's back to Monday again.
This comic has the obvious shout out to Deadpool, but the girl sitting at the table behind him is clearly Applejack and appears to be sitting across from Twilight Sparkle.
In order to cover up the events that occured in the cesspool, Eastwood ends up sending Schaefer on a wild goose chase after the head of eBay, named... Edward Bay. One panel, shows Bay attempting to run down Schaefer, whilst driving a truck that looks exactly like Optimus Prime. And of course, there's the nod towards another Bay, to go with it.
It's also likely a shout-out to Spy vs. Spy with the idea of 2 individuals almost identical but for color scheme (one black, one white) trying to kill each other in a variety of ways.
The sword in this comic is near identical in appearance to Chaos Eater, and its name (Soulmourne) is obviously an homage to the Lich King's weapon in World of Warcraft.
Before that, the also come to a gate with a padlock. Virus's convoluted plan of opening the gate sounds very much like a puzzle from the same series. Meanwhile, Lothar breaks the padlock.
Played straight with Yuri, but they manage to keep away from most of the cliche female tropes by making her Skilled, but Naive. Sure, she can somersault from a helicopter and slice an armored truck in half... but they needed that truck.
Speech Bubbles: Schaefer speaks with black bubbles and white text; the Gods all have their own speech bubbles and typefaces.
Stealth Pun: Followers of the Mortish religion would be Mortishians.
Stock British Phrases: The creators are all Brits after all, though they don't overdo it.
Strange Minds Think Alike: Even though Morth is a Patterner cult master and more intelligent than Eastwood, he's still not above copping a feel from an unconscious Jamilla.
Subverted and justified; Morth intentionally recruits Mooks too dumb to realize he intends to sacrifice them en masse.
Lothar feels this way at times, mind. "THE WHOLE WORLD IS TRYING TO STUPID ME TO DEATH!"
That's also Lothar's general feelings towards forum members.
Surprisingly Elite Cannon Fodder: Schaefer usually has the gang sent off to do some incredibly dangerous mission specifically because they're a bunch of frakkers who no-one would care to see the back of. As a result, they frequently don't get the job done too well. However, their tenacity at surviving numerous operations where their command staff are explicitly trying to get them killed off means that Schaefer tends to go to them first if there is a genuine need for a group of inquisitors with a record for pulling off Suicide Missions.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Invoked with Wildfire, since Rogue decided to go back home for some training. Subverted in that Wildfire is quite different to Rogue as a character.
Eastwood: It's easy to point fingers. Let's just put it behind us and move on shall we? I'm going to bed... And it was three times, the second one only grazed him.
Yuri manages to be this despite wielding a Beam Sword, destroying a truck full of needed evidence, almost killing an angel with a panicked sword attack, destroying a panel for something that subsequently summons a huge-ass army of daemons on them, and destroying the circuit breakers in such a fashion that Black Halo essentially implodes.
Vitriolic Best Buds: See above. It's a miracle they haven't killed each other. Eastwood and Morth were also this since infancy, though Eastwood eventually got even.
We Want Our Jerk Back: Although he's a bigger jerk himself, Lothar's attitude towards Rogue after suffering the presence of his replacement Wildfire for a few missions.
World Building: Given that the comic was built as a parody of what was originally the makings of a Dark Fic with a crossover of Sonic the Hedgehog and Warhammer 40,000Played for Drama instead of laughs, there's a fair bit of original universe building in the setting, though it generally is only referred to in passing due (thankfully) to the focus on comedy and satire.
Writer Revolt: The crew has received numerous requests for cameos on various fans. They responded by actually inserting RedFox from obscure Sprite Comic website The Middle Ground, a friend of the creators... and then having Lothar promptly incinerate him.
Virus: And remember... we liked him.
Lothar: Mwee hee hee! Lookit 'im burn!
After years of fan-clamoring, the comic was temporarily given a female main cast member... who was an obnoxius, idiotic Ted Baxter who was treated like dirt by literally everyone else in the comic from her first to (so far) last scene.
Write Who You Know: The strip has four authors, three of whom use Eastwood, Virus, and Lothar as self-inserts. Eventually they had to clarify that Rogue and fourth author Silversword are not the same person.
". Which they accept. The first two teams break into the house and get killed by Eastwood's mechanical attack chicken, Blasphemy, and the possessed toaster. The chavs are arrested by the police before they even try.
This webcomic is the story of two members of the Mobian Inquisition, a parodical version of the Inquisition of Warhammer 40,000, and their two mercenaries, and together make a group who remain living and employed only by luck, blackmail, and occasional violence, along with their superiors, alternate numbers, associates, and foes.The comic alternates between a gag a day style, and full blown Story Arcs. It began on the 29th of September 2003, and has been ongoing ever since.
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