Hero by Night
is a comic series created by D.J. Coffman.
Steel City, Pennsylvania, September 1945. World War II veteran lt. David Day is finally ready to start turning the mysterious Vitalogy Ring he's found in Europe to good use - making the world a better place in the caped guise of Hero by Night. With the ring-granted Nigh-Invulnerability, Super-Strength and smarts, he's going to patrol the streets of Steel City for the next decade or so, defending the innocent from petty crooks and villainous Iron Talon alike. He'll gain allies, make friends, form ties with the Secret Society of Shadows.
Then, one fateful night, he'll vanish from the face of the Earth. Why? And is the simultaneous vanishing of the Iron Talon connected somehow?
Steel City, present day. Jack King gets a new job as a superintendent of "the Brick", an old residential building, and while cleaning up his basement flat discovers the hidden lair and belongings of a long lost super hero from the 1940's/50's. Pretty cool, huh? Obviously he'll take up the mantle and... what do you mean, sell the hero's journals to the highest bidder online?
Nah, of course he won't.
Tropes:
- Alliterative Name: David Day, Walter Watkinson, Saul Simon...
- Alchemy Is Magic: Very powerful magic. Hence, Not a Toy.
- Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: The Golden Glove seems just that. No strings, like you'd have with a Vitalogy ring.
- Arch-Enemy: Iron Talon, for the Hero.
- The Atoner: Marshall Jones. Takes a couple of levels in badass in the process.
- Badass Crew: The Heroes by Night, formed by Marshall Jones to stand in for and generally help their Hero when he's abroad.
- Big Damn Heroes: How David and Golden Glove became pals.
- Brains and Brawn: David and Walter, at least until David becomes a Genius Bruiser.
- Captain Geographic: Captain Kremlin still counts after becoming America's Freedom Fighter.
- The Cape: David, Jack is more of a Dork Knight.
- Chest Insignia: Hero as well as some others.
- Comes Great Responsibility: David's stance - Jack's growing into it.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Is Tommy Rose one? Yes. Yes, he is.
- Deceptively Human Robots: The Jack era minions of Iron Talon. Very snarky for Mecha-Mooks.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Even the Iron Talon didn't want anything to do with genocide, despite the bloodshed necessary to create a properly functioning ring. Pity that by the time he drew the line, the Holocaust was well underway and the Nazi alchemists he had trained had already created several flawed rings.
- Flying Brick: Both Dr. Justice and America's Freedom Fighter.
- Freak Lab Accident: Origin of Saul Simian and partially, Iron Talon. Upon meeting Steel Phantom, who used to be humble professor Watkinson Jack lampshades how this just keeps happening to alchemists.
- Functional Magic: At least two kinds: alchemy and what the druids do. Probably more.
- Gang of Hats: The Street Pirates. They wield tommy guns while wearing full piratey getup. Complete with a cutlass.
- Genius Bruiser: Wearing a Vitalogy Ring will turn you into one sooner or later. David built all his own gadgets, then went on to contemplate the universe.
- Ghostapo: In David's era. They're reponsible for the ring being forged in the first place.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: That's how you fight when you possess the Golden Glove.
- Great Big Book of Everything: David's diaries, detailing his exploits, observations and deductions on his enemies and development notes on his gadgets, are practically a superheroing textbook for Jack. And a nice artifact for the villain to covet.
- Green Thumb: Seems to be a power of the druids.
- Hero Does Public Service: David worked in a soup kitchen, Jack has a strong sense of community as well.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Golden Glove to save David, which feeds the Survivor's Guilt he already has. Later David himself attempts to sacrifice his life, in the process of getting the world rid of Iron Talon.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: David Day and Walter Watkinson.
- Human Resources: Used to make the Rings.
- In a Single Bound: Hero By Night's primary mode of moving around, although it needs some practice to learn.
- I Was Beaten by a Girl: Jack Wouldn't Hit a Girl, but girls have no such qualms.
- Joker Immunity: Iron Talon. He's a villain obsessed with living forever, so we can call it Justified Trope. In a pinch.
- Just Like Robin Hood: The feminist trio of thieves who steal only from manly chauvinist pigs, or so they say.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Present-day David thinks he's just an old war veteran in a retirement home... until he starts to remember.
- Legacy Character: Jack first takes up the mantle to rescue Roz, and promises to give it up. Afterwards he finds that he just can't stay away from the heroing, though.
- Lured into a Trap: David gave his friends beacons to summon him in need. It really was a matter of time before the Big Bad thought to use it this way.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The entire mess with the journals is Jack's fault.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: David was shot at at least once. It ruined his best spandex. Also, the Golden Glove seems to grant it (as Required Secondary Powers, most likely).
- The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: Secret Society of Shadows
- Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Walter Watkinson.
- Our Vampires Are Different: They have a Hidden Elf Village in the sewers (with "ghouls" to defend it) and are, by and large, uninterested in the surface world.
- Painting the Medium: David's part of the story, set in the past, are told by his journals, old and yellowed, with newspaper clippings, photos, development notes for all the gadgets and so on. When David gets hurt by Kryptonite Factor wielding Iron Talon the pages are stained with blood.
- Phlebotinum Battery: The Vitalogy Rings give you a broad set of powers and abilities. Of course, there's a small problem of the ring poisoning your blood and making you dependent on itself.
- Pop-Cultured Badass: Jack's internal monologue follows the great example of Peter Parker.
- Punny Name: Scott Free. Really!
- Quintessential British Gentleman: Doctor Nowhere, the bowler-hat-and-magical-scarf-wearing, meticulously planning, distinguished traveller to alternate dimensions, whose means of transportation, while unimpressive at the first glance... wait...
- Scrapbook Story: David's diaries comprise the Fifties part of the narrative. In the story proper, Jack blogs. The diaries are also a handy Great Big Book of Everything Jack needs to know, and a nice artifact for the villain to covet.
- Secret Identity: It's a superhore story, so it's a given. Hero by Night has been David Day at first, and now Jack King is taking up the mantle.
- Secret-Keeper: R.T. for Jack. As well as his personal pep-talk giver.
- Shooting Superman: David has been shot at. It ruined his best spandex.
- Shout-Out: At the retirement home, David wakes from a Catapult Nightmare, yellingDavid :The ring must be destroyed!
- Superheroes Stay Single: David used to have something with the Elementress which might have been Dating Catwoman, but Roz isn't thrilled at the thought of being superhero's girlfriend.
- Superheroes Wear Capes: Most of them do, even though they're impractical.
- Super Team: The oficcialy sanctioned First Five in David's Cold War story arc consists of him, the Elementress, Dr. Justice, America's Freedom Fighter and Codename: the American.
- Super Villain: The Iron Talon, medieval alchemist and the mastermind behind some of the III'd Reich's crimes.
- Taking Up the Mantle: Jack, after David. Golden Glove also passes from father to son or from brother to brother.
- Telepathy: David has caught a telepathic spy once.
- Trapped by Gambling Debts: Marshall Jones, when we meet him.
- Triple Shifter: One of the perks granted by Vitalogy Rings is that the user no longer sleeps. At all. David took up meditating to be able to rest.
- Utility Belt: Part of the Hero by Night suit. Holds: small explosives, lockpicks, first aid supplies etc.
- War Is Hell: David's experienced it and can attest this.
