Webcomic / Skullgirls

Skullgirls is a webcomic written by Mike Exner III and illustrated by Wiirdo and Leigha based on the video game of the same name.

It tells the story of how Marie became the titular Skullgirl while also following many other important members of the cast.

The comic can be read on Webtoon.

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Skullgirls provides examples of:

• Adaptation Deviation:
  • Vitale sends out both Cerebella and Eliza to find the life gem after Fishbone Gang nabbed it, when in the original game, Lorenzo sends out Black Dahlia first, who then brutally butcher said gang. Granted, in the comic, Lorenzo later sends Dahlia, to Vitale's protests. Lorenzo makes it clear he doesn't like Vitale taking the reins from him.
  • In the game, Eliza is surprised to learn that the source of Lorenzo's eternal youth is the Life Gem. Here she seems to be privy to it from the get-go, and senses that the Life Gem has merged with Ms. Fortune's body after getting a taste of her blood but elects not to tell Black Dahlia or Cerebella (unless all she was doing was discreetly sucking up some of Nadia's blood for herself).
• Adaptational Dumbass: There wasn't much indicating Panzerfaust as dumb in the game. Here, he's very much portrayed to be the Dumb Muscle of Parasoul's group.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: In the game, Valentine sided with the Skullgirl after her own team is wiped out and plotted behind her back, only opposing those who come for Marie to satisfy her own sadism while intending kill Marie. In this comic, she shows to care for Marie's wellbeing, growing concerned with her returning late and preparing to help Marie when she is hurt.
• Adaptational Villainy: In the game, Marie explicitly only hunts the Medici and their affiliates and goes out of her way to avoid hurting bystanders. While she does attack the Anti-Skull Labs due to the potential threat they pose to her, she otherwise never goes out of her way to fight any non-Medici aligned characters. Here, Marie is far more violent and unhinged in her crusade, in addition to being far less concerned with collateral damage, such as when she practically massacres the neighborhood of Maplecrest with no regard for any potential innocents.
  • This is best exemplified in her encounter with Filia's family. Filia's origin story in Mobile the sight of Samson triggers memories within the Skull Heart, leading Marie to spare them, though not before demanding that they of skip town. Here, these memories do nothing to calm her wrath and Filia's family are only spared due to Marie flying off to fight the police. And that's not before trapping them in a ring of fire and leaving them for dead.
  • However, this all may be Justified by the fact that Double told her that taking out Mapelcrest would hurt the Medicis the most since she never said how many Medicis are actually living there.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Episode 0 details how Marie came into possession of the Skull Heart which was later shown in her own story mode while also showing the Skullgirls that came before her.
  • Three of those gangsters Marie summons in her boss fight? Episode 8 reveals them to be Medici whom Marie incinerated to the bone and turned into her minions.
  • The Fishbone Gang appears alive in the story due to it being a prequel to the game. While their theft of the life gem from Lorenzo Medici was never shown in the original game or in Skullgirls Mobile, it is shown to be one of the main plotlines of the Webtoon. It also shows Ms. Fortune accidentally swallowing the life gem, the deaths of the entire Fishbone Gang, and Nadia discovering her new powers and meeting Minette for the first time and adapting the beginning of her story mode from the game.
• Ambiguously Gay: Molly and Roxie are implied to be in love with each other. This is best shown in Episode 3 where Molly happily asks if Roxie saw her flip Adam over while Roxie congratulates Molly and calls her "Hun", complete with hearts being shown near both of them. Later, Word of God revealed that Molly and Roxie are a couple.
• Broken Bird: Sinker believes Peacock is definitely this.
  Sinker: That little one's broken. I've seen the type. Somebody put her through the wringer, but now she's strong enough to never let it happen again. She'll run through anybody that crosses her, just you watch... and she won't be doing it with kiddie gloves on neither.
• The Caper: We see how the Fishbone Gang stole the Life Gem from Lorenzo... along with the entirety of his penthouse suite.
• Comically Missing the Point: Molly asks Panzerfaust why he needlessly carries so much equipment pointing out that she never sees him use it. He responds saying that he uses it in the war, only for Molly to point out that said war ended seven years ago.
• Doomed by Canon:
  • In the webtoons, we are finally introduced to the Fishbone Gang. However, we know that they were Killed Offscreen in the original game. And here, we get to see their deaths in all their gory glory.
  • Filia's family may get established to survive an attack from the Skullgirl, but that doesn't mean they will be Spared by the Adaptation. Sure enough, they get a visit from Vitale, who promptly has them killed.
  • Just like in the game, Lab 8 is attacked by Marie and everyone there is killed including Dr. Avian. Unlike the game however, Peacock isn't at the lab when he dies and only hears his final words on the phone with Season 1 of the webcomic ending on a shot of Avian's lifeless dead hand.
• Facepalm Of Doom: Filia gets her skull positively pulverized by one to the floor, courtesy of Ottomo.
• Honor Before Reason: Parasoul when she decided to go after Lorenzo Medici when it was discover their hand in human trafficking, even though her father points out that is a horrible idea. The only reason she stopped trying to arrest Lorenzo is due to the appearance of the new Skullgirl.
• Low Clearance: Due to his size, Panzerfaust has accidentally broken a ceiling fan or hit his flexible helmet crest against a door frame.
• No-Sell: With the power of the life gem, Lorenzo Medici takes Marie's flames like they were nothing.
• Oh, Crap!: Turns out Nadia swallowing the life gem was not on purpose. She hid the gem in her mouth when Eliza and Cerebella came, and Eliza hurting one of her friends causes her to accidentally swallow it, leaving her horrified as she tells the remaining member of what she did before he is struck down by Dahlia, leaving her at Dahlia's mercy.
• Police Are Useless: When Adam asks Parasoul why they don't let the police handle the Medici, Parasoul responds by pointing out that every police investigation came empty handed.
• Rapid Aging: Much like in the game, without the Life Gem on him. Lorenzo rapidly ages to become a desiccated husk of his former self.
• Shout-Out:
  • Ms. Fortune's response to Parasoul finding her suits her cat nature, but is also the same response when a certain hedgehog got caught.
    Ms. Fortune: Uh... Meow?
  • Umbrella eyes giving a shoutout to Among Us◊.
  • When Peacock is rampaging around the River King Casino, Phoenix Wright, Apollo Justice, Dick Gumshoe, and Klavier Gavin can be seen.
  • The cleaner crew the Fishbone Gang mugged for there disguises clearly look like Jigen, Goemon, Fujiko and Lupin the Third.
  • Filia's family is apparently neighbors with the Forger family.
• Survivor's Guilt: After the Fishbone Gang are murdered by Black Dahlia, Nadia is shown crying that her friends are now gone while the Life Gem only saved her from staying dead.
• Villain with Good Publicity: The Medici, with King Franz explaining why Parasoul can't just arrest Lorenzo.
  Franz: At present, the Medici maintain a sterling reputation with the public. A far better reputation than our own. The majority think of the Medici as saviors, who valiantly stood against our regime. Is it war you covet, daughter, so soon after the last? Because arresting a man so beloved as Lorenzo Medici so suddenly would further sour the public against us. There'd be riots in the streets.

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