History ComicBook / BigBangComics

** Roger Ryan a.k.a. The Badge

* DentedIron: ''Knight Watchman: The Graveyard Shift'', unlike the comic it is a homage to, shows the consequences if Knight Watchman attempted to fight crime again after a few years of retirement. Yes, Knight Watchman is incredibly athletic for a man his age but he still struggles fighting multiple opponents and makes numerous mistakes due to his age which ultimately forces him to use special armour to just keep up with his enemies.

* ParodyAssistance: ''Big Bang Comics'' sometimes got assistance from the creators of the works they were pastiching, such as Curt Swan drawing a cover featuring two incarnations of Ultiman, or Dave Cockrum drawing the cover for the ''Comicbook/LegionOfSuperheroes'' pastiche the Pantheon of Heroes.

* ClarkKenting: Ultiman’s identity as Chris Kelly is public as he works for the government, but in order to have a break from his life he uses the identity of Carl Kelly, his twin brother who died and who Lori Lake hates. As Carl he acts far more selfish and flirts with Lori directly while wearing a fake moustache, with everyone wondering how the two of them could be related. While the TropeNamer is often described as having a silly disguise, Ultiman's disguise is far for ridiculous as Lori spends pretty much every day with both Ultiman and "Carl", and when he needs to change into Ultiman all he would do is go into his office as "Carl" and come out in his superhero identity with no one wondering why they never see the siblings together.

* TrickArrow: The robot archer Robo-Hood a high-tech quiver that can manufacture whatever trick arrow he needs when he needs it.

** The Atomic Sub = ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}

* BackwardsFiringGun: When MadScientist Dr. Dookmkopf attempts to shoot Super-Frankenstein with his [[DeathRay sub-atomic annihilator]]. His assistant points out the annihilator has not been tested, Doomkopf dismisses this, saying he will test it on Frankenstein. The ray backfires and disintegrates Doomkopf, leaving everything else untouched.

** Dr. Weird = ComicBook/TheSpectre with some ComicBook/DrFate.

** Dr. Weird = ComicBook/TheSpectre

* ClarkKenting: Ultiman identity as Chris Kelly is public as he works for the government, but in order to have a break from his life he uses the identity of Carl Kelly, his twin brother who died and who Lori Lake hates. As Carl he acts far more selfish and flirts with Lori directly while wearing a fake moustache, with everyone wondering how the two of them could be related. While the TropeNamer is often described as having a silly disguise, Ultiman's disguise is far for ridiculous as Lori spends pretty much every day with both Ultiman and "Carl", and when he needs to change into Ultiman all he would do is go into his office as "Carl" and come out in his superhero identity with no one wondering why they never see the siblings together.

* ClarkKenting: Ultiman identity as Chris Kelly is public as he works for the govenrmetn, but in order to have a break from his life he uses the identity of Carl Kelly, his twin brother who died and who Lori Lake hates. As Carl he acts far more selfish and flirts with Lori directly while wearing a fake moustache, with everyone wondering how the two of them could be related. While the TropeNamer is often described as having a silly disguise, Ultiman's disguise is far for ridiculous as Lori spends pretty much every day with both Ultiman and "Carl", and when he needs to change into Ultiman all he would do is go into his office as "Carl" and come out in his superhero identity with no one wondering why they never see the siblings together.

* RealityEnsues: ''Knight Watchman: The Graveyard Shift'', unlike the comic it is a homage to, shows the realistic consequences if Knight Watchman attempted to fight crime again after a few years of retirement. Yes, Knight Watchman is incredibly athletic for a man his age but he still struggles fighting multiple opponents and makes numerous mistakes due to his age which ultimately forces him to use special armour to just keep up with his enemies.

* AmbiguouslyGay: As Reid Randall, the Knight Watchman funds his crime fighting by running a business that makes women's clothing while living with his mother while putting on a more foppish personality. The {{Mockumentary}} comics imply that since he never dates anyone this leads everyone to assume he's homosexual, therefore nobody would suspect he is the Knight Watchman. However the MetaFiction references a female hero was introduced to act as his love interest in the 50s when it was suspected that he wasn't pretending and was a poor role model for children, reflecting the real world suspicions and backlash Batman comics faced at the time. By the time of ''The Graveyard Shift'' Reid never married while it is pretty much confirmed that his archenemy the Pink Flamingo himself was gay while it is implied he had a sexual interest in Reid, who's reaction leaves plenty up to interpretation considering the relationship between their inspirations.

* GenreShift: An InUniverse example with Thunder Girl with the {{Mockumentary}} material explaining how due to a legal issue Thunder Girl comics ceased publication during the 1940s and she therefore wasn't reimagined for the Silver Age era like Ultiman. When the Golden Age comics were established to exist on Earth-B this was explained to be the home of Thunder Girl, who ended up trapped on Earth-B following the crossover between the two universes. However her magical origin means that when she transforms back into Molly Wilson on Earth-B she loses her memory and she is forced to be in her Thunder Girl form all the time while using a disguise to go around as Molly. The "original" comics were described as too cartoony for modern readers and therefore Thunder Girl was reimagined as part of Ultiman's cast, and unlike in the original comics where she was an orphan she now lived with the Earth-A versions of her parents who were alive while dealing with a younger sister who was aware that Molly wasn't her actual sister, who went missing while searching for the fountain of youth which provided an explanation for why she was so young.

* LighterAndSofter: ''The Graveyard Shift'' is this in comparison to ''The Dark Knight Returns'', especially when considering all the sequels and prequels the comic got. Unlike Batman the Knight Watchman maintains a close bond with his former sidekick, he is still friends with Ultiman and doesn't fight him, the story ends with the heroes beating the villain with little personal cost and Knight Watchman proves he simply wants to help the innocent as opposed to the KnightTemplar and SociopathicHero attitude the TKNR Batman shows. Also while Knight Watchman's city has a ban on illegal vigilantes, with Galahad being accepted since he works with the police, the rest of the world didn't force it's heroes into retirement and the Round Table of Justice is still active.

* AllLovingHero: Ultiman is this, which makes sense considering he's based on the most famous example of this in all of comics. He even cares for robots that he had designed to manage and protect his Secret Citadel, and when one is destroyed he makes a grave for it. However most characters fall into this trope considering the comics are primarily based on Silver Age adventures of DC heroes.
* AlternateUniverse: There is Earth-A, which is the setting of the Silver Age heroes in the 1960s, and Earth-B, the setting of the Golden Age heroes in the 1940s. Some characters, like Ultiman and Knight Watchman, exist on both Earths while other characters, such as the two different versions of the Beacon, only exist on one. There is also a third universe where the Sphinx originates from where AncientEgypt conquered the world.

* LighterAndSofter: ''The Graveyard Shift'' is this in comparison to ''The Dark Knight Returns'', especially when considering all the sequels and prequels the comic got. Unlike Batman the Knight Watchman maintains a close bond with his former sidekick, he is still friends with Ultiman and doesn't fight him, the story ends with the heroes beating the villain with little personal cost and Knight Watchman proves he simply wants to help the innocent as opposed to the KnightTemplar and SociopathicHero attitude the TKNR Batman shows. Also while Knight Watchman's city has a ban on illegal vigilantes, with Galahad being accepted since he works with the police, the rest of the world dind't force it's heroes into retirement and the Round Tableof Justice is still active.

* PhlebotinumBattery: Ultiman is a CaptainErsatz version of Superman, but his powers come from a meteor that struck his shuttle when he was an astronaut. Today, he keeps it in a safe in his Secret Citadel, and exposes himself to its rays every now and then to recharge.
** A pseudo-BadFuture showed a retired Ultiman, who built up a tolerance to the meteor's rays and kept having to expose himself to them for longer and longer until he got radiation sickness and had to quit the superhero game. His powers gradually faded away due to the lack of exposure to the meteor.

* RealityEnsues: ''Knight Watchman: The Graveyard Shift'', unlike the comic it is a homage to, shows the realistic consequences if Knight Watchman attempted to fight crime again after a decade of retirement. Yes, Knight Watchman is incredibly athletic for a man his age but he still struggles fighting multiple opponents and makes numerous mistakes due to his age. Also while

** Ultiman = Franchise/{{Superman}}

* LighterAndSofter: ''The Graveyard Shift'' is this in comparison to ''The Dark Knight Returns'', especially when considering all the sequels and prequels the comic got. Unlike Batman the Knight Watchman maintains a close bond with his sidekick, he is still friends with Ultiman and doesn't fight him, the story ends with the heroes beating the villain with little personal cost and Knight Watchman proves he simply wants to help the innocent as opposed to the KnightTemplar attitude the TKNR Batman shows.
* LovesMyAlterEgo: Ultiman is really Chris Kelly, but this isn't a secret to his co-workers, because he works for the government in his capacity as Ultiman. However, he keeps another identity on the side: that of his own twin brother, Carl Kelly. "Carl" is a shiftless womanizer, despised by the Ultiman-crazed Lori Lake.

* RealityEnsues: ''Knight Watchman: The Graveyard Shift'', unlike the comic it is a homage to, shows the realistic consequences if Knight Watchman attempted to fight crime again after a decade of retirement. Yes, Knight Watchman is incredibly athletic for a man his age but he still struggles fighting multiple opponents and makes numerous mistakes due to his age.
* {{Reconstruction}}: In many ways ''The Graveyard Shift'' is a reconstruction of the Silver Age Batman after ''The Dark Knight Returns'' [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructed]] it. Sure KW is more brutal and violent in response to how much darker the villains got and he has a more complicated relationship with Ultiman and Galahad as a result of his insistence of working outside of the law while they worked with it. He even admits to doubting whether he could trust either of them because of this and has some resentment due to all the powers Ultiman has. However despite this he still fights for the right reasons and cares about people, he and Galahad still have a strong bond with the latter not believing for a second that he could be guilty of the crime he was framed with, and he respects and admires Ultiman who like him is facing the reality of growing old with the two parting amicably instead of fighting. The story ends with the Pink Flamingo, the Big Bang version of the Joker, almost being killed and saved at the last minute by the Knight Watchman, who notes that he could just let his greatest foe die but reminds himself that he is not an executioner and just wants to help people.

* ComicBookTime: According to the MetaFiction, during the 60s the owners of the company came up with the idea of having their characters age in real time. This allowed the real life writers to show the characters throughout their entire lives and the consequences of them getting older, such as how Ultiman's powers slowly faded and how Reid Randall retired in 1990 once the writers started to question how effective he could be at his age.

* {{Mockumentary}}: ''Big Bang Comics'' published a two issue ''History of Big Bang Comics'', which detailed the fictional history of the comic book publisher whose [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] and [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] stories they were supposedly reprinting.
* MetaFiction: The comics, particularly those that collect several stories, had pages describing the fictional history of the character and the company in the real world. Apparently, after they completed the ''Film/DollarsTrilogy'', Creator/ClintEastwood and Creator/SergioLeone made the 1969 film ''Knight Watchman: Year One''. The next few films however starred Creator/RonHoward and Leone only directed the second film, after which the franchise became more comedic and light hearted.

* LighterAndSofter: ''The Graveyard Shift'' is this in comparison to ''The Dark Knight Returns'', especially when considering all the sequels the comic got. Unlike Batman the Knight Watchman maintains a close bond with his sidekick, he is still friends with Ultiman and doesn't fight him, the story ends with the heroes beating the villain with little personal cost and Knight Watchman proves he simply wants to help the innocent as opposed to the KnightTemplar attitude the TKNR Batman shows.

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Knight Watchman: The Graveyard Shift'' is this due to being a copy of ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'', showing the character and his allies decades in the future with everything having become far more brutal and violent.
* DeathByOriginStory: Reid Randall's brother and sister-in-law are killed by a [[ExternalCombustion car bomb]], inspiring him to become the Knight Watchman to avenge them.

* {{Reconstruction}}: In many ways ''The Graveyard Shift'' is a reconstruction of the Silver Age Batman after ''The Dark Knight Returns'' [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructed]] it. Sure KW is more brutal and violent in response to how much darker the villains got and he has a more complicated relationship with Ultiman and Galahad as a result of his insistence of working outside of the law while they worked with it. He even admits to doubting whether he could trust either of them because of this and has some resentment due to all the powers Ultiman has. However despite this he still fights for the right reasons and cares about people, he and Galahad still have a strong bond with the latter not believing for a second that he could be guilty of the crime he was framed with, and he respects and admires Ultiman who like him is facing the reality of growing old with the two parting amicably instead of fighting.

* Reconstruction: In many ways ''Knight Watchman: The Graveyard Shift'' is a reconstruction of the Silver Age Batman after ''The Dark Knight Returns'' [[Deconstruction deconstructed]] it. Sure KW is more brutal and violent in response to how much darker the villains got and he has a more complicated relationship with Ultiman and Galahad as a result of his insistence of working outside of the law while they worked with it. He even admits to doubting whether he could trust either of them because of this and has some resentment due to all the powers Ultiman has. However despite this he still fights for the right reasons and cares about people, he and Galahad still have a strong bond with the latter not believing for a second that he could be guilty of the crime he was framed with, and he respects and admires Ultiman who like him is facing the reality of growing old with the two parting amicably instead of fighting.

* BackwardsFiringgun: When MadScientist Dr. Dookmkopf attempts to shoot Super-Frankenstein with his [[DeathRay sub-atomic annihilator]]. His assistant points out the annihilator has not been tested, Doomkopf dismisses this, saying he will test it on Frankenstein. The ray backfires and disintegrates Doomkopf, leaving everything else untouched.