Line #100 ComicBook/Nailbiter


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/p28_0_copy.jpg]]
2
3	''Nailbiter'' is a 30-issue comic series published by Creator/ImageComics, written by Creator/JoshuaWilliamson and illustrated by Mike Henderson, ending in March, 2017.
4
5	The series centers around the fictional town of Buckaroo, Oregon, which has produced sixteen of the United States' worst {{serial killer}}s, each one with particular and peculiar motivations. Its most recent creation is Edward Charles Warren, otherwise known as "Nailbiter" due to his predilection for chewing off his victim's nails. By the series's start Warren has been caught by FBI agent Charles Carrol, however Carrol has since gone missing, leaving it up to his friend and intelligence agent Nicholas Finch to search for him. Nicholas decides to start his search in Buckaroo, where he begins to question why the small town has produced so many murderers.
6
7	A {{Crossover}} comic, ''Nailbiter[=/=]ComicBook/HackSlash'' was published March 2015.
8
9	On Halloween 2019, Joshua Williamson [[https://twitter.com/Williamson_Josh/status/1189939198150598657 tweeted]] an image teasing a continuation and in April, 2020 a new series called ''Nailbiter Returns'' began, and concluded with issue 10.
10
11	A third series, ''Son of Nailbiter'' was teased in the final issue of ''Nailbiter Returns''.
12
13	An anthology about the killers before the Nailbiter called ''Tales from the Nailbiter and Other Terrifying stories'' was launched through Substack in late 2022.
14	----
15	!!The series provides examples of:
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17	[[foldercontrol]]
18
19	[[folder:''Nailbiter'']]
20	* AbusiveParents: Alice's foster father. Initially just verbally abusive, he [[spoiler:immediately kicks her out of the house and pawns off everything she owns he couldn’t fit in the boxes after finding out the identity of her biological father]].
21	* ActionSurvivor: Alice, who gets by in fights with people older and more adept than her through sheer luck and guts.
22	* AffablyEvil: Warren is a pretty nice guy... but also a completely unrepentant SerialKiller. [[spoiler:Or is he unrepentant?]]
23	* AnArmAndALeg:
24	** Carroll has all of his limbs cut off by the time Finch finds him.
25	** [[spoiler:Mister Fatal/The Butcher of Buckaroo cuts off all of the bee-man's limbs while killing him.]]
26	** In the climax, [[spoiler:Barker cuts off Morty's arm rather than hurt the heroes]].
27	* ApocalypticLog: A minor example with Alice's notebook, which has her writing "AM I CRAZY?" over and over again.
28	* ArcVillain: The Devil Killer, a new SerialKiller in Atlanta, takes up a large part of the fourth arc.
29	* AxCrazy: While many of the Butchers may count, the most obvious example, [[spoiler:Abigail Barker]], isn’t one of them, but is institutionalized in a straitjacket in a padded room with the below-mentioned MadnessMantra once it is found out. Fittingly, [[spoiler:she has the "murder gene," like most of the Buckaroo Butchers]].
30	* BerserkButton:
31	** The entire town of Buckaroo would rather not be reminded about the serial killer thing.
32	** Men who catcalled The Blonde suffered some seriously DisproportionateRetribution.
33	** In Issue 11, Warren goes berserk when Finch begins ripping off his own nails with his teeth, as nails are "his".
34	* BigBad: TheMaster, creator of the Buckaroo Butchers.
35	* BlackComedy: Walter Kenney, The Clown Car Killer.
36	* BleedEmAndWeep: A variant in the fifth arc. [[spoiler:After decapitating Mister Fatal in a frenzy, Alice only realizes what she just did after being told by Warren, and throws the head away in fear.]]
37	* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler:All of the Buckaroo Butchers and Abigail Barker... except [[NotBrainwashed Warren]].]]
38	* TheCameo: Creator/BrianMichaelBendis comes to Buckaroo in issue 7.
39	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Mallory in the sixth issue is... weird. She wants to give birth in Buckaroo so her son can grow up to be a SerialKiller and she can be famous. How any of these have to connect to one another is clearly not something she thought hard on, as Alice just finds her utterly bizarre.
40	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler:The Bucker of Buckaroo]] murders [[spoiler:the Bee-man]] by dismembering him while alive, one limb at a time.
41	* DatingCatwoman: Warren and Sherrif Crane dated in high school. To say she regrets this is an understatement.
42	* DespairEventHorizon: Warren jumps over it for good in the finale, when he [[spoiler:finds out he was NotBrainwashed and thus has no excuse for being a SerialKiller, and is summarily told by Crane to never come near her or Alice ever again, leading to him pulling a TakingYouWithMe on Morty and [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane maybe]] coming back to haunt the Cranes afterwards]].
43	* DirtyCop: [[spoiler:Officer Vaughan, the Devil Killer.]] Also a KillerCop.
44	* DisproportionateRetribution:
45	** The Blonde targeted men who catcalled her. [[spoiler:She would then rip out their tongues, [[MouthStitchedShut sew their mouths shut]], and ended up parading a dozen of them down the street.]]
46	** The Book Burner was teased for his illiteracy, so he burned down a library, killing five people.
47	* DrivenToMadness: Having driven eight of the Buckaroo Butchers to school over his career, including Billy/Mister Fatal, Lauren/the Blonde and Warren drives Thomas Crowe the bus driver completely mad by the present day, leading him to try a MercyKill by drowning the school kids in a lake by driving into it.
48	* DrivingQuestion: Why does Buckaroo keep producing serial killers?
49	* DyingTown: The revelation that sixteen of the world's worst serial killers came from Buckaroo hasn't done wonders for the town's economy, population growth or sense of civic pride, and by the time the story starts it's a grim, down-at-heel place that attracts only ghoulish rubberneckers and law-enforcement officers. [[spoiler: It ends up dying quite literally when the Master detonates hidden stockpiles of explosives around town, destroying most of the town's infrastructure, and then when the rains come it floods the ruins, leaving the survivors to simply abandon it.]]
50	* TheEndOrIsIt: [[spoiler:The closing scene has Crane showering... and [[NotQuiteDead Warren]] lunges at her, being shot repeatedly until he collapses. [[FoeRomanceSubtext She gives him a kiss on the forehead after checking his pulse]], and gets out... only for him to get up and lunge at her again, pale as a sheet.]]
51	* FemmeFatale: Lauren Joy Burns, The Blonde. [[spoiler:She’s also ''not'' a SerialKiller, as she never actually killed anyone.]]
52	* {{Fingore}}: Right there in the title -- Warren is obsessed with biting fingernails, to the point that he usually ended up chewing the ends of his victims fingers ''off'' as well.
53	* FrameUp: [[PreacherMan Reverend Louis Fairgold]] frames Warren with [[spoiler:taking a bite out of Carroll]] to make him a target of the common people. It doesn’t actually fool the main characters, who realize that the act is not in his MO.
54	* {{Hallucinations}}: [[spoiler:Barker]] keeps having visions of murdering people after having been ForcedToWatch [[spoiler:the Butcher of Buckaroo]] kill the beekeeper. [[spoiler:It’s a symptom of what TheMaster does to people, making them BrainwashedAndCrazy, and Warren admits the same thing happened to him, and by extension the other Buckaroo Butchers.]]
55	* IAmAMonster: [[spoiler:Alice]] feels that she is going to be the next a Buckaroo Butcher due to how she is doubting her own sanity. [[spoiler:She isn’t a Butcher at all, though.]]
56	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: The story arcs, and by extension the collected editions, all contain the word blood in the title.
57	* ImAHumanitarian: Averted by Edward Warren, beyond fingernails. He's actually annoyed that most people think he is a cannibal.
58	* ImagineSpot: Warren has one in the ChristmasEpisode in the beginning of the sixth arc where he explains himself and his love of Crane to her, and she forgives him. Tragically, he only finds out he imagined it right after it ends, [[ThatCameOutWrong leading to him saying "no" to whether or not he wants to tell her the truth for once]].
59	* InternalHomage: Every issue that begins a new story arc has a character recreating the cover of issue 1.
60	* ItWasHereISwear: In the second arc, Finch is confused by how Roger's grandfather could have moved all of his bees and himself out of the basement he was kept in without anything at all around. Barker realizes he wasn’t lying when she finds the beekeeeper.
61	* {{Kneecapping}}: [[spoiler:Alice shoots Barker in the knee when she tries to murder Crane, using Crane's gun. Afterwards, the doctor says Barker will have a lifelong limp as a result.]]
62	* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: In issue 5, Warren notes that while he would like if the emergence of [[spoiler:the Butcher of Buckaroo]] took attention away from him, he doubts it would happen. Why?
63	-->'''Warren:''' [[CharacterTitle I’m the star.]]
64	* LegacyCharacter: [[spoiler:There are at least three Butchers of Buckaroo: Doctor Glory the younger, Mister Fatal, and briefly Abigail Barker.]]
65	* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Alice is the illegitimate daughter of Sheriff Crane and Ed Warren. It’s revealed to the doctors at the end of the third arc, and she herself finds out from Crane when she wakes up at the end of the fourth arc.]]
66	* MadnessMantra: [[spoiler:Agent Barker's]] "They Made Me Watch." First said just when in the midst of murderous hallucinations, it becomes all the speaker says, over and over, once institutionalized.
67	* MalevolentMaskedMan: Several of the Butchers, but in particular [[spoiler:The Butcher of Buckaroo]].
68	* MiscarriageOfJustice: Despite being caught pretty much red-handed in the prologue of the story, Warren somehow was found not guilty at his trial and went free, despite the fact that everyone knows he's as guilty as sin. [[spoiler: It's later revealed that TheConspiracy ensured this in order to use him as a guinea pig.]]
69	* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: The very definitely evil [[spoiler:Doctor Glory and Morty]].
70	* NobleDemon: Ed "Nailbiter" Warren himself. [[spoiler:In fact, he doesn’t even have the "murder gene".]]
71	-->'''Warren:''' Oh, I am very much a monster. Just be thankful I'm a monster with principles.
72	* NotBrainwashed: As it turns out, [[spoiler:Warren, despite being a Buckaroo Butcher, does ''not'' have the murder gene. He's distraught when he finds this out]].
73	* NotWhatItLooksLike: Warren's word-for-word response to being caught in the same room as a victim of the Devil Killer.
74	* OnceMoreWithClarity: The fifth arc begins and ends with [[spoiler:Alice having cut off soneone's head with a machete and screaming "DIE!" It takes the entire arc to explain that she had just decapitated [[TheDragon Mister Fatal/the Butcher of Buckaroo]] and was telling him to die, not the teenagers who find her covered in blood]].
75	* PleaseDontLeaveMe: Alice says this word-for-word as [[spoiler:she cradles Crane's bleeding body when she is stabbed by Barker in the sixth arc. Thankfully, she lives]].
76	* PopCulturalOsmosisFailure: Warren is annoyed when Alice doesn’t get his ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'' reference. PlayedForLaughs, as she’s just {{troll}}ing him.
77	* PutOnABus: Alice sits the majority of the fourth arc out, due to [[spoiler:being in a coma after being stabbed by the Butcher of Buckaroo]].
78	* RedRightHand: In a very meta sense - while the art is stylized, Warren is drawn with inhumanly pale skin, yellowing teeth, and due to ArtEvolution, an impossibly high nose.
79	* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Barker dies saving Crane from the collapsing gauntlet.]]
80	* RoomFullOfCrazy: Carrol's hotel room is a mild example, trying to crack the secret of Buckaroo, but it doesn't have a patch on [[spoiler: Alice's basement.]] On the other hand, by the end of the fifth arc, [[spoiler:Barker's padded cell, covered in bloody renderings of her MadnessMantra]], outstrips them both.
81	* ShoutOut: In issue 4, Warren makes the obvious one from his protective cell when Alice comes by.
82	-->'''Warren:''' [[Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hello, Clarice.]]
83	* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: [[spoiler:Carroll's brutal stabbing to death by Barker, made more shocking by the fact that it was RealAfterAll.]]
84	* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:Abandoned by Crane when she realizes [[EvilAllAlong he wasn’t just motivated by the murder gene]], Warren opts to take a DisneyVillainDeath by way of the caverns collapsing, making sure not to let go of TheMaster in the process.]]
85	* TortureTechnician: A part of Finch's job. He's good at it, but not proud of it.
86	* TownWithADarkSecret: Buckaroo, Oregon, a town which for some unknown reason has produced sixteen of the worst serial killers in history.
87	* VillainsWantMercy: TheMaster wants to be spared once he is finally caught. [[SerialKiller Warren]] isn't so generous.
88	* VillainousBreakdown: TheMaster begins begging for his life as soon as he is caught by Warren in the ending.
89	* VillainousCrush: Warren has a ''massive'' crush on Sheriff Sharon Crane. He never got over his feelings for her when they were an item in high school.
90	* WhamEpisode: Issue 24, which explains the origins of the Buckaroo Butchers.
91	* WhamLine:
92	** From the end of the first arc.
93	--->'''Barker:''' ... But Finch ''shouldn’t'' be here. [[spoiler:He’s supposed to be on trial for ''murder''.]]
94	** From the end of the third arc, as Sheriff Crane demands to be allowed [[spoiler:to come in the ambulance bringing Alice away]].
95	--->'''Crane:''' [[spoiler:[[LukeIAmYourFather She's my daughter, dammit.]]]]
96	** The reveal of the true identity of [[spoiler:The Butcher of Buckaroo as Mister Fatal]].
97	--->'''Butcher:''' [[spoiler:Can you guess why I wear this mask...? It’s because once upon a time your father and a [[ComicBook/HackSlash young girl just like you with a flaming baseball bat]] ruined my face...]]
98	* WhamShot:
99	** The first arc closes on [[spoiler:Alice]]'s RoomFullOfCrazy, which is even more elaborate than [[FBIAgent Carroll]]'s.
100	** The fourth arc closes on [[spoiler:Barker [[ManchurianAgent murdering]] [[HeKnowsTooMuch Carroll]]... and it's ''not'' one of her {{Hallucinations}}]].
101	* WorkingWithTheEx: Crane and Warren, exacerbated by the fact that Crane is TheSheriff and Warren became a SerialKiller.
102	* WouldntHurtAChild: Even though he's a serial killer Warren never hurt a child. Although [[spoiler:when he discovers Alice is his daughter he tells her he would have strangled her in her crib lest she turn out like him.]]
103	[[/folder]]
104
105	[[folder:''Nailbiter/Hack/Slash'']]
106	* {{Crossover}}: With ''ComicBook/HackSlash'', dealing with the Butchers Mister Fatal and Lucha Eliminador in the first and second issue respectively, and taking place before and during Warren being found out as a SerialKiller. [[spoiler:It turns out that the former is actually the Butcher of Buckaroo.]]
107	* HeroOfAnotherStory: [[SerialKillerKiller Cassie Hack]] of ''ComicBook/HackSlash'' has her own adventures, but is instrumental in [[spoiler:the transformation of Mister Fatal into the Butcher of Buckaroo]].
108	* InnocuouslyImportantEpisode: The crossover seems to just be another self-contained story like many others of its type, turns out to be [[spoiler:the origin of the Butcher of Buckaroo]].
109	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:Although she never finds out, [[ComicBook/HackSlash Cassie Hack]] ends up being indirectly responsible for the murders perpetrated by the Butcher of Buckaroo due to not killing him on the Ferris wheel in her {{crossover}}.]]
110	* TwoFaced: Mister Fatal ends up with this look after getting hit with the business end of Cassie Hack's baseball bat while it was on fire. [[spoiler:It’s why he ended up wearing a mask as the Butcher of Buckaroo.]]
111	[[/folder]]
112
113	[[folder:''Nailbiter Returns'']]
114	* TheReveal: The Warren who attacked Crane at the end of the first series is revealed to have been an imposter.
115	* SarcasticConfession: When Danny asks where Finch has been in chapter 2, he casually tells him that he was "visiting a serial killer I have locked in my basement" and true enough he was talking to Warren in his basement cell.
116	-->'''Danny:''' Dude, and you always get mad at ''me'' when I make jokes at crime scenes.
117	* SequelHook: Warren's long-lost son shows up to meet him.
118	[[/folder]]

Context ComicBook / Nailbiter