Line #4 ComicBook/Cosmo2018


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cosmo_2018_1_1.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Clockwise from the top: Cosmo, Captain Max Strongjaw, Jojo, Astra, Orbi, Medulla]]
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4	Back in the 1950's, during the heady early days of UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace, Creator/ArchieComics came up with ''Cosmo the Merry Martian''. The guy only had 7 issues that would later get serialized, but would gain some recognition after longtime Archie artist Fernando Ruiz kept sticking him in little cameos. ''Cosmo'' is a 2018 reboot of the ''Cosmo the Merry Martian'' miniseries by Creator/IanFlynn and Tracy Yardley (whose [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics work you might]] [[ComicBook/MegaManArchieComics be familiar with]]).
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6	An Earthling astronaut, the [[BlatantLies courageous]] Captain Max Strongjaw, is left adrift in the empty wastes between Earth and Mars after his ship's power fails; his life is saved when a passing Martian captain (the titular Cosmo) and his crew of explorers, en route to investigate a DistressCall from Earth's moon, bring the stranded ship aboard their own, much larger vessel. Cosmo wins over Max's initial distrust and paranoia, and Max agrees to accompany them on their rescue mission in return for a safe passage home -- but the Earthling quickly finds himself in over his head in a galaxy full of mad science, lunar zombies, and Venusian battle princesses...
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8	----
9	!!Tropes:
10	* AccidentalMisnaming: Max can't seem to get Cosmo's name right.
11	* AcePilot: Astra, who generally plays TheLancer to Cosmo.
12	* AchievementsInIgnorance: Max frees Cosmo and Jojo from the video game with no idea that there was anything wrong in issue #5.
13	* ActionGirl: Not so much Medulla, but Astra qualifies. As does the villainous Cleo; [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "Venusian Battle Princess"]] is the sort of ominous title one has to ''earn''.
14	* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Max freaks out when he realizes the aliens know his language.
15	* AmusementParkOfDoom: An abandoned alien theme park with an SOS distress beacon emanating from it? [[SarcasmMode Yeah, that sounds like]] [[SchmuckBait fun.]]
16	* BerserkButton: Anyone else attempting to fly while [[AcePilot Astra]] is present. She won't even let Max onto the bridge of the ''Ufo'' for fear he might touch something; Cosmo convinces her to leave him to a firefight by implying that if she doesn't, someone else -- likely Orbi -- will have to fly their shuttlecraft.
17	* BigEater: Orbi. When the ''Ufo'' crashes, his primary concern is eating all the food in the galley before it spills or spoils.
18	* BuffySpeak:
19	** Max Strongjaw slips into this early into issue #1:
20	--->"The ''Sagittarius'' has lost all power en route to Mars. It's cold. Dark. And even my iron will is starting to fold like... not-iron... stuff."
21	** And again in #3. At this point he's beginning to just make words up.
22	--->"This may be where I fall, but I will show these aliens the ''bravery, tenacity, and strength-ity of humanity!''"
23	** And then it turns out Cosmo does it too.
24	--->'''Cosmo:''' I owe you an apology [...] When we brought your ship on board, it was to ''save'' you. Now we're going to die in a very fangy-gnawy way. Some rescue mission ''this'' turned out to be.\
25	'''Max:''' Yes... well... you also did me a favor. I always wanted to go out as a space-adventurer. Being devoured by moon-mutants is about as space-adventurery as you can get!
26	* CaptainSpaceDefenderOfEarth: Captain Max Strongjaw subverts this trope to a tee, particularly his cowardliness and poor decision making in spite of his personality and heroic build, although his casually tossed-off reference to the [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theia_(planet) Theia hypothesis]] suggests he may have some HiddenDepths.
27	* {{Cephalothorax}}: Lunites, both ordinary natives and zombified Lunatiks.
28	* CheesyMoon: Played with; while the Moon is not made out of it, the ''medals'' that the Lunites give to the heroes ''are''.
29	* ChekhovsSkill: At the start of issue #5, Max mentions how awesome his video game skill are. At first it seems that he's just boasting, but when he takes control of the video game-trapped Cosmo, he proves to be an amazing gamer, completing the game in one sitting with no continues. An ''[[NintendoHard arcade video game]]'', mind you!
30	* CloudCuckoolander: Medulla has some traits of this, the foremost being her complete ignorance of priorities like ''not dying'' when there's [[ForScience SCIENCE!]] to be done.
31	-->'''Medulla:''' Could we maybe slow down ''just'' a bit? I'm having a hard time getting a clear reading while we flee in terror.\
32	'''Orbi:''' Medulla -- '''''seriously?!'''''\
33	'''Medulla:''' I know, you're right, but these creatures look so unique...
34	* ContinuityReboot: To the old-timey ''Cosmo the Merry Martian'' miniseries.
35	* CowerPower: When they're jumped by an unknown threat, Max's first instinct is to grab Astra and attempt to hide behind her, despite being twice her size. Of course, this may just be good sense -- Astra's armed, he isn't.
36	* DeadpanSnarker: Astra and especially Orbi fill this role; Cosmo is just too nice to snark consistently.
37	-->'''Orbi:''' Are all Earthlings like you?\
38	'''Max:''' I like to think of myself as a unique specimen.\
39	'''Orbi:''' One can only hope.
40	* DidntThinkThisThrough: Max Strongjaw tries to shoot out the windows to create ExplosiveDecompression when he finds himself trapped in an office building with hordes of mutants; unfortunately, he's forgotten that the entire park is pressurized and shooting out the window won't actually ''do'' anything other than to create an escape route.
41	* DrunkOnMilk: Thanks to BizarreAlienBiology, Medulla can get completely plastered on ''apple juice'' and other fruit flavors.
42	* EvilGloating: As demonstrated by Cleo, at greater length than necessary.
43	-->'''Max:''' Is everyone from Venus that [[BuffySpeak exposition-y]]?\
44	'''Cosmo:''' Comes with the job. I sat in on one of their training seminars.
45	* FamilyFriendlyFirearms: Cosmo and Astra carry "concussive stun blasters", the name of which implies that they aren't lethal (Cosmo is annoyed by the term "death ray"). Still effective if you need to blow out a door or a window, though.
46	* FastballSpecial: When Orbi has a minor panic attack over having to jump out of the shuttle (he's afraid of heights... and a lot of other things), Astra picks him up bodily and flings him out of the open hatch -- straight into Cleo, knocking her flat.
47	* HumanAliens: The Martians are child-sized humanoids with PointyEars and pastel skin colors. Max, who was apparently expecting StarfishAliens, is repeatedly caught off guard by how human-like they turn out to be: upon stumbling into the showers, he immediately assumes they serve some other, more nefarious purpose, and when Cosmo shows him the captain's quarters he is actually surprised by the presence of an ordinary bed.
48	-->'''Max:''' Your ship intrigues me, [[AccidentalMisnaming Gizmo]].\
49	'''Cosmo:''' ''[[AccidentalMisnaming "Cosmo."]]''\
50	'''Max:''' Your culture, your technology. So alien, and yet... so familiar.
51	* IChooseToStay: Cosmo's original deal with Max was to take him home to Earth after their business on Luna was finished. Max, rather to Cosmo's delight, points out that they still don't know what the whole conspiracy was all about and their business ''won't'' be finished until they investigate it.
52	-->'''Max:''' If I go back now, I'll be locked into months of tests and depositions. Who ''knows'' what evil those Venusians will get up to in that time?
53	* IgnoredEnemy: Played with. Instead of getting into an argument while fighting Cleo, Max and Cosmo begin discussing the FireForgedFriends trope, complimenting one another, and finally shake hands right in front of her. Unfortunately, being ignored is Cleo's BerserkButton.
54	* ImprovisedWeapon: Max embarrasses himself trying to do this when Cosmo corners him in the showers. He turns on the nearest showerhead and threatens to drench Cosmo with whatever "vile liquid" is coming out of it, only to be told that it's water. Max then turns the water up hotter and hides in the cloud of steam until he can jump Cosmo and take him hostage... but the sharp object he ''thought'' he was threatening Cosmo with turns out to be a rather blunt bar of soap.
55	* InsistentTerminology:
56	** Cosmo's ship is a UFO, but it's pronounced "you-foe" -- he's annoyed that Max spells out the acronym instead. (Max {{facepalm}}s when he finds out the ''Ufo'' has a shuttlecraft called the ''[[{{Pun}} Tufo]]''.)
57	** Cosmo is offended when Max asks to borrow his "Martian death ray".
58	--->'''Cosmo:''' "Death ray"?! It's a concussive stun blaster!\
59	'''Max:''' You say "blaster", I say ''"victory"!''
60	* KeepAway: Done by Cosmo, Orbi, and Max when they nab Cleo's staff.
61	-->'''Astra:''' Aw, ''man!'' I ''love'' keep-away! Thinking practically, I could swoop down and ''really'' get it out of range...[[WhyDontYouJustShootHim I could also just run Cleo over.]] ...Choices...
62	* LanternJawOfJustice: Max. With a surname like "Strongjaw", anything else would've had been a travesty.
63	* LittleGreenMen: Played with. The Martians ''are'' diminutive and have weird skin and hair colors, but they aren't green and don't have antennae; in fact, if you're green it means you're from ''Venus''.
64	* {{Lunarians}}: Although they're technically called Lunites.
65	* {{Matriarchy}}: Implied, in the case of Venus; the monarch (Hesper) and all the military leaders (the Battle Princesses) are female.
66	* MindControlDevice: Cleo's staff is how she orders the zombified Lunites around; this is discovered when Orbi yanks it away from her and suddenly finds the Lunatiks obeying ''him''.
67	* TheMostDangerousVideoGame[=/=]TrappedInTVLand: The booby-trapped arcade game Cosmo gets sucked into. Max has to get Cosmo and his fellow hostages (Jojo and an Arcadean) [[WinToExit out of the game]] by ''playing'' Cosmo all the way through it.
68	* MundaneUtility:
69	** Max finds a floating sphere in the galley with a bunch of knives embedded in it; he asks what kind of weapon it is, and Astra tells him that it really is just their knife rack. [[NoodleIncident Although there was this one time...]]
70	** There's many other mundane uses of AntiGravity technology aboard the ''Ufo'', including suspensor chairs (there's one in Cosmo's quarters) and a floating punching bag in the ship's gym; the gym also contains a barbell whose weight can be dialed up or down.
71	--->'''Cosmo:''' The bar here can be set to any weight, even zero-G if you just want to do reps.\
72	'''Orbi:''' Yeah... just reps... [[CoughSnarkCough ahem!]]
73	* NeverSplitTheParty: After Medulla [[AbsentMindedProfessor detects a strange life sign in the abandoned park and wanders away from the group]], Orbi bemoans her ignorance of this trope and runs after her.
74	* NoodleIncident: Cosmo's crew seem to have a ''lot'' of these in their background.
75	-->'''Astra:''' Ugh... This is Terta Nova 3 all over again, isn't it?\
76	'''Cosmo:''' Yes, but this time we all have our pants.
77	* ThePigpen: Lunites, surprisingly enough. We find out that they consider it an extraordinary sacrifice to have to take ''two'' baths a year.
78	* PlanetOfHats: Arcadea, an alien resort planet devoted entirely to games.
79	* ProperlyParanoid: Medulla, oddly enough. Her insistence on installing ''four'' extra inertial dampeners in her lab, just in case the ''Ufo'' loses its stabilizers and goes out of control, results in her being the only person not being knocked around like a pinball when it actually happens.
80	* ProtagonistTitle
81	* PunyEarthlings: Earth technology, what we see of it, is rather behind those of the Martians and other aliens. Medulla admits to being impressed that humans reached the Moon with the primitive methods available to them in 1969, but points out that Martians had not only been to Luna by then, they had ''built an amusement park'' on the far side. (The park went bust, incidentally, after a better one was built back home under Olympus Mons.)
82	* RapidFireFisticuffs: Orbi's main weapon. In a tight corner, he pops a pair of force-field "blades" out of his arm guards and proceeds to wildly flail his way out of danger, flinging even Cleo aside and breaking a ladder in the process.
83	-->'''Orbi:''' ''NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE!''
84	* RussianReversal: On Arcadea, the test-your-strength machines punch ''you''.
85	-->'''Alien:''' That was ''awesome!'' What's my score?\
86	'''Computer Voice:''' Thirty-point-two meters!\
87	'''Alien:''' Aww! ''So'' close!
88	* SheKnowsTooMuch: The reason for the booby-trapped game's existence. A juice-bar owner overheard a phone conversation involving a certain Battle Princess Shih, who accidentally mentioned some extremely incriminating information in front of her; Shih jury-rigged the game and trapped her in it to keep her from blowing the whistle until long after Shih was gone.
89	* ShootOutTheLock: Following an [[DistressCall SOS beacon signal]] leads Cosmo, Astra, and Max to a locked building. As Cosmo speculates about how to get in, Astra pulls her gun and blows the doors clean off the hinges.
90	-->'''Cosmo:''' This is private property!\
91	'''Astra:''' ''Abandoned'' private property. Now let's go find the source of the SOS.
92	* ShoutOut: Not uncommon, but the video game Cosmo and Jojo get stuck in is ''loaded'' with them. A single two-page spread crams in references to ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'', ''Franchise/MegaMan'', ''VideoGame/PacMan'', ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'', ''VideoGame/DragonsLair'', ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' (complete with a blatant King Dedede {{expy}}), ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'', ''VideoGame/AlteredBeast1988'', and pretty much any game where your character has to fight their EvilTwin. The variant cover for this issue is an homage to the classic American UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem cartridge boxes, and the "next issue" box on the final page reads simply "[[Franchise/{{Metroid}} See You Next Mission!]]"
93	* TheSmartGuy: Medulla, the resident scientist, as instantly distinguished by her [[LabcoatOfScienceAndMedicine white lab coat]] and diamond-shaped NerdGlasses.
94	* SpaceOpera: Complete with RagtagBunchOfMisfits, exotic interstellar locales, and exploration. Ironically, Max looks like the [[CaptainSpaceDefenderOfEarth square-jawed space hero]] you'd expect to be the stereotypical lead, but he's stuck in a supporting role.
95	* {{Squee}}: Very likely when Astra's around neat hardware.
96	-->'''Salesman:''' Now ''you'' look like a lady who knows a bargain when she sees it. Like, say, this ''trilithium razzinazzer?''\
97	'''Astra: ''!''''' [[note]][[AC:(This sound cannot be rendered in text or the visible spectrum.)]][[/note]]
98	* StandardHumanSpaceship: The ''Sagittarius'' has a more utilitarian design, and a much less flashy paint job, than the ''Ufo''.
99	* TeamPet: Jojo, a four-eyed alien dog.
100	* VoluntaryShapeshifter: Jojo's powers enable him to get out of danger rapidly.
101	-->'''Max:''' ...Did your dog just turn into a ladder?\
102	'''Cosmo:''' [[CallARabbitASmeerp What's a "dog"?]]
103	* WalkingTheEarth: The interplanetary equivalent. When Max asks about the Martians' superiors, he's informed that they don't have any.
104	-->'''Cosmo:''' My friends and I travel the system for the sake of adventure and discovery.\
105	'''Max:''' ''(smiles)'' Is that a fact? I like the sound of that.
106	* WeWillMeetAgain: Queen Hesper. When an embarrassed Cleo calls in to report that she's been thwarted, Hesper assures her that her chance for revenge will come -- they have unfinished business with Cosmo.
107	* WinToExit: In issue #5, Cosmo and Jojo are trapped inside an arcade video game, alongside other unfortunate souls, by Battle Princess Shih. The only way out is to win the game. Thankfully, Max turned out to be an excellent gamer, controlling Cosmo to victory in a perfect run, without actually knowing about the whole "trapped in a video game" situation.
108	* WrongAssumption: Jumping to conclusions on insufficient evidence is practically Max's defining character trait.
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Context ComicBook / Cosmo2018