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Released in 2009, just in time for the 60th anniversary of Casper the Friendly Ghost. Casper and the Spectrals is a 3-issue reboot of the friendly ghost and his two friends, Wendy the Witch and Hot Stuff the Little Devil, published by Ardden Entertainment.

There is a city within New York City known as Spooky Town, but most humans are unable to see it. Within this city live the Supernaturals, the ghosts, goblins, demons and witches of the world. When an ancient entity known only as the Volbragg threatens both New York and Spooky Town, Casper and his friends are forced to band together and defeat an unimaginable evil.


Tropes:

  • Adaptational Backstory Change: Hot Stuff, unlike Casper or Wendy, has parents and an older brother.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy: The Ghostly Trio and the witches who raise Wendy are normally bullies who only occasionally show care towards their wards, here they are are stern but not abusive and their meaner actions are out of Anger Born of Worry than actually being mean.
  • Adaptational Wimp: Hot Stuff, while he keeps the power to fly and can teleport he lacks most of his super powers from the classic comics, including possession, invisibility, speed, magic, etc. Even his signature fire abilities were removed.
  • Age Lift: The main trio all seem to be on their early teens while in most incarnations they are young kids.
  • All for Nothing: Casper tried his best effort to scare a werewolf to save his friends despite his reluctance to do so but the werewolf simply laughed at him.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Volbragg is a giant.
  • Back from the Dead: Hot Stuff in the ending thanks to some lava.
  • Big Apple Sauce: Where the story is set.
  • Clothing Damage: Hot Stuff's brother and his friend when Hot Stuff tricks them into falling on a pit of lava, resulting in all of his clothes burned by lava leaving them totally naked. Hot Stuff then suffers these in the third issue when he has to be submerged in lava to save his life.
  • Darker and Edgier: While still suitable for kids, it is definitely darker than the Cartoons and comics the three main characters originally appeared in.
  • Dirty Business: How Wendy sees gathering scares, wishing that her aunts didn't enjoy it so much.
  • Disney Death: Hot Stuff is mortally wounded in the final battle with Volbragg, but revived with lava.
  • Emotion Eater: Volbragg created a sphere that could harness the energy generated by scaring humans in order to grow more powerful.
  • Fantastic Racism: The various supernaturals don't get along. Spooky Town is thus divided in separate neighborhoods for the various kinds of supernaturals, and interaction between them is strictly forbidden.
  • Forbidden Friendship: Between Casper, Wendy and Hot Stuff due to the Fantastic Racism between the various supernatural types.
  • Four-Fingered Hands: While Humans have five fingers, Devils, Ghosts and other supernatural beings are drawn with four-fingered hands.
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Wendy. While she understands why it's necessary to scare humans, she is against the abuse her tutors inflict on them.
  • Heal It With Fire: Hot Stuff is revived in the ending thnks to some lava.
  • The Hecate Sisters: Wendy's aunts are reimagined to look like this.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: In #3 Hot Stuff sacrifices himself to save Wendy, however his body is healed by fire in the comic's ending.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Volbragg was sealed away inside his own Scare Sphere.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Hot Stuff's father is much bigger than his petite wife.
  • Hybrid Monster: Volbragg was so powerful because he was part Devil, part Ghost, and part Warlock.
  • I Just Want to Have Friends: Volbragg sought power so badly because he wanted people to like him.
  • Improvised Clothes: After being naked in font of everyone, Hot Stuff uses his brother's t-shirt as a substitute for pants, which Casper Points out that looks like a diaper.
  • Interspecies Friendship: Casper the ghost, Wendy the witch and Hot Stuff the devil.
  • Legend Fades to Myth: Volbragg was sealed so long ago Casper didn't even think he really existed.
  • Mythology Gag: Near the end of the story, when Hot Stuff is revived with help of a lava pit, his clothes burn off and he is given a loincloth as a replacement, which looks just like the loincloth he used to wear in the original cartoons and comics.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: #3, just when it seems Casper might get through to Volbragg, Hot Stuff teleports, causing Volbragg to think it was all a trap.
  • Oh, Crap!: When Casper, Wendy and Hot Stuff arrived to Hot Stuff's treehouse to find all their guardians glaring at them since they are not supposed to hang out with creatures from different species.
  • Please Put Some Clothes On: The trope is literally mentioned in Casper and the Spectrals' ending, when Hot Stuff was naked and his brother hands him his own shirt.
  • Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: An argument about how to approach the problem of Volbragg's escape causes a rift between Wendy and Casper, for about half of Issue #3.
  • Proper Tights with a Skirt: Wendy sports these.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Some ghosts and witches managed to trap Volbragg in a scare-powered prison, therefore keeping Volbragg trapped in as along as all boroughs scare enough humans to keep the prison powered up.
  • Science Is Bad: The main trouble was partly caused by a human scientist, who discovers Spooky Town and wishes to harness it's power, but ends up freeing Volbragg this way.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Volbragg was tricked and sealed away into his own Sphere, the inhabitants of Spooky Town gathering scares to power the seal keeping him in suspension.
  • Scenery Censor: In the #3 ending, Hot Stuff is naked with his private bits covered by specifically placed objects.
  • Shameless Fanservice Guy: In the ending, Hot Stuff doesn't care about being naked in public, even with Wendy looking at him. The little rascal even was surprised everyone was looking at him.
  • Shout-Out: The cover of Issue #3 is one to the first issue of Fantastic Four
  • Teleportation with Drawbacks: Devils can only teleport themselves, and fails to work if someone is holding onto them. This is why Hotstuff can't teleport himself to safety when he gets captured by a werewolf, and instead Wendy has to use her magic to free him.
  • Teleport Spam: Hot Stuff uses his teleportation even for short distances instead of walking or flying.
  • Token Evil Teammate: While Casper and Wendy don't like having to scare people, Hot Stuff has less trouble with this, and is also not above playing pranks.
  • Two Guys and a Girl: Again the main trio.
  • Was Once a Man: Volbragg was once a normal human, but got turned into a monster. A mixture of three monsters no less.
  • You Are Grounded!: The guardians' reactions upon finding out their respective wards have broken the rule of not talking to creatures from other species.

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