Paranoia is a six-issue Comic Book series published in 1991 from Adventure Comics (an imprint of Malibu Comics, the creators of The Ultraverse). It is written by Paul O'Connor, with artwork by Heinrich Kipper and Hector Gomez. The book is based on the Role-Playing Game of the same name, set in the Dystopian domed city of Alpha Complex.
The story follows the clone family of King-R-THR as he follows the directives of Friend Computer. Unfortunately, King is haunted by strange dreams of people and places he's never known, repeatedly crosses paths with the mysterious citizens Alamagordo-R-THR and Lance-R-LOT, and is dogged by various secret societies, combat-crazed Vulture Warriors, and — of course — the secret machinations of Friend Computer itself.
Can King stay alive long enough to figure out what's going on, or will he get killed (repeatedly) in the process?note
The Paranoia comic book features the following tropes:
- Anyone Can Die: This trope is in full effect here, being true to the source material.
- Art Shift: The interior art for the first two issues are painted by Heinrich Kipper with a dark style reminiscent of Bill Sienkiewicz; later issues are done by Hector Gomez with a brighter, watercolor art style.
- Blank Slate: Clones are "born" as blank slates who only know basic knowledge (like reading and speaking) before they are called into duty. King realizes that this lack of experience is a long-term social problem."We clones never learn anything. We have no store of experience. When one of us dies, we're replaced by an exact duplicate, every bit as ignorant as the one before — who makes the same mistakes all over again."
- Borrowed Biometric Bypass: In issue #6, King uses Lance-R-LOT's robot face and hand to get access to Friend Computer.
- Breeding Slave: In issue #4, King is coerced into becoming one — he comes home from work, gets pulled onto the sofa for sex with his wife Ala, then leaves the room... only to enter another room and repeat it over and over. It is a ruse by the Earth Mothers to induce pregnancy and record the process for training purposes."Is the ritual by which the male enters the residence and briefly converses with the sister a prerequisite for conception?"
- Brotherhood of Funny Hats: True to the game, several secret societies appear throughout the book.
- The National Fantasy Fan Foundation (abbreviated N3F) worship Comic Books. They run a secret genetics program to recreate various superheroes in Alpha Complex.
- The Earth Mothers are out to rediscover sexual reproduction. They shun drugs and use King to demonstrate sex to their members.
- Call to Agriculture: Issue #6 shows that King and Ala are living outdoors on a hidden farm near Alpha Complex, where they help rescue other escaped clones.
- Contrived Coincidence: King is able to use an Override Command to prevent Friend Computer from stopping his plans. King learns the command with his Genetic Memory power, as one of his ancestors was The Computer's original programmer.
- Deus ex Nukina: King destroys Friend Computer with a bomb made from Lance-R-LOT's power core.
- Disney Villain Death: King throws Lance-R-LOT off a cliff after he kills the pregnant Ala. He gets better.
- Domed Hometown: In issue 6, Alpha Complex is revealed as a domed city over present-day San Francisco.
- Do Not Adjust Your Set: At one point, the Earth Mothers display a video of King having sex with Ala on all of the monitors in Alpha Complex.
- Faceless Eye: Per the game, Friend Computer is represented as a digital image of an eye.
- Foreshadowing: In issue #2, King-R-THR-2 muses about some unexplained absences from his clonemate, King-*-THR-6. It is eventually revealed that clone #6 is secretly the N3F superhero "Happy Jack".
- From Bad to Worse: Occurs in issue #4, where King is repeatedly promoted from Red to Orange to Yellow to Green clearance for his heroic actions to defeat the N3F secret society... and is then terminated for treason, because knowledge of secret societies is punishable by death.
- Genetic Memory: King gets this ability as the result of a breeding program by Friend Computer. He eventually is able to learn everything his ancestors knew.
- Happiness Is Mandatory: Enforced in issue #2, when King is given a "Count-Your-Blessings Intensive Therapy Device". This is a small robot hat with hooks that grab the corners of his mouth; whenever it detects that King is unhappy, it pulls the corners into an ever-widening grin.
- Many Questions Fallacy: One occurs in issue #1."Are you after my job, Lint Trap-G-BIV-5?"
"Never, sir! I'd never want your job!"
"Are you implying there's something wrong with my job?!" - Mutant: True to the game, all of the main characters have mutant powers.
- Lance-R-LOT is a registered mutant with enhanced speed and strength. This is later revealed to be a lie — he is actually an android, programmed by The Computer to support and manipulate King as part of its experiment to create the perfect clone.
- Alamagordo-R-THR is an empath who can detect the emotional mood of others.
- King-R-THR discovers that he is the product of a program by Friend Computer to create a perfect telepathic clone, one that could learn from each other's mistakes and avoid the Blank Slate problem. However, those experiments have given King Genetic Memory instead, and he eventually learns everything his ancestors knew.
- No OSHA Compliance: All of Alpha Complex is fairly lax on safety features, but R&D takes it to an entirely new level.King: "What's that?"
R&D Tech: "Radiation alarm. Nothing to worry about."
King: "Shouldn't me and my guys be wearing suits like the one you have on?"
R&D Tech: "Nah. A couple of million roentgens never hurt anyone." - No Sex Allowed: In Alpha Complex, humans are cloned and grown in vats, while hormone suppressants keep the sex drive dormant in the populace. The Earth Mothers secret society are trying to re-discover sexual reproduction and re-introduce it to the people of Alpha Complex.
- Override Command: Done twice in the series.
- The first time is when Friend Computer uses a post-hypnotic command to make King kill himself.
- The second time is when it's revealed Friend Computer's original programmer hid a disable code inside its programming.
- Playing Games at Work: The unactivated King clones pass their time in a small, dark room playing games against each other. Unfortunately, they can guess what the others are thinking since they all share the same thoughts.
- Running Gag: Each issue ends with one of King's clones getting killed. The number of the clone killed corresponds to the issue of the comic book, appropriately enough.
- Shout-Out:
- The National Fantasy Fan Foundation, a secret society of Comic Book fanatics, are led by Stan-V-MAN.
- Foundation members run around dressed up as Captain Ersatzs of The Avengers, The Fantastic Four, and other Comic Book icons.
- The Computer's original programmer was a man named Dan Costikyberg; this is an amalgamation of the game's original creators — Greg Costikyan, Dan Gelber, and Eric Goldberg.
- The National Fantasy Fan Foundation, a secret society of Comic Book fanatics, are led by Stan-V-MAN.
- Super Breeding Program: Friend Computer initiates a eugenics program to create the perfect clone, where each member is telepathic and could learn from each other's mistakes. King is the result of that program, but he ends up with Genetic Memory powers instead.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Lance-R-LOT discovers he's a robot after he's thrown off a cliff by King.
- Unperson: Alamagordo-R-THR 1 (the first clone of the Alamagordo-R-THR creche) was declared dead by Friend Computer after she was overdue from a mission; she is now treated as a non-entity by everyone in Alpha Complex.
- We Have Reserves: Low-level Troubleshooters are seen as disposable meat shields by their superior officers. In issue #3, two dozen "cherries" (red-level clones) are ordered to charge an enemy position without any armor or weapons.
