Let's see how spry you look in your seventies
Welcome To Tranquility is an American comic book series created by Gail Simone and Neil Googe and published by WildStorm. It is set in the fictional California town of Tranquility where superheroes and supervillains, also known as "Maxis," have retired and settled down to raise families after their hectic and action-packed youths. Despite the presence of both heroes and villains there is little crime amongst the populace, the heroes have grown old and the villains have either been cleared of their criminal charges or served out their prison time, allowing them to live in (relative) peace. Old rivalries remain, but revolve around traditional aspects of retired life, such as debating who gets the apples that fall on either side of a property line.
A large cast is composed of both retired Maxis, the children (and grandchildren) of Maxis that have grown up in this Superhero Retirement Community, and the normal amount of civilians to be found in any small town. Sheriff Thomasina "Tommy" Lindo, who has no powers, works to deal with the normal conflicts that arise in any town, but which have the added threat of being carried about by people with an inordinate amount of superpowers. Alex "Judge" Fury, the Mayor of Tranquility and hero of World War II, is also featured along with his wife, Suzy "Pink Bunny" Fury, and Colonel Isaac Cragg and Bad Dog. Together they formed the Liberty Squad along with Maximum Man, Astral Man and Arnold "Cosmos" Stipple before Astral Man was murdered and they all retired to Tranquility.
The original volume, twelve issues long, was published in 2007 and 2008 before it went on hiatus, returning in 2010 for a planned six issue limited series. A part of the Wildstorm Universe, Welcome to Tranquility is unique in its relative disconnect from other series set in the same universe. The Authority are mentioned on occasion, and Gen¹³ guest stars in the second arc of the original series, but the majority of the story remains independent.
This comic book series provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Sheriff Tommy Lindo, who maintains order even in the face of outrageous danger.
- Affectionate Parody: Throughout the series there are "reprints" of the adventures of the various characters from their youth, portrayed as classic comics from the 1940's and 1950's. These include Minxy Millions, Kid Hero and child millionaire, and the Liberty Squad, who fought the Nazis in World War II. They portray a lot of the problems with these stories, such as what happens to a Kid Hero when dementia sets in and what fighting Germans on the Eastern Front will do to a man, but they remain pleasantly nostalgic and fond of the classic style.
- Age-Gap Romance: Tommy Lindo blithely reveals that she once slept with the decades older Mr. Articulate, and it's all but outright stated in the original series that she was genuinely in love with him. She explains to her sister that Articulate went out of his way to help her recover after the incident that left her hospitalized, for no other reason beyond simple compassion. The incident in question was Tommy surviving a murder attempt by Derek Fury after he found out about her pregnancy. After Articulate is revived in One Foot In The Grave, it's implied he becomes an actual couple with Tommy.
- All Anime Is Naughty Tentacles: That the manga-obsessed Mangacide has tentacles is probably no coincidence. Hell, during the massive fight with Mayor Fury, she's told to keep them out of certain, ahem, orifices.
- Arch-Enemy: Henry Hate, to Maximum Man, though they've long since buried the hatchet. The same can't be said for Captain Cobra and Mongoose Man, "enemies to the death" with a legendarily fierce hatred for one another to this day.
- Art Shift: The second arc featured several mini stories done by different artists, each focusing on the pasts of characters like Zombie Zeke, Pink Bunny, and the Liberty Snots.
- The Atoner: Presley used to be the sheriff, until he browbeat a man who he believed had killed his family to the point where the man committed suicide. The next day the real killer was found. If Presley wasn't exaggerating, the experience very nearly drove him to suicide as well, if Tommy hadn't stepped in and given him "a job I don't deserve," resulting in him becoming both fanatically loyal to Tommy and a Determinator to boot.
- Back from the Dead: The follow-up miniseries starts with Mr. Articulate being properly resurrected, after his death started the first arc of the ongoing book.
- Badass Normal: Tommy Lindo, who faces down walking gods with nothing but her wits, her courage and a technological baton.
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Colonel Cragg always had a darkness in him, but what happened to him on the Eastern Front let it out.
- Big Eater: Bad Dog. Also, Henry Hate and Zombie Zeke go on a hedonistic binge when everyone leaves Mayor Fury's coming home party before any of the food is eaten.
- Blind Without 'Em: Emoticon is literally blind without his mask.
- Broken Bird:
- Leona Terrell. She gets better though.
- Collette Pearson's life was ruined the moment she arrived in Tranquility. Cedric, her cameraman and loyal friend, is murdered. Mayor Fury tries to kill her because she figured out the town's secret (the Fountain of Youth). Derek Fury sought her out and forced her to recant her testimony which ended up destroying her credibility as a reporter.
- Bungled Suicide: Ajita, a.k.a. Leona, tries killing herself after Tommy informs her that she'll be going to her mother for permission to interrogate Leona about Mr. Articulate's death. When Tommy asks if this may have been a cry for attention, Dr. Steel reveals that Leona drank an entire bottle of cough syrup before cutting two vertical lines on her wrists. She was not intending to wake up.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Dr. Steel regularly smokes pot on the job in order to deal with the pain and discomfort that come with having enhanced perception abilities. The authorities look the other way because her powers are incredibly useful for solving murder cases.
- Butt-Monkey: Blamed for the death of Astral Man, his home constantly vandalized by kids, blamed by the former sheriff for almost all crimes in Tranquility... it certainly does not pay to be Arnold Stipple.
- By the Power of Grayskull!: HECATEAN!
- Captain Ersatz: Maximum Man is clearly the Wildstorm version of Captain Marvel, being a small mortal who transforms into a magically powered flying brick with a magic word. The twist? Maximum Man is a tiny old man rather than a child/teenager, and he transforms in a column of magical fire rather than lightning. He's also considered the "Mightiest Maxi" alive, according to Majestic.
- Combat Tentacles: Mangacide's energy tentacles. In a possible invocation of All Anime Is Naughty Tentacles during the fight with Mayor Fury, he specifically asks if she could do the one kindness of keeping "those sausages away from my pooper."
- Comic-Book Time: Judge Fury, Pink Bunny, Colonel Cragg and Bad Dog all look pretty good for people who fought back in the 1940's... Fountain of Youth effect as it turns out.
- Conviction by Counterfactual Clue: Invoked. Emoticon is recounting one of the detective stories from Mr. Articulate's youth and he mentions one that always stuck in his mind: Mr. Articulate discovered the identity of the murderer because the "Korean" man at dinner left his chopsticks in his bowl of rice, something no actual Korean would do since it is a symbol for death and, therefore, he must not be Korean, but Japanese instead, and thusly the killer. However, Japanese culture has the same custom. "So the ending doesn't work. It's a cheat."
- Crossover: In the second arc of the first volume, Gen¹³ guest starred as they were passing through Tranquility.
- Covers Always Lie: Pink Bunny on the cover appears much older than she does in the actual comic book.
- The Dark Age of Comic Books: A young child explains to Pink Bunny that his favorite comic is his favorie because, unlike the old comics his mother lets him read, in this comic people die. It is not real if nobody dies.
- Darker and Edgier:
- It is not real unless somebody dies.
- The perky, upbeat Tranquiliteens later became the gothic Liberty Snots, adopting names like "Sweet Sally" and "Silicon Stiletto" while new members Arson, Freeksho, and Mangacide joined.
- Deconstruction: Of The Golden Age of Comic Books; the people who fought the Nazis are horribly scarred because of what they experienced, supervillains who fought with the Nazis have been shunned and hassled all their lives since then, and most characters are struggling to deal with growing old in a world where younger heroes have taken their places.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Mr. Articulate is a charming, sweet old man whom everybody liked, and when other people come back from the dead craving flesh all he wants is a nice piece of pie, but even his adventures from olden days are "culturally insensitive." One of the retold mysteries of his youth was solved by identifying a man as Japanese because he violated a Korean custom, but Emoticon is quick to point out that the story (and solution) do not work, since Japan has the same custom.
- Determinator: They are old, out of shape and hurting, but the people of Tranquility do not quit.
- Devil in Disguise: Funky Freddy Beasel, a seemingly ageless radio DJ who turns out to be a satanic demon known as The Host.
- Differently Powered Individual: People with superpowers are termed "Maxis."
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Sweet Sally really hates it when people call him by his birth name, Kevin.
- Dumb Muscle: Bad Dog is strong, but not very sharp.
- Ensemble Cast: Pegging down one single "star" is difficult. Sheriff Tommy is clearly The Hero, but she shares so much panel-time with other characters that even she might not be called the "main" character.
- Expy: Maxi-Man and Henry Hate are expies of Shazam! and Dr. Sivana, respectively.
- Face–Heel Turn: What happened to Cosmos in the backstory, when he supposedly betrayed his companions and killed Astro Man. Turns out he was just a drunk who was convinced by the real killer of Astro Man that he'd killed him.
- Facial Horror: Emoticon's face was mutilated by his grandfather, a former supervillain, when Emoticon was a teenager.
- Fanservice with a Smile: Pink Bunny wears her outfit while serving in her cafe, and the restaurant in general seems to be a Maid Cafe.
- A Mother to Her Girls: Pink Bunny is this to most of her waitresses.
- Faux Action Girl: Averted. Pink Bunny is defeated with (relative) ease, but the point is also made that she was never a fighter to begin with. She might be as strong as Judge Fury, but without the experience and history to go with her strength there is nothing to set her up as an Action Girl in the first place.
- Fiery Redhead: Minxy in a passionate, spirited (if erratically senile) way.
- Flying Brick: Maximum Man seems to be the closest to the ideal. He mentions in Issue #3 of the relaunch that his eyesight is no better than normal, but he seems to have all the other requirements (Flight, invulnerability, super-strength, etc.)
- Former Child Star: Most of the Liberty Snots were child stars on a Saturday morning cartoon show. Out of all of them, Leona Terrell has suffered the worst from her harpy of a Stage Mom to being told she's too old for acting parts... at sixteen.
- Fountain of Youth: There are actually three in total. There's one in Tranquility, which is why the team originally founded the place, but it's nothing more than a mere trickle, so they couldn't get more than a few drops at a time. They fed it into the local water supply. The effects are minor but they add up, as Pink Bunny is noted to look about thirty years younger than she should.
- Freudian Excuse: Pink Bunny's motherly affection for her waitresses and Thomasina makes sense when you realize what her birth son turned out to be.
- Friendly Enemies: Time, as they say, heals all wounds and Henry Hyde (AKA "Henry Hate") and Kyle Trueblood (AKA "Maximum Man") like to pass theirs playing chess.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Minerva "Minxy" Millions. She built a working plane out of solid gold.
- Gender-Blender Name: The sheriff's name is Tommy, which is short of Thomasina. Also Sweet Sally, whose real name is Kevin.
- Girl Friday: Minxy's sidekick when she was young, Venus. These days Tommy's sister Seresa helps her out. Minxy still calls her Venus.
- Glory Days: Some have matured and come to genuine emotional acceptance of their old age, but many are constantly trying to recapture those days of their youth when they were powerful, active and could change the world.
- The Golden Age of Comic Books: The primary active era of the town's residents, and portrayed rather warmly by "reprints" of their adventures during World War II.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Ajita got pregnant by her boyfriend, and, fearing what her ultra-religious mother would do to her if she found out, tried to get Mr. Articulate's help in obtaining an abortion.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Tommy does this a lot. Flashbacks show she had an incredibly foul mouth as a kid (complete with an overflowing swear jar).
- Henpecked Husband: Leona's father does nothing to try and calm his wife down when she begins screaming at Dr. Steel and Deputy Presley.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: This is essentially what's happened to Mayor Fury and Pink Bunny by the last miniseries. All anyone outside of Tranquility is going to remember them by is how Fury was jailed for trying to kill Collette Pearson, and Pink Bunny murdered her own son (despite he was a sociopathic monster who would've killed everyone in town and that's if he was being nice.)
- Hollywood Density: Played with. Minxy builds a plane out of solid gold, and it is specifically mentioned that it will not fly because it is too soft and dense a metal. It does anyway.
- Hypocritical Humor: One of the Samson Brothers refers to Mr Articulate as a "loquacious fop", despite speaking Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe.
- I'm Not a Hero, I'm...: "I'm just the sheriff."
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Astral Man. "We Must Do Right"
- Informed Ability: A rapist has Sheriff Tommy's sister...except he never actually raped anybody or, to the knowledge of the readers, even tried to rape anybody. Though it's implied Tommy lied just to get the Coyote Kid to help her rescue Seresa.
- Intrepid Reporter: The first arc of Volume 1 features a documentary being filmed within Tranquility, spearheaded by Collette Pearson.
- It's All My Fault: Tommy figures out that Leona was perfectly capable of saving Mr. Articulate from getting stabbed to death and she didn't. Leona explains she genuinely wanted to, but her legs froze and she wasn't able to move until after Cragg stabbed him. She actually gets redeemed when Mr. Articulate is revived as a zombie in the second arc, tearfully apologizing for what happened. Mr. A kindly assures her she has nothing to apologize for, and hates seeing her so unhappy.
- I Was Quite a Looker: Some of the heroes have aged well (A little too well...), but a lot of the others are not holding up in their old age. Many spend most of their time reminiscing about when they were young and filled out their uniforms in ways that only superheroes can.
- Jackass Genie: Freddy Beasel really goes the extra mile in his Deal with the Devil. He gave Zeke eternal youth, then shot the wheels off Zeke's motorcycle, resulting in a forty plus mile an hour face-plant into the road. Then he brags about it to Zeke.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The Sampson Twins come across as a couple of homophobic assholes when they learn about Mr. Articulate's death, but they still lend a hand against Judge Fury when Thomasina offers to let them out of jail and when she mentions that Colette's life is on the line. Thomasina implies that neither of them would allow for an innocent girl to die.
- Kid Hero:
- Minxy Millions, adorable child millionaire and inventor who helped win World War II with her aerial inventions and who personally battled the Sky Pirate. Unfortunately, that was seventy yeas ago and dementia has begun to set in.
- Most of the Liberty Snots were this when they were younger, before they became Darker and Edgier.
- Large Ham: Zeke when he's playing up the Cryptkeeper thing.Greetings, boys and ghouls. Welcome to my homicidally humb tomb—er, I mean home. Tonight's precipitation of tears promises to be defrightfully delicious, in a little tale of terror I like to call, "buying a headstone".
- Like a Daughter to Me: Mayor Fury and Sheriff Lindo are practically father and daughter, which makes what happens all the harder.
- Left for Dead: Cragg's comic books posit that after being captured by the 'Nazi Giant', he was given an honorable duel against him that led to the loss of his eye. The reality was far different from any comic book. After being captured, the Giant simply tortured Cragg relentlessly (With the implication he was also castrated) and left him for dead.
- Make Me Wanna Shout: Sweet Sally might make you really want to shout, but he could probably do it better.
- May–December Romance: Tommy and Mr. Articulate.
- Mayfly–December Romance: Salabal and her husband. Salabal's some sort of eternally young mystical Anthropomorphic Personification or something while her husband is just a normal guy, who happens to be a wrinkled old man. They're still as madly in love as they day they first met.
- The Modern Age of Comic Books: The setting of the series, with most of the characters having retired from the Golden Age.
- Ms. Fanservice: Pink Bunny. Honestly, her superhero outfit is as a Playboy Bunny!
- My Beloved Smother: Deena Terrell is an outspoken, Christian Fundamentalist stage mom. Most of Tranquility is very familiar with her disposition, and her daughter Leona recounts that her mother would make her recite scripture just to keep her from getting older.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Minxy frequently has these moments after she becomes lucid again, after she accidentally causes property damage and may have hurt people while still thinking she's fighting the Sky Pirate during World War II.
- Never Mess with Granny:
- It's generally not a good idea to mess with a woman who built a plane out of solid gold and got it to fly anyway, even if Minxy may be suffering from Alzheimer's. Most of the facial damage Derek Fury received was because of Minxy.
- Offing the Offspring: Derek tried to kill Thomasina when he learned she was pregnant, because he claims he was horrified at the idea of there being another person like him. His parents stopped him, and although Tommy has said the baby died she actually gave it up for adoption. This is played straight, however, when Suzy steps in and kills Derek herself when Alex can't.
- Otaku: Mangacide, one of the younger superpowered beings, was an outcast her entire life until she discovered manga, which connected with her on a personal level because it was "right to left" like she was. After she discovered the entire world of Japanese-media and entertainment she gained a new personality and self-confidence and came out of her shell.
- Parental Substitute: Tommy Lindo's dad disappeared when she was young, but Mayor Fury brought her up like his own child. Pink Bunny also treats Tommy like she was her own daughter, trusting Tommy's word enough to turn on her husband when he comes looking for Collette Pearson.
- Perky Goth: Mangacide of the Liberty Snots is a Gothic Lolita fan who also enjoys drawing shoujo manga.
- Pet the Dog: Derek is the one who properly brought Mr. Articulate back from the dead. Why, we don't know. Thomasina wonders if it might've been his way of saying sorry or for some unexplored attempt at being sadistic. It's entirely likely the first option is possible, but it's also likely he brought Articulate back just to make him watch Tommy die, or vice versa.
- Physical God: We get a lot less detail on their exact powers than in some other comics, but Maximum Man and Astral Man seem to approach these levels. Judge Fury might also be in the league, considering what happens when he and Maximum Man face off, but even he says that he has a serious advantage since Maximum Man is so out of practice. Derek might outshine them all, to a rather extreme degree if Sheriff Tommy's worrying is anything to go by, but he also has not been given specific details for his powers.
- Playboy Bunny: It is Pink Bunny's costume.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: When Sheriff Tommy is recruiting help to face off against Derek she does not mention his godlike powers or
predilection for buckets, but instead explains that "a rapist has my sister." - The Real Heroes: An inversion. The town sheriff, traditionally "The Real Hero," explains that "I'm just the sheriff" and the rest of the town is composed of real heroes, powered and non-powered alike.
- Retired Monster: Their waning years may have worn off some of the rough edges, but many of the characters are honest-and-truly bad people. Be fooled by their feeble appearance at your peril.
- Serious Business: Captain Cobra and Mongoose Man are "enemies to the DEATH" and each will damn-sure make sure the other does not get the apples that are their proper due.
- Show Within a Show: Many of the adventures of the heroes were reprinted and sold as comic books back in the 1940's, 50's and 60's, and their children and grandchildren had careers as voice-actors in cartoons based around their lives as the next generation of heroes.
- Silver Vixen: Pink Bunny might have a few wrinkles, but ain't nobody gonna say "no".
- Sky Pirate: The...well, the Sky Pirate.
- Sophisticated as Hell: The Sampson Twins. One of them speaks Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe, the other talks like a modern frat boy.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Salabal eventually took over Terry Terrific's comic. He didn't mind, because he loves her.
- Stout Strength: Bad Dog in his later years.
- Superhero Capital of the World: Tranquility is the Superhero Retirement Capital of the WildStorm Universe, because many of the old World War II heroes visited there after the war in order to stop a Robot War, and they liked the town enough that they all decided that it would be a nice place to retire. The fact that is has a Fountain of Youth hidden nearby didn't hurt.
- Symbol Face: local criminal Emoticon wears a screen-like mask over his face that displays whatever emotion he's feeling in the form of an emoticon. His real face was horribly disfigured by his abusive grandfather when he was younger, and thus the mask is both the only way he can show any expression of his feelings. The mask also prevents him from concealing his emotions; the emoticon presented will always betray what he's really feeling.
- Those Two Guys: Colonel Cragg and Bad Dog, partners since WWII and sticking together.
- The Sampson Twins.
- Those Wacky Nazis: A large chunk of the Maxi-history is the history of WWII as the Liberty League battled the Nazis and various villains tried to help them conquer the word.
- Wham Line: Tommy offers one in the first issue when everyone is discussing Mr. Articulate's sexual orientation. She claims he's straight. How does she know?Tommy Lindo: 'Cuz I slept with him.
- Women Are Wiser: Pink Bunny, out of the initial group of retired heroes presented to the readers, seems to have aged the best both physically, mentally, and morally compared to her husband and some of her male friends.
