Midnight Sleuth
is a three-part Problem Sleuth/Homestuck crossover Fan Webcomic by SelanPike. The first entry centered around the Midnight Crew and Team Sleuth, but later shifts to focus on their counterparts from a Mirror Universe. The trilogy ran from 2012 to 2015.
1. Midnight Sleuth revolves around a humanized version of the crew of the hard-boiled Problem Sleuth, who have to solve the abduction of the Hysterical Dame and Nervous Broad. Things get confusing, to say the least, when the abductors decide to show their face... leaving the case a lot more intricate than anyone could have imagined. Has a blog here. Ran from September 2012 to November 2012.
2. Dead Shuffle follows the adventure of the Meddlesome Company as they encounter one of the characters in Midnight Sleuth again, but... differently. Has a blog here. Ran from January 2013 to December 2013.
3. Apocryphal Antithesis is the end of the trilogy, where the Meddlesome Company deals with a foe thought to be long-gone. Has a blog here. Ran from December 2014 to July 2015.
This Web Comic trilogy shows these tropes:
- Action Girl:
- The two ladies, Hysterical Dame and Nervous Broad, know their way around their chainsaw and dagger. Their alternate universe counterparts Heinous Doxy and Nefarious Bawd are more of the Dark Action Girl variety.
- Ms. Paint not only holds her own against the Fuzz, but also blinds Commissioner Scratch long enough for Nefarious Bawd and Pernicious Innovator to take care of him for good.
- Adaptational Wimp: Lord English in canon is effectively immortal and unkillable, and is only stopped (not killed) when he is sucked into a supermassive black hole. Here, Mayor English is mortal and killable, as Scout and Scofflaw demonstrate.
- Ambiguously Evil: Ink Demon Scofflaw is this. On one hand, his motivation was to make the remaining Scoundrels not suffer the same fate as he did and created a world where everyone can live normal, happy lives. On the other hand, he did this by making Death trying to get the other Scoundrels out of their contract leaving them possibly powerless. Whether this is evil or not is left up to the reader to decide.
- Arc Villain: The Twilight Scoundrels for Midnight Sleuth, Mayor English and the Fuzz for Dead Shuffle and Peccant Scofflaw for Apocryphal Antihesis.
- Came Back Wrong: In Apocryphal Antithesis, Peccant Scofflaw comes back as an elder god bent on making the world into his own.
- Darker and Edgier: The third part, Apocryphal Antithesis. It revolves around solving a murder of the Demimonde Semigoddess, which ends up in a giant battle with Ink-ghost Peccant Scofflaw. Said fight is even bigger than the one at the ending of Midnight Sleuth.
- Dirty Cop: The Mirror Universe Felt are The Fuzz, a corrupt police organization under the thumb of Mayor English.
- Eldritch Abomination: Peccant Scofflaw post-death has become a member of the Noble Circle of Horrorterrors. While his projected form looks vaguely like his old self (just goopy and messed up), his true form first resembles a writhing mass of tentacles and then goes from that to an angel straight out of the Old Testament.
- Face Doodling: In Dead Shuffle, Cheerful Demoman takes the opportunity to draw penises on an unconscious Itchy's face.
- Fanservice: The comic itself has next to none, but the Side-Story Bonus Art made for Tumblr follower milestones frequently played to the fans' shipping interests.
- Mirror Universe: The shadowy doppelgangers of Team Sleuth are eventually revealed to come from another universe where they are a bunch of nefarious shadow magic-wielding mobsters while the Midnight Crew are a bunch of problem sleuths out to stop them.
- Mythology Gag:
- "Apocryphal Antithesis" and "Dead Shuffle" are names taken from the songs from the Felt and Midnight Crew albums.
- The cast are still pretty much the same characters as they are in Problem Sleuth and Homestuck, but seem more talkative and generally...prettier due to being humanized. This is, of course, with the exception of the Meddlesome Company and the Twilight Scoundrels.
- When the detectives meet with the Midnight Crew, the Crew are practicing their instruments from their titularly-named album.
- Mayor English's appearance is suspiciously similar to how Caliborn drew himself on his DeviantArt. (The drawing itself parodies a fan interpretation of Lord English drawn prior to his reveal.)
- Out of Focus: Angry Delinquent, Cheerful Demoman and Heavy Brawler are mostly secondary members of the cast.
- Shipper on Deck: The commands ship SS/PS and DD/PI, and the characters in question are aware of it and find it ridiculous.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Mentioned almost word-for-word here when PS commands AD and DD to weigh in on the matter.Because you sure as hell don't believe that there's such a thing as "overkill".
