Webcomic / Olympus Overdrive

Don't play with the gods.

Olympus Overdrive is a 2013 webcomic created by Oscar Vega and Xellette Stillwell, and hosted by Hiveworks.

Max, a 19 year old IT consultant living with his sick mother, is met with a popup ad about being the one millionth visitor of the page and a link to an online personality test. He considers it a joke, so he sends the link of the test to his friend via instant messaging before filling the test himself.

Hardly does he finish the test, though, when he gets a package — or more like, a purple statue of a horse. When he touches it, an adolescent boy with horns appears and introduces himself as Hades, Lord of the Underworld. Turns out the two of them must work together — Zeus got tired of everyone constantly moaning about how badly he runs things so now the gods are playing a game to decide who can rule Olympus. The rules?

1. Each god is assigned a human who filled the personality test Max found as well. The god in question will get a "reboot", depending on the answers.
   1. "Favourite food" decides what food the god in question will be able to eat while on Earth.
   2. "Favourite colour" decides the god's skin colour.
   3. "Recent Prized Possession" decides the overall theme of the god. (eg. Max wrote "flatscreen", so the three heads of Cerberus became flatscreens)
   4. "Your Desired Height" is how tall the god will become.
   5. "Male/Female/Other" will become the god's gender.
2. The god and the human will be connected with a chain at their chests during the night. During unchained hours, the "Favourite song" can be used to summon the god to wherever the human is.
3. Cutting the chain of another duo will give you their powers.
4. Having your chain cut will mean you lose — your god is out of the game and you yourself will have your memory wiped.

Each chapter seems to focus on a different character. Chapter 2 introduces a girl named Bong-Cha, Bobby for short, who may or may not be Australian and whose partner is Poseidon. Chapter 3 focuses primarily on the search for Eris and introduces, among others, Alex, a Russian kid whose partner is Hephaestus and Zeus' partner Ellie Jupiter.

The comic went on a permanent hiatus in 2015, in part because both of its creators would be working on Hiveworks' upcoming project Sleepless Domain. The comic's artist Oscar Vega elaborated on Tumblr that while he doesn't feel that the story of Olympus Overdrive was well-suited to a comic format, he does hope to eventually revisit it in some form. Since then, the comic's website has been taken offline and removed from Hiveworks' listing.

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Olympus Overdrive contains examples of:

• Adorably Precocious Child: Hades' human form is that of an Ambiguously Brown preteen boy in a white school uniform.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: Because every god's skin color is determined by the answer to the initial survey, most gods wind up having an unusual skin tone. Hades is purple, Poseidon is blue, Hephaestus is green, and so on.
• And I Must Scream: Eris turned her mortal into a hat. That can cry.
• And Your Little Dog, Too!: Medusa's sisters were also punished despite advising her to stop seeing Poseidon.
• Apple of Discord: The symbol of Eris, goddess of Discord, is an apple.
• Art Shift:
  • Early on, the animated strips were drawn in a more realistic style. Eclipsed's first flash, for something new, is all drawn in pixel art.
  • Happens fairly frequently, as the author experiments with different styles and techniques.
• Big Damn Heroes: Hades rescuing Max when he's kidnapped. Zeus stopping Eris from killing Persephone's mortal.
• Boy Band: Artemis, Apollo and their mortals have one and use the tour as a way to travel around the world to look for opponents.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Eris can vandalize her own flashbacks.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Zeus. He created the Olympus Overdrive as his solution to the complaints he was getting from the other gods, giving them the opportunity to take his place if they managed to win. He does have an advantage, since he's the only one who really knows all the rules, but it's not entirely clear he has a plan to win at this point.
• Darker and Edgier: Eris here is an Ax-Crazy that kills her opponent's mortals mostly because it amuse her; in the original myth, all she does is toss a golden apple at three women for not being invited to a wedding.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Zeus when he isn't being Totally Radical.
  • Agnes, the partner of Aphrodite.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Agnes, in part because she doesn't get out much.
• Everybody Hates Hades: So far largely averted. Max does consider Hades a bit of a jerk at first, but that's just because Hades doesn't know how to deal with people very well. Comments by the other gods suggest he's always been a bit of a loner, but this isn't portrayed as a negative thing.
• Friendless Background: Agnes seems to be quite averse to social situations.
• Game-Breaker: In-universe. Comments made by Zeus suggest he knows where all the other gods were rebooted at, and in what form. In addition to having the game master, Pandora, answering to him, this means that Zeus has a number of advantages that the others lack. Also, Eris has figured out a faster way to the top...
• Gender Bender: The gender each mortal listed on their respective cards determines the gender the god will be when they "reboot" on Earth. This trope is the necessary result in a few cases.
  • Zeus, along with Poseidon, was incarnated as a woman for the game.
• Generic Cuteness: Aphrodite complains about Agnes looking like a slob because she doesn't put on makeup, but Agnes doesn't look that bad, and doesn't noticeably change in appearance after being coerced into putting on makeup.
• Give Geeks a Chance: Aphrodite is married to Hephaestus, after all. Subverted because it was all because of an Arranged Marriage.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Any of Hades' curse words. 'Crab fuzz' and 'flugging' just to name two. He actually took a pledge not to curse anyone in any way, so that Persephone wouldn't be forced to carry out those curses, as is her job as queen of the underworld.
• I Have Your Wife: Eris kidnaps Persephone and her mortal to try and force Hades to surrender.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: Zeus claims she doesn't make mistakes. Then immediately says that when she does, they aren't that insignificant.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: All of the gods. Even Pan's half-unbuckled overalls with the patch in them are chic.
• Improbable Weapon User: One of the conditions of the Overdrive is that every god must use a weapon based on the item each mortal designated as their "Favorite Recent Possession." This results in some pretty odd weapon choices.
  • Hades uses a hammer with a flat screen TV on the end.
  • Poseidon has weaponized speakers.
  • Hephaestus doesn't fight himself, but can grant Alex teddy bear-themed armor to fight with.
  • Eris fights with eyes.
  • Hermes uses rollerblades.
  • It's unclear what Zeus is supposed to be fighting with, but he's kept his lightning motif.
  • Based on a picture from the cast page, it appears that Aphrodite can fight with the power of cosmetics.
  • Also from the cast page, it appears as though Artemis has a fan motif.
• Jerkass Gods: Max's initial opinion of Hades isn't promising, and this is definitely the case with Eris and Ares.
• King of All Cosmos: Zeus. It's thanks to him that the contest for supreme rulership of the gods hinges on mortals' responses to a corny internet popup and personality quiz. His appearances so far suggest that this is neither ineffably wise, nor remotely atypical behavior for him.
• Knight of Cerebus: The comic seems relatively light-hearted most of the time... until Eris shows up.
• Large Ham: Zeus.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: One of the consequences of losing the Olympus Overdrive (if you're a mortal) is forgetting it ever took place.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: Apollo, Artemis, P.K. and Harper discuss if it's good plan. Later, they subverted it, they decide to stick together.
• Lighter and Softer:
  • When Poseidon tells the story of Medusa, he says he "defiled" Athena's temple by sharing a forbidden kiss with Medusa, which is why she was cursed. That is not how it happens in the original myth.
  • Most of the gods (with the exception of Eris) are somewhat nicer versions of themselves from the myths.
• Lightning Glare: Hades and Alex dislike eachother so much they can do this without even looking at eachother.
• Loophole Abuse: Eris says she's spent quite some time finding stuff the rules don't forbid. Like the fact that you don't necessarily have to cut the chain of another mortal and god, killing the mortal will mean the god is out of the game. Though you yourself can't level up or get their powers.
• Love Makes You Evil: Eris' mortal was a surgeon who fell in love with one of her patients. After his upcoming surgery, he would leave the hospital, and she was afraid of never seeing him again. So she made the adult, rational choice of intentionally botching the surgery and killing him so that he could never leave her. And then she snuck into the morgue and cut out his eyes for good measure. Romantic, no?
• Meaningful Background Event: On page 40, you can see a small figure on the moon in the last panel, foreshadowing the arrival of Artemis.
• Noble Male, Roguish Male: Hades and Alexander. Their whole quarrel started in their different ideas of how a real man is supposed to be and must react. Hades insists that a real man must be respectable, collected and poised, using violence as last resort; Alex instead thinks A Real Man Is a Killer Blood Knight and must fix his problems with his fists.
• The Nose Knows: Gods track each other via their scent. Also, the stronger the god, the stronger and more easy to recognize.
• Odd Couple: Most of the god/mortal pairs are this.
  • Poseidon is a Large Ham while Bobby is a Shrinking Violet.
  • Hephaestus is also a Shrinking Violet compared to the Blood Knight Alex.
  • Hades has quite a bit of ham in him as well, though nothing compared to Poseidon. Contrast with Max, who is a down-to-earth Deadpan Snarker.
  • Artemis' mortal, P.K. is very cheerful and out-going, opposed to Artemis' The Stoic act. Artemis even lampshades it, as Apollo and his mortal are a complete switch from these two, wondering why she was paired with P.K. and not Harper.
  • Apollo is cheerful and bright, always with a smile on his face, while his mortal, Harper is just like "Whatever."
  • Aphrodite is a pink bubble of style, make-up and confidence to the point of being vain. Agnes is a Deadpan Snarker Goth who wears all black and looks like a mess in Aph's eyes.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Bong-Cha Park (her name is Chinese but the cast page lists it in western order) is almost always called Bobby.
• Only Sane Employee:
  • While she answers to Zeus, Pandora stops to wonder why they're even doing the Olympus Overdrive since after all, the Gods are immortal.
  • Artemis, though she hasn't appeared yet, may be this as well, being one of the only gods/goddesses to reply in the IMs in a serious and thoughtful manner.
• Pointy-Haired Boss: Apparently, enough of the gods thought of Zeus this way that he organized Olympus Overdrive to give them a chance to rule instead.
• Sadistic Choice: Eris presents one of these to Hades. Oh, and he has 10 seconds to decide. see Big Damn Heroes above.
• Sadly Mythtaken:
  • Poseidon's infamous... encounter with Medusa is reduced to a mutual kiss.
  • Most of the gods seem to be somewhat different from their mythological representations. This is likely intentional, to make them more sympathetic.
• Shapeshifters Do It for a Change: According to Apollo, most of the gods are like this. They go with whatever gender suits them and don't worry about pronouns or any of that nonsense. Artemis, Athena and Aphrodite seem to be aversions, as they apparently refuse to be called men regardless of their form.
• Skewed Priorities: When Bobby learns that school has been cancelled her first thought is to wonder if there's a dingo in the building.
• Slasher Smile: Eris. "We could all use a little discord after all!"
• Star-Crossed Lovers: The Lighter and Softer version of Medusa's myth portrays her and Poseidon as this.
• Tempting Fate: Lots and lots of comments on this strip could tell that Bobby's wish would be the beginning of bad things. The very next strip is Ares and his crew.
• Totally Radical: Zeus tries a bit too hard to imitate (his idea of) the 21th century's youth culture...
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Aphrodite and Hephaestus, in the original myth, although Hephaestus isn't looking too bad after his transformation for the overdrive.
• Worthy Opponent: After defeating Bia, Hephaestus' partner Alex says Bia and his own partner were this.