Turns out having an extra pair of hands IS convenient!
It's been hundreds of years since the first super human appeared, and since then the world has been fascinated by these individuals with amazing powers. Suzanne Incirrina was an aspiring marine biologist until the fateful day she mutated to have four extra octopus-like arms. Now she is going to be catapulted into the chaos and drama of the super hero world.
The first of a four-part series of webcomics, Surprising Octeal is a superhero webcomic following a young woman with octopus powers training to be a hero and find a cure for "Power Madness", an ailment that largely seems to affect multi-limbed supers like her. The comic updates on Webtoon
, Tapas and GlobalComix
Surprising Octeal provides examples of:
- Academy of Adventure: The York facility for training heroes is described as, "sort of like a university campus".
- All There in the Manual: The author uses the Tapas tags to show which characters are in which pages. While not seeming that important at a glance these tags frequently name characters in the comic before they're properly introduced, including characters that are hidden in the background.
- Art Evolution: The art of the series slowly but consistently changes over the course of the comic.
- Audible Sharpness: It's wordlessly conveyed that the winged mad super's wings are sharp when she scrapes them across the ground.
- Badass Bookworm: Suzanne was a near graduate of marine biology and, if you ignore the tentacles, not super threatening appearance-wise. But then you stop ignoring the tentacles and you remember she could probably throw you half way across the city.
- Big Damn Heroes: The knight hero comes at the last second to save Suzanne from the multi-armed mad super.
- Big Eater: A justified trope. Suzanne needs to eat more than the average person to sustain her extra body mass.
- Bilingual Bonus: The dissolving knight speaks in Russian and, if you happen to understand Russian, is easily translated.
- Bland-Name Product: Suzanne apparently own's a "Swatch" and a "Hwee" gaming console.
- Braids, Beads and Buckskins: Averted and played straight with siblings Bia Baingwa and Dabai Sadee Johanson. Bia dresses pretty dapper while Sadee wears this kind of outfit while on patrol as "Kichi Coyote".
- Call-Back: Suzanne's corkboard on Page 156 is mostly full of stuff that Suzanne is studying but nestled on the lower right corner is the drawing that Billy gave her.
- Character Development: Suzanne gets progressively better with her tentacles as the story progresses.
- City of Canals: The city where the heroes are trained, York, is a canal town not unlike Venice.
- Constantly Curious: The other students going to the York facility are pretty quick to start bombarding Suzanne with questions about her distinctive powers.
- Combat Tentacles: Suzanne's power and a defining part of the comic.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Suzanne likens the functions of the gills on her shoulders to... a phenomenon of the male body... before realizing she was talking out loud.
- Distinguishing Mark: Suzanne has a big obvious birthmark on her nose. Her younger brother has a similar mark.
- Dreaming of Times Gone By: Suzanne dreams of her early childhood twice in the comic. The first is pretty realistic while the second it very surreal and includes things that happened to her recently as well.
- Electric Jellyfish: Referenced. Kimiko, who loves jellyfish, develops electricity powers. Suzanne's current theory is that powers are somehow tied to their bearers' preconceptions (whether or not they are accurate, as in the case of Kimiko).
- Excessive Evil Eyeshadow: When Suzanne imagines herself as a villain, she pictures Evil!Suzanne with thicker eyelashes.
- Exotic Eye Designs: Most characters in the comic use the same eye design. Suzanne, however, has distinctive cephalopod-like pupils. Another character with unique pupils is Klipspringer, the scary woman who's been stalking Suzanne.
- Foreshadowing: Pops up here and there.
- Mentions of some event called or involving "The Twins" appear sporadically in the comic, but no reveals on what they are or what happened yet.
- Character profiles shown in the comic seem to provide hints at major development for the characters such as Kimiko being afraid to show off her body for some reason. The scars on her sides and abdomen might have something to do with it.
- Some characters have shown up only to not get mentioned again despite seeming to be important, like a Knight Hero who can seemingly dissolve into nothing. A character named Klipspringer has also been mentioned. She finally appears on page 200, and she's huge and unnerving.
- A lot of more subtle foreshadowing is used as well. Page 135, for instance, features a radio newscast that gets cut off by Suzanne but manages to confirm that North America is seeking aid from Russia for something and even that Antarctica is an actual country in this universe.
- Hartman Hips: Suzanne skirts the line a bit. Judge for yourself.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Chaquille calls Suzanne aside to point out how impractical her bulky hood design is.
- Imagine Spot: Suzanne briefly imagines her life if she had settled for comfort and normalcy before admitting she never would have been satisfied with that.
- Kid Hero: Mr Baumfree, who has the power of super durability, is shown to be working with several child supers, including the previously-introduced Billy and Niles.
- Lipstick-and-Load Montage: Suzanne is shown prepping her appearance multiple times in the comic.
- Living Out a Childhood Dream: Though she pivoted towards marine science before getting a super power, it's implied Suzanne wanted to be a hero as a child, and the only thing that stopped her was not having a power.
- Loony Friends Improve Your Personality: Cheerful and hyper Kimiko is shaping up to be this with the much more grumpy and skittish Suzanne.
- Luminescent Blush: Suzanne says she isn't really interested in boys. Her cheeks tell a different story. Cieren seems to be even worse.
- Nervous Wreck: Suzanne is extremely jumpy and skittish and prone to over-analyzing social situations. Notably though, she lacks a lot of the other traits frequently associated with this trope. She's at least decent in conversations, nothing particularly bad happened in her past, and she seems to be almost terminally brave in dangerous situations. She's just really panicky once a conversation gets complicated.
- No Cartoon Fish: The author seems to stylize everything in his distinctive way... except for all of the aquatic creatures, ironically enough.
- Not a Morning Person: Suzanne's morning routine is shown more than once in the comic. If she's just barely waking up, her appearance is usually a bit messy.
- Masked Luchador: Jabali, the Hero of York, is a luchador hero themed after wild boars.
- Meaningful Name: Several of the characters seem to have surnames that allude to them somehow. Kimiko's last name translates to "Sting Fairy" and Lina's last name relates to fires. But of course the most blunt seems to be Suzanne's last name Incirrina, which is simply one of the scientific names for octopus.
- Mobile Kiosk: Side character Nancy Gently runs a business called "Secret Noodle" out of a food trailer pulled by a four-wheeler. She is, however, mildly annoyed by the lack of business this theme seems to generate.
- Mr. Fanservice: Casey was a former male model and doesn't seem too shy about it.
- Ms. Fanservice: While not a model, Lina seems all too willing to dress provocatively and is a shameless flirt.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous:
- During her recovery after her transformation, Suzanne is attacked by a mad super the author affectionately dubbed "Machamp Norris".
- In general, "Power Madness" has been shown to be linked to having additional appendages (arms, tails, wings, etc). So far, Suzanne is the only multi-limbed hero in existence who hasn't gone crazy. Klipspringer also has an additional limb (a tail), and while she's certainly cryptic, she seems to be in full possession of her faculties.
- Must Have Caffeine: Suzanne has several crazy-looking machines on her desk in her room... as well as a coffee pot which she drinks from every morning.
- Obliviously Beautiful: The math teacher, Chaquille, is noted to be, "popular with the female trainees".
- Razor Wings: Another mad super that attacks the York students while out by the pool has wings capable of slicing through skin.
- Scary Teeth: Suzanne's transformation seems to have given her something akin to shark's teeth.
- Creator's Note:"In these early less action-y days we sometimes need to be reminded that Suzanne has a mouth full of terrifying monster teeth."
- Creator's Note:
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The relationship chart implies that Casey sees this relationship existing between him and Cieren. Cieren, on the other hand, seems to want nothing of it.
- Ship Tease: Suzanne gets the bulk of it, being the main character, but Kimiko has gotten some too, and Lina and Casey was hinted at well ahead of their kiss.
- Sinister Silhouettes: Creepy figures appear to be keeping an eye on Suzanne.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: An slight variation with Suzanne. She never swears out loud in public, but swears like a sailor in her thoughts.
- Slapstick: Song (a character made to be kind of unlikable) gets hit with a little physical humor when Jabali unknowingly whacks her with a door.
- Shout-Out: The writer seems fond of these.
- The license plate on Phin Fridman's car is SDW1930.
- One of the rooms in the campus hospital Suzanne ends up at after transforming is tended by a nurse with the last name Arbogast-Bastion.
- In the same hospital, Suzanne is watching a video on her laptop where someone says, "You'll find one of the ghosts parked in a 1975 Eldorado"
- Suzanne is apparently roomates with Batgirl and dormed in a building named after George Stacy.
- If this page is any indication, Suzanne is a fan of Splatoon. How apropos!
- The airliner everyone takes to York is owned by The Very Big Corporation of America.
- Galasso's Pizza is visible in the background when everyone first comes to York.
- Kimiko's room at the York facility could really use MORE DINOSAURS
- This page sneaks Joyce from Dumbing of Age and Harpy and Opal from Harpy Gee into it while the next one has Devahi and Aaron from Sam & Fuzzy as well as Shauna, Charlotte, and Mildred from Bad Machinery.
- Izzy (and probably Suzanne) is a fan of Hollow Knight
- Fellow Tapas comic Ivory Weald gets a cameo on page 112.
- VP of HeroWorks Alameda Washington tells Suzanne she can, "Call Me Al"
- Page 147 gives us the first good glimpse of the ruins underwater in York and it's full of references. The Little Daisy Cafe is present. A veterinarian's office on the right features a familiar cat-like creature. The building in the center is the "Hôtel Heuruex, Hôtel et centre de Rééducation". In English: Happy Hotel, Hotel and Rehabilitation Center.
- In the box from which Suzanne gets the Vibranella is a stuffed animal that appears to be The Incredible Mr. Limpet
- Planchette and Pinyon from Unfamiliar are seen at the start of page 163.
- Page 186 has references to Hollow Knight, Animal Crossing, Super Mario, Final Fantasy and a sneaky reference to Bittersweet Candy Bowl
- Super-Strong Child: Naturally with the child supers.
- Underwater Ruins: There appear to be remnants of buildings in the canals beneath York.
- Vice President Who?: Subverted. We're introduced to the vice president of the HeroWorks corporation, Alameda Washington, before we're even given a glimpse of president Felix Weiss.
- Your Makeup Is Running: In reference to anime-style eyelashes being over-blown the author treats these like makeup in the comic.
Sometimes, bad or good, change WILL happen, and you should be humble enough to accept it when it does...
