American Barbarian
is a comic-book-style webcomic — rather Kirby-esque adventures — set in an extremely strange United States — apparently far future.
The creator of the webcomic, Tom Scioli, would later make the comic books Transformers vs. G.I. Joe and GoBots for IDW Publishing.
Tropes included:
- After the End: The world-ending catastrophe is referenced as the "Great Clusterfuck"
- Badass Family: The Yoosamon family are formidable strongmen who have been guards of the Castle Lionheart for generations.
- Barbarian Hero: Rick is the hero of the story and a barbarian.
- Base on Wheels: The Moving Fortress, a city built inside a massive tank-like vehicle..
- Big Bad: Two-Tank Omen, a gigantic "satanic pharaoh" who has full-sized tanks for feet. Rick takes it upon himself to stop Two-Tank Omen both to avenge his family and to stop him from hurting others.
- Cain and Abel: Rick ends up fighting his brother Gunthor when the latter turns out to have sided with Two-Tank Omen.
- Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: Dinosaur Riders.
- Fake Defector: Rick pretends to join Two Tank Omen's army in an effort to get "R-E-V-E-N-G-E-!-!-!"
- Flipping the Bird: Rick goes out giving the middle finger to Two-Tank Omen.
- Get It Over With: Gunthor to Rick, once he gets the sword.
- Give Me a Sword: Uli gets back Rick's sword and throws it to him.
- Go-Go Enslavement: Uli at one point gets captured by Two-Tank Omen and forced to wear a very revealing costume.
- Green-Eyed Monster: the protagonist's brother betrays him because he lost the Tangle of Swords.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Rick sacrifices himself to kill Two-Tank Omen.
- Human Sacrifice: "Meet god!" (actually a Beholder-like entity)
- Immortality: Two-Tank Omen is stated to be immortal.
- Leave No Survivors: Two-Tank-Omen's modus operandi
- Love Triangle: Averted and lampshaded: Rick is glad that Uli turns out to be the sister of the other man.
- Multicolored Hair: The Yoosamons all have red, white, and blue striped hair. Pa has this pattern in his beard.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Rick is horrified by how his attempt to win Two-Tank Omen's trust give Omen a chance to wreak destruction.
- Number of the Beast: Two-Tank Omen has a stylized triple-six emblem on his headdress.
- One-Man Army: Rick can kick tons of ass even though he's just one man.
- One-Way Visor: Greylock, the Climber and Gali-Leo all wear opaque visors.
- Protagonist Title: This comic's title also happens to be the name of the main character.
- Really 700 Years Old: The inhabitants of the Moving Fortress reveal that they are much older than they appear and have lived since before the Great Clusterfuck.
- Revenge: Rick wants to kill Two-Tank Omen to avenge the slaughtering of his father and brothers.
- Retraux: In spite of being made in the 2010's, the comic is drawn in a style as if it were published decades earlier than that.
- Rule of Seven: Rick is the youngest of seven sons.
- Smooch of Victory: Uli gives Rick one after Gunthor flees and the battle is over.
- Sole Survivor: Rick is the last surviving member of the Yoosamon family, at least until Gunthor is also revealed to have survived.
- Spiteful Spit:
- One man makes the suicidal decision to spit at Two-Tank Omen and insult him to his face. Two-Tank Omen responds by gesturing his men to slit the man's throat.
- American Barbarian spits at Bad-Azz before fighting him.
- Stable Time Loop: The first Time Machine test caused Rick to become the strange rainbow-humanoid explorer who gave himself cryptic advice. He also takes the Medusa Bolas with him, because that's what the explorer did.
- Temporal Paradox: Rick refuses to undo the apocalypse, since it would erase everyone who lived in his post-apocalypse world. Well, almost everyone.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: Two-Tank Omen's arrival and the city plotlines were displayed in parallel.
- You Did Everything You Could: Uli assures Rick of this after one attempt on Two-Tank Omen failed entirely.
- Youngest Child Wins: Rick is the youngest of Pa Yoosamon's sons and ends up inheriting their family's destiny.
