The gun is the least dangerous thing here.
Locus
is an adult fantasy webcomic, written and drawn by Adam Black. It follows the story of one woman as she fights her destiny, and the mad machinations of evil necromancers, demons, and stranger things besides. She wields a blade of ancient power, one that has only been wielded by a single other person: an entity known simply as The Life-Drinker.
Full of half-naked women (and men), extreme violence and more supernatural creatures than you can count, Locus manages to combine shameless pandering with fantastic characters, an interesting backstory and a vast mythos that extends across dimensions.
It was started in November of 2008, and was completed in May of 2012. A Prequel comic, Silk & Honey, can be found here.
This series contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Locus, primarily, though most of the women who show up for more than one panel typically count.
- And I Must Scream:
- The fate of those who die in the realms of the dead.
- As well as the fate Hampstead condemns John Dee to... or tries to, anyway.
- Aroused by Their Voice: Bordering on a Compelling Voice. Succubi may be misunderstood by most mortals, but their reputation had to come from somewhere.
- Artifact of Doom:
- Quite a few floating around, but Locus has two: Zol’to Shen’to Bana’i, the Hand of the Eater of Spiders, and Unaph’to Xel’Duum, the Wrath of the Life-Drinker. The first is a gun that never misses its target, granted to her by her Uncle Spook; the second is the entire reason Locus was born.
- Anyone killed by that gun has their soul go directly to a perpetual torment layer of the dead lands.
- Badass Normal:
- Lacking any sort of personal power (at least initially), Templeton Goodman manages to, among other things, confront a powerful necromancer, fight against horrific demons, and stare into the face of God and live.
- And he's still managing to do crazy shit now that he's dead.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Mostly averted, as the comic can get pretty gory. However, at least Eden's death was pretty clean, probably as a sign of her own purity.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Lots and lots. Most notable is John Dee, who has had so many names over the centuries that he cannot remember them all, but there's also Wilfred Hampstead, AKA Grigori Rasputin, among others, as well as God, who has taken the forms of Moses, Jesus and Hitler.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: The Soul Harvesters, who torture their victims until their souls leak out. It was through enduring this torment that Xel'Duum was converted to their cause.
- Crapsack World:
- One of the great revelations about the nature of the world is that our world was created by the nightmares of the sleeping Life-Drinker, whose dreams are tainted by the darkness and horror of her own genocide against hundreds of other worlds.
- And Hampstead wants to wake her up, so she can start all over again.
- Daddy's Girl: Locus, AKA Anna, adores her father, in part because she never knew her mother. Her entire journey started with her attempting to avenge his death.
- Dark Is Not Evil:
- Uncle Spook, AKA Shento Bana'i, The Eater of Spiders. Most notable for his ability to hunt and consume just about anything, but he's got a better heart than most of the humans in the comic.
- The succubi, as well, are generally good and decent, focused on the preservation and protection of mystical knowledge.
- And Sammael is a pretty decent guy, most of the time. At least, he keeps his promises.
- Determinator: Spook, mostly, although plenty of others take absurd levels of damage and just keep going.
- Death Is Not Permanent: Well, not for everybody. Most of the characters manage to skirt the line, and even cross it a few times, and come back just fine... or sometimes, even a bit better than before.
- Enfant Terrible: As one last parting gift, Eden, now a goddess of spring, bestows upon Silk the ability to have a child with her husband, Spook, despite their otherwise incompatible biologies. The resulting progeny is utterly horrifying... at least to Silk. Spook, on the other hand, thinks the child is totally awesome, especially after she bites off his finger.
- Gambit Roulette: Hampstead has a book full of incredibly specific instructions that will guide him towards awakening Xel'Duum. It was written by himself and sent back in time to ensure that occurs exactly according to plan.
- God Is Evil:
- Or at least insane enough that it's hard to tell the difference.
- And that's the God that inspired The Bible, who is simply one amongst many. The actual Creator of the universe is Xel'Duum, whose nightmares birthed the universe as it currently is.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Hampstead.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Locus, aka Anna Goodman, is half succubus. Unlike in traditional mythology, she's not particularly interested in having sex with anyone.
- Healing Potion: Most necromancers carry a special vial that will revive them if something bad should happen to them. This comes in handy on a number of occasions.
- Healing Shiv: The twin of the Wrath of Xel'Duum, which can only heal living things, although it does make its wielder immortal. It is also the only weapon that can kill Xel'Duum, as no other weapon can ever harm her.
- Horror Hunger: Spook, like all ghouls, are capable of eating just about anything, and enjoy doing so. When he's badly hurt, this pleasure becomes an all-consuming need, as it's how he regenerates.
- I Love the Dead: the necromancer Locus fights against in the beginning of the comic, who has created several hot female vampires for the purposes of protecting him and satisfying... certain needs.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Spook, like most ghouls, can and will eat just about anything. This includes pesky humans that piss him off.
- Littlest Cancer Patient: After he dies, Templeton begins traveling the many worlds with a (formerly) sick child named Annie in search of Sammael's Wheel. Unlike most versions of this trope, it's not meant purely to evoke sympathy for the girl.
- Louis Cypher: Sammael, who tends to appear as the fathers of the people he meets, for whatever reason.
- Most Common Superpower: While not absolutely ridiculous, most of the women in the comic are fairly well-endowed.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Xel'Duum, the Life-Drinker, put herself into an endless stasis after realizing the full extent of the horrors she and the other Bloodied Ones had unleashed.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Numerous, but most notable are the world-slayers named the Bloodied Ones, and their leader, Xel'Duum the Life-Drinker.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Spook is pretty damn scary by himself, but where he comes from, he's apparently
one of the least threatening monsters around. - Older Than They Look: Nearly everyone in the series, with perhaps the exceptions of Locus and Templeton Goodman. This is because humans are incredibly short-lived and weak... usually.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Xel'Duum and the Bloodied Ones. They succeeded, except for this world, which is made from Xel'Duum's nightmares.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Not much is known about how werewolves are created, but they appear to have perfect control of their abilities, as demonstrated by Moondoggie.
- Our Vampires Are Different: They're basically animated corpses that must obey the necromancers who made them.
- Perception Filter: Spook can "shield his thoughts," masking his presence to anyone who lacks Unveiled Eyes or a similar method of piercing his supernatural invisibility.
- Perverse Sexual Lust: Succubi use it (among other emotions) as a weapon, accidentally giving them a reputation as having Extreme Libido.
- Revive Kills Zombie: Xel'Duum's sword had a twin that could only heal, not harm. It is also the only weapon capable of killing Xel'Duum permanently... and Xel'Duum wants Locus to use it on her for that exact reason.
- Scale of Scientific Sins: One of the Bloodied Ones, Denvey, manages to transcend all of them in his genocidal pursuit of total understanding. Indeed, he is solely responsible for all of the monstrous creatures left behind on the worlds that were purged by the Bloodied Ones.
- Stable Time Loop: Hampstead travels back in time to ensure Xel'Duum destroys the world when she cannot at the end of the comic, but in so doing ensures that events occur exactly as they were meant to.
- Starfish Language: The angelic/demonic language that everyone seems to speak, except for the ignorant humans.
- Succubi and Incubi: The Succubi and Incubi of the setting typically have no desire to mate with humans, as they consider humanity to be a far inferior species. This hasn't stopped some humans from capturing succubi and incubi for that purpose anyway.
- Sufficiently Advanced Alien: A magical variant; most of the "demons" in the comic are from other worlds that can be traversed through some interdimensional portal system. Most of them look down upon humanity, to the point where no one could believe that a noble succubus would ever mate with a human.
- True Sight: Only two people in the world have the Unveiled Eyes. One is Templeton Goodman; the other is Locus, his daughter.John Dee: They do not normally lay with your kind. It would be akin to making love with a goldfish.
-
Unfortunate Implications: Lampshaded. Pretty much everyone is squicked out by the circumstances surrounding Locus' conception, including most of the characters, even if they do love each other. - Walking Shirtless Scene: Most of the non-human characters, male and female, including the succubi and Locus. Though potentially sexy at first, it quickly becomes Fan Disservice as soon as they start getting shot and stabbed.
