Seasons
, written by Nandor Fox Shaffer, and drawn by Anthony Gonzales-Clark, is the story of a young man named Fletcher, who's living in a rut. He lives alone, works two jobs, and is estranged from his parents. His only remaining reason to live is his beautiful coworker Cathlyn, and he dreams of one day getting up the nerve to ask her out. The upcoming office party in honor of the company's founder should be the perfect opportunity, right?
Only minutes before Fletcher can finally tell her how he really feels about her, Cathlyn introduces him to her new boyfriend James, absolutely destroying him in the process. But this is more than just heartbreak- all of a sudden, Fletcher can see Cathlyn's future- one where she marries James, and Fletcher is completely absent. Running away in despair, Fletcher's heartbreak and depression suddenly manifest themselves in a shadowy mirror version of himself. And for some reason, both him and his clone have strange extraordinary powers.
When his shadow-self begins wreaking havoc on his city, Fletcher has no choice but to contain the damage he's inadvertently caused, by stopping the clone from creating shadowy copies of other people. Along the way, he's forced to confront his own past, and the personal issues that gave rise to his shadow in the first place.
Published on Arktoons, Seasons began running weekly on April 29th, 2021. It updates every Friday.
Seasons contains examples of:
- Armor-Piercing Question: Fletcher's shadow demands to know why Fletcher is still alive, after wasting so much of his potential. Fletcher realizes that he's absolutely right, and that he needs to change. This finally allows him to defeat the shadow once and for all, by absorbing it back inside of him.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: The abused woman Fletcher ends up saving is drawn like this.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Fletcher fears rejection so much he misses every chance he gets to ask Cathlyn out, deciding to wait for a perfect moment instead. It comes back to bite him, big time.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The comic takes place in black, grey and white, with the occasional super powered in a bright color outside that color scheme.
- Driven to Suicide: Fletcher tried to kill himself with pills after dropping out of high school. Meeting Cathlyn was the thing that put those thoughts to rest. After she starts dating someone else, those thoughts come back with a literal vengeance.
- Dysfunctional Family: Averted. Fletcher's family was actually tight knit, until Fletcher himself strained it. They still love him regardless and he longs for the ability to reciprocate their love.
- Entitled to Have You: The main reason shadow!Fletcher exists in the first place. Fletcher himself tells Cathlyn that he "just wanted to hold [her] hand", and his shadow form springs to life shortly after. The shadow insists at different points that they shared a real connection with her, and she took it away from them.
- Evil Counterpart: The 'shadows' are a Freudian version, manifested in the form of people from their personal flaws.
- Evil Me Scares Me: When confronted with his shadow self, Fletcher recognizes that his life up till now was not properly lived.
- Genre Shift: The beginning heavily implies the story is a wistful melodramatic romance. After Fletcher's shadow comes to life, it swings radically into a supernatural thriller.
- Heel Realization: Fletcher's family unconditionally loves him, but he has no illusions that he fails to properly reciprocate this love in his current state. This itself motivates him to start looking inside deep to change.
- Hollywood Healing: Averted. When Fletcher sustains horrible injuries, he spends 3 months in a hospital. Even when he is later magically sustained during his healing, a lot of time passes.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Fletcher doesn't know how to use his powers at first. Even after improving his conscious use of what he can do, he still finds himself unable to figure out how to activate certain powers he had done at least once before.
- Leave Me Alone!: In episode 24, Fletcher blows off a passerby's offer of help, despite clearly needing it after waking up from a three month coma and surviving an earthquake.
- A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: When Fletcher is struck with uncontrollable telepathy, he accidentally reads the minds around him. These are short but succinct enough if lacking context and some of those disturb him greatly. Worst of all, Cathlyn's thoughts about her new beau set off the story.
- "Not So Different" Remark: See "The Reason You Suck" Speech below. Fletcher's shadow insists that they're the same person, and that they should both just die.
- Poor Communication Kills: Fletcher wasn't told about his younger brother until late, leading him to believe that he wasn't enough for his parents. This was the beginning of his downward spiral into hedonism.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Fletcher's shadow gives him one, which finally motivates Fletcher to change his life for the better."I came from you! I'm everything locked away inside you! I'm every thought you're guilty of having! I'm your shadow! How can you look at me and not see yourself? You wanted your younger brother dead the day he was born, you wanted to make something of yourself no one else saw, not even your own parents, you wanted to live life! And you thought you loved a girl who never cared about you and lied to you and tore you apart! Because of her, you wished love didn't exist! But all you do is run away! All you've ever done is run away! Your life is a waste of one. So why are you still alive?
- Sibling Rivalry: A largely one-sided one exists between Fletcher and his younger brother.
- Temporal Theme Naming: The 4 books are named (in order) Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.
- The Unfavorite: Fletcher believed he wasn't enough for his parents after his brother was born, leading him down a dark and degenerate path.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Before he was a depressed loner working two jobs, Fletcher had supportive parents, and dreamed of becoming an architect.
