Hero Team Plot Synopsis And Analysis Thread -

[Jaimas]

Figure we may as well do this shit right.

I've been doing minor plot synopses for [URL='http://the-golden-knight.deviantart.com/gallery/27923659/Hero-Team?offset=72']Hero Team. Because Jay somehow, miraculously, manages to be less artistically competent than CWC's Sonichu, as well as being a less-competent writer, I thought it would behoove us to get a thread going on general synopses of each episode (I did the first ten already) and our own personal observations on various episodes. In this thread, we will go over various things we've learned from the various episodes, and we'll ponder what each means for the greater whole of the world that Hero Team takes place in, and for the work as a whole.

Things I learned in the first ten issues:
1. Hero Team is utterly impossible to follow without Jay's descriptions in each panel. I dare anyone to read through the first ten issues of Hero Team and figure out what's going on without Jay's absolutely enormous text dumps explaining everything in every panel. It's very clear that Jay fails at sequential storytelling, but I don't think many expected the degree on display here. When your work makes CWC, pre-crisis Gonterman, and fucking Moleman look coherent, that's a hell of an accomplishment.
2. There is no explanation on who the hostile forces are in the first ten issues. I am now about 12% of the way through the comic, and I have no idea what on earth the heroes are supposed to be fighting. There's talk of Brutes, and we even see one of these mongreloids on page 9 or so, but we still have absolutely zero context for what's happening here.
3. A nameless mayor is in charge of a super-powered team of soldiers that are at his beck and call. Jesus Godbear Christ, this sounds familiar....
4. Casey's Orgasm-face in Issue 2 continues to haunt my nightmares, as is the fact that she killed an unarmed man who was no threat.
5. The first ten eps are rife with Halo references. The weapons are all weapons from said game, including the sniper rifle Amanda uses, the laser cannon Casey uses, Jay's assault rifle, and so on. The armor is called Spartan Armor, and the enemy mutants are called brutes.
6. The entire time I was writing the synopsis of the first ten episodes, I was imaging an autistic version of the COPS cartoon. With an MA-17 rating.

So, fellow analysts of the Auric Autist, I ask you: What insights did you glean from the various issues of Hero Team? What bits of lunacy did you find that were espeically worth laughing at? Was there any issues that really struck out to you as being especially odd, horrifying, laughable, stupid, or some combination of the above? If so, post your findings.[/url]

 

[natfoxxfiends]

The thing is, if you presented Sonichu or Hero Team to somebody who knew nothing about them and just said "a 10-year-old boy wrote it," they'd probably believe you. But Sonichu creates the (rather appropriate) image of a awkward yet earnest young boy who just wants some friends and a couple of parents that don't treat him like a little kid, whereas Hero Team conjures up the image of a rude kid who's really popular and stays in the 'in' crowd by swearing profusely, making Duke Nukem references, and talking about how 'hardcore' he is now that his dad exposed him to Queensrÿche.

I'm imagining Jay and Chris working on a Sonichu/Hero Team crossover-comic because, "my mom told your mom i didn't have that much friends, and then your mom said something about the comic book you were working on, so she said we'd have more fun if we did a comic together, and i just came over!"

 

[Cure Quanta]

I'm imagining Jay and Chris working on a Sonichu/Hero Team crossover-comic because, "my mom told your mom i didn't have that much friends, and then your mom said something about the comic book you were working on, so she said we'd have more fun if we did a comic together, and i just came over!"

So it'd be a Precure All Stars crossover, except wherever it says "Friend" in the title, you replace it with "Friendless."

In all seriousness though, just reading the summaries I'm surprised how little each of these issues can present. You know, say what you will about Sonichu but it at least had arcs...uhh, of a sort. Granted, that just made it especially terrible because your brain had to work harder to process everything, whether Chris was in the Time Void, who was where, if Crystal was still in the Dark Mirror Hole, that sorta thing, but there was some level of building up, rising, and falling going on. It's like just from reading Jamais' summaries, one can expect issues that are maybe a few pages long each. There aren't even any cool visuals to distract from the lack of story-everything in these panels, like lots of plot-thin action comics tend to do to keep a reader interested.

I know I'm saying this about the Shiny Stringbean here, but ye gods, this story has managed to lowball my already low expectations. We get one page of explanations of who's who and we're dropped right into the thick of it. It's like playing a video game and skipping all the cutscenes so you have no idea what you're doing, just shoot the bad guys, then shoot the other bad guys, then shoot these bad guys who are kind of hard to shoot. It makes it seem like the "War on Crime" is some kind of excuse to wipe out people who under any other circumstances might be crooks but aren't actively planning things or doing things, going in and being all Judge Dredd without investigations, warrants or arrests.

Here's a few fun facts which Sparklesquire also misses, which I can't quite blame him so much for since it's never made totally obvious in Halo:

"Master Chief" is actually a rank in and of itself. It's E-9, and in the Halo series, John-117 holds the nickname because that's exactly what he's ranked. It's like why some guys refer to R. Lee Ermey as "Gunny," since he played, then was promoted to, Gunnery Sergeant. A Master Chief Petty Officer is therefore enlisted, and if Goldie Pawn stuck to that nickname instead of making himself Captain (and thus be realistically assigned command of a company, something which "the first Supersoldiers in our realistic world" don't really understand) he'd actually be ranked below Casey, Adam and Amanda. I'll give him credit, he dodged a bullet. Granted, it was one he aimed and fired at himself, but little victories...

Oh, yeah! One more fact: in Halo 2, Chief was referred to as "(The) Demon" by the various regular and Heretic factions of the Covenant. So that's one more thing Goldmember rips off.

 

[Idling]

In all seriousness though, just reading the summaries I'm surprised how little each of these issues can present. You know, say what you will about Sonichu but it at least had arcs...uhh, of a sort. Granted, that just made it especially terrible because your brain had to work harder to process everything, whether Chris was in the Time Void, who was where, if Crystal was still in the Dark Mirror Hole, that sorta thing, but there was some level of building up, rising, and falling going on. It's like just from reading Jamais' summaries, one can expect issues that are maybe a few pages long each. There aren't even any cool visuals to distract from the lack of story-everything in these panels, like lots of plot-thin action comics tend to do to keep a reader interested.

I think the term "issue" is a bit confusing. What the wiki calls issues are actually just single pages. For the first 20 pages or so, there's still basically nothing going on but a long, boring and partly indeciperable fighting scene, but it's not as bad as several actual issues or chapters of that.

I get the feeling, that Jay planned this all to be some in medias res introduction for the hero team, where each character gets to show off their abilities and character quirks, while fighting some unimportant evil guys - kind of like one of those scenes you get at the beginning of your standard action movie, when the buddy cop duo storms some drug hive while making quirky banter. That'd explain why we never learn who the team is fighting or why, because it's not important for the story.

Of course the poor pacing (introducing 6 characters all at once just drags) and Jays poor drawing abilities ruin that plan, since it's impossible to tell what's going on - you can only tell it's been going on for far too long.

 

[Cure Quanta]

I think the term "issue" is a bit confusing. What the wiki calls issues are actually just single pages. For the first 20 pages or so, there's still basically nothing going on but a long, boring and partly indeciperable fighting scene, but it's not as bad as several actual issues or chapters of that.

Yeah, I know. Jay Jay The Jet Plane doesn't help either, since all you get in the description is some parts and how this is Saga 1, apparently. No page numbers, no markers, no covers or splash pages-you just figure it out yourself. It just adds to the thing I said in the Bob's Game thread that these aren't really for an audience, but are means to an end, that end being a lolcow and his ego.

I get the feeling, that Jay planned this all to be some in medias res introduction for the hero team, where each character gets to show off their abilities and character quirks, while fighting some unimportant evil guys - kind of like one of those scenes you get at the beginning of your standard action movie, when the buddy cop duo storms some drug hive while making quirky banter. That'd explain why we never learn who the team is fighting or why, because it's not important for the story.

Sure, but in said buddy cop duo sequence, doesn't that work better when the introduction is for something a bit more mundane than trying to introduce supersoldiers in Totally Not MJOLNIR Armor, Nosiree Bob? Which will lead to my next point...

Of course the poor pacing (introducing 6 characters all at once just drags) and Jays poor drawing abilities ruin that plan, since it's impossible to tell what's going on - you can only tell it's been going on for far too long.

...which is that I disagree, introduction all at once doesn't drag if you do it properly. It wasn't done properly here, but you can do it properly. I think Yellow Cake could've benefitted from cutting out the first intro page entirely and just gone with the in medias res introduction by itself, and using their parts of the same plan to introduce themselves. "This is this member of Herpaderp Team, they use the Derpydurr Suit, their specialization is Blahdeeblah, which you can see them do right now," and they're doing it right at that moment, establishing where they fit in the team and how they contribute.

 

[Idling]

Sure, but in said buddy cop duo sequence, doesn't that work better when the introduction is for something a bit more mundane than trying to introduce supersoldiers in Totally Not MJOLNIR Armor, Nosiree Bob? Which will lead to my next point...



...which is that I disagree, introduction all at once doesn't drag if you do it properly. It wasn't done properly here, but you can do it properly. I think Yellow Cake could've benefitted from cutting out the first intro page entirely and just gone with the in medias res introduction by itself, and using their parts of the same plan to introduce themselves. "This is this member of Herpaderp Team, they use the Derpydurr Suit, their specialization is Blahdeeblah, which you can see them do right now," and they're doing it right at that moment, establishing where they fit in the team and how they contribute.

It doesn't matter whether the introduction scene is mundane or not, as long as it's well done. You can have start with something really outlandish, like supersoldiers in powerarmor fighting terrorists and have that establish you setting jst fine ("All you need is kill" starts that way, and I like both the novel and comic just fine).

I agree with your second point though. Of course you can introduce a bigger team without it having that drag. But for that to work you' usually not have a full focus on every member of the group, but chose one focus person, and leave the others to be fully fleshed out later. That way you can get that introduction episode done in 6 instead of 17 pages. The other option would be to make the characters smore interesting. That way the reader will willingly stick through a long intro. "Teammember 5 wears armor B112 and uses a hyper gun" is not very interesting, so it's better to just cut it as short as possible. So let me rephrase what i said earlier - Fully introducing six Characters all at once just drags, unless you have interesting Characters.

 

[littlebiscuits]

Okay, I'll do the next ten pages!

Let's start with chapter eleven.

1. As @Jaimas pointed out, there is no mention of who or what Hero Team is supposed to be fighting. In Jay's description he mentions an "army" apparently, failing to realize that armies usually represent some kind of country, leader, or organization and don't just randomly spawn fully equipped and organized.

2. Jay decides to use a common literary technique know as "foreshadowing", where the author hints at a possible outcome for what is to come in the story. Usually this is done subtlety or at least with in the text. Jay however, just out right announces that foreshadowing with occur and makes two "Hint" pages for his readers.

Spoiler: Forshadowing!

Spoiler: more foreshadowing

3. Hero 1 fights some sort of carrot.

4.

Also, because Hero 1 has been sniped in the gut, I felt like he deserves a "Moment of Awesome", nominated for "Crowning Moment of Awesome" by maker! Even IF this makes him look like Mary Sue or Gary Stu, I want you to be thinking, "WHO Cares?! He's too F'ing AWESOME! "

5. Carrot fight continues.

6. For some reason, one of the Hero's decides to sing a little power metal to put everyone in a battle mood. Hero 1 doesn't like it, and tells him to stop because the song is copy righted.

7. Jay interrupts another EPIC battle scene to tell everyone how cute Amanda/Hero 2 is. Nothing else of significance happens in the battle.

8. The boring carrot fight is finally over. Finally.

9. Jay posts a mission report, announcing that all members of Hero Team are in perfect health, perfect shape, and accomplished their perfect mission to save the perfect mayor perfectly. Also apparently one of the Hero's found some important data or some shit which is SUPER IMPORTANT even though Jay didn't bother to draw it into the comic.

10. The mission is over, so of course it's time for sex between Hero's 1 and 2.

11. Oh shit I was wrong, it wasn't time for sex, it was time for naked power metal singing.

12. The other Heros hear thumping and screaming coming from behind Jay's door. They become very aroused by the thought of potentially walking in on Jay and Amanda having sex.

Spoiler

13. Then the weirdest thing ever happens. The black Hero decides to call everyone into the living room for an action movie, so that the other Heros can forget about peeping on Amanda and Jay. So everyone gathers on an incredibly large couch and start watching Die Hard. Suddenly Jay notices that Amanda has her hands in her pants. She's masturbating. In front of everyone. The other Heros ( including the one that is underage )find this incredibly arousing.

Spoiler: NSFW

14. Everyone's cool with it, so Amanda just finishes and decides to play video games with Jay. Before the games start, Jay prays for the perfect girlfriend. Just then, he notices that Amanda is wearing a Duke Nukem shirt. She's perfect. Jay falls in love.

END OF CHAPTER 20!

 

[Cure Quanta]

Yeah, that's better-worded.

I guess I have no leg to stand on on your first point when I'm a big fan of sci-fi and worldbuilding. I guess it's because my personal style drags since I end up explaining a lot as I go along, and I'm used to that.

...I also like how single-minded it seems Hero Team is. Even their powermetal excerpts are kinda like war songs and the like. They're about as multifaceted as a quarter.

 

[Le Bateleur]

Yeah, that's better-worded.

I guess I have no leg to stand on on your first point when I'm a big fan of sci-fi and worldbuilding. I guess it's because my personal style drags since I end up explaining a lot as I go along, and I'm used to that.

...I also like how single-minded it seems Hero Team is. Even their powermetal excerpts are kinda like war songs and the like. They're about as multifaceted as a quarter.

That's a good point about the single-mindedness. Even when they sit down to watch a movie/touch themselves in public, it's an EPIC action film.

 

[Idling]

Oh God...

I just go to page 44, where the comic reaches a new low.

If I understand that page correctly, Casey, the fat hero, murders a sleeping guy in cold blood, then procedes to rape his corpse. That's not just my interpretation either...

As we all know from before, these kinds of...horrific scenes simply turn Casey on.

So, since she easily assumed everyone else was still asleep and none the wiser, she decided to take advantage of this opportunity and relieve some of her lust...

 

[Cure Quanta]

...huh.

So other than the "this must be a 12-year-old with no parents in their lives trying way too hard to be cool," the other winning guess would be "this guy is trying to be the next Paul Verhoeven and his Starship Troopers is trying way too hard."

 

[Le Bateleur]

Oh God...

I just go to page 44, where the comic reaches a new low.

If I understand that page correctly, Casey, the fat hero, murders a sleeping guy in cold blood, then procedes to rape his corpse. That's not just my interpretation either...

No, you are absolutely correct. Jay spells it out even more further down his description. I'll summarise it, because it's horrible.

• Jay explains in detail how Casey "molests" her "inanimate plaything".
• He makes sure to mention her bare feet.
• He then claims it's OK because he's left things to the imagination.
• He reiterates that what he's drawn is a sex scene. The scene with the corpse. Definitely a sex scene.
• Imagining himself in Casey's place - HAVING SEX WITH THE CORPSE OF SOMEONE HE'S JUST KILLED - makes Jay so horny that he must rush to masturbate.

Spoiler: The full thing. Contains a gleeful, sexualised description of necrophilia. Be warned.

She disrobed her bottom half, letting the lower part of her mail clunk onto the floor at the foot of the bed. She climbed into the bed, with her puffy butt cheeks exposed and her bare feet already tucked under the sheets. Her molesting created a particular squishing noise as she giddily cracked with a wide-eyed expression of sheer ecstasy and pleasure, "Let's play a game." Yes, that IS a tribute to a certain horror character (Jigsaw;

). Anyway, like you'd expect, she kept bumping and thumping, moaning and cooing in her kinky (albeit sadistic and/or masochistic) delight as her muscles tightened from arousal and her glands reflexively contracted around her inanimate plaything.

End Scene!


*What EXACTLY she is doing, is left up to interpretation. Therefore, this is NOT explicit enough to be labeled "Porn" (Refer to Pages 27-29, a very similar case, particularly one meant to directly test the bounds between "cinematic sex scene" and outright "porn"). As back then, I utilize the same methods public movies use to show sex scenes while NOT becoming outlawed "Porn".* (I still wouldn't mind reading/hearing/seeing what your curious imaginations DO envision her doing...

)

Nevertheless, this has made ME horny, placing myself in HER shoes (or feet, whichever you prefer) and trying to see things HER way. So, in order to away I WOOSH!

 

[Emperor's Champion]

You know I just kinda assumed it was bad all this time. But like, how do I put this. Like its I get the point. Super solider fights baddies its a power fantasy. But like gi joe told us why not to like cobra. Cobra did something bad, the joes kick their ass, repeat next week. GK is just stuck on the 'kick ass and repeat next week' part with no frame of understanding why

 

[Silver]

gk is so goddamned creepy

 

[Jaimas]

No, you are absolutely correct. Jay spells it out even more further down his description. I'll summarise it, because it's horrible.

• Jay explains in detail how Casey "molests" her "inanimate plaything".
• He makes sure to mention her bare feet.
• He then claims it's OK because he's left things to the imagination.
• He reiterates that what he's drawn is a sex scene. The scene with the corpse. Definitely a sex scene.
• Imagining himself in Casey's place - HAVING SEX WITH THE CORPSE OF SOMEONE HE'S JUST KILLED - makes Jay so horny that he must rush to masturbate.

Spoiler: The full thing. Contains a gleeful, sexualised description of necrophilia. Be warned.

She disrobed her bottom half, letting the lower part of her mail clunk onto the floor at the foot of the bed. She climbed into the bed, with her puffy butt cheeks exposed and her bare feet already tucked under the sheets. Her molesting created a particular squishing noise as she giddily cracked with a wide-eyed expression of sheer ecstasy and pleasure, "Let's play a game." Yes, that IS a tribute to a certain horror character (Jigsaw;

). Anyway, like you'd expect, she kept bumping and thumping, moaning and cooing in her kinky (albeit sadistic and/or masochistic) delight as her muscles tightened from arousal and her glands reflexively contracted around her inanimate plaything.

End Scene!


*What EXACTLY she is doing, is left up to interpretation. Therefore, this is NOT explicit enough to be labeled "Porn" (Refer to Pages 27-29, a very similar case, particularly one meant to directly test the bounds between "cinematic sex scene" and outright "porn"). As back then, I utilize the same methods public movies use to show sex scenes while NOT becoming outlawed "Porn".* (I still wouldn't mind reading/hearing/seeing what your curious imaginations DO envision her doing...

)

Nevertheless, this has made ME horny, placing myself in HER shoes (or feet, whichever you prefer) and trying to see things HER way. So, in order to away I WOOSH!

...There are not enough toilets in New York State to contain the amount of shit-spewing horror I am feeling right now.

 

[Lascannon]

No, you are absolutely correct. Jay spells it out even more further down his description. I'll summarise it, because it's horrible.

• Jay explains in detail how Casey "molests" her "inanimate plaything".
• He makes sure to mention her bare feet.
• He then claims it's OK because he's left things to the imagination.
• He reiterates that what he's drawn is a sex scene. The scene with the corpse. Definitely a sex scene.
• Imagining himself in Casey's place - HAVING SEX WITH THE CORPSE OF SOMEONE HE'S JUST KILLED - makes Jay so horny that he must rush to masturbate.

Spoiler: The full thing. Contains a gleeful, sexualised description of necrophilia. Be warned.

She disrobed her bottom half, letting the lower part of her mail clunk onto the floor at the foot of the bed. She climbed into the bed, with her puffy butt cheeks exposed and her bare feet already tucked under the sheets. Her molesting created a particular squishing noise as she giddily cracked with a wide-eyed expression of sheer ecstasy and pleasure, "Let's play a game." Yes, that IS a tribute to a certain horror character (Jigsaw;

). Anyway, like you'd expect, she kept bumping and thumping, moaning and cooing in her kinky (albeit sadistic and/or masochistic) delight as her muscles tightened from arousal and her glands reflexively contracted around her inanimate plaything.

End Scene!


*What EXACTLY she is doing, is left up to interpretation. Therefore, this is NOT explicit enough to be labeled "Porn" (Refer to Pages 27-29, a very similar case, particularly one meant to directly test the bounds between "cinematic sex scene" and outright "porn"). As back then, I utilize the same methods public movies use to show sex scenes while NOT becoming outlawed "Porn".* (I still wouldn't mind reading/hearing/seeing what your curious imaginations DO envision her doing...

)

Nevertheless, this has made ME horny, placing myself in HER shoes (or feet, whichever you prefer) and trying to see things HER way. So, in order to away I WOOSH!

Our egotistical bronze knight should really consider going to the nearest mental hospitals in his state.

 

[Cure Quanta]

...I kind of like how Hero Team seems to be defying attempts to analyze it through sheer repulsiveness. This thread could be summarized as "Okay, so at its heart Hero Team is this really threadbare comic with really terrible art about Powerpuff supersoldiers killing everybody and OH MY GOD WHATAREWELOOKINGATAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

 

[Furina]

...cooing in her kinky (albeit sadistic and/or masochistic) delight as her...

Hold on... Does the Clay Pigeon not understand the difference between Sadism and Masochism?
Sadism: Getting aroused from causing pain.
Masochism: Getting aroused from receiving pain.

Neither of those are even relevant in the scene. She doesn't seem to be in pain and the dead can't feel, so... I'm probably expecting too much from him, aren't I? Oops.

I don't have a DA account so can someone post a screencap of the songs they sing? I have a bad feeling I'll know which songs they are.

 

[GREEDY FIREMAN]

No, you are absolutely correct. Jay spells it out even more further down his description. I'll summarise it, because it's horrible.

• Jay explains in detail how Casey "molests" her "inanimate plaything".
• He makes sure to mention her bare feet.
• He then claims it's OK because he's left things to the imagination.
• He reiterates that what he's drawn is a sex scene. The scene with the corpse. Definitely a sex scene.
• Imagining himself in Casey's place - HAVING SEX WITH THE CORPSE OF SOMEONE HE'S JUST KILLED - makes Jay so horny that he must rush to masturbate.

Spoiler: The full thing. Contains a gleeful, sexualised description of necrophilia. Be warned.

She disrobed her bottom half, letting the lower part of her mail clunk onto the floor at the foot of the bed. She climbed into the bed, with her puffy butt cheeks exposed and her bare feet already tucked under the sheets. Her molesting created a particular squishing noise as she giddily cracked with a wide-eyed expression of sheer ecstasy and pleasure, "Let's play a game." Yes, that IS a tribute to a certain horror character (Jigsaw;

). Anyway, like you'd expect, she kept bumping and thumping, moaning and cooing in her kinky (albeit sadistic and/or masochistic) delight as her muscles tightened from arousal and her glands reflexively contracted around her inanimate plaything.

End Scene!


*What EXACTLY she is doing, is left up to interpretation. Therefore, this is NOT explicit enough to be labeled "Porn" (Refer to Pages 27-29, a very similar case, particularly one meant to directly test the bounds between "cinematic sex scene" and outright "porn"). As back then, I utilize the same methods public movies use to show sex scenes while NOT becoming outlawed "Porn".* (I still wouldn't mind reading/hearing/seeing what your curious imaginations DO envision her doing...

)

Nevertheless, this has made ME horny, placing myself in HER shoes (or feet, whichever you prefer) and trying to see things HER way. So, in order to away I WOOSH!

Oh, oh god... It's coming....

Spoiler: BLLEEUUAAAAAAGHHHHH!

 

[Idling]

For those without DA account, here's page 44. Also good to have a backup in case Jay deletes the original once called out on it.

Spoiler: Necrophilia Rape Scene

Edit:

Just noticed something else in Jays notes about page 44:

I DO try a SECOND "Special Effect" here, and that is Casey's Shadow, in Panel 8. **SEVEN HOURS WERE INVESTED IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THIS SINGLE PAGE, FROM START TO FINISH!

Spoiler: Seven Hours of Work

Also Jay really wants somebody to make him some fanart of this scene.

What EXACTLY she is doing, is left up to interpretation. Therefore, this is NOT explicit enough to be labeled "Porn" (Refer to Pages 27-29, a very similar case, particularly one meant to directly test the bounds between "cinematic sex scene" and outright "porn"). As back then, I utilize the same methods public movies use to show sex scenes while NOT becoming outlawed "Porn".* (I still wouldn't mind reading/hearing/seeing what your curious imaginations DO envision her doing...

)