Zenith

I'm nineteen, I can fly, I can flatten ballbearings between my fingers and I'm practically invulnerable to damage. I mean, let's face it... what can possibly go wrong? —Zenith, Tempting Fate

A Superhero Deconstruction comic created by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell. Zenith follows teen superhuman turned pop star Robert MacDowell, more popularly known as his stage name "Zenith" or "Superbrat" to the press. Superficial and spoilt rotten, Zenith is recruited by the previous generation of superhumans to fight against the Lloigor. Unfortunately, as cowardly and inept as he is, Zenith is mostly reduced to being a supporting character in his own comic.

The series was initially published in Two Thousand AD, spanning four "phases" between 1987 and 1992. Phase III is particularly notable, since it takes place across The Multiverse and featured a multitude of classic British superheroes, both named and ersatz. An incomplete list can be found here.

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Tropes

• After the End: Phase IV. Subverted.
• Air Vent Passageway: Used twice. First breaking into Wallace International and again into the Antarctic base.
• Alliterative Name: William Whitlock a.k.a. Maximan.
• Alternate History: World War II ends when the atomic bomb is dropped on Berlin.
• And This Is For: "The name's Zenith. And this is for Siadwel Rhys."
• An Ice Person: DJ Chill.
• Beware the Superman: A major theme.
• Bittersweet Ending: Phase III.
• Blind Seer: Maximan of Alternative 23. He even has a raven perched on his shoulder.
• British Rock Star
• Call Back: The two scenes of Masterman about to kill Maximan/Zenith are nearly identical. Even Masterman's dialogue is similar.
• Car Fu: Grant Morrison superheroes love chucking vehicles at each other. A bus, a Weetabix van and even an aeroplane get this treatment.
• Civvie Spandex: Zenith's ensemble.
• Chekhov's Gun: The miniature universe of Chimera.
• Chest Insignia: Zenith's lighting-bolt "Z". Vertex has a "V" in a similar style.
• The Cracker: Scott Wallace leaves a back door in software he wrote for a nuclear submarine.
• Curse Cut Short: The Wyvern's last words.
• Demonic Possession: Superhumans possessed by the Lloigor.
• De-Power: Cloud 9 claim to have lost their powers. They're lying, though they are a bit rusty.
• Differently-Powered Individual: Always "superhumans", never "superheroes".
• Domino Mask
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Peter St John's prophetic dream of the black sun.
• Earthshattering Kaboom: The Chaostructor. A bomb powerful enough to annihilate a world, yet small enough to fit in your pocket. The timer mechanism breaks easily, though.
• Eldritch Abomination: The Lloigor.
• Eldritch Location: Four-dimensional space.
• Everyone Knows Morse: Hotspur, paralysed by the Lloigor, blinks in Morse Code to communicate with Big Ben.
• Everything's Better with Dinosaurs
• Evil Twin: Zenith's counterpart Vertex from Alternative 300. Of course, since Zenith is shallow and unpleasant while Vertex is amicable and well-mannered, this means Vertex is the good twin.
• Eye Beams: Standard superpower of the Lloigor.
• Face Framed in Shadow: Maximan 23.
• Fetus Terrible:

Dr. Peyne: I was forced to shoot the sixth baby. It was an appalling, skinless creature with a dozen mouths that whimpered and bit the midwives.

• Flying Brick: Lux and Zenith.
• Ghost Planet: Any of the Lloigor's alternative worlds.
• Government Conspiracy: Peter St John is one of these all by himself.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Tammy, Vertex.
• How We Got Here: Phase IV as narrated by Dr. Peyne.
• Human Popsicle: Masterman's twin.
• Idiot Savant: Zenith may have the attention span of a sparrow but he demonstrates good business sense.
• Incest Is Relative: Sort of. Zenith is "bred" with a clone of his mother.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Zenith has been out of print for almost twenty years, and, because of complicated legal issues surrounding the copyrights, will probably stay that way for a while. The original printings of the trade paperback collections currently go up for hundreds of dollars on Internet auction sites (the original issues of 2000 A.D. are somewhat cheaper)
• Kissing Cousins: Tiger Tom and Tammy.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Phase III, populated with classic British superheroes.
• Merlin Sickness: Chimera!Peyne's fate.
• Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate: Dr. Peyne. Zenith likens the name to a James Bond villain.
• New Era Speech: Several, all by villains. Zenith lampshades the latest one to occur in Phase IV.
• The Night That Never Ends: The black sun.
• Number of the Beast: Alternative 666 is the first world to fall to the Lloigor.
• Offing the Offspring: What's left of Zenith's father tries to kill him as Warhead in Phase II. Zenith unknowingly helps defeat his son Iok Sotot in Phase I.
• Old Shame: Peter St John as Mandala in the 60's.
• One-Winged Angel: Iok Sotot.
• Only the Worthy May Pass: Thunderbolt Jaxon's belt only works "for the purposes of right and justice". It doesn't work because of the Unwitting Pawn plan.
• Our Presidents Are Different: Prime Minister Peter St John is definitely a President Action willing to get his hands dirty, with a bit of President Evil mixed in.
• Physical God: All the superhumans have this potential.
• Playing with Fire: Red Dragon, Blaze, White Heat. Later Zenith himself.
• Psychic Powers: Peter St John at first. By Phase IV, all the superhumans have them as well as some humans.
• Puberty Superpower
• Riddle Me This: Scott Wallace challenges Zenith with one.
• Robot Buddy: Archie.
• Senseless Sacrifice: Tammy
• Shame If Something Happened: Spoken by Margaret Thatcher.
• Shock and Awe: Voltage, Shockwave.
• Shooting Superman: A man driven insane by grief shoots Zenith at point-blank range with a bazooka. It doesn't even muss his hair.
• Sink or Swim Mentor: Zenith flies Red Dragon above the clouds and drops him in the hope that he will remember how to fly before he hits the ground.
• Sistine Steal: Dr. Peyne and Zenith. From the shape of the hands, Peyne is the Creator, but the panel is flipped horizontally, putting Zenith in God's position.
• The Sixties: Referenced often and contrasted with The Eighties and The Nineties.
• Something Person: Masterman, Maximan, Cat Girl, Fishboy, Tri-man, Oakman and Electroman.
• The Stoner: Archie. Robot Archie.
• Superpowerful Genetics: How Zenith gets his powers.
• Super Serum: The Maximan serum.
• Take Over the World: Scott Wallace's plan. He relents when asked the obvious question. This was also the original plan of Cloud 9 before they decided to take it even further.
• Take That: Morisson loves to take jabs at the British Conservative Party.
• Tell Me About My Father: Zenith's only motivation in Phase I. He gets an answer in Phase II.
• Training Montage: Red Dragon's rehabilitation.
• Ubermensch: Masterman, the Nazi superhuman.
• Unsettling Gender Reveal: TNT Tom and pre-op transsexual Metamaid. Tom doesn't seem to mind.
• Unwitting Pawn: Phase III, where the Lloigor pose as Maximan to trick the superhumans into doing their dirty work.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Peter St John, who abuses his powers to gain - and keep - the position of Prime Minister.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Chimera.
• When the Planets Align
• You Are Too Late: Phase IV has the fourth kind. The Lloigor unwittingly take over the Chimera universe after Peter St John traps them there.
• You Have Failed Me: Greta Haas.