Asperchu parodies
In what may be the world's first attempt at cross-comic retconning, Chris attempted to alter the plot of Alec Benson Leary's Asperchu comic from within the pages of Sonichu #10 during the course of his feud with him in January 2010.
History
After Alec began to include more Sonichu characters in his comic other than Sonichu himself, Chris quickly took notice, and much tard-raging soon ensued. Whilst portraying Sonichu as a homo was bad enough for Chris, apparently tarring the Chaotic Combo with the same brush, and killing them off, was a step too far for him.
Chris's solution was to retcon the events of Asperchu in his own comic such that all instances of his characters appearing in Asperchu were really just other Electric Hedgehog Pokémon being forced to to play the characters by Alec. In a phone conversation with Alec, Chris revealed that he did this because he believes cartoon characters all really exist in some parallel universe, citing Who Framed Roger Rabbit as a template for this idea, and explaining that by making a work featuring the characters from his comic, he was therefore changing that parallel world into one in which they were homos, which his characters would allegedly resent. Of course, attempting to change the canon of another author's comics without permission was nowhere near insulting enough for Chris to be satisfied, so he also placed Alec himself in the story and portrayed him as a kidnapper and implied rapist, as well as stealing several characters original to Asperchu. Listed below are his bastardizations of each character, and what he did to make them that way.
Crossover characters
Sonichu and the Chaotic Combo
In the world of Asperchu, Sonichu and the Chaotic Combo are a group of heroic vigilantes fighting an underground guerrilla war in the streets of CWCville to free the town from the despotic clutches of Ian Brandon Anderson and return the rightful brown-striped Mayor to power. They are given much better characterization than Chris originally gave them, and Alec made Wild Sonichu and Magi-chan gay to play off their obvious homosexual inclinations in Sonichu. Wild is seen to be in a relationship with Simonchu as a parody of his relationship with his sub-par knockoff Simonla in the main comics, and after Wild dies he also dates Magi-Chan. Over the course of the comic, the entire Combo is eventually wiped out, with Wild, Punchy and Angelica being murdered by Metal Asperchu to establish his status as a threatening villain, Bubbles covertly assassinated by Silvana Rosechu in an infiltration mission, and Magi-Chan later killed in the battle for CWCville, also by Silvana. Sonichu survived these events, and later went on to become a villain himself - the monstrous Chris-Chan Sonichu.
In Sonichu #10, Chris responded to Asperchu by retconning it in his own comic. After destroying the 4-cent_garbage.com building, Chris and Ultra Sonichu flew away to Minnesota where the Asperchu comics took place and encountered the actors who portrayed the Sonichu characters in Asperchu. Chris established that they were in fact different Electric Hedgehogs, with different names and identities, who just so happened to look exactly like the characters in Sonichu canon. They explain that they were really natives of Minnesota, and that Alec Benson Leary had captured them and was forcing them against their will to pretend to be the Chaotic Combo, pretend to die, and even "make a false god out of" Liquid Chris among other things,[1] for reasons that will only ever make sense in Chris's autism-riddled mind. The fake Sonichu says they had "prayed for forgiveness from the real Christian"[2] for these heinous crimes.
In addition to this, they claim to have been "cursed"[3] with Asperger's syndrome by Alec, following Chris's belief that Asperger's syndrome is both completely different from the supposedly harmless high-functioning autism that he has and is a literal disease that can be "caught" or "cured". Chris gives this as the reason why the characters seemed to have personalities in Asperchu but were all cardboard cutouts in his comic; the Asperger's syndrome gave them all social problems and made them act weird, like they did in the Asperchu comic when they had personalities. In Chris's mind, normal people act like Saturday morning cartoon characters, like they do in his comic. Note also that, in the actual Asperchu comic, only Asperchu had Asperger's (and Bubbles was slow-in-the-mind) but the other characters were mentally normal.
Ultra Sonichu then uses his "Chaotic Remedy" to immediately cure them of their Asperger's and revert them back into their old selves (begging the question of why he couldn't instantly cure Chris's autism too), and the characters one by one give their real names, show off the extremely minor design changes Chris made to differentiate them from his characters, and list all the ways their lives had improved in the ten seconds since they were cured.
In response to complaints in the Mailbag that he was portraying himself and Sonichu as Messianic figures, Chris himself then arrives, having been absent outside of his role as narrator for the past few pages, and finds the newly regenerated Sonichus and Rosechus bowing down in prayer to him, having mistaken him for God. Chris takes the time to explain to them that he was not really God, but merely his humble messenger on Earth.
Following that, Metal Asperchu shows up and randomly attacks them, leading to a fight scene in which he is of course destroyed in the space of a couple pages. Chris and Sonichu then head inside to destroy Alec's HEXBox, whilst the new Sonichus gang up on and mercilessly beat Alec for drawing them poorly.
Mitch Sonichu
| “ | Flyin' high and lookin' fine! | ” |
| Trisha Rosechu, on Mitch Sonichu's new look. | ||
Mitch Sonichu is the outlier of Chris's alterations, in that he was an attempt to change Asperchu into a bland Sonichu character, rather than just Chris retaking what he believes to be his original characters, as was the case with Sonichu and the Chaotic Combo.
Chris had indicated in a previous phone call with Alec that he believes cartoons to exist in a parallel reality, and that what is written in comic books can influence and change that cartoon universe. Whilst Chris has given conflicting accounts of just how much power the author has over the characters in his comic books (for example, he believes Sonichu acts completely of his own free will in his comic but the same is not true of Asperchu) he seemed to hold the view that Asperchu was independent enough from Alec that he would resent the name he had been given and would be aware of the fact that he was deliberately written to be a loser with a mental disability. It can be inferred from this that Chris saw the character of Mitch as the person who Asperchu apparently really wanted to be, and he changed him into Mitch in his comic in a bizarre act of charity to the fictional character, though he probably still did it more to spite Alec than anything else.
Asperchu was transformed alongside Alec's versions of Sonichu and the Chaotic Combo, and also took part in the fight with Metal Asperchu shortly afterwards. He was the most prominently featured of the transformed Electric Hedgehogs, and he seemed to be portrayed as the effective "leader" of the group. As "Mitch", he allegedly became smarter, more confident and better-looking than his previous self. His makeover is highly ironic, seeing that the shirt he wore before it is an exact copy of an actual shirt of Chris.[4]
Like most characters that Chris creates based on events that occur around him, Mitch fades into the background shortly after being introduced and is never seen again.
In March 2019, Chris featured Mitch in his drawing on the DeJarnette Center for Human Development.[5] The link between Mitch and the institute is unclear.
Basement Rosechus
| “ | You just had them in prison and you treated them like hamsters... You know, just keep them in cages, giant hamster wheels, giant water bottles, nn...and food pellets. | ” |
| Chris, Alec Benson Leary Phone Call 6 | ||
The Basement Rosechus are a group of four Rosechus supposedly rescued from the basement of Alec Benson Leary in Sonichu #10 shortly after the defeat of Metal Asperchu. Starved, dirty and traumatized, they are the first characters that actually seem congruous with the grim backdrop of CWCville.
The Basement Rosechus were first mentioned by Kitty and Trisha Rosechu just before they were cured by Ultra Sonichu.[6] While expositing on the Asper-Combo's backstories, Kitty mentioned in passing that there once lived five young Roseys who grew up with them, who Alec had kept in his basement ever since he had captured them all. In a surprisingly dark turn for Chris's comics, which usually do not feature any death aside from the villains, Trisha explains that the unseen fifth one was killed by Dino Dash, a minor villain in the Asperchu comics, when she tried to report Alec to the ASPCA.
In typical Chris style, each is distinguished by some form of impairment or distinctive costume rather than any genuine personality. After being given a motivational speech by Sonichu, they are promptly escorted to one of CWCville's soup hotels and are never mentioned again.
They may have been created in response to the then-latest issue of Asperchu, as immediately following Chris's earlier retcons in Sonichu #10, Asperchu had continued as normal, featuring the funeral of the Chaotic Combo and introducing Rosechu into the comic for the first time. Whether they were made to also retcon the Asperchu version of Rosechu into another character or whether they were just made for the sake of demonizing Alec further remains unknown.
Not long after publishing the pages featuring these characters, Chris released a video with one of his classic insincere apologies, backing off from the implication that Alec would entertain himself by abusing and raping innocent women. According to Chris's retroactive account of the situation, the Basement Rosechus were merely kept in large cages and treated like hamsters.
Brit-Tay Rosechu: Essentially the regular Rosechu, right down to a proclivity for strutting around in slutty clothes, but famished and dirty in appearance. The end of her tail appears to have been chewed on at some point.
Bride Rosechu: a Rosechu in a waifish-looking wedding dress. She was apparently betrothed to Asperchu but was declared too weak and feeble and was cast aside.
Moe Rosechu: a bald Rosechu with shaking legs and square eyes. Apparently she is supposed to be moe (Animespeak for "cute, youthful, babyish").
Mary Rosechu: a paraplegic Rosechu who had apparently gone without a wheelchair for most of her existence. Sonichu graciously gives her one. She is missing an ear, presumably due to abuse.
Alec's other characters
As mentioned above, whilst Chris was screwing around with a comic that wasn't his to alter, he decided to go all the way and stole several characters original to Asperchu.
The first is Metal Asperchu, the primary villain of the Asperchu series in the early issues. In the original comic, he was created by the troll lord Sinestro as a way to track down the seven Chaos Pickles he needed for his evil plan. He was based on Asperchu for unknown reasons, and quickly became independent of his master, ignoring his commands and later outright betraying him, all for the ultimate goal of collecting the Chaos Pickles. He was also the one who killed Wild, Punchy and Angelica.
In Sonichu, he was basically turned into a random robot attacker, of no more threat than the average Jerkop, and he was drawn more like a Mega Man Robot Master than his original design. Given that the character was a major source of conflict in Asperchu, and Chris hates conflict or tension of any kind, he was introduced in Sonichu for the sole purpose of being destroyed as quickly as possible, to get rid of an unwanted threat to his characters. He is implied in the comic to be working for Alec Benson Leary, and he addresses Chris in the dialogue as the "original creator". Whether this is a reference to Chris's status as the original creator of the characters he had just changed or was an accusation of Metal Asperchu being based on Chris's Metal Sonichu is unknown.
The second character Chris steals is Asperchu's Grandma Snorlax, a parody of Barb, who sometimes featured in scenes set at Asperchu's house in the original comic, often seen propped up against the sagging wall of the house. In Sonichu, she gets a one-panel cameo as Sonichu flies over towards the house before he meets the Asper-Combo, seen in the background propped up behind the house, just like in Asperchu. Why Chris bothered to include her at all when her only real purpose as a character is to make fun of his mother is not clear.
Also notable, is that while none of them actually appeared, Chris did take the time to acknowledge some of the other characters of Asperchu lore. The five Chus original to Alec's series, those being Jonas, Dixie, Peter, Benny and Sitting Chu, are all explained by Chris as having been bred by Alec for some unexplained reason, using the Asper-Combo's unseen Sonichu father and a Ditto, also effectively making all Alec's characters related. Dino Dash was mentioned in passing as the one who killed the fifth Basement Rosechu, implied to have been working for Alec too. Max, one of Asperchu's best friends in the comic, is mentioned as being one of the many characters favored by Alec over the captives, which they resent, and Swift Sonichu also mentions that the group's father was later aged to death by a machine built by someone called Bill, who may or may not be a retconned version of the Moon-Pals incarnation of Bill the Scientist, who also sometimes cameoed in Asperchu. Swift's statements might have been intended to imply that Alzheichu was the Asper-Combo's father, considering that he is the only old Chu in the comic.
Jivin was not mentioned by Chris, Despite being a prominent Asperchu character from the very beginning.
Alec himself
Alec himself was also included in the comic as the diabolical Rosechu rapist who had captured the Asper-Combo and given them Asperger's syndrome, as part of his evil plan to make them pretend to be the real Chaotic Combo and act out their fictional deaths. After Metal Asperchu was defeated, the gang of seven Sonichus all ganged up on him and beat him up in vengeance off-panel. He was later put on trial and executed for the murder of Simonla, along with the other three maniacs behind the Asperchu saga, Mao, Evan and Sean.
Alec's reaction
| “ | Hey bitches! Razzle Dazzle! | ” |
| Mitch Chu, making his fabulous debut. | ||
In typical Chris fashion, after making these modifications, Chris stated in a blog post that, whilst he has no association to Alec or his comic, he would "forgive" Alec for his wrongdoings if he introduced his changes into the Asperchu comic.
Rather than comply with this "extreme electric makeover" however, Alec simply continued with his comic unaltered, save for references and in-jokes related to the incident. For example, several of the retconned characters were introduced as new characters separate from the Asperchu iterations of the Sonichu characters that Chris had tried to change.
Whisp Sonichu, for instance, appeared at the Chaotic Funeral, introduced as Punchy's Spanish-speaking slow-in-the-mind cousin. Alec also introduced some of the Basement Rosechus in a cameo role, where they were seen in the Albville Soup Hotel as being refugees from CWCville where they had previously lived as Ian's sex slaves.
Arguably the biggest impact of the retcons was that Alec adopted the character of Mitch Sonichu into his canon, but not as a revamped Asperchu, but instead as a new character called Mitch Chu. As a not-so-subtle response to the quite camp nature of Mitch Sonichu's EXTREME ELECTRIC MAKEOVER, Mitch Chu was rather obviously gay and seemed to hold steady employ as a stylist.
As well as this, Mitch Chu was also often used as a device to take pot shots at Chris in the comic. His backstory was established in Issue 3, implying that he was raped as a young Sonee by Ian Brandon Anderson, Chris's comic incarnation. There was also something of a running joke in the comic that Ian would frequently confuse Mitch, Sonichu and Asperchu with each other, as they were all essentially different versions of the same character. In the side comic Sonichu Revolution, Mitch also appeared as the narrator and a guide for Sonichu during his journey through the land of copyright infringement, parodying Chris's treatment of copyright in his work and destroying everything that used previously existing characters. The comic ends with Mitch being murdered by Chris with an axe at his own request, because he was also a copyright infringing abomination.
Mitch was last seen in Issue 9 of the comic, in ghost form, taunting Sonichu, in a sequence parodying the Sorrow boss battle from Metal Gear Solid 3.
Sources
- ↑ File:SchuComic10P54.jpg
- ↑ File:SchuComic10P56.jpg
- ↑ File:SchuComic10P57.jpg
- ↑ To be specific, the shirt in question is the one dubbed by this wiki as "The Dunwich Horror". To make this whole thing even more ironic, the shirt was used by Chris in three different videos addressed to Alec and his associates, meaning that it was worn in close proximity to the time in which Chris drew Mitch's makeover.
- ↑ March 2019 social media posts#Chris Talks About Slow-in-the-minds
- ↑ http://archive.sonichu.com/cwcipedia/index.php?title=Issue_10/Page_57
See also