Issue 3

**"Sub-Hero"** is the third issue in the Newt comic book series.

## Plot

The story begins with Newt and May trapped in the grasp of a giant pickle monster rampaging through the city. Newt and May accept their fates until a mysterious hero named Yuriko comes to save them. This experience inspires Newt to become a hero himself.

The next day, Newt builds a hero training course for him and May to traverse through, along with swords made of gelatin. Despite being injured by the training course, they carry on to try to find citizens to help. In the middle of helping out citizens, a flash flood strikes the town. May tries to save one citizen by having them grab onto her sword, but the sword dissolves in the water due to being made of gelatin.

Newt takes May to Vladimir Valley to find a monster to attack the city so that they can save the city. They find a monster named Freddy who is excited to help them out, but is injured by May's friendly handshake.

May discusses how poorly this "hero thing" is going with Newt at Famous Flem's Borgershopp. She comes to the conclusion that Newt is too obsessed with being like Yuriko, which offends Newt. May leaves as Newt decides to go hang out with Yuriko.

Freddy's dad approaches May and throws her into a trash can for hurting his son. He then goes on a rampage through the city in an act of revenge. May tries to find Newt in order to fix this problem.

Newt follows Yuriko into her apartment where he discovers that she is secretly a poor, lonely anime fan with low self-esteem. Despite telling him not to look up to her, Newt thinks Yuriko is still pretty cool. But this doesn't change anything, and Newt leaves.

Outside the apartment building, May finds Newt and tells him about the monster attacking the city. Freddy's dad finds them and grabs hold of Newt. Yuriko jumps from her apartment to fight back and save Newt. After flinging Freddy's dad into the sky, Newt and May are in awe and ask Yuriko to be their friend. Yuriko eventually agrees, as long as Newt stops provoking violent monster attacks.

### Characters

#### Major

* Newt
* May
* Yuriko
* Freddy's Dad

#### Minor

* Freddy
* Pickle Monster
* Frank
* Dafey
* Gelly
* Dave
* Dominique
* Pepe

## Trivia

* The hot sauce store from the first issue reappears among the various buildings in the city.
* In one of the framed photographs behind Frank, two characters resembling Stan and Newt are seen standing alongside Frank, dressed for a wedding.

### Cultural References

* A character resembling Earl from the video game series *ToeJam & Earl* is seen on a billboard.
* The heroic speech Yuriko gives to Newt and May contains phrases taken from *Spongebob Squarepants* and *My Hero Academia**.*
* The anime streaming website, *KissAnime*, is seen on Yuriko's laptop.
	+ The anime being watched on the site is a parody of *JoJo's Bizarre Adventure**.*
* The title of the comic is a reference to the *Mortal Kombat* character Sub-Zero.
* One of the characters in the second panel of the first page, the man in the red hoodie with the obscured face, first appeared in Corey Boynton's Youtube video *If Youtube Was a Cat.*
	+ In the video his name was Fred, and was voiced by one of Boynton's friends.

 Unannounced
 Other