Non-Canon Information This page is for a concept/character/etc. that didn't become, isn't considered, or hasn't been confirmed canon in the Miraculous Ladybug Quantic Universe continuity. |
"The Big Leagues" is the third issue of the Miraculous Adventures comic series by Action Lab Comics. It is the second part of "The Trash Krakken" story arc that spans from "Silurus" and "Battle for New York".
The issue was released on September 27, 2017.[1][2]
Synopsis[]
The Trash Krakken Part 2
Ladybug and Cat Noir are in New York, fighting a terrible menace that threatens to destroy the entire city. Alongside the world’s greatest superheroes, will they be able to stop the Trash Krakken before it’s too late?[1]
Plot[]
Picking up where the previous comic finished, Ladybug and Cat Noir look down upon a destroyed New York City. Majestia asks for their help in saving New York after showing the accidents. However, Ladybug and Cat Noir hastily agree before running off to detransform, thus surprising their new allies before parting ways over the rooftops.
Ladybug destransforms in the air, landing naked in a dumpster and finding a box and picks it up in order to cover herself. While lost in thought, wondering about food, she bumps into a man who appears to be removing boxes from a building and placing them in an unmarked truck. He asks Marinette what she is doing in the alleyway, scaring her. The man – named Public Enemy – explains that he, Metal Face D, Ghetto Blaster, Shaolin Soul, Breaker, and Killabee are helping a hospital evacuate patients, medicine, and equipment. Apologizing to scare her, Public Enemy then gives Marinette clothes.
Killabee walks out of the hospital with a crying girl named Kenya in her arms. She doesn't want to leave the hospital because her father told her to stay there while he went to find her plush toy, Mr. Squid. Seeing that the girl is a fan of Ladybug, Marinette calms her down by telling her that her father went to go find Ladybug and get her help with her "magic ladybugs." Kenya gets in the van after Marinette reassures her that the magic ladybugs will bring her back to the hospital after everything's over. When she gets in the truck, Public Enemy tells her she has a way with kids, which she denies. He hands her a granola bar and she runs off, surprising him but smiling. Later, Tikki happily eats it and transforms Marinette into Ladybug.
Unlike Marinette, Adrien detransforms near a hotel. He runs to the two rich people leaving the hotel and asks for anything to eat. They laugh at him, telling him he had "better buy a suit and get a job!" However, the driver takes pity on him and hands him a candy bar before driving away. Extremely grumpy, Plagg eats the candy bar, and he transforms Adrien into Cat Noir.
Ladybug and Cat Noir return to Majestia, Knightowl, Sparrow, Uncanny Valley, and Doorman fifteen minutes after they originally left. A helicopter descends to the rooftop, Camilla Hombee jumping out. She removes her trench coat and her wig, transforming into a shielded heroine named Victory, America's "super fighter" and President of the United States. She explains the situation with the help of Uncanny Valley's scan: Trash Krakken appeared before noon and started digging under the city, creating deep cracks which led to explosions, fires, water damage, and thus "the cancellation of the basketball championship finale." All of the previous superheroes sent to fight Trash Krakken failed and were absorbed into Trash Krakken's body. Victory plans on annihilating Trash Krakken by having the most powerful superheroes attack it from space. However, this plan will result in millions of dollars in damage and millions of displaced citizens. As Victory explains, that's where Ladybug comes in. Her job is to clean up and reverse all the damage that the other heroes cause. According to Knightowl, Cat Noir is not to do anything except make puns to calm the morale as he is "just a sidekick". Understandably, neither Ladybug nor Cat Noir like this plan.
Ladybug isn't sure she can fix half of the United States – "probably a bit more than that" according to Victory – and tries reasoning with Victory to find out more about Trash Krakken, such as their identity, their motives, and how they became Trash Krakken. Ladybug believes that the Mr. Squid plushy could be connected to Trash Krakken as they both have tentacles, but Victory says it doesn't matter. She tells Ladybug that the supervillains in the United States - aliens, mutations, superpowered beings - are far worse than any of Hawk Moth's creations in terms of planning; thus they only can be met with force. Majestia and Uncanney Valley leave through flying (the latter through energy blasts to impulse herself with), heading into orbit with the other superheroes. Knightowl and Sparrow stay behind to watch over Ladybug and Cat Noir, and Victory leaves in her helicopter.
Ladybug asks Cat Noir where he would follow her to, how far he would go, with he answering "Until the center of the Earth if I had to, m'lady." Reassured, Ladybug and Cat Noir run away from Knightowl and Sparrow and head into the Trash Krakken's great chasm. Knightowl and Sparrow follow them to trying to get them to stop, but Ladybug insists on fixing things instead of breaking them first. Trash Krakken sits at the bottom of the chasm on a small dirt island, surrounded by lava and with three superheroes and copious amounts of trash stuck in its body. The comic ends with Ladybug and Cat Noir preparing to fight Trash Krakken, Knightowl standing in the background and welcoming them to the big leagues.
Characters[]
Major characters[]
Minor characters[]
- Majestia
- Doorman
- Knightowl
- Sparrow
- Uncanny Valley
- Kenya
- Killabee
- Camilla Hombee/Victory
- Public Enemy
- Metal Face D
- Ghetto Blaster
- Shaolin Soul
- Howard
- Unnamed wealthy woman
- Jørgen
- Akumas (mentioned)
- Kenya's father (pictured/mentioned)
- Superheroes (background)
- New York civilians
Trivia[]
- The Action Lab Comics logo appears on the regular cover on a screen and within the comic as sign that Ladybug wraps her yo-yo around while swinging.
- Tikki and Plagg both ate something that isn't their usual food in this issue to recharge, both of them eating different types of granola or candy bars.
- On the last page, a van stuck in the Trask Krakken looks similar to the Mystery Machine from the Scooby-Doo franchise.
- To American superheroes, Ladybug is seen as "the superheroes' cleaning lady" and Cat Noir is seen as her "pet" sidekick.
- Neither Ladybug nor Cat Noir are seen as powerful superheroes and it has been a very long time since the French previously had superheroes.
- American supervillains are far more dangerous than Hawk Moth. In a single year, the United States has had to repel four alien invasions.
- This comic reveals that both Marinette and Adrien speak English as well as French. Multiple people comment repeatedly on how French they are.
- Stereotypes about French people include people running off together for some privacy away from everyone else, returning late, trying to save the world, and being clueless about American politics.
- To further the last point, Cat Noir knows both Camilla Hombee and Victory exist, but he didn't know that they are the same person.
- Stereotypes about French people include people running off together for some privacy away from everyone else, returning late, trying to save the world, and being clueless about American politics.
- In the United States, it is at least 5:30 p.m. EST. This is inferred through the time period of Trash Krakken arriving at noon, Adrien being late to his photoshoot at 10:30 a.m. CET, and the 7 hour time difference.
- There are two different versions of the story (see "Controversy" section for full details).
- In the original release, Marinette was completely naked after she detransformed and landed on a dumpster and mentioned that "[her] clothes were gone". She even briefly accused Public Enemy and his friends for looting a building without realizing that they were providing evacuation for a hospital. Metal Face D also mentioned that "[Marinette] had to run from where she lives, without even having time to put some clothes on".
- In the volume release, a shirt is added for Marinette to censor her naked body and even mentioned that "most of [her] clothes were gone". Marinette's accusation that Public Enemy and his friends might be looting a building is completely removed and make it seems like she noticed that they are moving out. Metal Face D's line even changed to "...without even having time to put all her clothes on". However, Marinette panickily asking them not to kill her still remain in the volume release.
Controversy[]

A page featuring a naked Marinette when the issue was first released.
The comic issue was met with two controversies since its release.
When the first preview pages were released, fans were quickly appalled upon seeing there were three pages where Marinette was depicted completely naked after she detransformed and landed on a dumpster in New York City, even having to resort to wearing a cardboard box while looking for food to feed a hungry Tikki. In the previous issue, Marinette was in the middle of changing into her swimwear when Chloé stole her bag containing her clothes and tossed it into the river. When Silurus suddenly arrived at the Île aux Cygnes, Marinette was forced to transform into Ladybug to fight the akumatized villain with Cat Noir. During the fight, Ladybug managed to find her stolen bag and brought it back to her changing tent. Later, after defeating Silurus, Ladybug was about to return to her changing tent when Doorman suddenly transformed the entrance into a portal and teleported her and Cat Noir to New York. As a result, Ladybug doesn't have any clothes underneath her costume. The preview pages are missing any context about Marinette's dilemma and the official release didn't censor her, fans are left outraged upon seeing pages of her running around New York City completely naked while wearing a cardboard box. This leads to many fans becoming hostile towards Thomas Astruc and Brian Hess, the artist of the comic issue, for it.
Once the comic was officially released, the second controversy arose. This time, it stems from allegations from fans that the writers were using black stereotypes for one infamous scene. Shortly after Marinette found a cardboard box to run around New York, she accidentally bumped into Public Enemy and his friends while they were in the middle of providing evacuation to a hospital. She briefly accused him and his friends of looting a building and was scared that they would "kill [her]". After Public Enemy calmed her down, he introduced her to his friends whose nicknames are heavily associated with racial stereotypes (e.g., a black man nicknamed "Ghetto Blaster" and a brown Asian woman named "Shaolin Soul"). Public Enemy even helped Marinette with her naked situation by giving her clothes that are stereotypically associated with black hip-hop dancers.

A page from the volume censoring Marinette's naked body.
Hess responded to the first controversy when a fan asked him at Fan Expo 2019. He mentioned that Marinette being naked and wearing the box were in the original script, forcing him to draw her without any clothes for the scene. This contradicts the previous issue where Marinette still wears a shirt after Chloé stole her gym bag. After the fans were outraged upon seeing a naked Marinette in the individual release, Hess quickly resorted to censoring the scene for the volume release by adding back her shirt.[3]
Even after Hess's explanation, the two controversies persist with fans still angrily hostile towards the writers for the incident. As of 2024, there isn't any notable response to the second controversy about Public Enemy and his friends.
Errors[]
- As already mentioned in the "Controversy" section, Marinette was completely naked when the issue was first released despite wearing clothes before transforming into Ladybug in the previous issue.
- This error was fixed for the volume release by having her wear a shirt. However, because the script still requires her to wear a box, it implied she's in her undergarment while covering herself.
- Both Ladybug's hair ribbons and earrings are remain the same after she detransforms.
- The top color of Sparrow's mask changes from brown to gray halfway through the issue.
- Sometimes, Public Enemy's tattoo doesn't appear on his arm, although his arm positioned in some panels should include it.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://majorspoilers.com/2017/05/28/solicitations-action-lab-entertainment-august-2017/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=MajorSpoilers&utm_content=
- ↑ http://www.atomicempire.com/issues.aspx?title=19799&
- ↑ https://www.tumblr.com/imploder/183679941961/so-today-i-met-brain-hess-the-artist-behind-the
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