Allura was among those from the other Horizon Projects that would actually fit in with some of the odd and at times flashy parts of various comics. Some of it was viewed as part hir status as a hermaphrodite but the biggest part was the fact that unlike the others from Project Hermaphroditus, she was actually the combination of two separate fish, a female Angler Fish and a male Angler fish, that had merged before Allura's uplifting. This had often lead to hir referring to hirself more as "we" than as "I." It was figured that this was a result of the Animalia Virus essentially "reactivating" the male Anglerfish's personality after it had been absorbed and gone dormant in nature.
It was an odd condition when compared to even other members of Project Hermaphroditus, but it had also generated some good press and plenty of questions with regard to emails sent to Horizon. The ones that were innocent were answered, while those that were lewd, antagonistic, or odd attempts asking Allura out weren't responded to. One of the most common questions often took her dark coloring and large fang-gilled jaws into account and proceeded with questions and comments that compared Allura to Marvel's "Venom." These references had actually intrigued Allura to the point that she was willing to come down to the carnival because of their main comic theme, with Rocket coming alongside hir for company.
"This will be fun," Allura commented as shi and Rocket came in through the main doors and looked to the various booths were set up. Most of those that actually related comics seemed to be instructional in nature. There were a lot of pictures and diagrams that she could see, though at their present distance and angle they couldn't quite see them perfectly. But the instructional nature would do well enough to get her some more explanation on the fictional character she was compared to. "Learn new things..."
"Maybe," Rocket answered, "I'm a bit more curious about all the bright costumes and how all these heroes and heroines are so athletic. They'd make awesome acrobats."
A voice coming to their right made both jump a little bit and found them standing near a general guide booth. It had a couple of High School students from WSA there. One on the right wore a red tee shirt with the word "Marvel" on the front while the other wore a blue shirt with the letters "DC" on its front. They weren't part of Animalia Ambassadoria and thus the two hermaphrodite Fish Animalians had no point of reference for the two that were seated there.
"A lot of the colorful costumes and athletic builds for comic superheroes was generally a means of advertising," one spoke making the Mangrove Killifish Animalian jump with some surprised. He cringed at the jump and waited for Rocket and Allura to turn to them. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."
"It's okay," Rocket managed an answer, "I was just distracted by some of the sights."
"Are you with Horizon?" Allura asked.
"No, we're students at WSA," the one in the blue shirt answered, "when they decided to have this year's spring carnival as something of a comics convention, Animalia's PR department went looking for people that had some interest in comics. So we're volunteering, which the councilor at WSA said could help with college applications."
"And comics are fun," said the one in the red shirt. "Anyway, you asked on why all the costumes are brightly colored and heroes and heroines are highly fit and athletic?" He waited for Rocket to nod. "The reason is mostly in relation to advertising and fitting within the genre of stopping crime and protecting innocent people. Few people would be interested in following a "superhero" who is portrayed as someone normal and solving crimes the normal way. Thus the need to for extraordinary powers and abilities, and often bright costumes as well. A few like Batman have more of a darker theme to it... but those comics are often pretty rare, and despite being a normal human, the character has abilities that might as well be superhuman."
"Interesting," Rocket said slowly.
"Can we help you with anything else?" the one in the blue shirt asked.
"Perhaps the booth that is discussing Spider-Man and his characters..." Allura commented, "we've been told about comparisons between us and one of his villains."
"That booth is down that aisle there," the one in the red shirt pointed, "It'll have some big cutouts of various characters. The volunteers there can further help and answer your questions."
Allura and Rocket turned to look down the aisle that was formed by the various booths and toward where the one in the red shirt was pointing. They then slowly began making their way toward it and trying to avoid running into people. Allure noted that many of the booths had pictures of comic characters, references to movie franchises that were based on comics, and even a couple of television series that filled the same sort of action/adventure/justice theme that most comics focused on as well. The people were rather friendly and a few waved to them, though Rocket also thought one behind one of the desks swooned at Allure as they went by. They eventually came up to the booth that had the word "Spider-Man" written across the top of the booth and was largely decorated in red and blue. There were some posters of various characters and had their names posted with them.
"That is who we're being compared to?" Allura wondered with one raised eye ridge, "He looks nothing like us."
"Most of the characters wouldn't actually look like Animalians," the volunteer in the booth said with a small shrug, "I think the one that would be the closest would be "the Lizard," but the comics never is able to truly define the species... and everyone would be able to tell the difference between you two and the comic villains."
"Not Rocket and us," Allura answered, and then pointed to hirself, "us."
"You..." the volunteer said slowly blinked and then hit himself in the back of the head, remembering what had been published on Allura. "You're heard some of the comparisons people have made."
"Yes," Allura nodded, "and we do not match. For one, my mouth opens wider. Two, my eyes are dark. Three, I can light up a room all on my own."
The volunteer watched as Allura moved the lure that the Anglerfish was known for forward and activated the bioluminescent cells in the small orb-like nodule that was at the end of the lure. The lighting was bright enough that the glow wasn't easy to see, but at the close distance it was manageable. And that wasn't the only difference between Allura and the character that the volunteer had often heard her being compared to. Her eyes were noticeably smaller and darker, and while her teeth were large and pointed, they weren't the perfectly symmetrical teeth that the comic book villain had either.
"My best guess is that the physical comparison is with regard to your teeth," the volunteer commented, "they don't match the character's teeth, but they are pointed and large, which I suppose would suit the purpose of fishing for you? Right?"
"We were a predator of the ocean's depths," Allura nodded.
The volunteer nodded, "the rest of the comparison has been your use of the plural "we" and "us" when referring to yourself, which would be similar to how the character does... Though with the difference that the character is a symbiotic relationship between two different beings, one alien to Earth and one human."
"But the parts that make us.. uh... us were part of Earth," Allura corrected, "just part of the deep sea."
Again the volunteer nodded, "yes... I believe the Animalia Ambassadoria episodes that introduced you and the article put in to Animalia's magazine gave the explanation on how Anglerfish breed in the wild, but it's still resulted in two beings becoming one. That's really all the comic comparison is to. Things beyond that shouldn't be that much of an issue. Many of the things where differences exist are simply part of the odd nature of comic science and universe building where odd things just happen."
"That sounds odd..." Rocket said slowly.
"There's actually a lot in comics that can go that way," the volunteer laughed.