Kid Citrus

Kid Citrus was a frontier-themed anti-hero with citrus-related powers who debuted alongside The Sanitizer in the Gershom Sinclair's Squeaky Clean Adventures comics. Eventually, Kid Citrus would gain his own line of comics under the Sinclair Serials imprint before eventually being retired as a result of controversies surrounding the Charred Chard Murders.

Document Structure

Publication Status

Gershom Sinclair had drawn up the idea for a character who would eventually become Kid Citrus long before The Sanitizer was ever considered. Nevertheless, the character was forgotten in a flurry of creative efforts by Sinclair until his design documents were rediscovered around the time of Squeaky Clean Adventures #5. It wasn't until the character had become well-known as a foil to The Sanitizer that Sinclair decided that he deserved his own comic run, starting with the eponymous Kid Citrus #1 in 9930 AR.
Kid Citrus as a series never achieved the same readership as The Sanitizer series, though Kid Citrus maintained a cult appeal among the 'edgy' demographic until his ultimate retirement shortly after his appearance in The Sanitizer Annual #69: Murder on Mahogany.

The Main Character

Kid Citrus was described as a middle-aged male hero with an excellent tan and a cowboy costume which harkened back to the steamtech days of the Free Faces League frontier.
Kid Citrus represented a foil to The Sanitizer in that, while The Sanitizer is very circumspect about the moral ramifications of his actions, Kid Citrus paired his frontiersman aesthetic with a frontiersman's long-simmering, retribution-based sense of justice. Kid Citrus was willing to kill enemies outright and, unlike The Sanitizer or the other members of Group R, actually seemed to enjoy the act. No matter what happened, Kid Citrus would maintain the wisecracking cowboy persona, even if the situation required a greater degree of tact. It was this remorseless attitude which would occasionally bring him and The Sanitizer to blows, during which Kid Citrus would manifest a 'well-intentioned extremist' style of villainy.
Kid Citrus' best known power was that, due to a freak accident - he was caught in a forest fire in an orchard of mutated tangerines - he could exude citrus oil from his skin. In addition to exuding a pleasant scent at all times, this meant that Kid Citrus could set himself alight and cast gouts of flame towards opponents at close range. The character's outfit was not entirely for show, as Kid Citrus was a ranch hand, meaning that his wrangling skills could be combined with his power of inflammability to pin and roast opponents alive. Kid Citrus was also known to be able to produce certain fruit-based vitamins in his body, such as vitamins B and C, which would allow him to subsist on a drastically limited diet for extended periods of time. He often used this power to hunt villains to their hideouts in remote locations within the Manifold Sky - riding in for vengeance before fading into the sunset like a character from a radio western.

Historically Important Issues

The Sanitizer Annual #68: Murder on Mahogany

In The Sanitizer Annual #68, whose tagline Murder on Mahogany was partially a pun relating to floor cleaning and polish products, The Sanitizer tracked down and confronted Kid Citrus over the latter hero's extra-judicial slaying of a flooring contractor who had moonlighted as a home invasion burglar. The Sanitizer attempted to apprehend Kid Citrus to bring him to trial. Because Kid Citrus was savvy to The Sanitizer's tricks and his primary abilities revolved around the manipulation of an oil rather than a water-based substance, he was ultimately able to repel The Sanitizer's attack.
Unfortunately, Murder on Mahogany came out the same year that Gordon Druce, the Conservatee serial killer of verdials also known as the Midnight Griller, was killed by an actual vigilante operating under the alias of the Duke of Drones. Druce's head was blown across his kitched by a drone strike executed by the Duke, and this act closely mirrored the way in which Kid Citrus had killed the serial killer in his fictitious story. As a result, the media (notably the editorial staff of The Guild Gazette) percieved the character of Kid Citrus to be an unhealthy figure in popular culture, as it appeared he might be inspiring acts of brutal vigilante justice in the real world. The authors at Sinclair Serials also agreed, noting that the Duke was not the only violent vigilante making waves in the Manifold at that time; someone nicknamed Striker by the local press was exacting justice by way of auto-armor in Petalcap Vale, and it would be bad if they were to escalate to lethal force due to inspiration from Kid Citrus.

Kid Citrus: Riding the Tangerine Sunset

In light of contemporary events, Sinclair Serials decided that The Sanitizer Annual #69 would mark the final issue with Kid Citrus exacting lethal justice. In subsequent issues, Kid Citrus was finally convinced to give up the vigilante life and retired to his ranch in the Eastern Tesseract, leaving his daughter (who possessed similar powers) to take a more peaceful path under the tutelage of Shield Maiden. Kid Citrus: Riding the Tangerine Sunset follows an aging Kid Citrus on his final adventure, where, on a path to redemption for the violence of his youth, he successfully defeats his long-term villain - the outlaw Xandrik the Red - without killing him.

Type

Imagery, Graphic Novel / Comic Book

Medium

Paper

Authoring Date

9930 AR (Kid Citrus #1)

Expiration Date

10,000 AR (Kid Citrus: Tangerine Sunset)

Location

Eastern Tesseract

Authors

• Gershom Sinclair

Signatories (Organizations)

• Sinclair Serials