Another possibility, brought to you by Worm. (Destiny)

by Quirel, Thursday, March 12, 2015, 16:49 (3339 days ago) @ Dagoonite

Honestly, it's not actually very many Heroes. Villains, on the other hand...

=D

It's really not that bad, surprisingly.

You say you don't want blame, but will you accept thanks? It's a good story. It's a great story. It's an addictive, well-written story that I can't put down. On my breaks at work or in the car before and after my shift, out comes the phone so I can read just a little bit more about this awesome, tenacious, clever little villain. Hell, this post is a day late because I had a choice of writing out a thanks to you for turning me onto Worm, or reading about the fight with Bakuda.

It does wear on at the end, with the last two or three arcs starting to wear on you, and it takes a while to ramp up -- about the ABB arc, maybe the Endbringer arc being where it hits its stride, and it doesn't slow down for quite some time.

Bakuda. Just... Bakuda.

The first fight with Lung was great. The second fight was awesome, even if the author broke the rules of writing first-person-perspective.

But Bakuda stole the show. While it was on fire, bolted down, and doused in containment foam. Just... wow. She was a narcissist with a heaping dose of pride, and most writers would have made that her undoing. She'd overlook something important or dismiss it outright as a threat to her, or she'd give the protagonists a fighting chance.
Except she was smart. Smart enough to learn from other villains' mistakes, smart enough to make the mere act of getting away from her nigh impossible, and tough enough to survive multiple setbacks. The Undersiders were lucky just to survive!

Prideful, smart, and genial enough to run around in a Bomberman costume? Probably one of my favorite villains.

There are quite a few capes to keep track of, but the author does a good job of making them each distinctive and easily recognizable.

The author is pretty damn creative with superpowers too.

I love how none of the characters are expies of established superheroes. Armsmaster's introduction gave me a general impression of Batman, but this impression was thoroughly erased once I read more about his motivations and modus operandi. Miss Militia had a mild Wonder Woman vibe that was so inconsequential that I don't know why I'm bringing it up.

Skitter, most of all, reminds me of Spiderman if Spidey was genderflipped and took a different route after becoming a superhero. But her powers are different, and awesome. Seriously, I'm still geeking out at the sheer munchkin utility she gets from controlling insects.

I'll also be the first one to admit, the author has problems writing teenagers. This is important since the main character starts off at 15 years old, but frequently reads like she's 30.

That's not so much of a minus in my book. Generally, teenagers aren't mature enough to don masks and go fight evil. I see the bump in maturity as a writing convention, like how the main characters aren't paranaturally durable but take hits and make jumps that would cripple a normal person with pain. The author could write a fight scene and limit the combat to what a fifteen-year-old can handle, but it'd be subdued and rather bland. Similarly, Taylor could be written with the maturity typical of her age, but you'd lose the analytic prose that makes the story so engaging in the first place.

I'll admit, it really got jarring with Vista, who is coping with the aftermath of the Leviathan's assault remarkably well for a twelve-year-old. Seriously, what kind of middle-schooler says something like "Yeah. But you can't let it consume you. If you really don't like Weld, you don't have to force yourself to get along with him. But don't stay like this. Don't stay angry."

And no, the Archive doesn't count. She ain't really a twelve-year-old. =P

The most teenager-ish of the main cast is the plucky comedy relief, which is annoying.

If you're talking about Regent, he doesn't quit strike me as plucky. Not comic relief either.

*Reads a few more chapters*

You are definitely not talking about Regent.

But it's also one of those books that takes its subject matter seriously, and you see the honest psychological issues with being a hero or a villain.

The fact that supers need traumatic events to unlock their powers is actually played very well. It explains why there's more villains than capes, and provides a reasonable justification for why so many of the heroes are jerkasses with the law on their side.

Just be forewarned that if you do start reading it, things get worse. Things always get worse, and the author tends to end chapters and arcs in a cliffhanger.

Just so long as it's closer to Catch-22 than The Walking Dead, I'm good.