#superhero fiction

[thepenultimateword]

Monster Compendium

CW: Murder scene, some gore

Petra sat as still as stone. Half out of habit, half to avoid unnecessary attention. She’d helped put at least half of the villains present away; the last thing she needed was to cause an uproar before she even completed what she came here for.

"Cillian Morse, aka 'Monstrosity'," the judge said. "Please come to the stand."

The villain rose from the bench of handcuffed, grey-clad criminals, packed side by side like sardines in a can.

The Superpowered Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Center (SPARC) was overstuffed. Because of this, their semiannual parole hearing usually involved slotting as many prisoners as possible into one big day-long hearing. Maybe not the smartest idea when half the criminals present had some of the most dangerous, volatile powers on record, while the other half were too clever to be kept in a regular prison, but that was the city government for you. Impatient. Lazy.

Sure they had a line of guards on every wall, but who would that stop if any of these criminals had skipped suppressor meds?

As Monstrosity settled into his new seat at the head of the room, he swiveled his head around at the crowd. He met Petra's eyes at the back and blinked, tilting his head a little before grinning widely.

Petra didn't even blink.

"Mr. Morse," the judge said, scanning the file in front of him. "It seems you've been a resident at SPARC for three years now."

"You seem correct, sir," Monstrosity said. He tucked his hands under his chin, fixing that wide grin on the judge now.

"Your last 3 hearings deemed you unfit for parole." His finger trailed down the page. "Lack of empathy, uncooperative in therapy, riling other inmates, cheeking the super suppressors you've been prescribed, a downright refusal to make outside goals. I could go on."

Monstrosity waved his hand nonchalantly. "I was immature then. Angry. Lost. In denial. Over the last year, I've made vast improvements, as you'll see in my chart."

He mimed a page-turn.

The judge raised his brows but flipped to the next page in the file. His eyes scanned it from top to bottom.

"You have been successfully medicated for 8 months. Ah, and you passed your sanity test… and reintegration tests.” He narrowed his eyes at the page. “Your goal is to work at an animal shelter?"

"What can I say, I'm an animal guy."

"You've been expressly forbidden from interacting with any biological entities."

Monstrosity tilted his head with all the innocence of a puppy caught chewing shoes again. "Little hard to enforce that. Biological entities are all around us. Birds, grass spiders...heck, your honor, you are a biological entity."

The judge frowned severely. "Do you really want to make a threat right now, Mr. Morse?"

"What? We can't state facts anymore?" Monstrosity raised his locked hands in front of him. "All I'm saying is shelter or not, I will have access, so why bar me from a supervised space? Besides, I assume I'll be on meds still?"

The judge scoffed quietly as he scanned the file again. "It's indefinite how long you'll stay on suppressor meds." He looked up from the page and folded his hands together on the bench. "Tell me, Mr. Morse, do you know why you were sent to SPARC? Have you ever felt any remorse?"

For just an instant Monstrosity looked uncomfortable, but then he swallowed and it was gone, replaced by another smile. "The name sort of says it all. I was a monstrosity. I needed to be taken off the street." He smiled a little wider. Petra thought he might've meant it to look grateful, but to her, he looked like a hyena baring fangs. "But SPARC cured me."

The judge waited for more, perhaps something on that remorse question, but when Monstrosity didn't offer it he continued with the final question.

"Do you believe that you are reformed?"

"1000%," Monstrosity said, raising his right hand oathlike.

The judge gathered the file pages up in his hands, tapping them against the bench until they were even. "Unfortunately, I don't find you genuine."

Monstroisty opened his mouth but the judge continued.

"Eight months of good behavior is not a guarantor of rehabilitation. Make it last a whole year and we'll see at the next hearing. Cillian Morse will remain at SPARC for the next 6 months." He banged his gavel like a seal on the end of his sentence.

Monstrosity's entire expression morphed. Gone was the playful puppy, something toothy and terrible taking its place. "You--"

"Excuse me," Petra interrupted.

The entire room swiveled. A few criminals flinched back, but most started cursing furiously, the bitterness soon rising from loud voices to full out shouts.

The judge banged his gavel repeatedly until the criminals quieted enough that he could at least be heard over them. "Sentencer."

Petra didn't miss the way he looked at her, with little more respect than he looked at these criminals, but with more wariness. After all, she wasn't taking suppressors.

"You were not expected. I hope you have something relevant to add for you to interrupt."

Petra strode up the aisle, past the guards, past the shouting and lunging criminals, right up to the bench. She folded her hands neatly behind her back.

"I have an order from the top to take Cillian Morse into temporary custody."

The judge narrowed his eyes. ''Orders from who?"

“Accolade." Then, in case the director of SIRA (Superhuman Investigation and Response Agency) wasn't enough, "Chief Sanders and the warden also signed off on it." She reached into her pocket for the signed document. "I have proof of the order here if you need it."

The judge read over the page scrutinizingly, taking in all the unpleasantness that Petra had hesitated to voice somewhere so public.

"What makes you think that a villain could be any help in a criminal investigation?" he said finally.

"Body modification is his specialty."

"It seems risky."

"He will be under my supervision throughout the day and he will be returned to SPARC every night," Petra said coolly. "Any exceptions will be signed off directly with the prison."

Petra played along, but they both knew it wasn't in the judge's authority to say no. Yes, he could sentence the prisoners to more or less time in SPARC, but the warden and the prison's directors were the ones who decided if prisoners could be taken off the premises. It was only because today was hearing day that Petra was here instead of standing in front of a cell.

"If he's so important go ahead and take him." The judge extended the order back to her. As she went to take it, he suddenly leaned in close, voice lowered but commanding. "Keep him on his medication."

Petra pulled back without reaction. That wasn't her job. The orderlies at SPARC gave dosages once a day. Her responsibility was just to keep a good eye on the criminal so he would try to slip away.

She nodded curtly in Monstrosity's direction, and the man quickly rose to his feet, trotting after her with a smug smile.

"Bye," he sang to other criminals. "I'll see you all for dinner!"

"Screw you, Monstrosity!" one of the criminals shouted after him.

"Sorrrry, I don’t date criminals!”

That only made the group of villains rowdier, but Petra closed the door on the noise, and soon enough they were descending the steps of the courthouse.

Monstrosity trotted faster to catch up with her stride, cozying up against her shoulder. “Together at last.”

Petra shrugged him off, but the resistance only made Monstrosity bounce back more aggravating. He didn't touch this time, but he lingered close. The tiny sliver of space he left between them like a tease, an insistence he wasn't doing anything, while obviously putting in effort for something.

"Really, I never knew the Sentence had such a crush on me. A hero breaking a villain out of jail? It's so Romeo and Juliet!"

"Not a jailbreak," Petra clarified, pulling out her keys and clicking the bottom button until she heard the locks click on the little tightly parked sedan. "A temporary consultation."

"Riiight," Monstrosity winked. "Oh is this your car? Not exactly what I picture when I hear 'Sentencer'. I kinda thought you would drive around in some sort of Batmobile type vehicle. But nice parking. I love a person who knows how to parallel park."

Petra opened the passenger side door

Monstrosity pouted a little at her non-reaction but slid obediently into the passenger seat.

Petra took a breath before walking around the other side of the car. This was just how Monstrosity was. He’d probably flirt with a brick wall if he thought he could get something out of it. Not that he was one to actually keep up with any of the people he succeeded in wooing. A few of the informants she'd worked with to track him down had called him objectively charming--well, when he didn't have a rat tail or an extra set of arms or any of his other quote-unquote "freakish modifications"--but Petra didn't really see the appeal.

Petra spared the criminal a glance out of the corner of her eye.

Hypothetically, this time when he was on his suppression meds was the chance to see him as wholly human as possible, but he didn’t seem much different from any of the other villains at SPARC. Close clipped hair. Dark circles under the eyes. Baggy gray prison jumpsuit with the prison’s acronym across the back in bright orange and three matching stripes wrapping up each ankle and wrist. He was tall, probably about as tall as her, but he walked with a slump. At the very least, his eyes were something. A sharp pale gray, like frosted steel, piercing into everything he turned them upon.

"So where to?" Monstrosity said.

"Crime scene."

"Yay!"

"Don't be so happy about it; it's not exactly pretty."

"I expect crime scenes rarely are," Monstrosity said, grinning.

Petra started the engine.

“Excuse me, you’re not going to put me in danger by depriving me of a seatbelt, are you?” Monstrosity waved his cuffed hands in the air.

"Your arms work."

"The cuffs dig into my wrists whenever I bend them."

Petra flicked on her turn signal to enter traffic. "Sounds like a personal problem."

"So mean," he said. He twisted halfway around, holding his arms rigid and straight as he grasped for the belt. It took him a few tries, but he did manage to buckle himself. No sooner had the buckle clicked, than he tossed himself melodramatically against the door, the backs of his hands raised to his forehead. "And you call yourself a hero."

"We'll arrive in 10 minutes."

He side-eyed her. "You're not much of a conversationalist."

"Why should I be?"

"Fun? Entertainment? To pass the time?"

"I'm driving to a brutal crime scene with a handcuffed criminal. Does that sound fun to you?"

"It doesn't sound not fun." He slumped in his seat. "Just saying, for someone whose powers are in their voice, I thought you'd use it more."

Petra clenched the steering wheel. "No more talking."

"Seeee, that's what I'm saaaying," Monstrosity mumbled.

Petra ignored the partial taunt in his tone.

To be honest, she wasn't entirely sure why she was doing this. Yes, the scene was...interesting. And Monstrosity had experience both in criminal activity and biological manipulation, but she'd worked hard to get each one of these criminals off the street in the first place. She didn't love taking them back out. Monstrosity had been particularly tough to corner. She'd only set eyes on him a couple of times before her team had managed to pinpoint his location and make a collective attack. The element of surprise had been critical for that success even with all five of them.

Monstrosity had certainly lived up to his name that night.

No, out of all of the criminals Petra had put away, she couldn't take credit for Monstrosity. She never managed to get a proper read of him either. Usually when she investigated a criminal, she--in a way--got to know them. She learned their motives, their background, their character. All she knew about Monstrosity was that he was inhuman. Not only in the grotesque presentation of his powers but in his soul. He might have come off as charming to some, but he held no regard for anyone but himself.

The Welcome to Noville sign blurred as they passed it, and Monstrosity straightened in his seat.

"I thought you said the sight was ten minutes away."

"It is."

"But we're leaving the city."

"Not far."

She abruptly turned off on a dirt road so narrow it could barely count as a proper exit.

Monstrosity braced himself against the door.

"Be gentle with me Tency, I haven't been in a car chase in a while."

"Tency?" she growled.

"Not a lot of good nicknames for The Sentencer." He said "The Sentencer" like an old cartoon narrator announcing the hero.

"I don't do nicknames."

"Wow. You really are no fun, Tency."

Petra was not going to grace that obvious provocation with a response.

The grass grew tall and obscuring the further they traveled down the road, casting shade over the car. The blades reached over and through the rotting split-rail fences of abandoned private property.

She slowed a bit to maneuver around the roots of an enormous tree growing out of the left side of the road. Why anyone would build a road without fully clearing it she didn't know; maybe the tree was property too, preventing its removal as much as the fields prevented the road's expansion.

Monstrosity cricked his neck upward to look up through the windshield.

"Ugh."

"What?"

"Why are a zillion creepy tissue paper ghosts tied up there?"

Petra quickly glanced up into the depth of the trees, catching glimpses of swinging white.

"I only noticed the ribbons." She paused. "Probably just a tradition from one of the landowners."

They curved around the bend in the road and the stone ruins of a building came into view.

"Someone actually owns this place?"

"Trevon Bass and Theo O'Hannon. They're joint owners. Bought the land over two decades ago to use as farmland. And they did, a couple miles out."

Two cars--a police cruiser and a black Volkswagen--were already parked in front of the stone wall, so Petra pulled up beside them.

"But apparently this house here is historical. Meaning the direct area may also have historical value. They didn't want to mess with it, and now only come out occasionally to ensure no one is vandalizing or squatting in it. Bass found the body yesterday."

"Body? Oh, this is interesting."

Petra jerked the gear stick into park. He really was too excited about this.

She got out of the car and walked around to open the passenger side door, eying the neighboring Volkswagen all the way. It was one of the shared agency vehicles. What was another Hero doing here?

"Such a gentleman," Monstrosity said, stretching a little as he slipped out. He closed his eyes against the breeze for a moment and sucked in a deep breath.

"Mm. It's rained recently."

"Unfortunately, yes," Petra said. "Come on, let's see what you make of it."

She slipped sideways through a gap between the crumbling walls, avoiding looking to her left as she came into the "inside" of the building. As she entered, the two men at the center of the ruins looked at her--one short, mustached, and in a suit and the other in sweats and muscle shirt with the caption "Athletics Check" over a 20-sided dice, piles of long blond hair cascading out of his half ponytail and down his back.

"Detective Valero. Prophet." She acknowledged the blond with a short nod.

“Heeey, Sentencer!” Prophet beamed, clapping an arm around her shoulders and shaking her playfully. "Accolade told me you'd be slinking around the scene at some point today, but I thought by this point we'd missed you!"

Petra grimaced but before she could speak, Monstrosity bumped against her back.

Prophet leaned around her. "Is that--"

"Oh, it's future boy!" Monstrosity pointed.

"Er...it's Prophet."

"Right, right, right, visions and predicting stuff and all that. Isn't your deal predicting bad things before they happen? How is that going to work for you when you're here post-crime?

Prophet turned his gaze back to Petra. "What's he doing here?"

"Orders from Accolade. He's consulting."

"Why?"

"Because this wasn't a regular murder."

"Well, yeah that's why they call us. That doesn't mean--"

"Prophet," she interrupted, voice cold. "You follow your orders and I'll follow mine. Is that clear?"

He flinched. For a moment, she could see the thoughts running through his eyes, deciding whether her words held power or were merely convincing.

"Right," he finally said and stepped back a couple paces. “Um…I've been trying to read the scene, for an hour now. But, uh, the future keeps looping in on itself. I just keep seeing…”

He motioned to the Petra’s left and she finally allowed herself to turn fully toward it. It had been worse last night before all the pieces had been collected, but once again she was taken aback by the sheer breadth of the gore.

Nearly the entire wall was stained with a rusty splatter that extended onto the edge of the adjacent wall and the undersides of the dewy grass blades growing at the base.

Monstrosity stepped forward, cocking his head a little. “This blood spray is massive. What? Did your victim explode?”

Petra shot him a look. “Yes.”

[could-they-be-a-pro-wrestler]

How successful would Taylor Hebert…

Would you like to submit a character? Click this link if you do!

[darkrose-thewriter]

At the Mercy of Hatred (WIP)

At the Mercy of Hatred is a standalone work-in-progress interactive superhero novel by DarkRose and U12.

You will play as a vigilante seeking revenge for the deaths of their family and friends, while also uncovering the identity and motive of the murderer, and also as an antihero, a former agent of the Superpowers Regulatory Agency, who was accused of murder they did not commit, and who has returned to take revenge against their former friends and employer.

Synopsis:

The Butcher Story: I’m the most wanted person in the East Federation. They want me for a murder I didn’t commit. Everyone I considered close friends betrayed me. They thought I was going to disappear, but here I am. I’m back in the High City, and this time I’m here to get revenge on those who have wronged me.

The Vigilante Story: I have nothing left. My old life, my family, my friends - all gone. Agents from the Superpowers Regulatory Agency took them away from me, right infront my eyes, and there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t save them. All that’s left is a burning hatred and a desire for revenge, and I will find the truth about why they were taken away and for what reason.

 Features:

play as male, female, or nonbinary as well as trans;

choose your sexual orientation and/or romantic orientation;

full character customization;

choose your power for Butcher or power/powers for vigilante;

play as chaotic neutral or chaotic evil characters;

The information will be added to the blog and extended. Additions will be made as we write

Butcher’s ROs:

Jester (cis female/male): ex-assassin, joined the Butcher after they defeated her/him in battle;

Noise (transmasc nonbinary / transfemme nonbinary): hacker of the Butcher team; they’re helping Butcher because Butcher saved their parents;

Poison (cis female/male; trans man/woman): ex-superhero. Seeing as the superhero community isn’t so perfect, they decided to join Butcher;

Baron / Arthur Weeks (cis male): equips the team with money, transportation and weapons.

The Vigilante RO’s:

Frost (cis female/male, nonbinary): thief and leader of a thieving gang;

Abigail Day / Firestar (cis female): novice superhero, looking for her mom, who’s missing

Neo (cis male/female, trans man/woman, nonbinary,transmasc nonbinary / transfemme nonbinary): a hacker who continues the work of their parents, who are in prison;

Psyche (cis female): agent of the Superpowers Regulatory Agency and leader of Unit Zero;

Secret ROs: Dragon and Frostfire: secret weapons in the hands of the government;

DEMO (December 24) | post about demo | | CoG Forum Thread

hashtags:

main: #at the mercy of hatred if;

for asks: #at the mercy of hatred: asks; #at the mercy of hatred: ro's asks

for RO's: #at the mercy of hatred: ro's

for update and writing updadets: #at the mercy of hatred: demo update; #at the mercy of hatred: writing update

[kbkirtley]

Looking to start your holiday shopping? The White Knight is a great gift for the reader or superhero lover in your life!

In The White Knight, Lance Locke is a college student who takes on the role of campus hero after one of his friends is assaulted. But when a billionaire with grand visions of power appears on campus, Lance realizes he might be in over his head. With the help of his friends, can Lance keep those closest to him safe? Or will the campus he’s fought to protect from street level threats collapse around him with the stakes raised?

Find out in The White Knight, a hero inspired by characters like Lancelot, Robin Hood, Batman, Green Arrow, and Nightwing!

Whether you’re getting The White Knight for yourself or to gift for the holiday season, there’s never been a better time to buy The White Knight!

This sale is going through Wednesday, November 27th so act fast!

KirtleyBooks.com

[calvincell]

I’ve been making my way through my 3rd re-listen of the incredible podcast - Batman: The Audio Adventures & just appreciating once more not only how terrifically written it is by showrunner Dennis McNicholas but also incredibly well acted by all of the amazing cast. For any unaware, the podcast is an audio fiction blend of comedy & superhero drama that was previously only an exclusive for HBO MAX subscribers back in 2021 but now both released seasons are freely available on literally every podcast app including on MAX’s own YT Channel itself, no subscription required.

In particular, I love the Harvey Dent moment we get in Season 1 - Episode 6 - “The Whale of Damocles”:

I have to first off praise the inspired creative choice the series makes to give Two-Face the dynamic that his personas are essentially like constantly bickering twin brothers - arguing, name calling & posturing but still inseparable at the end of the day.

In the scene in question, Harvey’s binary obsession has allowed The Penguin to easily lure Dent to his favorite pier on the Gotham Wharf, Pier 2, to prevent a planted bomb from destroying it. Batman arrives soon after as Dent’s desperate search brings him to the most perilous part of the pier. Batman is so earnestly trying to appeal to Harvey to stop that he almost can’t prevent slipping into his Bruce Wayne voice when we then get an excellent memorable moment (@ ~31:50) where we get a glimpse at the tortorus psychosis Harvey is living through:

Harvey gives this tragic peek into his mind as he extols the awe-inspiring & nightmarish gospel he shares with his violent other half. It’s not only a very well written torrent of mad thoughts but also brilliantly & emotionally performed by Harvey/Two-Face’s VA: Ike Barinholtz. Batinholtz truly makes Harvey sound simultaneously mesmerized, terrified & sorrowful - on the verge of tears as he tells his former friend about the completely fractured way he views the world now & Batman’s actor Jeffrey Wright matches it with his desperate pleas to Harvey’s true self colored by the unflinching compassion he has for Dent.

For how invested the show is in genuinely trying to revive a bit of the Adam West era charm and fun camp & IMO successfully making the show legitimately funny, I believe it’s also equally in touch with the aspects of the franchise exemplified in shows like BTAS ie the darkness of the setting & emotionally resonant tragedy of both Batman himself and the different members within his rogues gallery. The show is not just sharp on a comedic level but also earnestly intriguing & engaging dramatically as well.

I have no doubt sung this show’s praises before but I don’t plan to stop anytime soon because I truly believe that the series is a must listen for every fan of Batman, superheroes & audio fiction/audio dramas generally. From top to bottom, the series is a brilliant production and stands to me personally as amongst the best content within the umbrella of DC Comics at least within the last decade.

[noxious-fennec]

Hero agency fighting superpowerful anomalies, but its a government 9 to 5

Takeda Mizuki (codename "Merlin") is a 29 year old corporate accountant who was discovered, by accident, to have a suit of terribly powerful abilities; faced with an ultimatum, she joins HAWK to train her powers and help their world-saving mission, but mostly to not be sent to prison.

[surroundedbypearls]

Untouchable like a distant diamond sky I'm reaching out and I just can't tell you why I'm caught up in you I'm caught up in you. -Untouchable, Taylor Swift

“Stop moving. You’ll ruin it.” “Sorry.” Catherine’s voice was light and bubbly as she tried to stifle her giggles, a streak of dark eyeliner across her cheek. It was a little sparkly for Margot, but it was Catherine’s favourite, so Catherine got it. She reached for the makeup wipes and picked up her shiny coral compact mirror, wiping the black mark away. A half-full glass of white wine sat on her vanity, next to Margot’s stout glass of vanilla rum and ice. Margot was against the whole party idea from the beginning, but it beat staring at her family all night. Catherine took a delicate sip of her wine, her manicured nails drumming against the vanity when she put the glass back down again. “Okay, okay. I’ll behave.” She turned back to her, and her eyes were like liquid gold. Margot leaned in close as the light on the vanity flickered, tilting Catherine’s head to the left and stroking the liner carefully across her upper lid. She kept it slim, with gentle and delicate touches here and there, finishing with the tiniest of wings. Everything with Catherine had to be delicate, pristine. It had to be perfect for her.

The whimsy of this song is very Catherine-adjacent, even if the above excerpt is from Margot's POV. It's the same relationship.

More on Homebirds here! Leave a comment or an ask to be added to the taglist.

[themollyjay]

Celebrate the 4th of July with Queer Superhero, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books By Molly J. Bragg

Order now at: Desert Palm Press Tantor Media Amazon Smashwords

[arinthehunter]

Tad Manners - The Kitsune

Hello y'all! My FIANCE @pjunicornart (yeah, I somehow have sex appeal, deal with it) drew one of my OCs! This is Tad Manners! He's a third generation Japanese-American who lives in Motif City, more specifically in Japantown, which is basically Chinatown but Japanese. Because Japan is cool. He has a katana that has a Yokai inside of it, but he also has modified genes due to a supernova, so he has a bunch of random abilities, like lightning, shadow, super speed... The works! Also, he's afraid of his family drifting apart due to his mother dying from a bacterial infection when he was five, which TOTALLY doesn't dominate his life later on! :D

Stay tuned for more of these WaCkY characters!

[ritabs]

NEW STORY: Mirage Manhattan — WxW Superhero Romance

So, I found out about the Kindle Vellys like entirely too late but a challenge never stopped me and I've had this quick novella idea in my head for months. I literally outlined it July 30 and started writing August 1st. Welcome to my crackpot NaNoWriMo, but instead of a month, I have about 3 weeks and I'm expecting it to be about 30k instead of 50 :)

I'm a little stressed.

So, if you want a gay superhero story, this is for you. Imagine MHA style quirks with the Boys media/government system and a Wanda Maximoff/Atom Eve Queer MC. I'm so hype for this and I feel like a lot of other people will be too.

For Kindle Vella, the first 3 episodes are free, I have 2 episodes available right now, so if you'd like to tune in and watch me churn out 8 more episodes in 2 weeks, feel free to follow along! I really want to win this thing and I put myself in the absolute worst situation to do so, but we're here!

If you want to read and follow along, I've put the link below. Thanks for your support! XOXO - Rita BS

Mirage Manhattan

SYPNOSIS: In the year 2105, the world has adapted to the ravages of climate change. Ninety-nine percent of all living creature has developed unique powers to survive in this new reality—except for Samirah Hayes. As a young, newly debuted YA fantasy author, she belongs to the 1 percent of the population who remains unevolved, with no affinity to her name.

Samirah's ordinary life takes a dramatic turn when her brother mysteriously vanishes, and her mother refuses to reveal his whereabouts. Overnight, Samirah discovers she possesses insanely powerful illusionary abilities. With an uncontrollable affinity and a missing brother, she falls under the supervision of Flux, a hero of the Cape Corps, a military branch dedicated to training heroes who respond to global missions.

From a recent graduate author to a fledgling superhero, Samirah’s life undergoes a radical transformation. She must navigate her new powers, the search for her brother, and a developing relationship with her superhero roommate.

[godangraywolf]

GODAN: A GRAY WOLF CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas, everyone! To celebrate, I republished my superhero Christmas story, GODAN: A GRAY WOLF CHRISTMAS, on Poverty House, featuring a new illustration by Andrew Van. Enjoy!

[ahb-writes]

"It is fateful and ironic how the lie we need in order to live dooms us to a life that is never really ours."

Ernest Becker, quoted in: Alaniz, J. 2015. Death, Disability, and the Superhero: The Silver Age and Beyond. University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, Mississippi, U.S. 376 pp.

[darkrose-thewriter]

You can find out more about the At the Mercy of Hatred here. Here I will tell you about my plans for these works and the future of the project.

Okay. (chuckles). This post will be a bit chaotic and may repeat some of what I've already written.

At the Mercy of Hatred is part of the Consequences of Powers series. The series now consists of the main stand-alone novel and its ีuntitled prequel. Also in the future there will be short interactive novels about some of the characters here (if readers like those characters.

The prologue of the main novel serves as a bridge between the main novel and the prequel. Five years passed between the prequel and the main novel. It will also provide some insight into the main characters of the prequel and the LIs in At the Mercy of Hatred.

For now, there will be three demos: two prologue demos for the CS version and one for Twine.

I will also write about all the characters and the timeline. And I'll also need to create a playlist for each character.

It seems like everything I wanted to write.

[kbkirtley]

Renegades Series - Marissa Meyer

This was my favorite series I read this year. All my life I’ve looked for superhero novels, but there weren’t really any in the mainstream. And while I’ve learned to enjoy Graphic Novels this past year, I still don’t fall into those the same way I do with books. Finding Marissa Meyer’s Renegades series was such a fun experience for me because of that.

Nova being a villain at the start shifts the perspective of the book and raises a lot of questions as to whether the heroes are actually the good guys. Moving from Renegades to Arch-Enemies to Supernova, Meyer creates a really interesting world of superpowered people and the struggles that go with keeping people safe in such a world, especially when the government is being run by people with powers.

The characters are really where the series shines. Nova/Nightmare/Insomnia and Adrian/Sketch/Sentinel are the two main characters whose perspectives we see. Both of them have secrets that they’re keeping from each other and the Renegades as a whole, leading to much of the tension in the book. They are one of the best pairs I’ve read in YA in a long time and both of their desire to see the Renegades be better than they are is the driving catalyst for the series.

The supporting characters are maybe even more enjoyable. Max/The Bandit is my favorite character in the story. The rest of the team Oscar/Smokescreen, Ruby/Red Assassin, and Danna/Monarch are a delight. The council as a whole is fantastic, but Adrian’s dads Hugh/Captain Chromium and Simon/The Dread Warden, do a ton of the heavy lifting in helping to understand what the Renegades are and what they stand for. The other Anarchists, especially Leroy/Cyanide, help to humanize the other side of the Renegade’s battle and allow for Nova’s story to carry the weight that it does.

The Renegades series is one that I would absolutely recommend and it’s one that gives me hope there is an audience for books like mine!

[calvincell]

I was already optimistic about Gunn’s vision for the Live Action DC Universe but the fact that he’s including Hawk Girl, Krypto & Mr. Terrific in his foundational Superman movie has me even more hype than I expected to be

[dvandom]

Superhero Fiction: Academy of Super-Heroes

Back in 1994, after getting kinda burned on a shared universe superhero writing thing that started bending in directions I disliked, I decided to launch one that I was in charge of. I based it on the "Academy of Super-Heroes" Champions campaign I ran in college (with a few other GMs running games set elsewhere in that world), with some bits from the Modern Knights (a game I wrote and had up on DTRPG for a while) campaign I ran in grad school. After taking out all the stuff that the Champions people owned, I launched it as a near-future post-apocalyptic (July 6, 1998 was a Very Bad Day) version of the Academy of Super-Heroes set in the year 2022.

Yeah, last year, at this point. In the almost 30 years that I and others have written stories in the setting, the timeline has advanced to 2027, which about tracks with Comic Book Time.

At its peak in the late 90s, I had several other writers working in the ASH universe with me, culminating in an insane crossover idea that ate up an entire year to write. Since then, the other three writers involved in that crossover have all gone on to become published SFF writers or essayists, and while there's been a couple of people getting involved since then, it's been mostly me, which meant the output tended to fit my mood...and during my job-hopping years I spent so much of my writing energy constantly revising curriculum that it took me years to finish a single six issue arc. But finish it I did, and took a break from the main ASH series and all the world-spanning intrigue and suchlike.

I didn't abandon the setting, though, but I backed off to a smaller stage, picking up on one of the locations largely left fallow since its main writer left over twenty years ago, and decided what it needed was Magical Girls.

Anyway, if you're interested in checking out a few million words of free if professional-quality (in that just about everyone involved has been paid to do fiction, me included, even if I didn't try to make it my career) geopolitically charged superhero science fiction, check it out at http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/ASH. There's over 300 stories, plus loads of information files, a wiki, and plenty of art (most of it by me, but some by actual pros).