Nov 15 2007
A Writer’s Review of Soon I Will Be Invincible
I'm a former assistant editor with advice about how to write novels, comic books and graphic novels. Most of my content applies to fiction-writing in general, but I also provide articles specifically about superhero stories.
This review will focus on two questions. One, is “Soon I Will Be Invincible” worth reading? Two, how can SIWBI improve your writing?
SIWBI is a first novel about a cyborg and her superhero team trying to stop a supervillain from taking over the world. Although it has some redeeming qualities, I would recommend it only for writers.
Other reviews have been mixed. Here are some Amazon excerpts, edited for brevity.
“This book reads more like a first draft than a published work.”
“This excellent novel reminds me more than anything of The Unforgiven in its deconstruction and reconstruction of its genre.”
“Most dismayingly, the two narrators sound remarkably similar, except that Fatale’s utterly flat sections lack the occasional moments of inspiration that sparingly pepper Dr. Impossible’s narrative.”
“Absolutely delightful.”
“The heroes don’t even take part in the fight that beats Impossible, yet the book wants you to feel like they’ve proved themselves at the end.”
SIWBI is not awful. It was, however, poorly executed and suffers from many flaws common to first novels. These are the lessons authors should take away from SIWBI:
- Characters drive stories. Dull characters (like Fatale) drive bad stories.
- Do your characters feel fresh or are they weak copies of cliches in your genre?
- Do all of your characters advance the plot? Can any be eliminated?
- Originality and flavor drive reader enthusiasm. Even if nonenthusiastic readers like your work, they won’t spread the word.
- How have you built on or developed the conventions of your field?
- Imagine a conversation between a critic that loved your book and one of his friends. How will he sell the book to his friend? How will he distinguish your book from similar works?
- Irrelevant characters annoy readers; your point-of-view character(s) should usually be the main character of the scenes they narrate.
- Do your protagonist’s actions drive the plot? Or does the plot just happen to the character?
- Why did you choose your narrator? Does he provide the most interesting perspective on the scene? Why?
As you can see, SIWBI stumbled in many ways. But I think that its characterization was the most fatal of these.
By my count, within the first thirty pages we were introduced to twenty named characters and three super-groups. Most of the characters parrot a popular comic book character but without any kind of comedic spin. These characters are so thinly-developed that you can only differentiate them by remembering who’s a ripoff of Superman and who’s Batman. For example, let me run down the eight main characters.
1) Fatale. She’s the main protagonist and one of the two narrators. She’s a female cyborg and former NSA assassin, obviously based on Black Widow. That wouldn’t have been a problem, if the author had provided any personal spin or commentary on BW. Instead, we get a bland character that does very little throughout the story. She does a lot of watching and ruminating, but neither her perspective nor her voice are interesting.
2) Dr. Impossible. He’s the villain and the other narrator. He comes closer to parodying Dr. Doom, but Dr. Doom is virtually self-parody to begin with. Impossible is more interesting than Fatale, but still isn’t nearly developed enough to drive a story.
3) Blackwolf, one of Fatale’s teammates. He’s a millionaire (or billionaire*) martial-artist without any superpowers. He’s clearly a clumsy homage to Batman. But where’s the parody? And, unlike Batman, Blackwolf does virtually nothing.
*Fatale describes him as a millionaire on page 21 but a billionaire on page 60. It looks like poor editing.
4) Corefire, another teammate. He’s mostly Superman with a bit of Reed Richards. The main difference between Corefire and Superman is that he’s a human transformed by a science experiment. Dr. Impossible was his college rival (paging Dr. Doom…). Corefire is dead at the book’s start but still affects the plot more than any of the other heroes.
5) Damsel (Wonderwoman)
6) Feral (Beast, minus the intelligence). This character annoyed me the most because he sounds like everyone else, which is especially unforgivable for a mutated cat.
7) Mr. Mystic (any magical hero)
8. Elphin (Sir Justin)
9) Rainbow Triumph (Dazzler)
Fatale’s group has eight characters, hardly any of whom do anything. You might wonder what actually does happen. We learn a lot about another supergroup that has literally no bearing on Dr. Impossible’s villainous plot. Dr. Impossible gets beat up by another supervillain, who just lets him go and then never shows up again.
Inexplicably, we learn the origin story of one of the other supergroup’s heroes. Incidentally, it’s a bizarre and funny play on the Chronicles of Narnia. But the only reason the author could possibly have wanted to spend a chapter on that character is because he’s setting himself up for a sequel.
In conclusion, the characterization was awful. But the lack of originality and flavor was also truly disappointing.
SIWBI’s cover looked so promising and fresh. But the book is painfully bland. Usually, most superhero stories go something like this.
- The supervillain breaks out of prison.
- He starts his evil plot.
- The heroes try to stop him but fail.
- The villain raises the stakes.
- The heroes stop the villain in the final climax.
Isn’t there supposed to be something more? For example, the Incredibles and Spiderman had interesting themes about family and responsibility. The Matrix and X-Men 2 had great action. But– even for a novel– SIWBI had boring action scenes.
First, it only has three superfights. Second, these fight scenes have far too many characters (see how big that cast is?) Third, the villainous plot is absolutely lame. That’s frustrating because Dr. Impossible muses about his past attempts to seize world power, including armies of mushrooms and termites and stuff. Termite armies would have been epic compared to his banal scheme.
Even beyond the action, the story was just very bland. Many stories sell interesting and fresh worlds, but SIWBI’s is very generic. Let me try to illustrate that with its portrayal of the government. Each superhero story has 4 ways to show (or not show) how its superheroes interact with the government.
Model 1: the government is completely absent from the story. The heroes tie up criminals and readers assume the police will come along eventually, but we never see them. One variation of this is that the story mentions that the government has deputized the heroes. We can call this 1-a. It’s a simple and generic way to make the heroes feel more sympathetic than supervigilantes without getting bogged down in politics.
Model 2: the government is a mild antagonist. For example, in Spiderman, the police aren’t villainous but they get in the hero’s way. Often, there’s a friendly cop to add flavor.
Model 3: the government is a villain, like in X-Men. This is interesting, but it often gives the story an ideological, anti-American edge. These stories frequently feel cartoonish. Government agents (and usually the public) are usually portrayed as dystopian, bleak, hateful carciatures.
Model 4: the government is a protagonist. This is very rare. The Hood used two minor FBI agents and Superhero Nation draws heavily on government heroes. (Did you know that the KKK Act makes it a federal crime to commit a felony with a mask on? Take that, evil-doer).
SIWBI goes for option 1-a, mentioning offhandedly that the government is OK with the heroes doing their thing. That’s fine, if generic. Maybe no one else cares about the government! But it feels like every aspect of SIWBI is the equivalent of 1-a writing, an easy and conventional way to build a comic book world. You can’t develop every aspect of your world, but no aspect of this world is notable.
In conclusion, the story created high expectations with its fresh title and front-cover and then completely failed to meet them.
I also found the narration to be problematic. Each chapter was narrated by either Fatale or Dr. Impossible. They monologue a lot. Sometimes SIWBI’s monologues parody comic books, but usually they felt like weak storytelling.
Another problem was the perspective. Fatale is a poor choice for narrator.
- Her back-story is cliché. She’s an injury victim-turned-cyborg, concerned about remaining human despite having mechanical parts. Boohoohoo.
- She doesn’t know what’s going on. That wouldn’t be a problem if introducing her to the world immersed us at the same time. It worked much better for Harry Potter and Frodo.
- She has no unique impact on the plot. Except for her inexperience, she brings literally nothing to the plot that other characters couldn’t replace.
I’d also like to mention the voice problems. This story is told from the first-person perspectives of a male megalomaniac and a cyborg superheroine. These characters should not have sounded at all alike.
There were a few chapters where I read through a page or two and found that I had actually mistaken the identity of the narrator. In one case, it took five pages.
Your readers should know quickly and without any doubt who is narrating each chapter. If your readers can’t identify the narrator by the second paragraph, you need to start rewriting. Readers hate it when they don’t know who they’re listening to.
You have several ways to fix voice confusion.
- Write the narrator’s name right below the chapter title. This is 100% effective, though unsubtle.
- Use demographic cues. If the narrator’s high-heels click, she’s probably a female. If his tail swishes, we know he’s not human. Readers might miss these, but they draw the reader into the story more.
- Give them distinct voices! Making your characters sound different is definitely doable. It’s difficult, but it gets past the symptoms of voice confusion and addresses the problem, that your characterization and voice need work.
SIWBI tried (unsuccessfully) to identify the narrator by putting a graphic about the size of a pencil eraser at each chapter’s start, a laser pistol for Impossible and an eye for Fatale. These graphics were too small to notice and I’m not sure why I would associate a laser pistol with a supervillain instead of a cyborg, or an eye with a cyborg instead of a villain.
The story’s characters also tended to sound alike. Let me offer you a multiple choice quiz. I will give you five sets of lines from the book. Who utters them? Your choices are A) a mutant cat created in a lab accident, B) a genius millionaire gymnast-turned-businessman, and C) a whiny teen idol. (This should be easy, right?)
“Maybe you should be at work, then. Spend some time on the streets.”
“He always looks fine. I know you two kept in touch.”
“Darkness? Crime, you mean.”
“This is all geek stuff.”
“You honestly think there’s something behind this.”
“We haven’t seen a serious threat for almost a year. I’m almost bored.”
The first four are A and the last two are B. If you’re wondering why a mutated cat would use phrases like “geek stuff,” you’re not the only one. Notice that none of these lines actually came from the whiny teen idol, but pretty much all of them could have come from her.
Finally, I’d like to talk about the badly unfocused plot. As a rule, you should only bring in as many characters as necessary. Each additional character is a liability.
- Each new character makes it harder for readers to keep track of the other characters.
- You have less time and space to develop each character.
- Adding characters leads quickly to superficial and underdeveloped relationships.
- Bloated casts ruin fight scenes. A book’s fight scenes are hard enough to visualize with two fighters, let alone SIWBI’s 7. (If you want to write epic fight scenes with many extras, I recommend screenwriting).
To paraphrase, redundant characters are reader kryptonite and should be removed. But how do we identify those characters? Any character whose function/role in the plot can be performed by other characters is redundant.
SIWBI hit readers with eight characters whose only purpose was to represent a type of superhero. For example, Mystic is the magical superhero and Feral is the mutated animal superhero. That’s a bad reason to add characters! Even if these characters were used well for parody– and they certainly were not– extra characters are a liability. If you absolutely needed, say, a Feral to parody Beast, then it would make more sense to mention him as a bit character once or twice. He should not have been in Fatale’s supergroup.
A much better SIWBI would have had 3-4 characters on the superhero team.
- Fatale (or your favorite narrator; I prefer Lily).
- Someone to represent life before Fatale showed up (probably Damsel)
- Someone that can develop the narrator, usually by playing the foil or providing comic relief.
That leaves us with a core of three protagonists: the main character, status quo, and the comic foil. That’s elegant and flexible. You can go Harry-Hermione-Ron or Laurence-British society-Temeraire, for example. Three is easy, but a “core” of eight protagonists is completely unworkable. I don’t know if His Majesty’s Dragon even has eight characters.
[...] Our review noted that characters like a mutant tiger and a billionaire mogul tended to use uncharacteristic phrases like “this is all geek stuff” and “we haven’t seen a serious threat for almost a year– I’m almost bored.” [...]
Hmm… After reading this, I began to wonder: Can you give some specific tips on how to develop characters (other than the seemingly-broad and generic ones you already have)? (Please note that “seemingly-broad” and “generic” is how I interpret them, and probably not how others may read them).
If not, it’s fine; but the whole “developing characters” seems to be an escaping concept to me regardless of how many times I read it. (That gets really annoying sometimes).
Hmm, have you read our article on creating interesting characters by trait?
Other than that, I’d offer these sorts of tips. (Hopefully they’re specific enough, but I don’t know much about your characters, so this will have to be a bit general).
–Cut the chatter. If all of the characters in a scene are chatting comfortably, there is no story.
–Try to remove scenes where the character acts the same way 90% or more of the population would. Those scenes are usually not effective at establishing distinct or memorable characters.
–Accentuate the differences between your characters. Have scenes where one character would act differently than another, and have them conflict over the difference. Hold characters accountable for the choices they make.
–Every major character, but particularly the main character, needs a noteworthy flaw. I recommend against using overprotective, perfectionist, too moral, etc. The flaw should be something that leads the character to make mistakes once in a while.
Hmm… I was referring to that article when I wrote the post. Thank you for your time.
Hey, B.Mac, what’s the max number of characters that can be in a superhero team?
I think 4-5 is managable (personally, I’m fond of trios). Groups wih many members like the X-Men or Justice League worked because they were around for a long time and most of the heroes are well known.
The Five Man Band seems to be pretty good:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FiveManBand
But yeah, normally don’t go for more than five, unless you have a good reason for adding more. Basically, as many as you think is necessary.
but be carfull that in fight sceans chraters dont “dissaper” thats happend to me
Well I have a Six Man Band, although technically Pierce is only on the good side for the final battle.
-Wings
I don’t have a set limit, but I’d feel most comfortable publishing a story with four or fewer. If there are 5+ characters, I think it will be hard to develop and use them. As Ragged Boy points out, most stories that successfully use vast casts (like Justice League and X-Men) accumulate them over years. It’s much easier for Justice League to introduce seven characters that are mostly known to the readers than it is for a new novelist.
Also, as you add more characters, it becomes exponentially harder to develop the relationships. For example, let’s say you have a cast of 3 main characters, like Harry Potter. There are only 3 different relationships there.
1. Harry-Hermione
2. Harry-Ron
3. Hermione-Ron
If you had a fourth character, the amount of relationships increases to six. That’s a lot, but remotely doable. For example, on TMNT we have…
1. Leonardo-Raphael
2. Leonardo-Michelangelo
3. Leo-Don
4. Raph-Mikey
5. Raph-Don
6. Mikey-Don
If we add a fifth character, there are 10 relationships. If we add a sixth character, we get to 15. A seventh character takes us to 21. Needless to say, giving yourself a big cast will force you to make painful choices about which of the few relationships to focus on and which ones to neglect.
On the plus side, Soon I Will Be Invincible has an awesome title. Next time I get in an argument, I’ll say that for dramatic effect.
The title and cover were excellent. When I saw that the premise looked kind of fresh– a superhero story mostly from the perspective of the villain– buying it was almost a foregone conclusion for me.
Also, the chapters were all named, so the table of contents was also a plus. For example, chapter 19 is titled “But Before I Kill You” and the final chapter is titled “No Prison Can Hold Me.” Both of these successfully foreshadow what the villain is like.
Finally, the opening chapters (particularly Dr. Impossible’s) were much better than the later chapters. Early on, it’s not clear that the doctor’s plot is kind of disappointing. And the problems with Fatale don’t become evident until later.
Yeah, Fatale (allegedly the main hero) is a total non-factor*. I think Austin Grossman was going for an “epic chronicle” story that puts us in the point-of-view of a minor character to explore a much bigger story. It’s a very difficult approach, and I don’t think that it works out very well for him. (If you’re interested in this sort of story, I’d recommend The Great Gatsby and All The King’s Men instead).
*I’m sorry to keep bagging on Fatale. Austin sometimes reads my stuff and I don’t want to discourage him or other first-novelists from trying new kinds of characters. But Fatale was about 75% of what was keeping this novel from being excellent. (The other 25% was mostly Lily and the ending). Austin has so much promise and talent that it’s surprising that this book turned out so forgettable.
Thanks for the advice.
Anyway, I read the SIWBI and one of the major problems I found with it was something you only devoted 2 sentences to. The characters are notorious for monologues. I mean, I found myself skipping pages because they had to tell the full-length origin stories of nearly every single character (even Regina, who didn’t have a big part in the book). You know how you said if your backstory (The Super Squadron) is more interesting than your actual story (The New Champions), then you’re writing the wrong story. That’s my diagnosis.
In many ways, it felt like SIWBI was being written to prepare a sequel. That’s the only way I can begin to understand how AG convinced his editor to let him keep that Regina tangent. Or why he put it in to start with.
Then again, it seems like at least 50% of the plot was incidental to Fatale and her new teammates capturing Dr. Impossible. If the editor had laid down the law and forced AG to remove all the padding, the remainder wouldn’t have been longer enough to publish.
I agree that the Super Squadron in general was a major distraction. It would have been much more effective to move them from backstory to frontstory. For example, perhaps they’re competing against the New Champions to get Dr. Impossible first. It might have made them more relevant and interesting.
I’m a little concerned about my story. It’s not a superhero story, but my worry isn’t about superheroes, it’s about character groups. In the first book, the ‘core team’ so to speak, is three, and easily manageable. But, so far, it seems like the second book may end up having six characters. I can probably cut it to five if necessary, but that still feels like too much. Any thoughts?
Hmm. If this is six across the whole book, you could probably get around it by introducing different characters at different times. Cutting it to five would probably be a good idea. Less would probably help. Is there a character who is only important at certain parts of the story? Would it be possible to replace that character’s role in that part? Alternatively, would it be possible to have him/her come into the story only when neccesary?
Without much knowledge of your story, that’s about the best advice I can give. I will say that five characters is probably managable, although difficult.
The story’s about rebel vampires fighting against an evil empire (in a nutshell). The original core three are vamps, obviously, with two of them being a couple and the third being a boy that the woman vampire persuades to come with her. (Loneliness, and also because she wants a guide.) In the second book they run across two brothers, and to stop the elder one committing suicide (yes, he has some issues) the woman vamp steals a young child and gives her to him as a present. I can probably cut the younger brother, as he’s not that integral. It would be hard to cut some others, but maybe possible, I’m not sure.
Hmm. What about the woman’s partner? She seems to be the most active of the two (this is just from the examples above, mind). I agree with cutting the younger brother. I think the boy from the original three could serve in a younger-brother role if neccesary.
I agree that five characters would be better than six. I don’t think you will have much trouble introducing five characters over the course of two novels*.
*Erm, at least I assume these are novels. If you’re talking about comic books, I’d recommend cutting it down further.
The woman’s partner would be sort of difficult to cut… he’s involved with the rebels, and he’s also her main motivation for breaking out of the prison she’s placed in. When I said the boy is a guide, I meant that he’s a guide to London, because she knows her partner is there somewhere, but she doesn’t know the place well. Mm… it would feel a bit strange, but there’s another possibility. The woman gives the child to the elder brother because he lost a daughter, and she means him to view the child as a replacement daughter, but I suppose it might be possible to twist it around so that it’s the boy who’s feeling lonely and wants a friend. That would cut it down to four in total.
“Erm, at least I assume these are novels. If you’re talking about comic books, I’d recommend cutting it down further.”
Yeah, just to clarify, these are novels I’m writing.
I’ve picked up my library’s copy of this book so I can add my input here. Just felt like I’d let you guys know to expect my two cents.
Okay, finished chapter one now, and I already have some thoughts.
Good:
– I like that the very first chapter is from the supervillain’s point of view.
– I like that he’s actually in jail and contained rather than on the loose. That gives it a different feel, in my mind, though I’m not sure how to describe it.
Bad:
– He needs to suck it up. Seriously. I’m not sure if I’m just having a really insensitive day, but he seems to whine way too much. While bragging way too much at the same time. Still, points for the fact that I was still interested enough despite that.
– Tangents everywhere. I understand that he (the author and/or Dr. Impossible, either one applies) may have had perfectly good reasons for including all the stuff it did, but the chapter had no sense of organization whatsoever.
– He… really doesn’t seem too smart? Like, alright, he told us how he ‘froze the Supreme Court, impersonated the Pope, and held the Moon hostage’, but then he says things like ‘the slowness of the accident’. ‘Slowness’ isn’t exactly an intelligent choice of words, is it? Considering it isn’t really a word.
– The names in this book already bug me. Dr. Impossible is fine enough, but if I see the ‘f’ in ‘CoreFire’ capitalized one more time, I’m going to punch something. >_> ‘Damsel’ and ‘Stormcloud’ really aren’t the best either. Damsel is alright, I can see it being used with style, but Stormcloud? Thankfully, this guy’s only Damsel’s father. I hope Dr. Impossible is just namedropping so I don’t have to take Stormcloud seriously.
…So yeah, there’s my response to the first chapter.
The name-dropping really bugged the hell out of me. The first two chapters named 28 characters.
Of the 28 characters, I think that 19 are introduced in a way that the reader has to try to keep track of them because it’s not immediately clear whether they are important or not. That was an absolutely overwhelming feat for me.
Dr. Impossible– page 3. (The story begins on page 3; pages 1-2 are the table of contents).
CoreFire—page 3.
Lily. 6
Steve—the therapist. 7.
Something-tron. (Protheon or Positron, perhaps?) 12.
Dr. Mendelson. 14.
The Pharaoh. 14.
Damsel. 16.
Stormcloud. 16. (He comes up again on 21).
Fatale. 17.
Protheon. 19. Possibly introduced on page 12.
Galatea. 20.
Feral. 21.
Rainbow Triumph. 21.
Elphin. 21. (Feral, RT and Elphin were introduced in the same sentence… ick).
Blackwolf. 21.
Mr. Mystic. 22.
Go-Man. 23.
Regina. 23.
In addition, we get another 9 characters that are clearly throwaway props. It’s immediately clear to the reader that these characters don’t need to be remembered.
The Elemental– 5
Rocking Horse– 5
Dr. Stonehenge—5
Dreadstar. 25.
Calliope. 25.
Argonaut. 25.
The Breach. 25.
Impkin. 27.
Theodore Bear. 27.
I finished the second chapter now…
Good:
– Even if it does read like a fashion magazine at times, I’ve not seen the ’superheroes as moviestar celebrities’ angle done before. It probably has been, but this is the first I’ve seen it where they’re not hiding their identities and such.
– Again with the ‘angle I haven’t seen’ is the fact that they’re no longer a team, but are coming back together now.
Bad:
– Fatale is so so so whiny and negative, especially at first.
– Wow. So many names, so many identical characters. o.o
– Rainbow Triumph. How did the author get published, with a character named Rainbow Triumph? Mister Mystic is hardly any better.
– Elphin goes from ‘a child’s whisper’ and ‘wide-eyed’ to ‘the voice of an amazonian warrior’ with no warning whatsoever. What’s the deal with that? Plus, if this counts for anything, it took me five pages since she was mentioned before I realized her gender.
– I’m not sure what I’m supposed to think of Blackwolf. He’s got this strange gay-fighter-techie vibe going on, which I never thought could be possible. He calls Damsel ‘honey’, which I would have let slide if he were still married to her but they’re clearly on the rocks as far as their divorce, then he’s twirling a knife and playing with his Blackberry at once. Oh, and he’s autistic. What?
– The namedropping is ridiculous. There have been something like twenty one names mentioned in the first few pages.
– The whole chapter in general, or at least the parts that involved character interaction, seemed really… awkward. Not awkward in the story, but it was written awkwardly.
“The whole chapter in general, or at least the parts that involved character interaction, seemed really… awkward. Not awkward in the story, but it was written awkwardly.” I think it would help if the cast were smaller and more distinct. Also, I think it would help if we had been introduced to Fatale before seeing her talking with her new team.
For example, that might have gone something like this.
1. Dr. Impossible introduces himself.
2. Fatale is running down a lead on her own that somehow ties into Dr. Impossible. He’s in prison at this point, but it’s clear that he’s orchestrating something big from his cell.
3. Dr. Impossible breaks out.
4. The Champions bring Fatale on board because she has some leads on Impossible that might be useful.
…
I think that Fatale, more than Dr. Impossible, has major problems with telling rather than showing. She tells us a lot about her backstory and it doesn’t seem very interesting to me.
She doesn’t seem to have any distinct personality traits, and the closest she gets to a distinct voice is that she uses profanity from time to time.
…
What about Blackwolf gave off gay vibes? I would have figured that having a wife suggests that he’s straight.
Well, I get a distinct personality from Fatale, but it’s not a good one. =/ So far, I’ve gotten ‘fangirl’ vibes (how she was all over how the superheroes around her were on magazines and she’d recognize them anywhere) and whining-teenager vibes (whenever she talks about her backstory).
Oh, I know he’s straight, I just… think it’s odd that he throws ‘honey’ around, and he’s playing with his fancy cell phone… I’m not sure about that one. Mostly the ‘honey’ comment. Maybe not gay, but more… metro? Hahah, I don’t know.
I’ll agree that Fatale sounds unusually young. In fact, most of the characters sound like they’re in high school, particularly when they talk about geeks and jocks.
“Elphin goes from ‘a child’s whisper’ and ‘wide-eyed’ to ‘the voice of an amazonian warrior’ with no warning whatsoever. What’s the deal with that? Plus, if this counts for anything, it took me five pages since she was mentioned before I realized her gender.”
Her gender?! I’ve been following this article thinking it was a he. D:
Hollie, you have nothing but the utmost sympathy from me. I’m clearly a veteran of the same exact mistake. xD
About what Marissa mentioned, about Blackwolf randomly being “autistic”: a person cannot be considered autistic in the slightest if they’ve been married/been in a meaningful, loving relationship. It’s just a direct counter to the definition of autism. This strikes me as being an unresearched trait just thrown onto the character in an attempt to make him more distinct.
Another thing that bothered me was how nothing was abbreviated, like “Mister Mystic” instead of “Mr Mystic” or “Doctor Impossible” instead of “Dr Impossible”. To me it makes the names feel dragged out and less succinct, not quite as snappy as superhero/villain names should be.
Blackwolf is autistic? That makes no sense. When I first saw him being described as autistic, I thought I’d misread at first. He doesn’t act autistic in the slightest! If anything, I thought he was just a preppy dweeb who happens to be a better crime-fighter than Nocturnal-Winged-Flying-Mammal-Man.
“He was just a preppy dweeb who happens to be a better crime-fighter than Nocturnal-Winged-Flying-Mammal-Man.” Yeah, I got a “Batman without the style” vibe from him. He probably could have been an interesting character, but I think it might have been easier to develop him if the cast had been smaller.
Also, I don’t remember him doing anything that showed off his intelligence. (Except for maybe the fight with Feral, where he learns how to anticipate Feral’s strikes by watching his tail). Then again, I read the book a few years ago, so it might just be my memory.
I didn’t see anything that showed off his intelligence either, and I finished it a few days ago.