Last entry I talked about how I recently reread A Hero's Journey and it would be really nice if you went and commented on which cover you like if you haven't already.
Besides that, I also reread most of my other superhero stories. I didn't reread the rest of the Scarlet Knight books yet and I didn't reread The Night's Legacy because I don't have it in paperback.
The thing is though that when you reread something after a few years it really does help you to see it with fresh eyes. But still since I wrote them of course I didn't think any of them were bad. But here are a few thoughts based on what I reread.
Girl Power: After rereading A Hero's Journey, I started in on my next superhero series with Girl Power. The not-so-secret origin of it was I thought of doing a crossover between the Scarlet Knight and Chances Are series. But since no one had probably read both series besides me, it seemed pointless. But then I had the idea to do a crossover of the core concepts, so it's about gender swapped superheroes. Characters who are based on Superman, Batman, Aquaman, and the Flash (Wally West more than Barry Allen) are turned into women and have to deal with sexism, changing relationships, and in Batman's case losing his strength when his body is de-aged into a teenager.
One criticism that's been hurled at this is the story isn't deep enough. And I think that's valid. Of course what those people don't know that I do is this was pretty much written as a lark, so I wasn't probably taking it as seriously as I could. I wasn't sure I'd do anything with this (much less write two more, 7 short stories, and a spinoff novella) so I wasn't really interested in making it overly long.
Starla, the Superman character, gets the short end of the stick in this in that she doesn't get as much character development as the others. She has to deal with a sexist boss and then her often one-sided friendship with the Lois Lane character, but it's not really as dramatic as with the others.
Other than that, I always have the vague thought I should have done something more in the ending battle. More like what? I don't really know.
The Impostors: Book 2 of the Girl Power series was actually my favorite of the ones I reread. I took it more seriously this time and so there is a lot more of a story. Since Starla didn't get as much of a story in the first book, she gets a lot more story in this one. It sort of follows Superman II where he decides to give up his powers. In this case after some soldiers die, Starla blames herself and when the Lois Lane character questions her fitness as a hero, she goes to her Fortress of Solitude and takes something to become a normal human.
Soon she runs into some trouble in the city and is saved by a nice old woman who takes her in and she essentially starts a new life. In the process she ends up falling in love with the Jimmy Olsen character--and him with her.
Meanwhile, the other heroes are trying to make up for her absence as giant robots attack. But then they're saved by themselves--or clones of their male selves. There's some awkwardness when they try to work together, but soon the public decides to put their trust in the male team. Aquaman and the Flash are de-powered and have to undertake desperate measures to get their powers back. And once she realizes that her male clone is not as benevolent as her, Starla has to risk everything to get her powers back.
Really the only thing I didn't like is like a lot of Marvel movies the ultimate villain is under-developed. There are some mentions along the way but since I kept him in the shadows until the end, he didn't really get much in the way of development.
League of Evil: At the end of book 2 there's a mysterious message that threatens something terrible is coming. For what was supposed to be the final story, I wanted something big and you don't get much bigger than a Galactus/Unicron-type planet killer.
But before that there's a lot of other stuff to dispose of our heroes and create epic chaos. The weapon that was used to turn our heroes into heroines in book 1 is used on the whole world, turning everyone into women. Before that, Starla is arrested and taken deep into space by a group sort of like the Green Lantern, the Flashes are sent into a future where the Earth has been wiped of all human and animal life, and the Batman character is locked in an asylum and replaced with her clone from book 2.
This leaves Earth defenseless as villains begin taking over. To combat the chaos, the Batman character's sidekick Melanie recruits four villains to serve as sort of a Suicide Squad to fight the other bad guys. They start out as just four bad guys and eventually become a real team.
But just as they seem to get things in-hand and the other heroes start coming back, here comes Galactus!
There were so many moving parts in this story that I think it was a bit unwieldy. Global catastrophe is really hard to pull off. And like some later books there were probably too many changes, especially with the Flash characters. And there is sort of a deus ex machina involving one Flash and time travel. In the end it all falls back on the favorite superhero movie ending of 2012: a hero takes a bomb somewhere to save the day.
I just think the Suicide Squad thing could have worked better on a smaller scale but like with the Scarlet Knight series, when you're doing what's supposed to be the last book, go big or go home.
Secret Origins: It was natural then I'd read the Eric Filler version of the Girl Power series next. The secret origin of Secret Origins actually came when I was in the theater for BvS and I thought: what if the Batman and Superman characters were turned into girls who had to go back to high school? Because that's a thing I'd think about.
Unlike the Girl Power books, this was written in first person from the POV of the Batman character. Like in BvS they are not really superfriends, though most of the loathing is on Batman's side. When a big space rock threatens the Earth, they intercept it and some kind of mysterious radiation turns them into teenage girls. While the Batman character is a wimpy nerd, the Superman character soon turns into a gorgeous Barbie doll.
They go to high school and of course the Superman character becomes part of the popular cheerleader crowd while the Batman character is a social outcast. As the Superman character becomes more popular, it starts going to her head both as a normal girl and a superhero. Then there's a Carrie-type incident that prompts her to snap and the Batman character has to stop her. Then they have to work together when that rock that changed them turns out to be an egg for a giant monster!
This was more tightly-plotted than Girl Power and I thought it was pretty fun. My favorite difference was the introduction of the Batman character's former sidekick, who's sort of like Nightwing, except he's black and gay. Him being gay caused a rift between them, to the point that the Batman character tried to have him sent to military school. After the Batman character changes, the former sidekick helps her to train and become a hero again and in that way they end up having a better relationship than when they were father and son.
Like in BvS, one problem at the end is when the big killer monster is released, there's not a ton for the Batman character to do. She masterminds a strategy to get rid of the monster, but there's not a lot she can do in person, so maybe it's a little underwhelming.
Like a good superhero movie there was a sort of cookie scene at the end where we meet a new hero--the Flash-type character who's like the Flash-type character of the Girl Power series.
Speed Demons: the second book in the Gender Swap Heroes series focuses on the Flash character who was a scientist studying that space egg from the first book. When it hatches, he's turned into a girl who has superspeed.
My favorite part is the first quarter or so where Allison learns about her powers and has to scavenge resources to survive. She steals money from bad guys and creates a lair in an old electrical company building, which was sort of cribbed from Darkman II. At one point she runs up to a small town to hang out with some kids her own age, which doesn't go great.
Maybe it would have been better if the whole book had been that, but eventually there had to be a bigger plot. That involves a rival who was also turned into a girl, one with the ability to siphon powers like Rogue or Parasite. When she siphons Allison's powers and then the Superman character's powers, she turns into a supervillain who tries to overthrow the US government.
I think things got a little out of hand with the plot considering how it started. Maybe I should do a new version independent of these where I try to keep it smaller.
Resistance: the end of the second book set up this third book. After the supervillain wrecks DC and kills a bunch of people, the government decides it needs its own heroes to fight back. The first one is one of the soldiers who survived the attack, though he was badly wounded.
He takes an experimental serum that turns him into a teenage girl with invulnerable skin and super strength, sort of like a hot teenage girl version of Captain America. The government can't find any other willing volunteers so they offer pardons to four military criminals who then get the serum. Three of them survive. One has fire powers, one has telekinesis, and one turns into a girl made of crystal. It's then kind of like League of Evil where they have to work together to become a team and take down our heroes from the other stories.
But that's only about half the book. Then it really goes off the rails as our characters are de-powered by the government, rescued by the Batman character, and then get new powers in time to fight off an alien invasion. Like I said it goes off the rails and the biggest problem is two of the makeshift Suicide Squad, especially the Human Torch one, don't really get a satisfying end to their character arcs. Mostly the end focuses on Captain America, Marvel Girl, and Superman as they team up to fight the alien fleet.
It was my least favorite of the lot but someone on Amazon actually thought it was better, so who's to say?
Justice for All: the last one of this batch was the 2015 P.T. Dilloway novel Justice for All, Book 1 (and only) of The Outcast. I sort of reused the Batman character from Girl Power only she's a girl the whole time.
Robin Howe's police captain father is blown up in front of her by goons of the evil Madame Crimson. After that she vows to get revenge. She begins training to become a vigilante and after a year takes down a couple of low-level mob guys before getting in over her head and nearly killed.
After getting out of the hospital, she's sent to a strict Catholic all girl's school in New Hampshire under the name Rose Howard. But she soon finds out the resident Mean Girl at the school is none other than Madame Crimson's spoiled daughter! As Robin tries to adjust to her new school and makes friends with another girl and a local boy, she ends up having to save Madame Crimson's daughter from another gangster's goons.
This is a pretty down-to-earth series with no magic armor or gender swapping or anything like that. I don't think it's overly "realistic" and like some movies I wonder if the teen characters maybe talk too much like adults. The end probably needed a bigger set piece too.
So there you go. At some point I might go ahead and read the rest of the Scarlet Knight books. Or maybe I'll get off my ass and write something. Or maybe I'll die of Covid. In 2020, who knows?
