Dreadnought: The Quest for Cringe - White-Kettle-Shufflepunk reads a trans YA superhero novel

[IridiumDragon06]

In a better story, we'd be able to draw a line from the conversation about heroes doing the right thing versus following the law to the bit at the end with reforming the legion. It would 100% be a rip-off of better scenes in other media to tell Kinetiq and Calamity that it didn't matter what the law said, they were ride-or-die with this and that made them the real Legion as far as Danny and Doc were concerned, but there's such a tedious focus on idiotic made-up minituia and then ignoring even that that we don't get it.

Also, one other frustration is that it looks like Danny could and should have been integral to this plan; if the amulets need blood to function and Garrison needs an army's supply of them (and presumably you need more than homeopathic quantities of blood to trigger that), then they need a way for him to regenerate. And if he's got Dreadnought powers as well, then he can presumably live forever as an immortal god-king just fine.

The one thing we'd need would be a solid reason for GreyWytch to want to go along with the complicated version of this plan up until a given stage (like if we'd had established that she really needed to ice the Council of Avalon for some reason), and so her actual plan was to set up Phase 3, then double-cross Garrison and keep him mind-controlled or in magical stasis of some kind; the Boob-Inciting Orb gets locked away safely, and she can control the infrastructure from behind the scenes. (Of course, her making just one voodoo doll seems a whole lot more efficient and safer than doing what we saw here.)

In the real world, smart people do incredibly dumb shit all the time, but in fiction, when you're setting up a character and giving them little screen time, and especially when you're giving them a complicated multi-stage scheme that they're in the process of pulling off, then "They ignored this thing for no reason." is dumb. I really want for this to be actually a prelude for Phase 4, and Garrison planning on, e.g., starting a war and using the deaths of everyone near an amulet-wearer (ally or enemy of his) for a blood magic ritual for him to point his powers at Nemesis itself or something.

I will say that given what they know, having Danny do a Kessler Syndrome to all of Garrison's satellites seems like a really solid starting point. It could be dangerous, especially if the satellites can disable Danny's powers while he's in orbit with them, but we know that it can't be that easy to make the effect happen. After all, if Garrison could just disable superpowers in a radio-broadcast range, why the hell didn't he fire up a ground-based version of that as a basic precaution when the alarms started going off and then overwhelm whatever was attacking his base with waves of men with guns?

Also, now that I'm thinking about it, if Garrison know that they're compromised and that they've lost Dreadnought, why the hell didn't they go to Phase 3, turn on the satellites, and send the be-amulet-ed kill teams to start removing depowered supers as soon as Danny did escape? If we've established that there is nothing stopping them physically, and that once Garrison's plan is up and running he will be pretty much the unquestioned god-king of Earth, why wait?

Also also, does this mean that every magic-user that picks up hypertech, or every super-inventor that dabbles in magic, can create a device which gives their spells effectively unlimited range? Like, could GreyWytch's actual plan just be to get the satellite network with sympathetic magic links up and running, so she can use them to instead of broadcasting a power-nullifier, to instead just broadcast Magic Stab on half the world's population, and Y: the Last Man it up in here?

And as one last wrinkle, launching satellites is expensive because of the infrastructure you need. In a world with supers, just as Danny can fly to space whenever the fuck the wants, so can anyone with reactionless flight and even moderate super-strength. So one, Garrison could have had his super-henchmen launch an entire backup network of satellites that haven't broadcast anything yet and aren't on any launch plans, and two, even if Garrison is dealt with, what's stopping anyone else from doing this trick in the future?

We should have had foreshadowing instead of the random legal bullshit that's taken up so much time before. Like, we should have had Garrison known to have gone really, really hard into mining and precious metals, and then have him revealed that he actually only started this plan after he quietly arranged for someone to icepick-lobotomy Utopia and pull every interesting bit of tech out of her body and give it to him, and then realized that he could make magical super-extended-range projectors out of Nemesis-material instead of dumb-ass disintegration rays, so he started scouring the globe for more rocks like the one that Utopia pulled up. That way, you've got a plausible mechanism for the satellites to be affecting superpower stuff in the first place, and you've got the events of prior novels flowing into this one, and you've even got the actions of the hero in the prior story directly responsible for the set-up of this one, and once the threat is dealt with, you've got a reason why no one else can immediately try it. And you can even throw in some bits about the signal strength depending on the exact perihelion window of Earth and Nemesis to give Garrison a specific time window, and have his plan be to just wipe the slate clean, take over Earth, and then use Earth's combined resources to ensure that he has total control over the when and where of supers in all future windows. Make the "Can control who gets powers" an endgame possibility that he gloats about, not as something he's already doing.

Hell, you know what would be a motherfucker of a twist (that I absolutely know this book does not respect its world, its characters, or its plot enough to pull off)? Garrison is full Lex Luthor. He has no superpowers whatsoever; all he's done is fooled GreyWytch (and others) into thinking that he does because he's got a bit of Nemesis rock, and is using it much better than Utopia did with some hypertech. And his actual plan is to (if god-king-hood falls through) broadcast out what he did, how it worked, and that anyone who gets some Nemesis-Rock can follow these simple directions and get a superpower-jammer of their very own, broadcast the location of a few impact sites he didn't get around to mining himself, and then let the world burn in his absence.

 

[White-Kettle Shufflepunk]

Before we begin today's feature, does anyone here know of any shitty vampire books that might be fun to review, preferably of a prog bent because this is the Farms? I've kind of caught the bug lately.

“WHAT?” That’s Detective Phạm, learning that one of the heroes she’s supposed to be riding herd on is moonlighting as a supervillain. I start explaining again, from the beginning, but she interrupts me, “Are you sure?”


“Yes, I’m pretty sure she’s the one who strapped me down and tortured me with magic.” Doc, Cecilia, and I are sitting around a speakerphone set out on the coffee table in the safehouse. So far, I’m the one doing all the talking. Cecilia is spilling out the top of out of an ankle-length scarlet dress with a corset, petticoats, and matching parasol. I gather she was interrupted at a convention to come here, but she’s as sharp as ever and has been scribbling on a legal pad throughout the entire conversation.

Yes, she's a cosplaying uber-competent lawyer/publicist thing.

“Could she have been mind controlled?” Phạm asks, grasping at one last straw.

That seems like a pretty reasonable line of inquiry in this universe?

“I can’t prove a negative, Detective,” I say calmly. “I can say that if mind control was in play, wouldn’t they use it on me to get me to cooperate rather than escape and snitch on them?”


After a long moment, she speaks again, her voice weary with acceptance. “I’m going to need you to come down to the station and fill out a statement. And I need you to understand that my jurisdiction doesn’t cover international waters, so there’s a limit on what I can do. This will probably have to go to the City Council.”


“I’m faxing over a statement to your office right now. I’m not coming—”


“Cut the bullshit, Danny. If you’re telling me a city contractor is a violent felon, then you’re gonna tell me that in person, in front of a camera, and you’re going to answer as many questions as I care to ask.”

Uh oh, Detective Phạm made the classic blunder: expecting a troon to comply with law and custom.

Cecilia slides a note across the table to me: no way.

Why not? Is Cecilia afraid Danny will Gretch-out on camera?

“These people kidnapped me once, Detective,” I say into the phone. “I’m staying in hiding until I can figure out a way to keep that from happening again.”

Here's a thought: don't go to Garrison's house, and don't put his magic tranny-choker back on, no matter how uncomfortable your Adam's apple makes you. Or better yet, use it to fucking kill him, you goddamn pack of morons.

“We can protect you—” she starts reflexively.


“Against supervillains? Isn’t that what you guys pay me and Graywytch to do? If she’s the perp and I’m the victim, where does that leave the police room to come in? You can’t ask me to sign a suicide note.”

It is unfortunate that Danny and Graywytch are the only two superheroes in the entire world.

“Danny, I know you’re scared, but with things as unsettled as they are, we really need to cooperate with each other on this.”


Cecilia clears her throat. “Hi, Detective Phạm? My name is Cecilia Rhodes, and I’m Dreadnought’s attorney.” Phạm’s groan of dismay is plainly audible over the line. “My client has real concerns about her physical safety that the police, with all due respect, cannot plausibly address, especially not with the current political stresses being placed on the Metahuman Response Unit. More immediately, Dreadnought could risk being found in breach of her contract if she continued to cooperate with the New Port Police Department, so long as Graywytch has not been arrested and/or released from her duties. Section Two specifically prohibits her from cooperating with felons or organizations affiliated with felons. Since we know Graywytch is willing to commit kidnapping, assault, and possibly even murder, and that she has established ties with your department, that makes the NPPD a group we cannot do business with until you clean house. Bluntly put, it’s her or us, and you’ve got to choose your side very quickly.”

Are you even allowed to be this much of a wheedling coward as a superhero? You know what might help the police dump Graywytch? Giving them a statement! Seriously, what the fuck is the point of this? Just go over and give it to them! The reluctant witness is a common trope, but they're usually hesitant to testify in court because it'll paint a target on their or their loved ones' back. Danny meanwhile is already being hunted by these people, and he fucking hates his parents. My best guess for why this bit is here is so Daniels can coom over the idea of a badass laywer-ally getting a woman fired with no actual evidence of wrongdoing, even though Danny could probably provide plenty (the collar, injuries sustained during his imprisonment) if he felt like it.

“Oh! Hello, Dreadnought! I am leaving for the airport now. My flight plan is a bit random, with a few buttonhooks to throw off any tails, but I should be arriving in New Port in three to four days.”


“Okay. If you encounter anyone associated with Richard Garrison, Sovereign Industries, Thunderbolt, or Graywytch, turn around and run the other way.”


His voice is guarded. “Why?”


“They’re moving on a plan that’s going to get a lot of people killed. It’s about that thing we discussed at the convention. Doc Impossible will be sending you some encrypted files with what we learned.”

You know, if I was Danny, I'd be pretty annoyed at Gothic. He could've warned him about Garrison way in advance, but instead let Danny wander into his clutches because of his paranoia.

It’s a short trip to Legion Tower. The Doc who’s piloting the tilt-engine knocks the engines into silent running mode,

I get tilted every time I read this.

--trading speed for whisper-quiet running, and pushes away from the airfield. I take up position off the left wing and shadow the jet into town. At only a hundred feet off the ground, we still get far fewer people looking up in confusion than I would have expected before I started this job. People don’t look up, they just don’t. Even if a shadow flits over them, most ignore it. (Unless you’re overflying the astronomy or meteorology departments at the University. Then you’ll always get spotted.)

I really dislike how this book uses parenthesis. Why couldn't that just be a normal sentence at the end of a paragraph? Also, the reason people "don't look up" in real life is because we haven't grown up in a world where flying people are a fact of life, and given the real world has birdwatchers, amateur astronomers, drone enthusiasts, and UFO sightings out the wazoo, I'm not even sure that truism even holds up.

Weaving between buildings, we come up on Legion Tower sneaky-like right up to the final pop up, when the engines whine for altitude and Doc slips the whole craft over the edge of the landing balcony.

"sneaky-like"? Did Danny momentarily morph into cockney scum?

This is, I realize with a thrill, my first real team op. Badass.

God, I wish I had that picture of the Tenacious Unicorn idiots riding out to rescue a "trans sister" right now.

The hidden machine gun nests stay quiet, which suggests that, at the very least, Doc’s security codes still work.

Why on Earth would Graywytch have not changed those? Even if she wasn't evil, last time Doc had security access, she murdered half the team.

As the elevator sinks down to the residential levels, Calamity turns to Charlie. He’s wearing a black balaclava, ski-goggles, and thin non-latex gloves. His shoulders are narrow enough that with the baggy hoody over the bulky Kevlar vest Sarah made him wear, Charlie could be anyone. Black, white, boy, girl. Charlie isn’t like the rest of us. He doesn’t like capework, but he’ll do it in a pinch. His identity needs to be protected, or he’ll be trapped in this life forever.

Much like how cops never retire. Also, subtle suggestion that boy and girl silhouettes aren't that different.

“We need something to call you,” says Calamity.

“Codex,” he says.

“I like it,” says Kinetiq.

“Thanks.”

Of course Kinetiq likes it. Also, Charlie used to cape with Calamity, surely she'd have made him pick something back then?

When the doors to the elevators open, I go in front, and everyone makes sure to walk behind me. There probably aren’t any landmines or booby traps in here—after all, Graywytch lives in this place, and who puts a minefield in their own house?

...A witch who can probably enchant them to ignore her? A woman whose home was broken into a week ago by an insane troon who threatened to kill her if his phone signal failed again?

A trend I notice this chapter, Graywytch not taking basic security precautions. I'm half-expecting Doc to fish the spare-key to her inner sanctum from under a little ceramic frog.

Graywytch hasn’t repaired her door yet. The splintered halves have been neatly stacked in the hall outside her condo. Calamity gives me an even look when she sees them.

And she doesn't even know Reparo. What kind of TERF-witch are you, Myra?

“You feel the need to mention anything, Dreadnought?”


I shrug. “She paid for a lawyer to help my parents try to screw up my emancipation petition. I told her to knock it off.”

"Well, I still don't actually know she did that, but this is a shitty YA novel, so all my problems tend to be because of the same thing."

“If you hurt her, I need to know now.”


My lips twist. “No, I didn’t hurt her.”


I really should have, though.

Calamity is too good for this book #21222.

Graywytch’s library is clearly the main event in this house. It’s just across the hall from her bedroom, and it’s part of a cutout between the floor above us and the floor below—it’s three stories tall, with the level we’re on as the middle layer. Below us is a maze of bookcases packed tight together with narrow, slate-floored aisles between them. The middle level is made up of a walkway around the outer edge of the room and crisscrossing bridges meeting in a broad platform in the center of the room, with short bookshelves and a reading area set up in the middle and a good view of the maze of taller bookshelves on the floor below.


The walls are all solid bookcases that stretch all the way up to the—oh, no, bullshit, bullshit!—up to the skylight. The skylight on the thirty-second floor. Of a fifty-seven floor building. There’s a moment of unease as I’m processing all that, and even in the lattice it looks like a skylight—I can’t see anything beyond it but open sky.

Oh my God, magic-shit in a witch's house!

Codex throws his hand out and catches me by the shoulder before I enter the library.


“There could be traps.”


“Claymores don’t really bother me.”

...Does Myra use claymores? Or is Danny so fucking stupid he hasn't processed the idea that magic can be dangerous?

“Would having all your blood instantly turn to pus bother you? Because it’d really suck for me.”

Well, that's what you get for using Keffals' directory. There's some jiggery-pokery where "Codex" has to disable some sort of trap, but then:

Calamity and I turn around, and Graywytch is there, resplendent in robes that seem to bounce and sway like smoke. One moment it was just the four of us, and then the next she’s standing on the bridge we just walked across like she’s been there all along.

Calamity points a .357 magnum at Graywytch’s forehead and thumbs back the hammer. “Hands. Now.”

Please don't tell me the arch-sorceress can't protect herself against bullets. Any of you guys ever read The Magicians, or watched the TV show? I'm hoping this goes like the Beast versus the Physical Kids.

Kinetiq provides all necessary bravado: “You’re out of the Legion, and we’re jacking your shit!”

I wouldn't get too comfortable if I were you, Kinetiq. You're an AFAB in a male troon's coven. You know those sniveling, fawning lackeys vampires tend to attract? Things rarely end well for them.

I bite down hard on the lattice, ignore the vertigo, and go at her, full power. Graywytch slides apart like a puff of fog, nothing but vapor left behind as I wobble through her and just barely pull back before crashing face-first into a wall of books.


Calamity’s guns are barking at a shadow, there and gone. Wide sweeps of blue light erupt from Kinetiq’s hands as they hose the whole place down with refracted light. For an instant, Graywytch is spotlighted, surprised and exposed, but then she shakes her billowing sleeve and wraps it about her face, sinks down, down and out of sight just as Calamity’s bullets start cracking into the furniture beyond her.

Also, again, why is Kinetiq called that when her powers seem to be light based. It's like if Magneto called himself Chemistro.

“Rotate your spectrum!” snaps Calamity as she falls back to the center.


“On it,” says Kinetiq, and the light erupting from their hands starts to pulsate through the entire rainbow.


Graywytch steps from nowhere and shoves a knife into Calamity’s back. A lifetime of movies has me primed to expect the world to slow down and go quiet, but it doesn’t. Everything is happening so damn fast. Kinetiq whirls to blast Graywytch with a short-range beam even as Calamity twists away from the knife and throws a sharp elbow at her head.

This was also a really confusing bit. "Shoves a knife" implies she actually managed to stab Calamity, which would make for a very different scene. If she avoided it, "shoved at" might be less misleading.

You ain’t even had time to read it!” says Calamity. “It might be the wrong one.”


“We’re fighting a world-class practitioner on her home turf,” he says, voice tight, “which is the most colorful suicide I can imagine. We. Need. To. Leave.”


“He’s right, of course,” says Graywytch, from everywhere and nowhere at once. “You don’t stand a chance.” There’s one exit from this room; a set of steel bars slams down across it. “But you’re not leaving. You’re surrendering.”


“Get out here, coward!” I shout. “You’re fucking dead!”


“How typically male,” she says. The air reeks of ozone, and fingers of groaning electricity reach out for us.

Based witch BLASTS home intruders with facts and magic.

I’ve got to keep my hands locked to the rail—and hope there’s no more electricity to come—to make it back across the bridge, but I manage it. Codex has finished throwing a broad circle of salt on the ground and Calamity is reloading her guns and snapping the cylinders shut.

“How bad am I bleeding?” she asks.

“Not much,” says Kinetiq after a quick glance.

“Dreadnought, get in the circle,” says Codex as I cover the last few yards in a stumbling lurch.

Wait, Calamity was stabbed? In the back? I feel like that should be a bigger deal! I know Calamity's a bit super, but not by much.

“Oh child, you don’t honestly expect something like that to be of any use, do you?” says Graywytch. There’s a hiss and a pop in the air, and Codex grunts, claps his hands to his mouth. “My patience is not unlimited, children. I have stayed my hand thus far out of concern for my collection; that will not last forever. Surrender now, and some of you may even get to leave.”

Bah, a real evil witch would've removed his mouth.

A few books from the upper shelves slide themselves out of their spots in little trails of dust. She must not care about them that much, or maybe they were decoys, but whatever the case, they open up and fall apart. Every sheet of paper neatly pulls away from the binding. A fluttering swarm of loose leafs circle the room above us. The flock stops and hangs in the air for a moment, the papers all go flat and hard.

“Oh shit,” says Codex, voice thick.

The sheets dive at us like spinning razors. Calamity tumbles away as they tha-thu-thunk inches deep into the hard floor. Kinetiq’s got a field of superheated air above them that incinerates a few, and Codex, well, Codex’s got me laying across him, shoulders hunched against the razor gale.

The sad thing is, this is probably the coolest and most creative bit of imagery and super-action in either book so far.

“Graywytch!” shouts Calamity. “You listen here! That door is coming open and we are walking out with whatever we care to take, and that’s my final offer!”


Real, genuine laughter is coming from all around us. My eyes are screwed shut as I throw everything I have into scanning for some sign of where she’s hiding. My stomach roils and my head feels like it’s about to slip off my neck. Forget about finding subtle hints; I can barely make sense of the lattice at all in this condition. The rumbling thunder of my rage cracks open, hot and piercing.


“That’s your offer?” says Graywytch through peals of laughter. “Your offer? I thought you, at least, knew what you were about, Calamity.”


“Kinetiq?” says Calamity, loud enough for all to hear.


“Yeah?”


“Starting from the top shelf, incinerate every bit of paper in this room.”

So Kinetiq can create heat with her light? They're not just concussive? You know, it would've been really nice to have known something about her capabilities earlier in the story. I've spent most of the book assuming her thing was like, converting the kinetic energy of bullets into harder punches. For such a "tell an don't show" kind of author, Daniels really hates explaining shit.

“No!” shrieks Graywytch, all humor lost as Kinetiq claps their hands together and makes a thermal cannon. Hungry, rushing currents of heat swirl away from the beam of superheated energy bursting from their palms. They sweep it across the top shelf of one side of the room, books that look decades, maybe centuries old going up in ecstatic bursts of yellow cinders.


While that’s happening, I’ve gone stumbling over the rail, ass-over-skull, into a heap in the slate floor below. Just for a moment, when the horror of how Calamity’s ruthlessness was sweeping across her, Graywytch’s illusion faltered, fell. I saw her.

You'd think a witch with a precious collection of occult tomes would invest in some fireproofing magic.

As I pull myself to my feet, hand over hand against a bookcase, Calamity calls down another ultimatum.

“You have no idea what you’ve done!” shouts Graywytch. “No idea!” A barely audible whine begins to rise, and the air smells of thunder, but I’m going to stop this before she launches another attack.

Wouldn't it be hilarious if the books contained so much mystical energy, their destruction was like a nuke going off? Or if a bunch of them contained bound demons that proceeded to make Newport a second City of Dis? Also what does it say that, when for the past month or so I've basically made tearing this book a new one my second hobby, it took me minutes to remember what Not-Seattle was called? That reminds me, do you think Fraiser was set in Newport in this reality? If so, I hope Fraiser and Niles retired before they had to sign off on titty-skitties and cutting teenagers' tits off.

I take a moment to exhale, gather my strength, and heave aside the vertigo as I bite down on the lattice as hard as I can. Zero to crash in the blink of an eye.


There it is. That perfect still moment. Me, bursting through the wall of books, paper falling from me in shredded waves. Graywytch, her eyes locking on me in sudden fear. This is something I’ve dreamed of for months. Maybe not this way, and not this fight, but this moment, this moment when she realizes that there are some people she shouldn’t push, some fights she shouldn’t have picked, has danced in front of me, a golden hypothetical begging to be made real.

Oh, God, I think I can hear Daniels' erection. How? Do--do I have superpowers now?

The frozen moment ends, and I crash upon her, bone-to-bone, flesh-to-flesh, and we keep going, through the next bookcase, shattered wood and a blizzard of destroyed manuscripts. There are four distinct snaps, wet and satisfying. We tumble apart against the floor. She skids one way, and I end up spilling the other. The world is jumping, spinning away from me. This time, I really do vomit. But I’ve hurt her.


One hand over the other, I crawl to where Graywytch is still gawping at the sheer amount of pain a human body can experience. My stomach roils, and the world spins about me; I don’t think I could call on the lattice right now even if I wanted to.


But I don’t have to, not for this. She makes a puppy-like effort to shove me off her and away, but I bat her arms aside and fasten my hands around her neck.


And squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.

Gretch... is that you?

No. I deserved so much more than this. I deserved so much more from you. But you treat me like shit, you tell me I’m worthless. Make me hate myself, make me a coward. Make me weak.

Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.

You hold me down and torture me. For years! And nobody stops you. Nobody cares. And all I can do is run, run, run, until I’m small in everyone’s eyes. In my eyes.

If it isn't obvious, Danny's projecting his father onto Graywytch, and implicitly all the people he's maimed and crippled in the past. Let that sink in.

(Someone’s calling my other name; I don’t pay attention.)

Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.

Well, not anymore! Not today! Today you get what you deserve. I’m not running anymore. Never again. You made me weak! YOU MADE ME WEAK—

No, Danny, honey... you were always weak.

Something tugging at my cape, hauling me back. “Dreadnought, that’s enough!” Calamity is shouting.

Don't tug on Dreadnought's cape. Because he's a psychopath and will kill you.

“No!” The lattice squishes away from me when I try to grab it, a new cloud of nausea slipping in from the edges. Graywytch’s face is crimson shading to purple, and with a shaking hand, she twists a ring and disappears—air rushing in with a thump to fill the vacated space.

“I had him!” I shout twisting away from Calamity. “I fucking had him!”

She looks confused. “Who?”

A reminder that Roger's main crime was... yelling.

Anyway, they escape.

What I miss while I’m lying on the ground: Codex finds the book he needs. The bars come down. Graywytch gets away. We don’t talk much on the flight home.

When even a troon's handmaidens think it's getting a bit much.

 

[Kosher Dill]

And I need you to understand that my jurisdiction doesn’t cover international waters, so there’s a limit on what I can do. This will probably have to go to the City Council.”

Are they seriously going to walk this one all the way up the ladder from the city council to the county commissioner to the governor and so on, until they finally get someone in the federal government?
For the love of God, this is a superhero book, don't they have anyone who can call up the special red phone in the White House, or get Nick Fury on the case, or something?

I’m faxing over a statement to your office right now.

Credit where credit's due, this is a great way of saying "fuck you". Faxing?

“I’m staying in hiding until I can figure out a way to keep that from happening again.”

"I have an elaborate multi-phased plan for not accepting invitations from insane plutocrats to dinner parties where I'll get cold-cocked by Thunderbolt."

There’s one exit from this room; a set of steel bars slams down across it.

Why would you lock yourself in with a bunch of brawlers when you're a shadow-walking witch who can curse them from a world away or slip in and shank them in their sleep?

Or if a bunch of them contained bound demons that proceeded to make Newport a second City of Dis?

I would die laughing if the big reveal was that Graywytch's main public service is trapping ghosts in books and we got a "Ghostbusters 2"' scenario on our hands
Regrettably, "The Sorrow Of Carpathia" is now considered a harmful ethnic stereotype.

Graywytch, her eyes locking on me in sudden fear. This is something I’ve dreamed of for months.

There are four distinct snaps, wet and satisfying.

How is Danny's cape not blacker than the heart of hell? Ultraviolence, disproportionate revenge for petty slights, delusions, psychological derangement - he might as well be the dictionary definition of "supervillain".
Graywytch calling Danny a man was like the lab accident that made Lex Luthor go bald in the Silver Age Superman comics. It just tipped him over the edge.
And aren't we nearing the end of the book? How are they planning to walk this back when Danny's villainous spiral keeps escalating? Are they just going have Danny win his trial and then say "I'm over my so-called birth givers now, I'll never see them again and all my unresolved issues are now resolved"?
By the way, if you want to talk about abusers, breaking someone's stuff because you can't or won't beat them up is a classic abuser tactic, and yet that's how Danny dealt with Graywytch both times.

Make me hate myself, make me a coward. Make me weak.

Who was just smugging to municipal bureaucrats about how he was going to bravely hide out until the danger was past?

Not that it matters, but what was the book they were burglarizing Graywytch for, and why the hell were they willing to risk it all to get in, and yet also willing to burn down the library to escape?

 

[IridiumDragon06]

Hurrah, back to the guided tour of Cape Bullshit!

Based witch BLASTS home intruders with facts and magic.

It saddens me that I can't easily steal this line without importing a bunch of context, but I'm going to have to try.

How are they planning to walk this back when Danny's villainous spiral keeps escalating?

I'm honestly undecided at this point, whether the author is just horrifyingly miscalibrated as to what kind of behavior you're supposed to accept from those in your tribe, or if the author does just genuinely embrace non-ironic evil villainry, combined with the glow of perceived moral righteousness, because it's not bad if it's happening to the right people.

---

You know, I can go back and forth on what the level of appropriate threat-preparation for GreyWytch is, after Danny's first I-learned-it-from-watching-you-Dad moment, but her powers are so poorly-defined that I don't know what can expect her to realistically do.

But if she can throw around sheets of paper made into razors, then she can throw other things, right?

I ask because while we don't know everything that she can do, but we do know that she has been mass-producing Garrison-jewelry. So, is there a reason that she hasn't stockpiled a few of those amulets and loaded them up with automatic spells to latch onto intruders, or barring that, just telekinetically thrown them at people?

One of the thing which really keeps the stakes at ground-level for me is the book's weird insistence that we take every scene in isolation, and that we not think about what happened before, and what the fact that stuff happened before says needs to be able to happen now.

---

I keep thinking "We can't be honestly expected not to read this as a rise-of-evil story, right?", and I keep getting shown that yes, we absolutely can.

I also want to draw a circle around this whole deal and point back to the Dreadnought and Calamity vs Utopia in the last book. There are, broadly, two basic schools of superhero action; the harm-prevention plan, or the threat-removal plan. In the first, your hero is focused on stopping the current bad thing that the villain is doing; if the villain's not doing a bad thing at the moment, you leave them alone. And while this can give you revolving-door Arkham Asylum, it also gives your supervillains an out, and a positive incentive to just not do a given act of evil that day.

Then you have threat-removal, where you and yours are doing whatever you have to in order to stop the villain from becoming another lethal threat tomorrow. And if villains can instantly marshal nation-state levels of lethal force, then this model can have solid arguments in favor of it. But it does mean that it becomes really, really hard to de-escalate; if the villain knows that you'll only stop hunting them when they can't be a threat any more ever again, and them being a threat is tied to them being alive because it's a matter of their knowledge or skills or innate powers, then there is no de-escalation possible, and every reason for the villain to cross lines as you continue to hunt them.

Calamity, when facing Utopia, fell into the second model. Utopia had too much power to be dropped off at the police; she'd casually escape and then go hunting for them. For GreyWytch, it's now even more so. And not only that, this entire thing is looking sketch as hell. If this weren't someone's shitty wank-bait power fantasy, then GreyWytch would immediately turn around and go to the police herself, and get cops sent after Dreadnought and the Dread-ettes, with perfect justification.

It is interesting to imagine that there are dire magical consequences for burning GreyWytch's library, but I think that interrogating the lack of them would be better. That was a shit move. There are given and very specific times when you want to piss your opponent off, and this was not one of them. This was the author wanting to hurt the TERF Witch Book Lady.

We saw that the books clearly weren't a source of GreyWytch's power, and they were something that she valued a great deal. Even if burning them made GreyWytch lose focus for a moment, if Calamity was not willing to capitalize on that, then what does pissing off GreyWytch accomplish? It just cements, entirely, that if GreyWytch was holding back before, if she had any other priorities that weren't putting the Trio (plus Codex) into the ground immediately, at any cost, she needs to stop them, now.

And...shit. Did the whole scene with Calamity getting stabbed happen so that when the crew breaks and goes home, Calamity finds that GreyWytch has used sympathetic magic to find her family and beat her home?

And hell, if GreyWytch did later say coldly that she knew that Calamity had a caping family and that she was going to just end this little blood feud before it started...how wrong would she have been? "I know that she's going to kill me if I give her the chance, so I'm not going to give her the chance, and it something precious to her gets burnt to ash and that throws her off her game for a critical moment, good, it's not like I'm going to leave her alive to plot revenge, and even if I do, what's the worst that can happen? She kills me twice?"

The reason that superheros need to be held to a higher standard is because this shit gets really ugly really fast. We've got a lot of historic examples of what soceities in which there isn't an overwhelmingly agreed-upon social consensus for settling disputes looks like; it looks like a lot of clan violence and interminable feuds. And when the feuding people can have bloodline superpowers, and even if they can't and are just pissed-off criminals with rifles and patience, they remain a threat.

The thing is, I can't imagine where we go from here. Maybe the author had a particular ironic and graphic end planned for GreyWytch in book 3? Because this seems like the right point to kill her, if that was going to happen; she lost control for a moment and Dreadnought shot his shot. There's no chance that she's not going to retaliate, and retaliate with maximal harm and minimal care for collateral damage. There's nothing we've seen that says that she will be permanently stopped by some broken bones and moderate strangulation. And it feels like we were setting up for a strong dramatic moment where Danny did stone-cold murder her, and gave the (helpfully true) justifications that there wasn't a cell that would hold her (demonstrably, as she literally got in and out of the existing super-max cell without effort), and that it had to happen, and for Danny's allies to look at how he did it, how much he enjoyed it, and how lucid he was during it, and start to ask each other how much they actually knew that GreyWytch did deserve this or if Danny wasn't just being literally as well as figuratively psychotic here.

So, I guess that either she doesn't show up again for the rest of the book, or only shows up to be pathetic so she can be beaten again. But I will say that this series has surprised me before, so we may get something worse and dumber still!

But I really hope that we do get both Danny's entourage actively questioning what the hell is going on with him, and GreyWytch dropping the police on Danny along with a videotape of them breaking in and acting like psychos, and gesture in the direction of consequences for Danny's bloodlust.

 

[Kosher Dill]

I'm honestly undecided at this point, whether the author is just horrifyingly miscalibrated as to what kind of behavior you're supposed to accept from those in your tribe, or if the author does just genuinely embrace non-ironic evil villainry, combined with the glow of perceived moral righteousness, because it's not bad if it's happening to the right people.

It seems like the author is going to take the bold stance of "strangling helpless people while delusionally ranting about your father is a bridge too far", but climbing down from the pinnacle of Mt. Villainy is something that can't meaningfully be done in the dregs of this book. I suspect we're going to have it all wrapped up in a few pages, Danny says "OK, maybe that was wrong, thank goodness I have Calamity to be my conscience and bang-maid, The End."

I ask because while we don't know everything that she can do, but we do know that she has been mass-producing Garrison-jewelry. So, is there a reason that she hasn't stockpiled a few of those amulets and loaded them up with automatic spells to latch onto intruders

Her entire apartment - or really the entire building - should be one big Garrison-Amulet zone except for her magic circle or whatever. And really it's a good thing Garrison lives on a private island, because if word ever got out about those amulets, every government on the planet would want a piece of him - literally.
Really though, I'm fine with leaving the powers and planning a bit loosey-goosey on both sides, but the power scaling is still nonsensical. I thought Kinetiq was supposed to be a B-lister and yet she's blasting flame cannons and lasers and whatnot.
And I don't need the characters to be chessmasters, but their actions should at least follow logically from what came before. Myra never repaired her front door after Danny broke in? When Danny came back with his group of costumed thugs, he should have either found a new door that looks more like a bank vault, a bunch of armed guards, or nothing at all - a teleporter doesn't need doors.
Graywytch can poke holes in dimensions (or whatever), her apartment should be like the Cosmic Cube on the inside. They should have had to go to Calamity's mom to phase them in.

If this weren't someone's shitty wank-bait power fantasy, then GreyWytch would immediately turn around and go to the police herself, and get cops sent after Dreadnought and the Dread-ettes, with perfect justification.

Seriously, this should look insanely bad for Danny. He calls up Detective Pham making wild accusations about magical torture that he refuses to substantiate, then runs off with a bunch of unlicensed superheroes to break into Legion Tower, set stuff on fire, steal stuff, and attempt to murder Graywytch while ranting incoherently about a man who isn't there. If I were Graywytch I'd call up City Hall (since that is apparently what one does in this setting) and demand to have Danny declared a blackcape and thrown in Arkham Asylum for being psychotic.

So, I guess that either she doesn't show up again for the rest of the book, or only shows up to be pathetic so she can be beaten again.

I think she's going to join Utopia in Schrodinger's Catbox. Alive or dead - who knows as long as we don't observe them?

 

[White-Kettle Shufflepunk]

I think she's going to join Utopia in Schrodinger's Catbox. Alive or dead - who knows as long as we don't observe them?

She seems to be alive and in custody. Which raises the question of why Dreadnought and his Amazing Handmaidens haven't brought up the possibility of interrogating her about Nemesis.

It saddens me that I can't easily steal this line without importing a bunch of context, but I'm going to have to try.

Aww shucks.

I'm honestly undecided at this point, whether the author is just horrifyingly miscalibrated as to what kind of behavior you're supposed to accept from those in your tribe, or if the author does just genuinely embrace non-ironic evil villainry, combined with the glow of perceived moral righteousness, because it's not bad if it's happening to the right people.

Honestly, I'd prefer it if that was the plan. At least then we wouldn't have all this troon bureaucrat nonsense. You can bet for sure that it's the route Gretch would've gone for.

The thing is, I can't imagine where we go from here. Maybe the author had a particular ironic and graphic end planned for GreyWytch in book 3?

Haha, I wish. Without spoiling too much, I kind of suspect part of the reason book 3 hasn't materialised is that Daniels doesn't know what to do without his Bid Bad TERF.

Not that it matters, but what was the book they were burglarizing Graywytch for, and why the hell were they willing to risk it all to get in, and yet also willing to burn down the library to escape?

Oh, apologies if I didn't make it clear, they're looking for Graywytch's notes on Garrison's satellites to make sure Danny won't explode if he tries to destroy him. Not sure why they're bothering, seems like villains in this book don't believe in security. Also, they'd be shit out of luck if Graywytch kept those on the seastead.

Seriously, this should look insanely bad for Danny. He calls up Detective Pham making wild accusations about magical torture that he refuses to substantiate, then runs off with a bunch of unlicensed superheroes to break into Legion Tower, set stuff on fire, steal stuff, and attempt to murder Graywytch while ranting incoherently about a man who isn't there. If I were Graywytch I'd call up City Hall (since that is apparently what one does in this setting) and demand to have Danny declared a blackcape and thrown in Arkham Asylum for being psychotic.

You'd think Daniels' persecution complex would enjoy a good "troon heroine against the world" plot, but he seems to relish institutional power too much.

 

[Kosher Dill]

they're looking for Graywytch's notes on Garrison's satellites

Graywytch's notes? She's not an engineer! Her notes on the satellites probably just say "Stand in transporter room and cast spell".
I think I actually find it charming that she binds up her notes so that they're indistinguishable from centuries-old eldritch tomes, and shelves them in her library. "I call this one... the Codex Astronomicon Dominatus."

Without spoiling too much, I kind of suspect part of the reason book 3 hasn't materialised is that Daniels doesn't know what to do without his Bid Bad TERF.

It seems to me that all Garrison's toys are more or less useless without a wizard and so they'd be back to no open plotlines except the asteroid still coming. I guess the author would either have to invent another villain with a cockamamie scheme based on magic rocks, or have the whole book be about a spaceship trip out to punch the rock out of the solar system. Both sound pretty lame.

 

[White-Kettle Shufflepunk]

Graywytch's notes? She's not an engineer! Her notes on the satellites probably just say "Stand in transporter room and cast spell".

I think they meant like, whatever the occult-equivalent-of-maths is that went into the spellwork itself.

 

[Kosher Dill]

I think they meant like, whatever the occult-equivalent-of-maths is that went into the spellwork itself.

I had been under the impression that the satellite network was pure hypertech that can "broadcast" any magic, and they only needed Graywytch because she invented the "Control Nemesis" spell they want to broadcast. But if they want to say the satellites are magic too, sure, why not.

Oh yeah, and jumping back a bit to good old Professor Gothic:

“Oh! Hello, Dreadnought! I am leaving for the airport now. My flight plan is a bit random, with a few buttonhooks to throw off any tails, but I should be arriving in New Port in three to four days.”

He's going to spend four days on economy class flights to get to New Port? The ways of the mad scientist are inscrutable indeed
But come on, shouldn't he be minimizing the amount of time he spends as a sitting duck suspended midair in a metal tube? He was at a superhero convention, was there really nobody who could open up a portal for him, or give him a lift inside a Green Lantern force field, or call in SHIELD to give him a VIP escort, or stop time while he walks there, or something?

 

[White-Kettle Shufflepunk]

He's going to spend four days on economy class flights to get to New Port? The ways of the mad scientist are inscrutable indeed
But come on, shouldn't he be minimizing the amount of time he spends as a sitting duck suspended midair in a metal tube? He was at a superhero convention, was there really nobody who could open up a portal for him, or give him a lift inside a Green Lantern force field, or call in SHIELD to give him a VIP escort, or stop time while he walks there, or something?

You'd think a mad scientist would own a wacky flying machine of some sort.

By the way, if you want to talk about abusers, breaking someone's stuff because you can't or won't beat them up is a classic abuser tactic, and yet that's how Danny dealt with Graywytch both times.

Maybe next book Danny will defeat an evil supervillain who doesn't like prostitution or something by sabotaging her birth control, or telling her she said six o'clock, not seven, crazy bitch.

 

[SpumbleSplabloo]

More immediately, Dreadnought could risk being found in breach of her contract if she continued to cooperate with the New Port Police Department, so long as Graywytch has not been arrested and/or released from her duties. Section Two specifically prohibits her from cooperating with felons or organizations affiliated with felons. Since we know Graywytch is willing to commit kidnapping, assault, and possibly even murder, and that she has established ties with your department, that makes the NPPD a group we cannot do business with until you clean house.

For the most legalese bullshit superhero story I've ever seen, this is an absolutely retarded argument. Graywytch isn't a felon. Being a felon requires being convicted of felonies, and the only person trying to get Dreadnought to take the steps necessary to make Graywytch a felon is Detective Pham. Pham and NPPD have less to lose (at least contractually) by just ignoring this and the Dread squad is still refusing to go through the necessary procedures even though Pham is willing to hear them out.

Unrelated, but I've been too lazy/busy to post when I've noticed it: Daniels has used the male form "blond" instead of the female form "blonde" to describe Dreadnought's hair color at least twice that I've noticed in WKS's excerpts. It's probably ignorance, but it's more amusing to me if I assume this is internalized transphobia.

 

[Kosher Dill]

the Dread squad

This is a fantastic name for a villain team.

 

[Alabama Gamer]

Something that's occurred to me while reading through this thread: from what I know (and by choice I know very little), modern witchy feministy Wicca-y "magick" is supposed to be very communal. Make whatever Freudian analyses you care to, but the point is that magicians of the GrayWytch flavor form covens to work their magic. The solo wizened bookish magician in a secluded lair is very masculine. Where's GrayWytch's coven? Since superpowers seem to be in some way influenced by the recipient's nature, there ought to at least be a few more TERFy types who all got empowered with the same sort of Moon Goddess magic(k).

On top of that, as someone heretofore at the very top of the cape game, GrayWytch would certainly have first dibs on all women in North America (at least) who developed magic(k)al powers, and would tutor them in her tradition. If nothing else, she ought to at least have a few acolytes assisting her in her rituals, the magic(k)al equivalent of the few technicians sworn to secrecy who maintain Batman's gear. Imagine if Danny had to face down half a dozen Sabrinas who barely know how to hold an athame, but at the very least know that they want to keep fat dudes out of their bathrooms.

And that's just for starters. In all likelihood there would be a whole network of TERF witches across the world (each with their own groups of acolytes) who are kept from wreaking havoc on half of humanity because they are constantly opposed by an equal network of wizards who live in tall towers with bulbous peaks and carry staffs with knobs on the end which they use to probe eldritch portals. All of said witches would put aside the catty infighting which they doubtlessly experience in a heartbeat to focus all of their energies on bringing down the most famous tranny in the world.

This is a fantastic name for a villain team.

Reminds me of a glorious bit of /tg/ writefaggotry from way back in the day which I can't find at the moment, in which a Traitor warlord is rendered thoroughly confused that groups like the "Word Bearers" and the "Emperor's Children" are aligned with Chaos, while groups like the "Rampagers" and the "Flesh Tearers" are aligned with the Emperor.

 

[IridiumDragon06]

Something that's occurred to me while reading through this thread: from what I know (and by choice I know very little), modern witchy feministy Wicca-y "magick" is supposed to be very communal. Make whatever Freudian analyses you care to, but the point is that magicians of the GrayWytch flavor form covens to work their magic. The solo wizened bookish magician in a secluded lair is very masculine. Where's GrayWytch's coven? Since superpowers seem to be in some way influenced by the recipient's nature, there ought to at least be a few more TERFy types who all got empowered with the same sort of Moon Goddess magic(k).

Then again, if the nature of magic (and powers) is that they are singular things that people can do, then that just may be true regardless of cultural background or assumptions; presumably, Polynesian superheros are not actually vulnerable to mana drain.

GreyWytch in particular does feel like she should have a circle of flunkies, even (or perhaps especially) if she is stringing them along with promise of unlocking their Female Magicks while using them as gophers, plausibly-deniable actors-in-public, and meat shields who are specifically meant to tempt Dreadnought into going sicko mode on so that she can reveal his male violence and turn the levers of the state against him.

These books haven't really explored the weird new (and old) ways that people would relate to supers. One simple thing to mention would be that one of the old Dreadnoughts started an organization like the Boy Scouts, which ended up getting really intense, and that when that Dreadnought died, they didn't accept his successor as the True Dreadnought and broke away into a separatist cult, and while they're mostly stamped out now they serve as an object lesson as to why Standard Cape Procedure is to tamp down hard on any attempt for heroes to build metaphorical cult followings, because they can easily turn into literal cult followings. Then you also have GreyWytch skirting that line but getting away with it because she's only got a dozen or so people and because they're well-coached to say the right things in public, and other heroes not liking it but accepting that GreyWytch gonna GreyWytch, that this is fundamental to her Wicca beliefs, and that at least she's not actively recruiting and every member of her coven was already a true-blue believer before, and bam, you've got a whole set-up way for her to challenge Danny in the area of legalism and leaking info to the press, and extra avenues of conflict. Plus, you've got the fun reversal of the villain sending goons after you that you can't just defeat with a few pows and biffs (or rather, that you can, but that is exactly what the villain wants you to do and will spring their true trap). But then again, while this sounds like an interesting challenge for a Superman-expy to have to overcome, and also would be a great way to put give-and-take into Dreadnought's blood rage, it also sounds like it would interfere with the power fantasy, not of superpowers, but of The State Has My Back And Ignores My Crimes Forever, and I doubt we'll get that. But we may have Consequences after this recent chapter, so I'll wait and see.

---

The problem, I think, is that GreyWytch is about as Wicca as Garrison is neoreactionary. In both cases they are, at best, crude attempts to copy the aesthetic of a given faction the author wants to beat on in his imaginary universe, and much more often are just stock superhero archetypes that barely rise to the level of character and don't have enough them there to even engage with the roles the author places on them, much less meaningfully affirm or contradict them.

 

[Kosher Dill]

If nothing else, she ought to at least have a few acolytes assisting her in her rituals

Well, at least the setting is balanced in that respect. Nobody seems to have any assistants or even friends unless the plot calls for it. No one comes seeking revenge for the supers Danny maimed, but on the other hand Professor Gothic is stuck eating airline pretzels in economy class all week instead of helping him. Balanced.

I love the image of some loony mad scientist wearing x-ray goggles and a blast-scorched lab coat going through the mundanities of air travel.
"Sir, please take off your hover boots and put them on the conveyor belt."

 

[White-Kettle Shufflepunk]

So now I’m in one of the medical beds in the safehouse. Again. I’m really starting to hate the feel of these kinds of pads—they’re not even really mattresses.

Calamity got stabbed in the back, and Danny's the one who's laid up in the med-bay? Does Daniels assume everything of importance is in the front because that's where the boobs and pussy live?

The world continues to spin, though it’s bearable as long as I don’t provoke it. Doc can’t figure out what’s wrong with me. She wants Charlie to take a crack at it, but Calamity and I agree that he needs to get to work on hacking Graywytch’s magic. That’s all we seem to agree on right now.

Oh, yeah, Danny got hit with some kind of vertigo spell. Definitely a problem, but still, borderline normal human got stabbed. You'd think a witch's blade would come with some nasty curses, too.

After—I can’t speak to Sarah. Not right now. And she seems to feel the same way. Why is this so difficult? Why can’t she understand?

Because Calamity is a true hero, and you're the state-sanctioned violent maniac. Man, remember in like, the second post, where I said Sarah was the nutty one? The fuck was wrong with my memory? Now, it's time for Doc to launder Danny's madness.

“Calamity says you went a little apeshit back there.”


“Graywytch was trying to murder my friends.”


“So you took her through a bookcase.” Doc frowns thoughtfully and nods. “Fair enough. What about the part that came after that?”


“What part?”


Doc doesn’t roll her eyes. That, more than anything, is what finally gets through to me that she’s really not kidding about this.


“You know the part I mean, Danielle,” she says. I’ve got nothing to say to that. “It’s okay to be angry,” she says. “You’ve got more right than most people to be mad at the world. Especially this week. But you can’t let it change you.”

Much of the world's population still don't enjoy and access to electricity and clean, running water, and only a minority live in functional democracies. Danny's dad was a loud arsehole who didn't rear him as a human steer. Basically the same thing.

Also, "change her?" Danny's relished in violence and causing pain to his enemies this entire book. Even in the first one, he kept talking about how he'd make the world fear his dolphin testicles if he weren't such a mewling coward. I've never once gotten the impression Danny ever had a kind heart or gentle nature.

“What if it’s not changing me, Doctor? What if this is who I really am and you all need to get over it? She deserves to die.”

Doc looks down at her folded hands for a moment. “Look, kiddo—we’re superheroes. Violence is part of the job. But that doesn’t mean we execute people without a trial. We take them alive, every time. And if we can’t, we’d better have a damn good reason for why not. Better than anything you’ve had today.”

How has Danny not killed someone before? This is something that annoys me about a lot of action and superhero fiction. They treat human bodies and combat like a fighting game. You can beat someone up as brutally as you like, and as long as they still have a bee's dick of HP left, they'll be fine next round. All that matters is the killing blow. Killing becomes something that's always deliberate. Batman never has to worry about a thug he beat up dying from a brain bleed later on. The life and death of his opponent is almost always treated as something purely within in his control.

Anyone who knows anything about medicine or combat knows this is nonsense. The human body is ridiculously tough, but also frighteningly fragile. There is no hard, obvious line between "enough force to incapacitate" and "lethal force." But at least heroes like Batman are usually depicted as conscientious people who try to avoid killing or permanently maiming his enemies. Danny meanwhile fights like a wild animal lost in a blood fugue, has landed at least one guy in a wheelchair for life, and we're expected to believe nobody he's ever fought has died, either right there or later on. I compared this to fighting games earlier, but it also feels a lot like "moral choices" in an RPG. Danny isn't a murderer yet because he hasn't pressed the Renegade prompt.

“The other Dreadnoughts killed people.”


“That’s true.” She nods. “But I guarantee you they never did it because they thought it’d make them feel better.”


“That’s not—!” I sit up to spit indignant denials at her and regret my decision immediately.

This would hit a lot harder if we had any impression of the previous Dreadnoughts as people.

There’s that word I’ve been avoiding. My voice comes out quieter than I’d like when I reply. “You said I had to take them down. That we couldn’t tolerate what they did.”

Another reason this all feels very hollow is that, from what I've seen of Daniels in real life, he agrees with Danny. His ideological enemies do deserve violence and death. Hell, at least in-universe, Danny's fighting violent criminals. Daniels meanwhile probably believes J.K Rowling is just as evil as Graywytch. At best, he condemns Danny for not considering optics. Why physically destroy your enemies when your hecken cool cosplayer ally lawyer can do it with the force of the state?

“That’s right, I did. But I was thinking more along the lines of putting her in prison and then making funny faces at her from across the glass. You’ve been through hell; I get it, and if I had anyone else who could do your job, I’d use them instead and get you into therapy pronto. Not because I think you can’t hack it, by the way, but because even you have limits, and I don’t like seeing you get hurt. It’s clear to me now that you’re in way more trouble than I thought you were. If I had known you were in this kind of pain, I would have never sent you on that mission. But we don’t have a deep bench here, so I need you to be strong enough to keep a grip on yourself, at least until we’re out of this fight. Can you do that for me?”

I refuse to believe Danny hasn't had this conversation before. Doc may have been LARPing as a drunken dissolute the past year, but you'd think Detective Phạm might've sat Danny down for a chat about how he keeps reducing suspects to bags of mincemeat and bone fragments. Really, though, with how wedded superheroes are to the government, and how supposedly integral to world security Dreadnought is, Danny should be having weekly sessions with a military counselor or something. He definitely should've been given the "don't fucking murder people" speech before ever being allowed out with a cape, too. As for the idea that only Danny can do this, flying strongmen seem to be a pretty common thing in this universe, and are you telling me a space-plane is beyond Doc?

With great effort, I roll over to put my back to her. “Just leave me alone.”


Her answer is immediate: “I kind of can’t. Not about this.”


“Do you have any idea what it’s like being Dreadnought?” I snap at her. “You don’t even want to be a cape—but this is the only thing I’ve ever been any good at, and she tried to take it away from me!”


“So be good at it. Take some time to think about this. We’ll talk before you go out again.” Doc gets up, leaving the sound of her stool gently spinning as she walks away across the hangar.

Oh yeah, I'm sure Doc knows nothing about what it's like to be a superhero. She's only... well, a superhero.

Before I go out again. What is that, a sick joke? I can’t go out, not like this. Not until the spell wears off. Or until Charlie finishes his research and has time to fix me. God, I spend so much time waiting for other people to come along and save me. I hate this. I hate myself.


And there I sulk for an embarrassingly long period of time before it occurs to me that I can try to fix this on my own. Looking into the lattice is hard right now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do it. And I was able to undo a little bit of what was going wrong in Karen’s head. Maybe the magic screwing me up is weaker than that, and I can actually fix this.

You know, there's a reason Superman isn't immune to magic.

Carefully, very carefully, I slide my mind back into the lattice. The world shivers under me, and a new wave of nausea sweeps through me. But I’m in. It doesn’t take long to find the magic. There, in my inner ears, in the fluid chambers that tell me which way is down, there are flitting little yarn tangles of nothingness. Every shift of the fluid is magically enhanced to a great big sloshing, and even when I’m still, the fluids tremble and bounce randomly, teased into motion by the nonsense inputs of the spell.


Very, very slowly, I reach out to the lattice and gently pick at the strands of the charm.


There’s a lot of things I can do with the lattice besides fly and punch things. (Though those are two of my favorite things.) But magic is still more or less an unknown frontier for me. Tweaking the lattice beyond my basic powerset is a dangerous hobby in the best of times, with sprains and broken bones as a constant risk for failure, but this will be worse because I don’t even know how magic actually works.

"Except that it's all nonsense generated by space rocks."

Also, I love how Danny is the first Dreadnought to ever figure out how to do shit like this with the Plot Inciting Orb, when all the Dreadnoughts (including him) have been men, and at least one was a fighter pilot. Because if there's one thing I know about men, it's that they're famously risk-averse.

Working on Karen was the first time I tried to counteract magic with my powers, and it nearly gave her an aneurysm. Doing this inside my own head has the feel of digging up an armed landmine with only a bayonet. While drunk. I don’t see that I have much choice, though. I need to be able to fight. Hell, I need to be able to walk.

I cannot emphasis how bad an idea dramatically giving Danny the ability to undo spells with his mind is.

Someone pushes aside the privacy screen and sits down on the stool. I crack an eye open. It’s Calamity—no, she’s not wearing her hat and her bandanna is down, so this is Sarah.


“Hi,” she says.


“Hi.”


Sarah shifts nervously. “Um, I think we might consider keeping Dreadnought and Calamity separate from Danielle and Sarah. At least when I have to be a hardass. Deal?”


I reach out a hand, and when she takes it I give her a gentle squeeze. “Deal.”


Her whole posture relaxes, and a woozy smile of relief blooms on her face. I think she thought I would honestly dump her for telling Doc what happened back there. Not even I’m that stupid. But then again, maybe she doesn’t understand how amazing she is. Maybe being a chokingly beautiful, untouchable badass is normal to her.

Notice Danny's love interest is a genetically (well, aside from the cancer thing) perfected, hot bio-chick, and not one of those lumpen dudes on Twitter who call themselves "hot girls."

“I’m trying to fix my head,” I tell her. “I’ll need to concentrate for a while. Can you stay with me?”


Sarah scoots the chair closer, takes my hand, clasped between her own, into her lap. “What are you doing?”


“I can see the magic from Graywytch’s trap. I’m going to see if I can pick it apart in the lattice.”


Sarah’s forehead crinkles. “Oh. Um, what?”


She doesn’t really like it when I giggle at that, but I smooth it over quickly. “I’m sorry, I forgot I’ve been vague about my powers.

To be fair, the author's vague about everyone's powers.

You remember how I can see the backside of reality? I can sort of see magic too.”

“If you say so.”

“There are these strings that make up everything. Like,” and here I go quiet for a moment while I shove down the nausea long enough to look at her arm, I mean really look at it. “Oh. Uh, damn. I didn’t know your prosthetic goes all the way into the spine.”

“You can see inside me?” she asks quietly.

“Yeah. You’re beautiful.”

And I also love that Daniels doesn't realise how weird a "trans girl" commenting on a chick's insides is.


The chapter concludes with Danny fixing the vertigo spell, because God forbid he not be able to will himself out of his arch-enemy's traps.

 

[Kosher Dill]

Now, it's time for Doc to launder Danny's madness.

Yeah, looks like this is Danny's get-out-of-jail-free card here. "Doc gave me a stern talking-to and now I'm good."

How has Danny not killed someone before? This is something that annoys me about a lot of action and superhero fiction.

Yeah, but my general rule for this book is that anything I'd give Superman a pass for in the name of genre conventions, I'll give Supertroon a pass for too, unless they're specifically deconstructing genre conventions.

“That’s not—!” I sit up to spit indignant denials at her and regret my decision immediately.

There’s that word I’ve been avoiding.

What word was that? "Fair"? "True"? "Murder"?

Doing this inside my own head has the feel of digging up an armed landmine with only a bayonet. While drunk.

"One false move here could turn me into an unhinged narcissistic psychopath with Dreadnought's powers and a thirst for blood."

Also, I love how Danny is the first Dreadnought to ever figure out how to do shit like this with the Plot Inciting Orb, when all the Dreadnoughts (including him) have been men, and at least one was a fighter pilot.

Yeah, I can't imagine a fighter pilot who can push things past the limits of human endurance ever wanting to do something about dizziness.

And I also love that Daniels doesn't realise how weird a "trans girl" commenting on a chick's insides is.

It's vaguely unsettling to know a real boy scout like Clark Kent can use x-ray vision, but with some coomer like Danny, you know he's dialing right in on your bazongas. Makes you want to take a shower and then go back to the dealers' room at SuperHeroCon and buy a lead bra.

 

[White-Kettle Shufflepunk]

Yeah, but my general rule for this book is that anything I'd give Superman a pass for in the name of genre conventions, I'll give Supertroon a pass for too, unless they're specifically deconstructing genre conventions.

I agree and disagree. I usually don't mind suspending my disbelief regarding the probable impact of violence with characters like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, because they're written as deliberately holding back to try and preserve life. Danny meanwhile's inner-monologue during fights so far has basically been "BLOOD BLOOD BLOOOOOOOD" and has explicitly crippled people for life.

Like a lot of things in Dreadnought, the treatment of Danny's violence sits in an uncomfortable middle-ground between attempted realism or deconstruction and standard (and not very imaginative) superhero stuff. It's like if you mixed The Boys with Young Justice or Static-Shock. Superheroes are all agents of the state or illegal vigilantes, but the US government just lets their most powerful asset slum with a drunk robot.

Yeah, I can't imagine a fighter pilot who can push things past the limits of human endurance ever wanting to do something about dizziness.

I'm kind of reminded of Immortal Hulk (an otherwise extremely good comic I recommend) where the token trans character is able to resist a villain who can insert himself into people's memories on a global scale because, as a "trans woman" she's "used to resisting people telling her who she is" which is, well, do I even need to explain?

It's vaguely unsettling to know a real boy scout like Clark Kent can use x-ray vision, but with some coomer like Danny, you know he's dialing right in on your bazongas. Makes you want to take a shower and then go back to the dealers' room at SuperHeroCon and buy a lead bra.

Honestly, at this point, Danny using his x-ray-vision-with-extra-steps to merely check out your tits is the optimistic scenario:

Danny: Did you know women have an extra layer of fat, Sarah? Fat to feed the babies that grow inside...

I love the image of some loony mad scientist wearing x-ray goggles and a blast-scorched lab coat going through the mundanities of air travel.

Superheroes in this universe are so domesticated, I bet the flyers and teleporters don't cross international borders without permission first.

These books haven't really explored the weird new (and old) ways that people would relate to supers. One simple thing to mention would be that one of the old Dreadnoughts started an organization like the Boy Scouts, which ended up getting really intense, and that when that Dreadnought died, they didn't accept his successor as the True Dreadnought and broke away into a separatist cult, and while they're mostly stamped out now they serve as an object lesson as to why Standard Cape Procedure is to tamp down hard on any attempt for heroes to build metaphorical cult followings, because they can easily turn into literal cult followings.

Please tell me you're referencing that Stardust the Super-Wizard comic where he started his own Children's Crusade?

The problem, I think, is that GreyWytch is about as Wicca as Garrison is neoreactionary.

The funny thing is, Daniels is a neo-pagan in real life, so you'd think he'd at least be able to add some texture to Graywytch.


Also, another thing. Graywytch does seem to be earnestly religious. At the very least, she apparently believes there was once "a Goddess" whose worship was supplanted by male sky-deities. Basic Margaret Murray shit, but still, she believes it. So, how did she take finding out her magic powers were actually just a kind of madness made real by space rocks?

 

[Kosher Dill]

Please tell me you're referencing that Stardust the Super-Wizard comic

Ah, a fellow Stardust Appreciator
I kind of like the idea of "going Stardust" as the consequence of tampering with your own lattice.

I've been meaning to track down the non-Fletcher-Hanks Stardust stories from those old pulps just to see what other people did with the character.

 

[IridiumDragon06]

Like a lot of things in Dreadnought, the treatment of Danny's violence sits in an uncomfortable middle-ground between attempted realism or deconstruction and standard (and not very imaginative) superhero stuff. It's like if you mixed The Boys with Young Justice or Static-Shock. Superheroes are all agents of the state or illegal vigilantes, but the US government just lets their most powerful asset slum with a drunk robot.

I agree in this particular case. We've had no repentance, no consequences, and not even any attempt to re-ground the violence. Danny has specifically set out to inflict crippling injury, repeatedly, and this is not a universe in which all superhumans are within the same rough band of toughness. If a story is not about severe violence and its consequences and the hero and the narrative both are trying to put brakes on it wherever possible, then I can excuse a lot of probable-concussions and joint damage, but this is not that story.

I'm kind of reminded of Immortal Hulk (an otherwise extremely good comic I recommend) where the token trans character is able to resist a villain who can insert himself into people's memories on a global scale because, as a "trans woman" she's "used to resisting people telling her who she is" which is, well, do I even need to explain?

I mean, mental illness making you immune or extremely resistant to certain kinds of mental influence is absolutely a trope. And were Immortal Hulk not Current-Year-Adjacent, then that could be a great set-up; you know something that no one else does that you can prove, but because of other things you know that no one else does, no one listens to you.

Please tell me you're referencing that Stardust the Super-Wizard comic where he started his own Children's Crusade?

I am not, but those comics appear to be a trip, based on my quick skim. Tell us more of the Super-Wizard!

The funny thing is, Daniels is a neo-pagan in real life, so you'd think he'd at least be able to add some texture to Graywytch.


Also, another thing. Graywytch does seem to be earnestly religious. At the very least, she apparently believes there was once "a Goddess" whose worship was supplanted by male sky-deities. Basic Margaret Murray shit, but still, she believes it. So, how did she take finding out her magic powers were actually just a kind of madness made real by space rocks?

Is Daniels a neo-pagan, or is Daniels mouthing the words of neo-pagans in order to get social cachet from a group that rewards him for it?

I mean, I know basically nothing about the author that wasn't posted here, but what is posted here are not the words of someone who has thought about the world basically ever as far as I can tell. So, presumably, if Daniels has no principles and no awareness and just thinks that your religious outlook is just like the team logo on your baseball cap, then it makes sense that GreyWytch would only be religious to give her ammo to target her hated group of transwomen, and not actually think twice about anything she said other than as ammo for arguments.

---

Also, question. Has Calamity's normal identity suddenly acquiring either a missing or prosthetic arm ever come up? Like, I assume that we're done with the high school bullshit, but re-addressing that feels like something that might actually give us a new and interesting perspective on her. Do we ever see what happened to everyone that knew Calamity as a civilian post-injury and upgrade?