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Soon I Will Be Invincible: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''I saw the misadjusted dials and the whirling gauges and the bubbling green fluid and the electricity arcing around, and a story laid out for me... I was going to declare war on the world, and I was going to lose.''|'''Doctor Impossible'''}}
A novel by Austin Grossman about a world where [[Superhero|superheroes]] exist and have been around since [[World War II]]. The setting is an [[Affectionate Parody]] of both the [[Marvel Universe]] and [[The DCU]], and like these two is decidedly in the realm of the [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]], with everything from magicians to aliens. Most of the characters are a [[Captain Ersatz]] or a [[Satire, Parody, Pastiche|pastiche]] of [[Superhero|superheroes]] and superhero tropes.
The story is told in alternating viewpoints between Fatale (a [[New Meat|new recruit]] to an [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|Avengers]]/[[Justice League of America]] analogue) and Doctor Impossible (a [[Evil Overlord|super villain]] who has fallen on hard times and is currently in jail for the 12th time). The great hero CoreFire is missing, and his [[Arch Nemesis]] Doctor Impossible has escaped from prison. Coincidence? ...well, actually, yes, much to Impossible's annoyance. No matter, he has his own plans; it's just going to be harder to implement them now that the rest of the superhero world is trying to rescue the hero he ''doesn't'' have hostage.
While the world is [[Planet Eris|fairly insane]], most of the characters act like regular people do, making them in effect [[Straight Man|Straight Men]] to the bizarre milieu they inhabit.
'''Characters include:'''
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* Lily: A woman made out of indestructible crystal sent back in time to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong|prevent a horrible blight from destroying the Earth]]. After she stopped the blight, she decided that she liked the original future better and became a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] in her quest to [[Make Wrong What Once Went Right|bring that future back]]. {{spoiler|1=Or so she says; in fact, she was originally CoreFire's Lois Lane. And he forgot about her.}}
* Feral: A street-level hero who is a anthropomorphic tiger. Similar to Wolverine, although the fact he's a Anthropomorphic tiger calls back to Mr Tawky Tawny of [[Captain Marvel]] fame.
* Rainbow Triumph: Blackwolf's nominal [[Kid Sidekick]], even though they don't get along very well. Has [[Super Strength]] and [[Super Speed]] thanks to implants keeping her alive, but must take medication every few hours or she'll die painfully. Corporate mascot for her father's biotech firm. Would remind one of any of several superheroes under the age of 15, with a little self-destructive child actor thrown in. Most particularly Carrie Kelly (Earth 31 Robin) and, somewhat presciently, Damian Wayne, the current earth 1 Robin (in that she requires cybernetic/transhuman augmentation from her wealthy parents' corporation to survive).
* Mister Mystic: The resident magician, who is somewhat estranged from the team (he often just pops up when needed and later disappears into whatever magical realm or brownstone he inhabits). Something of a cross between Marvel's [[Doctor Strange]] and DC's Zatara and [[The Phantom Stranger]]. Other than CoreFire himself, it can be argued that this is the guy Doctor Impossible hates the most, since Magic can't be explained by the science the Doc [[For Science!|holds most dear]]. It's commented that depending on who you ask he's either the most powerful member of the team or a trick-based [[Badass Normal]], reminiscent of [[Doing
* The Pharaoh: a [[Harmless Villain]] who claimed to be the reincarnation of Ramses and had a Thor-like hammer which made him [[Title Drop|invincible]]. Dr. Impossible expresses doubt on his [[Backstory]], after the Pharaoh is unable to decide which Ramses he was exactly. He serves as a parody of numerous badly realised comic book villains that were quickly phased out despite their powers, down to his grandiose backstory, silly costume, and accidental copying of an established hero's name. "He's an Egyptian!"
* [[Meaningful Name|Galatea]]: A [[Robot Girl|robotic woman]] who sacrificed herself to save the world. Said to have developed something like emotions. Similar to the Vision or the Red Tornado.
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* [[Captain Ersatz]]: Most characters, to some degree, though there's always at least one twist.
* [[Cardboard Prison]]: Well, yeah.
** Interesting version of this occurs with Baron Ether, who is confined to supposedly isolated house arrest for the remainder of his life by his [[Arch Nemesis]] the Mechanist. He never breaks out but people keep breaking ''in'' to talk to him. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by him at one point:
{{quote|"I don't know how you people keep getting in. I think the Mechanist must be a bit out of date."}}
* [[Card-Carrying Villain]]: Played deadly serious.
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: {{spoiler|The Pharaoh's hammer.}}
* [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]]
* [[
* [[Conqueror From the Future]]: Minor villain Polgar, the President of the United States in an alternate future, who comes back to take over when he is deposed. One of Blackwolf's theories about Dr. Impossible is that he is a past version of Polgar. This is probably a [[Shout-Out]] to Kang the Conqueror, the [[Ur Example]] of this trope, who was previously (and erroneously) thought to be a future version of [[Doctor Doom]].
* [[Continuity Drift]]: There's a bit of this with the backstory. For example, Impossible mentions at one point that his [[Freak Lab Accident]] was in 1976, and he spent many years [[Walking the Earth]] before becoming a villain. So how did he and CoreFire have fights in the 1970s? And just when was CoreFire's lab accident? It was several years before Impossible's happened, so why wasn't CoreFire able to join the Super Squadron, which didn't break up until 1979? For that matter, how did Impossible hold the Squadron off "for years" if they'd already retired? Of course, it's entirely possible that all this is just a [[Stealth Parody]] of [[Comic Book Time]] and [[Unreliable Narrator]].
** Given that many characters have gotten involved in [[Time Travel]] at one point or another, including Dr Impossible, there's an [[Timey-Wimey Ball|alternative explanation]].
* [[The Corruption]]: Baron Ether's experiments have left him with some increasingly inhuman mutations.
* [[Irony|Cosmic Irony]]: {{spoiler|1=Impossible tracks down the joke-villain Pharaoh's hammer so he can fight off CoreFire, finding it (and the Pharaoh) at the centre of a spreading patch of ice in Costa Rica, from the CoreFire/Pharaoh battle. Later, Lily tells him that she once did go to the future and saw the world-destroying Blight of her fake [[Backstory]]: it started at the hammer in Costa Rica, and by removing it for his [[Evil Plan]], Doctor Impossible inadvertently saved the world.}}
* [[Cut Lex Luthor a Check]]: Doctor Impossible has made billions from crime, but inevitably he will be beaten up by heroes, thrown in jail and have his accounts frozen. He could have done so much more if he applied his mind to legitimate work. He does wonder [[Lampshade Hanging|"whether the smartest man in the world has done the smartest thing he could with his life."]]
** Then again, he has Malign Hypercognition Disorder, which means: he's an EVIL genius. Apparently, being an evil genius is a [[Disability Superpower|mental disorder]] that inevitably comes with Impossible's level of intellect, so he can't help himself.
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* [[Deconstruction]]: The book is half-Deconstruction, half-[[Reconstruction]] of the [[Superhero]] genre.
* [[Diabolical Mastermind]]: Dr. Impossible. Less so than he used to be, but he can still make a few phone calls and have a sniper with a [[Ray Gun]] assassinate someone in Russia.
* [[Disability Superpower]]: Blackwolf's uber-planning and analytical skills are due to a form of autism. Several of the other heroes are also shown to suffer adverse effects from their abnormal physiology (Feral's back problems, Damsel's digestive problems). [[Lampshade Hanging|"There's a fine line between superpowers and a chronic disease."]] Fatale notes that you have to live with these powers, the cyborg parts or half-human biology or whatever every day and not just when they come in handy.
** [[Science-Related Memetic Disorder|Malign Hypercognition Disorder]].
* [[Damsel in Distress]]: Doctor Impossible complains about how kidnapping the same woman repeatedly gets kinda boring after a while. And she never realises who it is, which hurts.
** Subverted: If you read carefully, especially near the end, it becomes clear that {{spoiler|Lilly knows damn well who Doctor Impossible is - she just never admitted it.}}
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* [[Homemade Inventions]]: The first hero Dr. Impossible fights is a part-time vigilante in "homebrew" [[Powered Armor]]. Which Impossible proceeds to rip to shreds.
* [[Hope Spot]]: {{spoiler|Dr. Impossible comes so ''very'' close to winning, but he still lost in the end. [[Rooting for the Empire|Dammit]].}}
* [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]]: For all his genius and resources, Doctor Impossible is a comic book [[Super Villain|evil mastermind]] played dead straight, his cape and boots, his robot minions and his [[Death Trap|deathtraps]] faintly ridiculous in the cold light of day. And, since [[Status Quo Is God]], the heroes always win, making him quite literally a loser.
** Not to mention fellow villain the Pharaoh, whose inconsistent [[Origin Story]] and silly costume makes him a complete joke to the heroes and to other villains, despite being virtually invincible.
* [[Island Base]]: Doctor Impossible's main lair.
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** Doctor Impossible's complaint about never mastering the art of making small things was a complaint about his personal lack of subtlety, not ineptitude. He could and did make lots of very small, precise things. His issue was that he tended to build 40 foot tall robots and similar oversized items which got a lot of attention, which tended to lead to his defeat.
* [[New Super Power]]: {{spoiler|Damsel, near the end of the story, suddenly gains water powers}}. ''After'' {{spoiler|the world has already been saved}}.
* [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain]]: {{spoiler|Dr. Impossible unwittingly saves the world by taking the Pharaoh's hammer away from where it was warping the local landscape, and would have created "the Blight" of Lily's future.}}
* [[No Biochemical Barriers]]: {{spoiler|Subverted, it's eventually revealed that it took years of lab work to create Damsel.}}
* [[Noodle Incident]]: Many of Doctor Impossible's previous [[Evil Plan|Evil Plans]], "The Meta-meta Virus. Army of fish. Army of fungus."
* [[Nothing Can Stop Us Now]]: Doctor Impossible [[Genre Savvy|realises]] saying things like that are just [[Tempting Fate]], but at the denouement, with everything going his way "It feels so good, I just have to say it." Needless to say, it's all downhill from there.
* [[Oblivious to Love]]: Oh, so many.
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** Played with: {{spoiler|Dr. Impossible's plan involving Fatale is long abandoned and forgotten and only recognizes her as a product of his technology.}}
* [[Playing with Fire]]: Nick Napalm, a supervillain who started out as a lawyer before developing his powers and becoming a [[Pyromaniac]].
* [[Punny Name]], with a faint aftertaste of [[Steven Ulysses Perhero]]: Mister Mystic's real name is William Zard. Wi-Zard, [[Don't Explain the Joke|GET IT?]]
* [[Reed Richards Is Useless]]: played with-- there are mad-science super-technologies that can save human lives, but they come with dreadful side effects and they're mostly in the hands of supervillains anyway.
* [[Retired Monster]]: Baron Ether.
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* [[Who Dares?]]: Almost a [[Catch Phrase]] for Doctor Impossible.
* [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity]]: "Malign Hypercognition Disorder". The most intelligent people in the world are ''compelled'' to become [[Super Villain|supervillains]], even though they [[Cut Lex Luthor a Check|could do better legitimately]].
* [[You Can't Thwart Stage One]]: Dr. Impossible has a few encounters with the Champions, together or individually before while he's still trying to put his [[Evil Plan]] together, but the final battle doesn't happen until he's in his [[Supervillain Lair|lair]] with his [[Doomsday Device]], having announced his intentions to the world.
** Also {{spoiler|when the Champions attack Doctor Impossible's lair, he's ready for them and manages to capture them all. It doesn't last.}}
* [[Zeppelins from Another World]]: Dr. Impossible concedes that his Battle Blimp was [[Never Live It Down|a bit much]], but it sure put him on the map.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Superhero Literature]]
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