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Soon I Will Be Invincible: Difference between revisions
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'''Characters include:'''
* Fatale: An ex-NSA [[Cyborg]] whose implants come from a [[Super Soldier]] program that never really existed; became a candidate for that program after a [[We Can Rebuild Him|near-fatal traffic accident]] in Brazil. She doesn't remember why she was there, or any of her previous life. Weighs about 500 pounds due to all the metal in her body.
* Doctor Impossible: A mix of [[Norman Osborn|The Green Goblin]], [[Doctor Doom]], and [[Post
* CoreFire: An [[Captain Ersatz|ersatz]] [[Superman (Franchise)|Superman]], who is one of the few truly invincible heroes in this world. He and Doctor Impossible are [[Arch Nemesis|nemeses]]; Doctor Impossible was the one whose [[Freak Lab Accident]] created him, though CoreFire [[Unknown Rival|doesn't know this]] {{spoiler|until the end of the book}}. Implied to be a [[Jerkass]].
* Damsel: A [[Half
* Elphin: A literal fairy who has a [[Blade On a Stick|magic spear]] and can control the weather. Fatale, for one, thinks her story is ridiculous {{spoiler|for most of the book}}. Seems to be based loosely on characters like [[The Mighty Thor]], who claim to be immortal mythical or religious beings, but people doubt their legitimacy.
* Blackwolf: An [[Captain Ersatz|ersatz]] [[Batman (Franchise)|Batman]], whose [[Badass Normal]] demeanor comes from [[Disability Superpower|autism]]. He and Damsel were once married, until the widely publicized breakup of the original Champions.
* 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
* 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 in The Wizard]] [[Depending On the Writer|approaches to magical characters]].
* 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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* [[Alternative Character Interpretation]]: In Universe actually. A running theme of the book is that the heroes and villains, despite defining each others lives and fighting each other for years, really don't know or understand each other at all.
* [[Antagonist in Mourning]]: Doctor Impossible attends CoreFire's funeral.
* [[Anti
** In fact, given the nature of his own self questioning through the story, one reading of the book is that he is on some level aware of both his insanity and the impracticality of his plans. He just really can't help himself, and so ends up justifying himself instead. In that case, he's really more of a [[The Woobie|sympathetic character]] who's a tragic victim of [[Science
*** It also has to do with the fact that once you get a good look into the life of a supervillain, you realise it's not easy to be one. It takes skill, wits, dedication and bravery. Villains have their own inner demons and face their own hardships. Villains too have to fight against impossible odds (Doctor Impossible spends ''most of the book'' fighting against impossible odds, in fact). In many ways, it appears being a villain is harder than being a hero. Strong with their public approval, heroes live a life of prestige and date movie stars while Doctor Impossible is rotting in prison, or maybe toiling away at some new doomsday device which he knows will probably be thwarted again, like they always do. But abandoning is not an option. "You keep going. You keep trying to take over the world."
** The heroes of the story also show their imperfections. CoreFire is (allegedly) a [[Jerkass]], Blackwolf is antisocial, Rainbow Triumph is very much like a [[Spoiled Brat]] schoolyard bully, Damsel struggles with [[Becoming the Mask]], Feral drinks, Elphin can't relate to human society, Fatale is somewhat of a mild [[Shrinking Violet]] among other things. The point is that they are all flawed characters, regardless of their "hero" or "villain" titles.
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** 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
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: {{spoiler|The Pharaoh's hammer.}}
* [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]]
* [[Colour
* [[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
* [[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.}}
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* [[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
* [[Distressed Damsel]]: 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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* [[Egopolis]]: Dr. Impossible's plans to rename New York City.
* [[Everyone Went to School Together]]: Dr. Impossible, CoreFire, Damsel, Blackwolf, and even {{spoiler|the character supposedly from the future, Lily}}. Impossible lampshades it, commenting that a surprisingly high percentage of his classmates ended up on one side or the other of the superheroics game. He's not sure if it was selection bias (the school was for highly intelligent and ambitious students) or there was just something strange about the place or what.
* [[
* [[Evil Laugh]]: Well, of course. "...the error of opposing...Doctor Impossible! Ahahahaha hahahahahahahaaa!"
** "He who laughs last laughs longest, and I happen to have a really good laugh."
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* [[Fight Clubbing]]: [[Super Villain|Supervillains]] and minor heroes have underground gladiator battles; Dr. I got his start brawling as Smartacus, Count Smackula (no relation to [[Codename Kids Next Door (Animation)|Count Spankulot]]) and other stage names.
* [[Flying Brick]]: CoreFire and Damsel, the late Galatea.
* [[Foregone Conclusion]]: A [[Troperiffic]] tale of a [[Card
* [[Freak Lab Accident]]: Both CoreFire and Doctor Impossible were created in two separate incidents; at least 12 people have died trying to replicate Doctor Impossible's accident.
* [[Freudian Excuse]]: helped along, no doubt, by exposure to [[Psycho Serum]].
* [[Genius Bruiser]]: As a result of a science experiment Dr. Impossible is a good deal stronger and tougher than the average human. But he's still nowhere near as strong as any of the heroes who have superhuman strength as a main power and he only uses his super-strength when backed into a corner or caught by surprise; it's never part of his main plan. Presumably Dr. Impossible's strength is just one of the [[Required Secondary Powers]] to survive all the times he has been punched and thrown around by heroes.
* [[Half
* [[Heel Face Revolving Door]] {{spoiler|Too many times to count for Lily.}}
** At the end, Dr. Impossible muses "I still don't understand her role in this, whether she's a hero or a villain, or exactly what. I make a note to ask her".
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{{quote| "I remember those nights, planning technologies that didn't exist yet, outsider science, futurist dreaming, half-magical. The things I could do outside the university setting, now that I didn't have to wait for the pompous fools at the college! I was building another science, my science, wild science, robots and lasers and disembodied brains. A science that buzzed and glowed; it wanted to do things. It could get up and walk, fly, fight, sprout garish glowing creations in the remotest parts of the world, domes and towers and architectural fever dreams. And it was angry. It was mad science."}}
* [[Mix and Match Man]]: {{spoiler|Damsel}}
* [[Morally
* [[My Greatest Failure]]: In his first of all those failed attempts to access the power of the Zeta Dimension, Dr. Impossible actually ''created his own arch-nemesis''.
* [[Never Live It Down]]: In-universe, Doctor Impossible's Battle Blimp; "No-one ever lets me forget that thing." Still, it got everyone's attention and put the Doctor "on the map".
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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."
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* [[Rookie Red Ranger]]: Fatale.
* [[Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up]]: According to Doctor Impossible, CoreFire.
* [[Science
* [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]]: Lily's [[Backstory]] is that she was sent back from the future to do this, succeeded, then decided that she preferred her original future and is now trying to "set wrong what once went right". {{spoiler|None of it's true, of course.}}
** {{spoiler|The main goal is true, and she did indeed go into the future. But certain details, such as her backstory (her being raised as a supersoldier and what not) are not true.}}
* [[Shaggy Dog Story]]: It seems like the book is setting up a final showdown between Fatale (the rookie member of the superteam) and Dr. Impossible (the [[Evil Genius]] so powerful that his crimes are tried in the World Court). After all, they're the two viewpoint characters. {{spoiler|Instead, Impossible takes her down in less than five seconds ([[Crowning Moment of Awesome|by remote control, no less!]]), and she spends the climax of the book in a prison cell. In fact, examination reveals that her absence from the plot would have changed more or less nothing. Her actual role in the book was to provide an "outsider" perspective on the superteam, and thus prevent both [[Continuity Lock Out]] and [[As You Know]].}}
** [[Alternate Character Interpretation|Alternately]], her role was her own storyline about her goals and [[Character Development]], entwined with but separate from Dr. Impossible's. A [[Rookie Red Ranger]] might be in need of [[Deconstruction]] just as much as an [[Anti
* [[Shout Out]]: Along with the obvious [[Captain Ersatz|Ersatzes]], the [[Backstory]] for Regina bears a striking resemblance to ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]''. It even includes the part of the Narnia story that causes a [[Broken Base]] within the fandom - one of the chosen children being excommunicated from it for vague and unfair reasons.
* [[Smug Super]]
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* [[Unreliable Narrator]]: Impossible's emotions and prejudices often color his perceptions and recollections, though to what degree is unknown; for example, he often thinks of CoreFire as an "imbecile", even though {{spoiler|in a high school for the gifted, they both were at the top of their science class and competed for the same awards.}}
* [[Ur Example]]: In-universe, Baron Ether was the first known supervillain. He made his villainous debut in [[Victorian Britain]], and finally retired in 1979.
* [[Villain Protagonist]]: Doctor Impossible. See also [[Anti
* [[Villains Act, Heroes React]]: The Champions even say that "He's an evil genius. We're not going to out-guess him."
* [[Villains Out Shopping]]: A street-levelling fight breaks out after Blackwolf spots Doctor Impossible relaxing at a coffee shop. Just before, the Doctor thinks, "Some days, you just don't feel all that evil."
* [[Vitriolic Best Buds]]: Shades of this in Doctor Impossible and the Pharaoh's relationship. Yes, the Pharaoh is an absolute idiot, but he's still Impossible's friend, and he seems as eager to make the Champions respect the Pharaoh as to make them respect himself.
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