...In the face of an overwhelming attack, one young woman - unassuming and anonymous - might be America's only hope.
Cobalt Blue is a 2022 Australian science fiction novella by Matthew Reilly.
When America's superhero, Christine Cobalt, dies, her Evil Counterpart, the Fury of Russia, attacks America. Only "Cobalt Blue", Christine's daughter, can stop him.
Cobalt Blue contains examples of:
- Agent Peacock: "Golden Gary" is "very, very gay", but is also an extremely skilled fighter. He gives the Fury all he can handle, and is described as "the best fighter of all the Cobalts".
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The first mention of the vice president says that he is asking people to pray for the heroes as they fight the Fury, but later scenes establish him as a narrow-minded Jerkass and The Quisling.
- Black Sheep: Blaine is the sibling who is most willing to entertain ideas of causing collateral damage in battle, lusts after power, and he is also the only one who was never a Cool Big Bro or Cool Big Sis to Cassie. Fittingly enough, his codename is Cobalt-Black.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Aside from the Fury favoring manual decapitation, his own death is extremely unpleasant: He is basically tricked into vomiting up his internal organs.
- Dirty Coward: The Fury of Kazan relishes mocking Cobalt's husband and young natural daughter during an assassination attempt (where he has an equally high-powered brother to back him up), but quakes like a small child when Cobalt arrives to stop him and get revenge.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": While Cobalt, her children, and the Fury of Russia all use their personal names on at least a few occasions, the Fury's sons are known only by their codenames. It's not known if they even have real names other than those.
- Explosive Decompression: Weaponized by Cassie to kill the Fury. She lures him into a hyperbaric chamber, tricks him into inhaling a lungful of highly pressurized air, then decompresses the chamber, essentially causing his lungs to explode. His super-hard skin actually makes the damage worse, containing the explosion in his chest cavity and tearing apart every organ within.
- Insufferable Genius: Blaine/Black is almost supernaturally smart, and he’s a huge Jerkass about it, acting openly disdainful of almost everyone else. He implies that this is because he thinks so fast that everyone else seems like an utter simpleton to him.
- Lonely at the Top: Cobalt Black’s intelligence is so far beyond that of everyone around him that their thoughts seem slow and predictable, making every conversation a boring chore. Much of his selfish and unpleasant behavior grows out of the deep sense of loneliness and alienation that this causes him.
- Off with His Head!: The Fury of Russia loves doing this to those he's defeated... using his bare hands.
- Red Right Hand: The Fury and his sons all have unusually wide, yellow-rimmed eyes. This does not seem to be related to their powers - they just look like that.
- Run or Die: Cassie recalls that the last time she saw Blaine, he analyzed how much more high-powered the Fury is than any of the Cobalt half-siblings and told her that the best advice she'd ever get was to "leave before he arrives."
- The Sociopath: The Fury of Russia is a low-functioning example. Even as a normal human, he was an impulsively violent and cruel man with a history of assault and rape. After getting powers, he got exponentially worse.
- Starfish Aliens: While not described in much detail, the alien that came back with the Venus probe is a penny-sized creature that explodes on contact with Earth’s atmosphere into a gas that gives humans superpowers.
- Superpowerful Genetics: The children of both superheroes have abilities, but at only half the level of the originals. Naturally, America and Russia ensure that many children are born to them in different ways.
- Tag Team Twins: Josh and Winnie (Cobalt-Purple and Cobalt-White) are twins and are the only siblings who regularly fight crime side-by-side with their Flying Brick powers.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Fury of Kazan’s only response to an enraged Cobalt realizing he tried to kill her family is an understated “fuck.”
- Up Through the Ranks: Greg, aka Cobalt Green, the poster boy for the U.S. Army, is a major who started out as a private and insisted that no one give him any special consideration because of his powers. Averted with the Fury, who was promoted directly from sergeant to marshal after he got his powers and hates being called "Sergeant."
