Soledad O'Roarke is a duology of novels by John Ridley following the adventures of the titular character. A black woman of Irish extraction, Soledad O'Roarke is part of a special task force which hunts down (and exterminates) superhumans. Soledad is not conflicted about this mission, she hates and despises them with every fiber of their being for the fact they failed to protect San Fransisco from a supervillain's weapon.
Those Who Walk in Darkness and its sequel What Fire Cannot Burn can be described as Superhero Deconstructions in the manner of Watchmen, they follow Soledad "Bullet" O'Rourke, a cop who specializes in hunting down mutants and "freaks".
These books contain the following tropes:
- Animated Adaptation: There was a movie based on the first book where Lil' Kim voiced Soledad.
- Arc Words: In the first book: "What bullet can kill a telepath?" The question was asked when Soledad created a customized pistol loaded with a variety of bullets for killing nearly any mutant, but didn't have an answer when asked about the most dangerous freaks of all. Turns out, plain old lead works just fine.
- Ascended Extra: Eddi Aoki, a colleague of Soledad's, originally notable for her Tragic Keepsake of a hunting knife she plans to use to cut out a mutant's heart. In the sequel she takes on more of a prominent role, and eventually becomes the main character after Soledad's death.
- Bittersweet Ending: The public is turning against the MTAC unit for their genocidal activities and people like Aoki are working from the inside to protect superhumans. Soledad ends up getting killed for her crimes.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: Most of the "freak" targets are more willing to get their hands dirty than the average superhero, although typically with reason or after being attacked. The protagonist is an unabashedly Fantastic Racist who kills an unarmed woman for having the power to stop other people from being hurt. This may go as far as Villain Protagonist.
- Broken Pedestal: As a child, Soledad idolized the superheroine Nubian Princess (best described as a black Expy of Wonder Woman.)
- Soledad to Eddi in the second half of What Fire Cannot Burn after the latter reads her hate-filled and self-righteous journals.
- Cape Busters: The MTacs.
- Cape Punk: A misandrist view of the situation. Humanity will turn on superhumans the moment they fail and do so with a genocidal brutality.
- Complexity Addiction: The metanormals really, really would be more effective if they weren't obsessed with style, irony, or practically being comic book characters. Justified with the metanormals with more revenge-driven motives, but when a shapeshifter trying to run turns into a big, lumbering brick wall, he almost deserves the inevitable rain of shotgun shells.
- Covers Always Lie: A mild case, but one that appears on seemingly every edition of both books. Soledad repeatedly describes herself as a BAMF (Badass Mother-Fucker), and the covers show her as having those letters tattooed on her shoulder. In the story, her tattoo instead reads "We don't need another hero."
- Crapsack World: Averted. It's only America which treats its superhumans as worse than animals.
- Deadly Euphemism: When MTac "serves a warrant", there's a good deal more bullets, poisons, and sedatives and much fewer actual arrests involved than you'd expect.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Strictly speaking, this is the ability to communicate with the planet and talk it into shifting itself. Users of this ability are Always Lawful Good, and tend to hate fighting. Not that this stops MTac from killing them...
- Extra-ore-dinary: Almost a straight copy of Magneto, but can create Golem-like allies.
- Eye Beams: Invisible eye beams, no less.
- Fantastic Racism: It's not immediately apparent, but the author's rooting for the mutants. So far, only one has been evil, and another even begged for his life.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Soledad customized an O'Dwyer VLe to fire Abnormal Ammo she designs herself. Most shots target the Achilles' Heel of a specific enemy type, though Semtex bullets can be used against anything.
- It's implied Soledad may, herself, be a superhuman of the inventor variety but doesn't realize this. It's also a kind impossible to test for. She, herself, never realizes this before she's killed.
- Heel Realization: Aoki has one in the second book when she realizes Soledad is a psychopath.
- Holding Out for a Hero: Lampshaded and Subverted in the background. Soledad, at least, seems to think that normal humans were just sitting around whenever a villain popped up, waiting for a hero to save them, but we're also told that the mayor of San Fransisco dropped everything to try and help.
- I Believe I Can Fly: Although it's stated that each mutant has only one power, flight seems to be an exception. Generally it's Not Quite Flight, but there's been one Winged Humanoid (who also used Winds of Destiny, Change!.)
- Intangibility: On-and-off, fully voluntary, and can affect both objects and other people. Incidentally, that last part is Chekhov's Gun.
- Moral Myopia: Soledad hates superheroes with a passion, despite the fact their only crime was failing to save an American city (where the people involved died).
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: The protagonists hunt down, murder, and kill people for the way they're born with a flimsy self-justification. The Irony in the protagonist being a black woman is completely lost on her.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The first book's Big Bad became a villain specifically because Soledad killed his wife.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Well, it's an invulnerable exterior. These mutants can be killed either by poisoning them, or by overloading their pain nerves.
- Noble Bigot with a Badge: Almost everyone in MTac to some degree. A significant portion barely earn the Noble part, and some of the normal cops make it to Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop.
- Nominal Hero: Soledad O'Roarke is objectively a horrible person. Aoki realizes this in the second book.
- Not Quite Dead: over and over, along with Faking the Dead. At least it subverts Instant Death Bullets...
- One Person, One Power: for the most part—see I Believe I Can Fly. Also, the super-hunting serial killer in the second book seemingly had multiple powers (he turned out to just have a suit of Powered Armor.)
- Playing with Fire: Some varieties can start fires, others can simply control them.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Regardless of how you interpret the first book, there is one. Either Soledad's unfettered Fantastic Racism, or Vaughn's abusive mind control and vicious dislike of the mentally disabled Aubrey. Or both.
- Red Shirt Army: The MTac teams are stated to have a survival rate of 30% to 70% for certain types of encounters, depending on who they are and what they're facing down.
- Shock and Awe: Of the blast-from-the-hands variety. Can be stressed into a Superpower Meltdown.
- Sizeshifting: Actually two abilities; shrinking and growing. The latter is self-explanatory. The former is only used once (to pass through an enemy's skin, then explode outwards).
- Sociopathic Hero: Soledad O'Roarke is gradually revealed to be this. She feels no guilt for murder, no ability to bond with other people save superficially, and only seems to feel happy when she's killing someone. May double over with Psychopathic Manchild given her motivation for hunting superhumans is her perceived betrayal from her childhood idol.
- Super Registration Act: they're way beyond that now, at least in America. Any time a mutant is identified, they're ordered to surrender. Compliance results in "a life of sedation in a cell" if you're lucky, medical experimentation if you're not. Failure to comply is punishable by immediate death.
- Super-Strength: though those who have it don't look it—they tend to be extremely "reedy" since they never get decent exercise. Prone to Ace Lightning Syndrome.
- Telepathy: this is what you get if you win the Superpower Lottery, since you can also use People Puppets. Virtually impossible to beat in a fair fight.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Not the main character, obviously, who will just shoot her opponents. The remaining powered heroes stick to this rule and will try to stop or rat out anyone that violates it, though.
- Token Minority: Most superheroes are white males, with a few exceptions like Nubian Princess. Lampshaded, since Soledad is black.
- Twofer Token Minority: Soledad frequently remarks in her monologue that people underestimate and patronize because she is a black female. There are some times she's correct and a few times where it feels like she's trying to convince herself that the world is out to get her.
- Unstoppable Rage: A power of its own, and quite effective.
- Villain Protagonist: Many readers were stunned to realize Soledad wasn't a heroic cop in a superhuman-filled world but A Nazi by Any Other Name Ax-Crazy Blood Knight.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: virtually unlimited changes to shape and appearance, sometimes including a Shape Shifter Weapon, but no mass-changing abilities. Goes into a Shapeshifter Swan Song when electrocuted, but dying by any other means makes them look human again.
- What Measure Is a Non-Super?: Lampshaded, and half the reason normal people are fighting back.
