The Nobody People, a 2019 novel by Bob Proehl is the first of the Resonant Duology, which chronicles the lives of the emergence of superpowered people in the mid-twenty-first century and the consequences that coming out of hiding entails. Everything from radical political reactions to a possibly inevitable apocalypse. The sequel to the novel; The Somebody People was published a year later in 2020.
The Nobody People provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Owen Curry's mother is a definite example of an abusive parent. Every time she speaks she is hurling abuse at her son. Even despite how shitty he is, it makes it a bit difficult to feel sympathy for her when he feeds her to The Null.
- Artificial Limbs: Avi Hirsch has a prosthetic leg following a bomb.
- Cape Punk: The book takes the ideas that are central to a typical X-Men story, but divorced from the Marvel Universe where superpowers are common. Instead, it's shown the realistic problems of a population of superpowered people coming to be known to the world.
- Deconstructive Parody: Of the X-Men. Within the book, the emergence of superpowers does not lead to anyone becoming a superhero, but it does lead to radical changes in society within days of their exposure to the world.
- Cast of Expies: A good deal of if not most of the Resonants are expys of characters from Marvel Comics characters.
- Kevin Bishop is a gay, able-bodied take on Charles Xavier. Seeing as how he is the headmaster of the Bishop Academy and has psychic powers.
- Fahima Deeb is a very clear counterpart to Forge, having a natural gift with machines. Hearing them and having them spell out to her how they function.
- Carrie Norris, despite not having the abilities of Kitty Pryde does share her same hometown of Deerfield, Illinois and later becomes a bit hardened and referred to as a "ninja" after the war.
- Raymond Glover is a very clear analogue for The Shadow King, being a mostly disembodied being who has left his humanity behind to corrupt and enflame bigotry in the world
- Sam Guthridge is a very fun expy. As presented in the story he is an Expy of Cannonball, but he and his younger sister Paige display abilities similar to Cyclops.
- Jefferson Hargrave along with The Kindred Network is a clearly modern take on Reverend William Stryker
- Insistent Terminology: Resonants insist on using "Abilities" as opposed to "Powers" when talking about what they are capable of.
- Parents as People: Avi Hirsh is portrayed as a man who hides things from his wife about their daughter and it ultimately destroys his marriage and his relationship with his daughter as he tries to go further with his story about the Resonants
- Psychometry: A senator named Tom suddenly develops it and finds out exactly what his assistant does with his pens.
- Sinister Minister: While not really being any sort of clergyman, Jefferson Hargrave uses a lot of religious rhetoric in order to promote violence against resonants.
- Superhero School: Slightly subverted, the school isn't exactly training them to become superheroes, but more following a traditional curriculum, mixed with control over and experimentation with abilities.
