YMMV / Renegades

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Ingrid. Was she ever truly loyal to the Anarchists? Or did she only ever see them as a means to an end? Her attempt to kill Nova implies that she would have killed them if she ever felt they grew "soft", which can definitely give credence to the latter interpretation.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: Not many readers were surprised when Phobia is revealed to be the monster drawn from Adrian's nightmares, and his mother's killer. Thanks to his powers making it entirely plausible to kill someone in an unnatural way (the flying Lady Indomitable dying via falling), his appearance being described as "inhuman" and like something out of a nightmare, and nothing being known about his backstory makes it incredibly obvious that he's more than just The Dragon to Ace Anarchy.
• Catharsis Factor: Frostbite and her teammates (except Stingray) getting their powers taken away is quite satisfying, seeing as they were a bunch of Smug Super Jerkasses who frequently bullied and mistreated those around them. This is also a case In-Universe, with Adrian and his team mostly just seeing it as karma.
• Complete Monster: Nova Artino is kindest of the Anarchists but as she discovers, these two are far worse than she thought:
  • Ace Anarchy, real name Alec Artino, is an immensely powerful prodigy who founded the Anarchists and once sought to liberate Prodigies by tearing down society, causing such massive destruction that civilization collapsed. When his brother regretted helping and informed the Renegades of his weaknesses, Ace responded by having him and his family assassinated, taking in the only survivor, his young niece Nova, and making her believe it was the Renegades' fault her family had died. After his supposed death, Ace went into hiding for years, waiting for the opportunity to return. After finally reemerging at full power, Ace reveals he no longer cares about liberating Prodigies anymore, instead planning on destroying society again and rebuilding it in his image as he rules over it as a god and Ace plans on starting by leveling all of Gatlon city.
  • First novel: The Detonator, real name Ingrid Thompson, is a reckless, impatient member of the Anarchists obsessed with revenge on the Renegades no matter what. Ingrid goes behind her teammates' backs by sabotaging Nova's first mission after infiltrating the Renegades, by trying to kill Captain Chromium's son Adrian just to hurt him by blowing up a library, unconcerned about the dozens of innocents inside. Afterwards, Ingrid agrees to a plan to fake both their deaths, only to betray Nova and actually try to kill her, before revealing that she has planted bombs all over Cosmopolis park; Ingrid plans on blowing the whole place and the hundreds of people in it up in front of the Renegade Council just to spite them.
• Death of the Author: Several fans are unhappy with the canon art, and elect to change it in their fanworks. Particularly Danna, officially she's a white girl with white-blonde dreadlocks, most of the time fanart will depict her as black.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Danna, to some extent. Despite playing a somewhat antagonistic role and having relatively less characterization than the rest of the main cast, she has become a favorite in some corners.
  • Despite having a rather minor role, Winston is the most popular member of the Anarchists due to his crazed personality, partially one-sided friendship with Nova, and Dark and Troubled Past. Readers were greatly upset by his death as a result.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Although she's more of an Anti-Villain than actually evil, at least prior to her Heel–Face Turn, Nova Artino AKA Nightmare can still qualify, thanks to her cool gadgets, unique use of her superpower, and being a Well-Intentioned Extremist who's completely genuine in her desire to give prodigies the rights they deserve.
  • Ace Anarchy, the Big Bad of the series, who more than lives up to his reputation as The Dreaded by defeating and killing several Renegades like it's nothing, all thanks to his Cool Helmet and awesome superpower.
  • Phobia, a mysterious individual enveloped in darkness that can transform into his victim's worst fear and resembles The Grim Reaper with his long, black cloak and scythe. How could he not be cool? Bonus points for not even being human.
• Friendly Fandoms: With My Hero Academia for their many similarities, from superheroes being a legit form of work, right down to the paperwork and PR, everyday people with superpowers, Nova's dislike of the Renegade's is even remarkably similar to Tomura's hatred for Pro Heroes with similar motivations behind it. The ending of Supernova pushes the similarities further with everyone gaining superpowers, not unlike how My Hero Academia is a world populated with people with Quirks.
• Love to Hate: Frostbite serves as the Token Evil Teammate of the Renegades and is a massive Alpha Bitch to boot, but many find her an extremely effective antagonist to root against as a result.
• Magnificent Bastard: Nova Artino is the young niece of Ace Anarchy and infiltrates the Renegades as a new recruit, keeping her cover for months while spying on the Renegades. Nova manages to steal back Ace's helmet back and when Ace is captured she arranges to have him broken out at his execution. After realizing how deranged Ace has become Nova turns on him and helps defeat him.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Ace Anarchy is revealed to have crossed it a long time ago when he hired a gunman to kill his brother along with his family after he fled to the Renegades out of remorse for helping him. Only sparing Nova because of her power, he would then manipulate her into becoming a villain just like him, showing just how "well-intentioned" he really is.
  • While she was already extremely determined to get revenge on the Renegades beforehand, Ingrid shows just how far she's willing to cross it when she attempts to blow up all of Cosmopolis Park with hundreds of her bombs, just to spite the Renegade Council and make them look bad for not being able to save anyone in time.
  • Frostbite and her team were always the resident Token Evil Teammates of the Renegades, but manage to show just how cold-hearted and un-heroic they truly are when they brutally kill Hawthorn to frame and punish The Sentinel for daring to try and stop them from torturing her.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Adrian starts to wonder at one point whether he could give superpowered tattoos to anyone else. He discusses the idea with Max and floats it to his teammates, but they are quickly pulled into action and it's never mentioned again. Even if it required his Sketch abilities to function, there's one other prodigy who had some of his power. But neither Adrian nor Max himself think of putting something like an ON/OFF switch for his Bandit abilities.
  • It's revealed in the very final epilogue to Supernova that Nova's sister, Evie, survived and she was under the radar as Magpie. Neither of them figure out that they're each other’s long lost sisters.
• The Woobie: Everyone whose powers were awakened through trauma. Unlike those who were inherently born a prodigy, their powers tend to relate to their traumatic event.
  • Oscar died in a fire at a young age from smoke inhalation.
  • Ruby was stabbed in three places after burglars witnessed her swallowing her grandmother's rubies. The wounds have never stopped bleeding.
  • Winston reveals publicly that a family friend molested him as a child. Unlike most who end up neutralized, Winston seems legitimately happier without his powers after a bit of therapy.
  • Adrian after he discovers that not only was Phobia responsible for his mother's death, he created Phobia.

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