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* ComicBooksAreReal: Gary Karkofsky talks about how "historical comics" exists. These are adaptations of the adventures of the Society of Superheroes and have more or less replaced fictional superheroes in the reality. Given reality is every bit as crazy as in comic books, [[RealityIsUnrealistic it's implied the comics actually have to tone the stories down.]]
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* CoolVersusAwesome: Gary battles against a Trivia/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks set of villains, a NinetiesAntihero Team, an {{Expy}} for Superman as well as the Justice League, a xenomorph, a Biblical Nephilim kaiju, and an {{Expy}} for Lex Luthor. This is notably, ''all in the first book.'' It's more more or less a celebration of the bizarre and incredibly convoluted continuity of comic books as well as how they can throw everything and the kitchen sink into a storyline.
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* SuperheroesStaySingle: Gary Karkofsky a.k.a Merciless starts Happily Married with his wife Mandy, only to have severe strain on his marriage occur due to his new life as a supervillain. He also has a lot of tension reignited with his ex-fiance, Ultragoddess, and old girlfriend turned henchwoman, Cindy. Similarly, Mandy's own exes play a role in the book as well as villains attracted to her. Mandy ends up killed, raised as a vampire, and then Gary has a child with Cindy due to a one-night stand while grieving. Gary gets back together with Mandy after her soul is restored but their relationship is never the same.
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* SuperheroesStaySingle: Gary Karkofsky a.k.a Merciless starts Happily Married with his wife Mandy, only to have severe strain on his marriage occur due to his new life as a supervillain. He also has a lot of tension reignited with his ex-fiance, Ultragoddess, and old girlfriend turned henchwoman, Cindy. Similarly, Mandy's own exes play a role in the book as well as villains attracted to her. [[spoiler: Mandy ends up killed, raised as a vampire, and then Gary has a child with Cindy due to a one-night stand while grieving. Gary gets back together with Mandy after her soul is restored but their relationship is never the same.]]
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* SuperheroesStaySingle: Gary Karkofsky a.k.a Merciless starts Happily Married with his wife Mandy, only to have severe strain on his marriage occur due to his new life as a supervillain. He also has a lot of tension reignited with his ex-fiance, Ultragoddess, and old girlfriend turned henchwoman, Cindy. Similarly, Mandy's own exes play a role in the book as well as villains attracted to her. Mandy ends up killed, raised as a vampire, and then Gary has a child with Cindy due to a one-night stand while grieving. Gary gets back together with Mandy after her soul is restored but their relationship is never the same.
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** Ultragoddess is one for Supergirl w/ Green Lanterns powers and the Shadow Seven are stand-ins for the Suicide Squad.
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** Ultragoddess is one for Supergirl ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} w/ Green Lanterns Franchise/{{Green Lantern}}s powers and the Shadow Seven are stand-ins for the Suicide Squad.
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** Nightgirl seems to be one for Spoiler/Batgirl/Barbara Gordon.
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** Nightgirl seems to be one for Spoiler/Batgirl/Barbara Spoiler/ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}/Barbara Gordon.
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** President Omega is a combination of Handsome Jack and the Red Skull with Kang the Conqueror.
** Other Gary seems to draw from the Justice Lords in the ''Series/JusticeLeague'' cartoon and villains in ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'', particularly the portrayal of Superman. There's also some Superboy Prime and Alex Luthor in his desire to bring back his old world.
** Other Gary seems to draw from the Justice Lords in the ''Series/JusticeLeague'' cartoon and villains in ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'', particularly the portrayal of Superman. There's also some Superboy Prime and Alex Luthor in his desire to bring back his old world.
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** UsefulNotes/BillClinton's term was actually claimed by someone called Android John. Doubles as a RidiculouslyHumanRobot and Robosexual since he married a human woman.
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** UsefulNotes/BillClinton's term was actually claimed by someone called Android John. Doubles as a RidiculouslyHumanRobot and Robosexual {{Robosexual}} since he married a human woman.
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* AllMythsAreTrue: Greek mythology, Judaism, Neil Gaiman-esque ubergods, Lovecraftian abominations, and more all seem to be real.
* AlternateTimeline: Ultragod defeated Adolf Hitler ''and'' Joseph Stalin during World War 2, bringing them both to trial for war crimes. Becomes ForWantOfANail as both Nazism and the RedScare continued without them.
** Gary's father fought in something called the Second Vietnam War, whose opponent was apparently P.H.A.N.T.O.M.
** Bill Clinton's term was actually claimed by someone called Android John. Doubles as a RidiculouslyHumanRobot and Robosexual since he married a human woman.
** Obama's Presidency was filled by President Omega who seems to be PresidentEvil.
* AlternateTimeline: Ultragod defeated Adolf Hitler ''and'' Joseph Stalin during World War 2, bringing them both to trial for war crimes. Becomes ForWantOfANail as both Nazism and the RedScare continued without them.
** Gary's father fought in something called the Second Vietnam War, whose opponent was apparently P.H.A.N.T.O.M.
** Bill Clinton's term was actually claimed by someone called Android John. Doubles as a RidiculouslyHumanRobot and Robosexual since he married a human woman.
** Obama's Presidency was filled by President Omega who seems to be PresidentEvil.
to:
* AllMythsAreTrue: Greek mythology, Judaism, Neil Gaiman-esque Myth/GreekMythology, UsefulNotes/{{Judaism}}, Creator/NeilGaiman-esque ubergods, Lovecraftian [[Crator/HPLovecraft Lovecraftian]] abominations, and more all seem to be real.
* AlternateTimeline: Ultragod defeatedAdolf Hitler UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler ''and'' Joseph Stalin UsefulNotes/JosefStalin during World War 2, UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, bringing them both to trial for war crimes. Becomes ForWantOfANail as both Nazism and the RedScare continued without them.
** Gary's father fought in something called [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar the Second VietnamWar, War]], whose opponent was apparently P.H.A.N.T.O.M.
**Bill Clinton's UsefulNotes/BillClinton's term was actually claimed by someone called Android John. Doubles as a RidiculouslyHumanRobot and Robosexual since he married a human woman.
**Obama's UsefulNotes/BarackObama's Presidency was filled by President Omega who seems to be PresidentEvil.
* AlternateTimeline: Ultragod defeated
** Gary's father fought in something called [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar the Second Vietnam
**
**
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The series contains the following tropes:
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* ''Literature/TheScienceOfSupervillainy''
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* SeinfeldianConversation: Always there in the books but hits a new high in ''Literature/TheSecretsOf Supervillainy'' where Gary stops an important conversation about [[spoiler: how they're wanted by the government and the world's greatest superhero is dead]] to talk about why Cindy didn't love ''Film/TheForceAwakens.''
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* SeinfeldianConversation: Always there in the books but hits a new high in ''Literature/TheSecretsOf Supervillainy'' ''Literature/TheSecretsOfSupervillainy'' where Gary stops an important conversation about [[spoiler: how they're wanted by the government and the world's greatest superhero is dead]] to talk about why Cindy didn't love ''Film/TheForceAwakens.''
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* SeinfeldianConversation: Always there in the books but hits a new high in ''Literature/TheSecretsOf Supervillainy'' where Gary stops an important conversation about [[spoiler: how they're wanted by the government and the world's greatest superhero is dead]] to talk about why Cindy didn't love ''Film/TheForceAwakens.''
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* ConversationalTroping: One of the hallmarks of the series is Gary causally chatting about superheroes and pop-culture while living in a superhero world. Learning which tropes are and aren't true is where the first book's title comes from.
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Misuse. It's Genre Savvy, not just "savvy".
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* GenreSavvy: This is why Gary is able to get out of the majority of his predicaments along with the variety of powers he gets from the Nightwalker's cloak. Qualifies as DangerouslyGenreSavvy since he's a supervillain.
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* ''Literature/TheSecretsOfSupervillainy''
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** Nightgirl a.k.a. Amanda Douglas joins the ranks of the heroines in ''Games.'
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** Nightgirl a.k.a. Amanda Douglas joins the ranks of the heroines in ''Games.'''
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* AlternateTimeline: Ultragod defeated Adolf Hitler ''and'' Joseph Stalin during World War 2, bringing them both to trial for war crimes. Becomes ForWantOfANail as both Nazism and TheRedScare continued without them.
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* AlternateTimeline: Ultragod defeated Adolf Hitler ''and'' Joseph Stalin during World War 2, bringing them both to trial for war crimes. Becomes ForWantOfANail as both Nazism and TheRedScare the RedScare continued without them.
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* PopCulturedBadass: A very very nerdy pop-cultured badass.
* PsychoForHire: Psychoslinger is, apparently, this. He's a spree-killer, serial killer, and all round lunatic the other villains use.
* PsychoForHire: Psychoslinger is, apparently, this. He's a spree-killer, serial killer, and all round lunatic the other villains use.
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* PopCulturedBadass: A Cindy, Gary, and several other characters are very very nerdy pop-cultured as well as badass.
* PsychoForHire: Psychoslinger is, apparently, this. He's a spree-killer, serial killer, and all round lunatic the other villains use.
* PsychoForHire: Psychoslinger is, apparently, this. He's a spree-killer, serial killer, and all round lunatic the other villains use.
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* RidiculouslyAverageGuy: Gary appears to be this but turns out to have a startling number of relationships to many superheroes and villain.
* ServileSnarker: Cloak has this relationship to Gary, constantly pointing out the flaws in his very twisted logic.
* SoapboxSadie: Gary has elements of this, talking at great length about political matters which all the other characters tune out as background noise.
* ServileSnarker: Cloak has this relationship to Gary, constantly pointing out the flaws in his very twisted logic.
* SoapboxSadie: Gary has elements of this, talking at great length about political matters which all the other characters tune out as background noise.
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** Inverted for the Ice Cream Man and Typewriter who begin as StarterVillain types only to come back as superpowered zombies.
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** P.H.A.N.T.O.M and the Founderation for World Harmony appear to be ones for Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D.
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* HappilyMarried: A first in superhero literature as both Gary and Mandy seem to be quite content in their relationship.
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* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: The Foundation for World Harmony is frequently namechecked and appears to be the government agency which deals with all manner of weirdness in the world.
* HappilyMarried: A first in superhero literature as both Gary and Mandy seem to be quite content in their relationship. [[spoiler: Tragically interrupted by her turn into a vampire.]]
** Diabloman and his wife appear to be this as well.
* HappilyMarried: A first in superhero literature as both Gary and Mandy seem to be quite content in their relationship. [[spoiler: Tragically interrupted by her turn into a vampire.]]
** Diabloman and his wife appear to be this as well.
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** Cindy also qualifies, being a PopCulturedBadass, HospitalHottie, and CuteButPsycho.
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* NebulousEvilOrganization: P.H.A.N.T.O.M is mentioned on numerous occasions. Doubles as a shout-out to SPECTRE.
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* AlternateTimeline: Ultragod defeated Adolf Hitler ''and'' Joseph Stalin during World War 2, bringing them both to trial for war crimes. Becomes ForWantOfANail as both Nazism and TheRedScare continued without them.
** Gary's father fought in something called the Second Vietnam War, whose opponent was apparently P.H.A.N.T.O.M.
** Bill Clinton's term was actually claimed by someone called Android John. Doubles as a RidiculouslyHumanRobot and Robosexual since he married a human woman.
** Obama's Presidency was filled by President Omega who seems to be PresidentEvil.
** Gary's father fought in something called the Second Vietnam War, whose opponent was apparently P.H.A.N.T.O.M.
** Bill Clinton's term was actually claimed by someone called Android John. Doubles as a RidiculouslyHumanRobot and Robosexual since he married a human woman.
** Obama's Presidency was filled by President Omega who seems to be PresidentEvil.
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* FantasticRacism: A DownplayedTrope example as Supers, robots, and aliens are all said to be discriminated against but one of them was popular enough to be elected President of the United States.
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* ForWantOfANail: Tom Terror {{Lampshades}} this by stating that despite the existence of superheroes and countless amazing events, their version of Earth's pop culture is almost identical to the ones without superhero. Which is a {{Handwave}} as to all of Gary's pop culture references are the same ones as in our world.
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* AxCrazy: Cindy is literally this once she gets a fire ax. Psychoslinger is a much darker version of this.
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** Nightgirl a.k.a. Amanda Douglas joins the ranks of the heroines in ''Games.''
* TheAdjectivalSuperhero: ''Merciless: The Supervillain without Mercy!"
* {{Adorkable}}: Lampshaded in-universe as one of Gary's qualities by all of the people who know him.
* AffablyEvil: Gary Karkfosky may qualify, if you consider him evil. Diabloman and Cindy also qualify.
* TheAdjectivalSuperhero: ''Merciless: The Supervillain without Mercy!"
* {{Adorkable}}: Lampshaded in-universe as one of Gary's qualities by all of the people who know him.
* AffablyEvil: Gary Karkfosky may qualify, if you consider him evil. Diabloman and Cindy also qualify.
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** Nightgirl a.k.a. Amanda Douglas joins the ranks of the heroines in ''Games.''
* TheAdjectivalSuperhero: ''Merciless: The Supervillain without Mercy!"
* {{Adorkable}}: Lampshaded in-universe as one of Gary's qualities by all of the people who know him.
* AffablyEvil: Gary Karkfosky may qualify, if you consider him evil. Diabloman and Cindy also qualify.'
* TheAdjectivalSuperhero: ''Merciless: The Supervillain without Mercy!"
* {{Adorkable}}: Lampshaded in-universe as one of Gary's qualities by all of the people who know him.
* AffablyEvil: Gary Karkfosky may qualify, if you consider him evil. Diabloman and Cindy also qualify.
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* AxCrazy: Cindy is literally this once she gets a fire ax. Psychoslinger is a much darker version of this.
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* BombThrowingAnarchist: Gary fancies himself one of these. In fact, he is really just extremely left of center. It's just, well, he's a left-of-center supervillain.
** Sunlight turns out to have been one of these as well, proving himself to be quite competent in ''Games'' despite his LawfulStupid and WrongGenreSavvy tendencies.
** Eventually, Cindy gets to the point of being CoDragons with Diabloman.
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* PoliceAreUseless: Gary thinks so. Given there's 400 supervillains in the city and many have superpowers or super-tech, it's more like, "police are completely outmatched."
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* PoliceAreUseless: Gary thinks so. Given there's 400 supervillains in the city and many have superpowers or super-tech, it's more like, "police are completely outmatched."" [[spoiler: we eventually discover in ''Games'' this is because the police are controlled by the Brotherhood of Infamy.]]]
** Plenty of other supervillains follow this policy as many work for the Brotherhood of Infamy despite the fact they're murdering an entire ''city'' of innocents.''
** Cindy develops this habit as well.
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* ZombieApocalypse: What will happen if Gary doesn't use his powers often enough. He thinks it's a minor disadvantage.
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* ZombieApocalypse: What will happen if Gary doesn't use his powers often enough. He thinks it's a minor disadvantage.
disadvantage. We get to see a full-blown example of it in the second novel.
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** ''The Book of Midnight'' in ''The Games of Supervillainy'' is a possessed spell-book which can destroy the world. It also acts like a dog. No, seriously.
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* BadassNormal: Mandy and Cindy are both these. [[spoiler: Mandy becomes a BadassAbnormal in ''Games'' but this proves to be a bad thing.]]
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** Gary has to deal with two at the end of the book.
* KavorkaMan: Gary is an unemployed oddball who wants to be a supervillain. No less than three stunningly attractive women have been revealed to have been in relationships with him. He's also off-handedly mentioned to be with many more.
** Played with when Gary reveals the secret of his success with women was to treat all of the ones he wants to date with respect while giving complete honesty about his intentions. [[WordOfGod It helps the author has also said Gary bears a striking resemlance to]] [[ComicBookFantasyCasting Wentworth Miller.]]
* KavorkaMan: Gary is an unemployed oddball who wants to be a supervillain. No less than three stunningly attractive women have been revealed to have been in relationships with him. He's also off-handedly mentioned to be with many more.
** Played with when Gary reveals the secret of his success with women was to treat all of the ones he wants to date with respect while giving complete honesty about his intentions. [[WordOfGod It helps the author has also said Gary bears a striking resemlance to]] [[ComicBookFantasyCasting Wentworth Miller.]]
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** Gary has to deal with two at the end of the book.
* KavorkaMan: Gary is an unemployed oddball who wants to be a supervillain. No less than three stunningly attractive women have been revealed to have been in relationships with him. He's also off-handedly mentioned to be with many more.
** Played with when Gary reveals the secret of his success with women was to treat all of the ones he wants to date with respect while giving complete honesty about his intentions. [[WordOfGod It helps the author has also said Gary bears a striking resemlance to]] [[ComicBookFantasyCasting Wentworth Miller.]]''Rules.''
* KavorkaMan: Gary is an unemployed oddball who wants to be a supervillain. No less than three stunningly attractive women have been revealed to have been in relationships with him. He's also off-handedly mentioned to be with many more.
** Played with when Gary reveals the secret of his success with women was to treat all of the ones he wants to date with respect while giving complete honesty about his intentions. [[WordOfGod It helps the author has also said Gary bears a striking resemlance to]] [[ComicBookFantasyCasting Wentworth Miller.]]
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** It turns out the Brotherhood of Infamy is a group of these as well too.
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** Nightgirl a.k.a. Amanda Douglas joins the ranks of the heroines in ''Games.''
** GrayAndGrayMorality: Gary's conflict with the Society of Superheroes is this as he's clearly in the wrong but they're a little too repressive for their own good.
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* GrayAndGrayMorality: Gary's conflict with the Society of Superheroes is this as he's clearly in the wrong but they're a little too repressive for their own good.
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** The Nightwalker used to be this before Falconcrest City. He's a PosthumousCharacter in ''The Rules of Supervillainy'' [[spoiler: Except not.]]
** Mandy and Gabrielle both become this for Falconcrest City during the month Gary is missing between ''Rules'' and ''Games''.
** Mandy and Gabrielle both become this for Falconcrest City during the month Gary is missing between ''Rules'' and ''Games''.
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* ServileSnarker: Cloak has this relationship to Gary, constantly pointing out the flaws in his very twisted logic.
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** Zul-Barbas is Cthulhu with the serial-numbers filed off. Also comes with his own cult and ''Necronomicon'' with ''The Book of Midnight.''
** Nightgirl seems to be one for Spoiler/Batgirl/Barbara Gordon.
** The Backwoodsman seems to be a CanadaEh send-up of Wolverine from his brief description.
** The Brotherhood of Infamy combines the cult of Cthulhu and Brotherhood of Owls.
** Nightgirl seems to be one for Spoiler/Batgirl/Barbara Gordon.
** The Backwoodsman seems to be a CanadaEh send-up of Wolverine from his brief description.
** The Brotherhood of Infamy combines the cult of Cthulhu and Brotherhood of Owls.
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* AllMythsAreTrue: Greek mythology, Judaism, Neil Gaiman-esque ubergods, Lovecraftian abominations, and more all seem to be real.
** Gary becomes this in ''The Games of Supervillainy'' due to his unwanted attraction to Angel Face.
** [[spoiler: In ''Games'', it is revealed the Nightwalker is one of these and a former supervillain.]]
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* BadassGay: The book has a number of gay and bisexual superhero and supervillain characters. These include the protagonist's wife, his henchwoman, his wife's ex-girlfriend (one of the strongest supervillains alive), and a Fragile Speedster who is married to an even more famous and powerful Speedster.
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* BadassGay: The book series has a number of gay and bisexual superhero and supervillain characters. These include the protagonist's wife, his henchwoman, his wife's ex-girlfriend (one of the strongest supervillains alive), and a Fragile Speedster who is married to an even more famous and powerful Speedster.
* BigBad: Tend to alternate between books.
** In ''Literature/TheRulesOfSupervillainy'' Tom Terror is the closest thing they have, being a villain who doesn't have any of the quirks the others do.
** In ''Literature/TheGamesOfSupervillainy'' the Nightmaster is the head of the Brotherhood of Infamy and trying to summon BiggerBad Zul-Barbas who will destroy the world and remake it.
* BigBad: Tend to alternate between books.
** In ''Literature/TheRulesOfSupervillainy'' Tom Terror is the closest thing they have, being a villain who doesn't have any of the quirks the others do.
** In ''Literature/TheGamesOfSupervillainy'' the Nightmaster is the head of the Brotherhood of Infamy and trying to summon BiggerBad Zul-Barbas who will destroy the world and remake it.
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* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Mandy was intended to have the Cloak, not Gary.]]
** [[spoiler: Cloak was the Nightwalker's ghost all along.]]
** [[spoiler: Cloak was the Nightwalker's ghost all along.]]
to:
* TheReveal: ReligionOfEvil: The Brotherhood of Infamy. [[spoiler: Mandy was intended to have Subverted by the Cloak, not Gary.fact, while their methods are deplorable, their desire to rid the world of superheroes and supervillains makes perfect sense given how crazy they've made the world.]]
* TheReveal: The series is very fond of these.
** [[spoiler: In ''Rules'', Mandy was intended to have the Cloak, not Gary.]]
** [[spoiler: In ''Rules'', Cloak was the Nightwalker's ghost all along.]]
** [[spoiler: In ''Games'', that the Brotherhood of Infamy was founded by Arthur Warren a.k.a the Nightwalker before he became TheAtoner.]]
** [[spoiler: In ''Games'', that the Brotherhood of Infamy has actually controlled Falconcrest City the entire time and that's why it's a crime-ridden cesspool.'']]
** [[spoiler: At the end of ''Games'' that Mandy CameBackWrong and no longer has a human soul.]]
* TheReveal: The series is very fond of these.
** [[spoiler: In ''Rules'', Mandy was intended to have the Cloak, not Gary.]]
** [[spoiler: In ''Rules'', Cloak was the Nightwalker's ghost all along.]]
** [[spoiler: In ''Games'', that the Brotherhood of Infamy was founded by Arthur Warren a.k.a the Nightwalker before he became TheAtoner.]]
** [[spoiler: In ''Games'', that the Brotherhood of Infamy has actually controlled Falconcrest City the entire time and that's why it's a crime-ridden cesspool.'']]
** [[spoiler: At the end of ''Games'' that Mandy CameBackWrong and no longer has a human soul.]]
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* ThoseWackyNazis: Gary, being Jewish, doesn't find a superhero who incorporates their iconography the least bit funny.
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* ThoseWackyNazis: Gary, being Jewish, doesn't find a superhero who incorporates their iconography the least bit funny. He's even less fond of Neo-Nazis it turns out, though Nazi Robots are something he's positively giddy to blow up.
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* WhatTheHellHero: A bank teller when he robs the bank within minutes of saving the employees from being killed.
** And then does it again the next day.
** And then does it again the next day.
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* WhatTheHellHero: A In ''Rules'', a bank teller when he robs the bank within minutes of saving the employees from being killed.
**killed. [[RefugeInAudacity And then does it again the next day.]]
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: Falconcest City is revealed to be on the other side of Lake Falconcrest which is on the border of Canada.
**
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: Falconcest City is revealed to be on the other side of Lake Falconcrest which is on the border of Canada.
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[[quoteright:373:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/3a1c3bb88230610793365fd5278a8644.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:373: It's good to be the bad guy.]]
''The Supervillainy Saga'' is a humorous UrbanFantasy {{Capepunk}} superhero series published by Jim Bernheimer, author of ''Literature/ConfessionsOfADListSupervillain.''
Gary Karkofsky is an ordinary guy with an ordinary life living in an extraordinary world. Supervillains, heroes, and monsters are a common part of the world he inhabits. Yet, after the death of his hometown's resident superhero, he gains the amazing gift of the late champion's magical cloak. Deciding he prefers to be rich rather than good, Gary embarks on a career as ''[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Merciless: The Supervillain Without Mercy.]]''
But is he evil enough for the worst city in America?
The series follows Gary as he travels through a four-color world full of [[{{Expy}} Expies]] of popular superheroes and the crazy situations he gets into as a result. The book often {{Lampshades}} the use of tropes and their implications even as it treats their plots seriously.
The series contains the following books:
[[index]]
* ''Literature/TheRulesOfSupervillainy''
* ''Literature/TheGamesOfSupervillainy''
[[/index]]
----
The series contains the following tropes:
* ActionGirl: Cindy, Ultragoddess, Black Witch, Ninjess, Guinevere, the Human Tank, the Red Schoolgirl, and many more. There are a lot of superheroines and supervillainesses in this world and all of them are badass.
* TheAdjectivalSuperhero: ''Merciless: The Supervillain without Mercy!"
* {{Adorkable}}: Lampshaded in-universe as one of Gary's qualities by all of the people who know him.
* AffablyEvil: Gary Karkfosky may qualify, if you consider him evil. Diabloman and Cindy also qualify.
* AmbiguouslyBi: Cindy. Humorous, since Gary's wife Mandy is openly bisexual and put off by Cindy's vague allusions.
* AmbiguousDisorder: Gary reacts to things in a slightly off-way, finding humor in inappropriate things as well as saying whatever is on his mind regardless of whether it's appropriate or not. He also suffers no guilt for killing supervillains. This briefly leads him to think he's a Sociopath. Given he's prone to empathizing with everyone ''except'' the supervillains he kills, this is unlikely.
* {{Antihero}}: Gary zig-zags between this and VillainProtagonist for much of the book before finally choosing which he is. [[spoiler: He's an anti-villain.]]
** The Extreme and Shoot-Em-Up are antiheroes as well, though they kill numerous innocents and are much further down the scale than Gary.
* {{Antivillain}}: Namechecked. Gary says this is what he aspires to be after a long period of soul searching.
* ArtifactOfDoom: The Reaper's Cloak is this, though Gary and the Nightwalker are both able to use it for good.
* TheAtoner: Most of the supervillains working in the Shadow Seven.
* AxCrazy: Cindy is literally this once she gets a fire ax. Psychoslinger is a much darker version of this.
* BadassGay: The book has a number of gay and bisexual superhero and supervillain characters. These include the protagonist's wife, his henchwoman, his wife's ex-girlfriend (one of the strongest supervillains alive), and a Fragile Speedster who is married to an even more famous and powerful Speedster.
* BigGood: The Society of Superheroes fills this role in the setting. Which sucks for Gary when he draws their ire.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: Gary is a supervillain-in-name-only who fights evil superheroes and even more evil villains. Averted with the arrival of Ultragod, Ultragoddess, and the Society of Superheroes who are every bit as good as they are believed to be.
* BombThrowingAnarchist: Gary fancies himself one of these. In fact, he is really just extremely left of center. It's just, well, he's a left-of-center supervillain.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Gary rapidly develops into one of these amongst supervillains. He's shockingly dangerous.
* CapePunk: The books Deconstructs the NinetiesAntiHero and UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks by having Gary disgusted by heroes who kill and overly psychopathic villains. It also serves as a DeconReconSwitch because Gary, himself, is a well-written NinetiesAntiHero. The book, notably, treats LighterAndSofter superheroes significantly more sympathetically than most examples of the {{Capepunk}} genre.
* TheCape: Ultragod is this sort of hero to the world. Gabrielle is viewed as one but she's more a PragmaticHero.
* CardCarryingVillain: Gary proudly proclaims himself to be a supervillain. Other villains find this quite weird.
* CityOfAdventure: Falconcrest City is certainly full of this, even if it's also a WretchedHive.
* TheCowl: The Nightwalker was one of these. Gary is actually one as well, though he'd never admit it.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Gary is revealed to be suffering from one of these. [[spoiler: His brother was murdered in front of him by Shoot-Em-Up despite the former having reformed. Gary then tracked down the villain and killed him--at the age of fourteen.]]
** Cindy has one of these too, which is only alluded to. [[spoiler: At one point, having been forced to serve as a prostitute in high school.]]
* DarkChick: Cindy fills this role in most of the supervillain teams she's on. Also qualifies as a NotSoHarmless villain when she reveals she's closer to TheLancer of the group.
* DatingCatwoman: Both Mandy and Ultragoddess consider their relationships with Gary to be this way.
* DeadpanSnarker: Gary is this in ''spades.'' Almost every word out of his mouth is unaudulterated pure sardonicism.
** Qualifies as a full-on SnarkKnight once you realize Gary's opinion of himself isn't much higher than his opinion of anyone else. Mandy, Ultragod, Diabloman, and Ultragoddess are about the only people he seems to respect.
* DeconReconSwitch: Despite being from the perspective of a man who idolizes supervillains while disdaining superheroes, it becomes very clear that villains are bad people and superheroes are (generally) good.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Merciless: The Supervillain Without Mercy! The cloak gets a lot of mileage out of making fun of Gary for this.
* DistaffCounterpart: Ultragoddess for Ultragod. {{Justified}} given she's his daughter with the same powers. It also annoys her to no end as she was raised to be this rather than allowed to assume her own identity.
* TheDragon: Diabloman settles into a combination of this role and TheMentor.
* [[invoked]]DudeNotFunny: Gary's reaction to Iron Cross' "ironic" use of Nazi paraphernalia as part of his battlesuit.
* {{Expy}}: Tons, as befitting the medium.
** Gary Karkofsky is one for the Hood crossed with Peter Parker.
** The Nightwalker is one for Batman as the Society of Superheroes reflects archetypes of the Justice League (Ultragod for Superman/Green Lantern, Guinevere for Wonder Woman, Prismatic Commando for Captain America).
** Cindy Wakowski a.k.a Red Riding Hood is one for Harley Quinn and Diabloman is a down-on-his-luck combination of Deathstroke and Bane.
** Ultragoddess is one for Supergirl w/ Green Lanterns powers and the Shadow Seven are stand-ins for the Suicide Squad.
** Tom Terror seems to be a combination of the Red Skull, Doctor Sivanna, and Golden to Silver Age Lex Luthor.
** The Extreme seem to be one for Youngblood, X-Force, the Authority, and every other 90s Antihero superhero team.
** Sunlight seems to be a parody of the Burt Ward Robin from the 1960s Batman series.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Tom Terror appears to be a WickedCultured mentor-like figure to Gary. He's not.
* FreudianExcuse: Played with. The death of Gary's brother and the traumatic consequences [[spoiler: including killing his brother's murderer at age fourteen]], certainly contributed to Gary becoming a supervillain. However, it's also clear Gary always admired supervillainy and had extremist political vies as well.
* GenreSavvy: This is why Gary is able to get out of the majority of his predicaments along with the variety of powers he gets from the Nightwalker's cloak. Qualifies as DangerouslyGenreSavvy since he's a supervillain.
* GrayAndGrayMorality: Gary's conflict with the Society of Superheroes is this as he's clearly in the wrong but they're a little too repressive for their own good.
* HappilyMarried: A first in superhero literature as both Gary and Mandy seem to be quite content in their relationship.
* HollywoodNerd: Gary is an enormous geek who references everything from Star Wars to video games to comic books.
* IntelligenceEqualsIsolation: It's implied Gary suffered this as a child, reading much-more advanced books than is normal for his age while hanging around his supervillain brother instead of kids his age.
* JackOfAllTrades: Gary has a number of minor (by comparison to the setting) abilities. Minor fire, ice, levitation (not flight), durability (not invulnerability), and insubstantibility powers. He can also see ghosts. Gary turns these all into a massive advantage.
** Subverted when he [[spoiler: makes a pact with Death]] and becomes a master of fire and ice throwing.
* JewishAndNerdy: Gary is a definite example of this. Cindy is definitely Jewish and UN-Nerdy.
* {{Kaiju}}: Enough of a problem the Nightwalker had a special gun for dealing with them.
** Gary has to deal with two at the end of the book.
* KavorkaMan: Gary is an unemployed oddball who wants to be a supervillain. No less than three stunningly attractive women have been revealed to have been in relationships with him. He's also off-handedly mentioned to be with many more.
** Played with when Gary reveals the secret of his success with women was to treat all of the ones he wants to date with respect while giving complete honesty about his intentions. [[WordOfGod It helps the author has also said Gary bears a striking resemlance to]] [[ComicBookFantasyCasting Wentworth Miller.]]
* KnightTemplar: The Extreme are a collection of these. As is Shoot-Em-Up and other in-universe antiheroes.
* TheMentor: Diabloman plays this role to Gary. As does Cloak to a certain extent.
* MissionControl: Mandy takes on this role with Gary, providing him valuable intelligence through the power of the internet.
* MsFanservice: Cindy Wakowski a.k.a. Red Riding Hood deliberately cultivates this role as a henchperson.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Not Gary but Shoot-Em-Up. An Anti-hero in the Nineties who wanted to kill supervillains to make sure they stopped menacing people, targeted a bunch of reformed and mostly-harmless ones in front of their families. The effect of this is, after killing Gary's brother Keith (a B-list supervillain named Stingray), he sets Gary on his path to supervillaindom. [[spoiler: Which results in Gary shooting him in a hotel later that year, despite the former being only fourteen years old.]]
* NinetiesAntihero: The book shreds these mercilessly (no pun intended). Shoot-Em-Up is the first and he inspired Gary to become a supervillain by murdering his brother after he reformed. The Extreme, an entire team of them, are even worse.
** Gary is deeply troubled when he starts to realize, after killing numerous villains and getting praise for it, he's morphed into one of these himself.
* NominalHero: The Extreme and Shoot-Em-Up don't do anything good but kill supervillains. Reformed or harmless or not.
* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Most supervillains assume Gary is a HarmlessVillain due to his laid-back demeanor, [[CardCarryingVillain Card Carrying Villainy]], and rambling. He really comes off more as a demented cosplayer than a supervillain. Then the bodies start dropping.
* PoliceAreUseless: Gary thinks so. Given there's 400 supervillains in the city and many have superpowers or super-tech, it's more like, "police are completely outmatched."
* PopCulturedBadass: A very very nerdy pop-cultured badass.
* PsychoForHire: Psychoslinger is, apparently, this. He's a spree-killer, serial killer, and all round lunatic the other villains use.
* RefugeInAudacity: A large part of why Gary is so successful. People can't compartmentalize Gary more or less just walking up to people, announcing he's a supervillain, and then carrying out his plan without hurting anyone but fellow villains.
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Mandy was intended to have the Cloak, not Gary.]]
** [[spoiler: Cloak was the Nightwalker's ghost all along.]]
* ServileSnarker: Cloak has this relationship to Gary, constantly pointing out the flaws in his very twisted logic.
* ShoutOut: The streets in Falconcrest City are named after famous comic book writers.
** Ultragoddess is playing a clear homage to VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs while wearing a Star Wars t-shirt.
** The phone to the Chief of Police's office is an homage to the 60s Batman tv series.
** Gary makes frequent references to the Franchise/{{Alien}} movies when fleeing an extraterrestial predator.
** Gary says his costume looks like a combination of a Sith Lord and Ring Wraith's outfit.
** Sunlight is said to have done a lot of drugs with Creator/HunterSThompson.
** A blink and you'll miss it reference to Grant Morrison's X-men is Gary's fourteen year old self is described as dressing nearly identical to Quentin Quire.
* RidiculouslyAverageGuy: Gary appears to be this but turns out to have a startling number of relationships to many superheroes and villain.
* SoapboxSadie: Gary has elements of this, talking at great length about political matters which all the other characters tune out as background noise.
* SpicyLatina: Averted with Ultragoddess who is both black as well as Latina but the most sensible woman in the cast aside from Mandy.
* StraightGay: Bronze Medal has nothing camp about him whatsoever. This also applies to Mandy and the Black Witch.
* {{Transsexual}}: The Human Tank is a male-to-female one. She's also TheAtoner for her past as a supervillain and now a superheroine.
* ThouShallNotKill: Revealed to be a code of ethics most superheroes follow. It's {{Justified}} when Ultragod points out it avoids a lot of problems both legally, ethically, as well as practically. Furthermore, it can be bent if there's absolutely no other resort. Those superheroes who don't care about murder are called antiheroes in-universe.
* ThoseWackyNazis: Gary, being Jewish, doesn't find a superhero who incorporates their iconography the least bit funny.
* Tradesnark: Gary is ''Merciless: The Supervillain without Mercy™.
* UnskilledButStrong: Gary isn't a very powerful supervillain but he has a lot of very versatile abilities he makes intelligent use of. He also then becomes MUCH more powerful once he [[spoiler: makes a pact with Death.]]
* VillainDecay: In-universe. Diabloman used to be one of the most feared villains in the world but health problems have reduced him to being a D-Lister's sidekick. Gary offers him a position as his Dragon and Diabloman never looks back.
* VillainProtagonist: It's in the title. Gary is a supervillain and proudly so. [[spoiler: He, eventually, becomes an antihero instead.]]
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: This starts happening with both the public and superheroes when they start to note Gary's "victims" are all evil.
* VoiceWithAnInternetConnection: How Mandy stays in touch throughout the story.
* WomenAreWiser: Mandy has elements of this, especially in comparison to the complete lunacy of Gary and his crew. As does Ultragoddess. Subverted by the fact it's really just Gary and his crew who are insane. We just see more of them (plus Cindy is arguably more deranged than Gary).
* WhatTheHellHero: A bank teller when he robs the bank within minutes of saving the employees from being killed.
** And then does it again the next day.
* WorldOfBadass: Gary lives in a world where four hundred supervillains in ''one city'' is just really-really high.
* WorthyOpponent: Gary seems to have this sort of feeling for the Society of Superheroes. They seem more confused why a non-psychopath wants to be a supervillain.
* YouHaveToHaveJews: Both Gary, Cindy, and all of Gary's family (but Mandy) are Jewish. They also appear to be Jews of Polish descent.
* ZombieApocalypse: What will happen if Gary doesn't use his powers often enough. He thinks it's a minor disadvantage.
----
[[caption-width-right:373: It's good to be the bad guy.]]
''The Supervillainy Saga'' is a humorous UrbanFantasy {{Capepunk}} superhero series published by Jim Bernheimer, author of ''Literature/ConfessionsOfADListSupervillain.''
Gary Karkofsky is an ordinary guy with an ordinary life living in an extraordinary world. Supervillains, heroes, and monsters are a common part of the world he inhabits. Yet, after the death of his hometown's resident superhero, he gains the amazing gift of the late champion's magical cloak. Deciding he prefers to be rich rather than good, Gary embarks on a career as ''[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Merciless: The Supervillain Without Mercy.]]''
But is he evil enough for the worst city in America?
The series follows Gary as he travels through a four-color world full of [[{{Expy}} Expies]] of popular superheroes and the crazy situations he gets into as a result. The book often {{Lampshades}} the use of tropes and their implications even as it treats their plots seriously.
The series contains the following books:
[[index]]
* ''Literature/TheRulesOfSupervillainy''
* ''Literature/TheGamesOfSupervillainy''
[[/index]]
----
The series contains the following tropes:
* ActionGirl: Cindy, Ultragoddess, Black Witch, Ninjess, Guinevere, the Human Tank, the Red Schoolgirl, and many more. There are a lot of superheroines and supervillainesses in this world and all of them are badass.
* TheAdjectivalSuperhero: ''Merciless: The Supervillain without Mercy!"
* {{Adorkable}}: Lampshaded in-universe as one of Gary's qualities by all of the people who know him.
* AffablyEvil: Gary Karkfosky may qualify, if you consider him evil. Diabloman and Cindy also qualify.
* AmbiguouslyBi: Cindy. Humorous, since Gary's wife Mandy is openly bisexual and put off by Cindy's vague allusions.
* AmbiguousDisorder: Gary reacts to things in a slightly off-way, finding humor in inappropriate things as well as saying whatever is on his mind regardless of whether it's appropriate or not. He also suffers no guilt for killing supervillains. This briefly leads him to think he's a Sociopath. Given he's prone to empathizing with everyone ''except'' the supervillains he kills, this is unlikely.
* {{Antihero}}: Gary zig-zags between this and VillainProtagonist for much of the book before finally choosing which he is. [[spoiler: He's an anti-villain.]]
** The Extreme and Shoot-Em-Up are antiheroes as well, though they kill numerous innocents and are much further down the scale than Gary.
* {{Antivillain}}: Namechecked. Gary says this is what he aspires to be after a long period of soul searching.
* ArtifactOfDoom: The Reaper's Cloak is this, though Gary and the Nightwalker are both able to use it for good.
* TheAtoner: Most of the supervillains working in the Shadow Seven.
* AxCrazy: Cindy is literally this once she gets a fire ax. Psychoslinger is a much darker version of this.
* BadassGay: The book has a number of gay and bisexual superhero and supervillain characters. These include the protagonist's wife, his henchwoman, his wife's ex-girlfriend (one of the strongest supervillains alive), and a Fragile Speedster who is married to an even more famous and powerful Speedster.
* BigGood: The Society of Superheroes fills this role in the setting. Which sucks for Gary when he draws their ire.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: Gary is a supervillain-in-name-only who fights evil superheroes and even more evil villains. Averted with the arrival of Ultragod, Ultragoddess, and the Society of Superheroes who are every bit as good as they are believed to be.
* BombThrowingAnarchist: Gary fancies himself one of these. In fact, he is really just extremely left of center. It's just, well, he's a left-of-center supervillain.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Gary rapidly develops into one of these amongst supervillains. He's shockingly dangerous.
* CapePunk: The books Deconstructs the NinetiesAntiHero and UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks by having Gary disgusted by heroes who kill and overly psychopathic villains. It also serves as a DeconReconSwitch because Gary, himself, is a well-written NinetiesAntiHero. The book, notably, treats LighterAndSofter superheroes significantly more sympathetically than most examples of the {{Capepunk}} genre.
* TheCape: Ultragod is this sort of hero to the world. Gabrielle is viewed as one but she's more a PragmaticHero.
* CardCarryingVillain: Gary proudly proclaims himself to be a supervillain. Other villains find this quite weird.
* CityOfAdventure: Falconcrest City is certainly full of this, even if it's also a WretchedHive.
* TheCowl: The Nightwalker was one of these. Gary is actually one as well, though he'd never admit it.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Gary is revealed to be suffering from one of these. [[spoiler: His brother was murdered in front of him by Shoot-Em-Up despite the former having reformed. Gary then tracked down the villain and killed him--at the age of fourteen.]]
** Cindy has one of these too, which is only alluded to. [[spoiler: At one point, having been forced to serve as a prostitute in high school.]]
* DarkChick: Cindy fills this role in most of the supervillain teams she's on. Also qualifies as a NotSoHarmless villain when she reveals she's closer to TheLancer of the group.
* DatingCatwoman: Both Mandy and Ultragoddess consider their relationships with Gary to be this way.
* DeadpanSnarker: Gary is this in ''spades.'' Almost every word out of his mouth is unaudulterated pure sardonicism.
** Qualifies as a full-on SnarkKnight once you realize Gary's opinion of himself isn't much higher than his opinion of anyone else. Mandy, Ultragod, Diabloman, and Ultragoddess are about the only people he seems to respect.
* DeconReconSwitch: Despite being from the perspective of a man who idolizes supervillains while disdaining superheroes, it becomes very clear that villains are bad people and superheroes are (generally) good.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Merciless: The Supervillain Without Mercy! The cloak gets a lot of mileage out of making fun of Gary for this.
* DistaffCounterpart: Ultragoddess for Ultragod. {{Justified}} given she's his daughter with the same powers. It also annoys her to no end as she was raised to be this rather than allowed to assume her own identity.
* TheDragon: Diabloman settles into a combination of this role and TheMentor.
* [[invoked]]DudeNotFunny: Gary's reaction to Iron Cross' "ironic" use of Nazi paraphernalia as part of his battlesuit.
* {{Expy}}: Tons, as befitting the medium.
** Gary Karkofsky is one for the Hood crossed with Peter Parker.
** The Nightwalker is one for Batman as the Society of Superheroes reflects archetypes of the Justice League (Ultragod for Superman/Green Lantern, Guinevere for Wonder Woman, Prismatic Commando for Captain America).
** Cindy Wakowski a.k.a Red Riding Hood is one for Harley Quinn and Diabloman is a down-on-his-luck combination of Deathstroke and Bane.
** Ultragoddess is one for Supergirl w/ Green Lanterns powers and the Shadow Seven are stand-ins for the Suicide Squad.
** Tom Terror seems to be a combination of the Red Skull, Doctor Sivanna, and Golden to Silver Age Lex Luthor.
** The Extreme seem to be one for Youngblood, X-Force, the Authority, and every other 90s Antihero superhero team.
** Sunlight seems to be a parody of the Burt Ward Robin from the 1960s Batman series.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Tom Terror appears to be a WickedCultured mentor-like figure to Gary. He's not.
* FreudianExcuse: Played with. The death of Gary's brother and the traumatic consequences [[spoiler: including killing his brother's murderer at age fourteen]], certainly contributed to Gary becoming a supervillain. However, it's also clear Gary always admired supervillainy and had extremist political vies as well.
* GenreSavvy: This is why Gary is able to get out of the majority of his predicaments along with the variety of powers he gets from the Nightwalker's cloak. Qualifies as DangerouslyGenreSavvy since he's a supervillain.
* GrayAndGrayMorality: Gary's conflict with the Society of Superheroes is this as he's clearly in the wrong but they're a little too repressive for their own good.
* HappilyMarried: A first in superhero literature as both Gary and Mandy seem to be quite content in their relationship.
* HollywoodNerd: Gary is an enormous geek who references everything from Star Wars to video games to comic books.
* IntelligenceEqualsIsolation: It's implied Gary suffered this as a child, reading much-more advanced books than is normal for his age while hanging around his supervillain brother instead of kids his age.
* JackOfAllTrades: Gary has a number of minor (by comparison to the setting) abilities. Minor fire, ice, levitation (not flight), durability (not invulnerability), and insubstantibility powers. He can also see ghosts. Gary turns these all into a massive advantage.
** Subverted when he [[spoiler: makes a pact with Death]] and becomes a master of fire and ice throwing.
* JewishAndNerdy: Gary is a definite example of this. Cindy is definitely Jewish and UN-Nerdy.
* {{Kaiju}}: Enough of a problem the Nightwalker had a special gun for dealing with them.
** Gary has to deal with two at the end of the book.
* KavorkaMan: Gary is an unemployed oddball who wants to be a supervillain. No less than three stunningly attractive women have been revealed to have been in relationships with him. He's also off-handedly mentioned to be with many more.
** Played with when Gary reveals the secret of his success with women was to treat all of the ones he wants to date with respect while giving complete honesty about his intentions. [[WordOfGod It helps the author has also said Gary bears a striking resemlance to]] [[ComicBookFantasyCasting Wentworth Miller.]]
* KnightTemplar: The Extreme are a collection of these. As is Shoot-Em-Up and other in-universe antiheroes.
* TheMentor: Diabloman plays this role to Gary. As does Cloak to a certain extent.
* MissionControl: Mandy takes on this role with Gary, providing him valuable intelligence through the power of the internet.
* MsFanservice: Cindy Wakowski a.k.a. Red Riding Hood deliberately cultivates this role as a henchperson.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Not Gary but Shoot-Em-Up. An Anti-hero in the Nineties who wanted to kill supervillains to make sure they stopped menacing people, targeted a bunch of reformed and mostly-harmless ones in front of their families. The effect of this is, after killing Gary's brother Keith (a B-list supervillain named Stingray), he sets Gary on his path to supervillaindom. [[spoiler: Which results in Gary shooting him in a hotel later that year, despite the former being only fourteen years old.]]
* NinetiesAntihero: The book shreds these mercilessly (no pun intended). Shoot-Em-Up is the first and he inspired Gary to become a supervillain by murdering his brother after he reformed. The Extreme, an entire team of them, are even worse.
** Gary is deeply troubled when he starts to realize, after killing numerous villains and getting praise for it, he's morphed into one of these himself.
* NominalHero: The Extreme and Shoot-Em-Up don't do anything good but kill supervillains. Reformed or harmless or not.
* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Most supervillains assume Gary is a HarmlessVillain due to his laid-back demeanor, [[CardCarryingVillain Card Carrying Villainy]], and rambling. He really comes off more as a demented cosplayer than a supervillain. Then the bodies start dropping.
* PoliceAreUseless: Gary thinks so. Given there's 400 supervillains in the city and many have superpowers or super-tech, it's more like, "police are completely outmatched."
* PopCulturedBadass: A very very nerdy pop-cultured badass.
* PsychoForHire: Psychoslinger is, apparently, this. He's a spree-killer, serial killer, and all round lunatic the other villains use.
* RefugeInAudacity: A large part of why Gary is so successful. People can't compartmentalize Gary more or less just walking up to people, announcing he's a supervillain, and then carrying out his plan without hurting anyone but fellow villains.
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Mandy was intended to have the Cloak, not Gary.]]
** [[spoiler: Cloak was the Nightwalker's ghost all along.]]
* ServileSnarker: Cloak has this relationship to Gary, constantly pointing out the flaws in his very twisted logic.
* ShoutOut: The streets in Falconcrest City are named after famous comic book writers.
** Ultragoddess is playing a clear homage to VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs while wearing a Star Wars t-shirt.
** The phone to the Chief of Police's office is an homage to the 60s Batman tv series.
** Gary makes frequent references to the Franchise/{{Alien}} movies when fleeing an extraterrestial predator.
** Gary says his costume looks like a combination of a Sith Lord and Ring Wraith's outfit.
** Sunlight is said to have done a lot of drugs with Creator/HunterSThompson.
** A blink and you'll miss it reference to Grant Morrison's X-men is Gary's fourteen year old self is described as dressing nearly identical to Quentin Quire.
* RidiculouslyAverageGuy: Gary appears to be this but turns out to have a startling number of relationships to many superheroes and villain.
* SoapboxSadie: Gary has elements of this, talking at great length about political matters which all the other characters tune out as background noise.
* SpicyLatina: Averted with Ultragoddess who is both black as well as Latina but the most sensible woman in the cast aside from Mandy.
* StraightGay: Bronze Medal has nothing camp about him whatsoever. This also applies to Mandy and the Black Witch.
* {{Transsexual}}: The Human Tank is a male-to-female one. She's also TheAtoner for her past as a supervillain and now a superheroine.
* ThouShallNotKill: Revealed to be a code of ethics most superheroes follow. It's {{Justified}} when Ultragod points out it avoids a lot of problems both legally, ethically, as well as practically. Furthermore, it can be bent if there's absolutely no other resort. Those superheroes who don't care about murder are called antiheroes in-universe.
* ThoseWackyNazis: Gary, being Jewish, doesn't find a superhero who incorporates their iconography the least bit funny.
* Tradesnark: Gary is ''Merciless: The Supervillain without Mercy™.
* UnskilledButStrong: Gary isn't a very powerful supervillain but he has a lot of very versatile abilities he makes intelligent use of. He also then becomes MUCH more powerful once he [[spoiler: makes a pact with Death.]]
* VillainDecay: In-universe. Diabloman used to be one of the most feared villains in the world but health problems have reduced him to being a D-Lister's sidekick. Gary offers him a position as his Dragon and Diabloman never looks back.
* VillainProtagonist: It's in the title. Gary is a supervillain and proudly so. [[spoiler: He, eventually, becomes an antihero instead.]]
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: This starts happening with both the public and superheroes when they start to note Gary's "victims" are all evil.
* VoiceWithAnInternetConnection: How Mandy stays in touch throughout the story.
* WomenAreWiser: Mandy has elements of this, especially in comparison to the complete lunacy of Gary and his crew. As does Ultragoddess. Subverted by the fact it's really just Gary and his crew who are insane. We just see more of them (plus Cindy is arguably more deranged than Gary).
* WhatTheHellHero: A bank teller when he robs the bank within minutes of saving the employees from being killed.
** And then does it again the next day.
* WorldOfBadass: Gary lives in a world where four hundred supervillains in ''one city'' is just really-really high.
* WorthyOpponent: Gary seems to have this sort of feeling for the Society of Superheroes. They seem more confused why a non-psychopath wants to be a supervillain.
* YouHaveToHaveJews: Both Gary, Cindy, and all of Gary's family (but Mandy) are Jewish. They also appear to be Jews of Polish descent.
* ZombieApocalypse: What will happen if Gary doesn't use his powers often enough. He thinks it's a minor disadvantage.
----
