History Literature / VelveteenVs

* UpToEleven: The superhero power scale goes from one to five. Time control is level '''ten'''.

* BullyingADragon: Unlike many examples, the Marketing department is fully aware that the people whose lives they ruin for pleasure/prophet are fully capable of wiping them, painfully, off the face of existence. [[TooDumbToLive They get away with it by using brainwashing and blackmail]]. It should therefore be noted that most so-called "Super Villains" are just people who refused to put up with Super Patriot's Inc. continuing to run their lives.

* SpotOfTea: Victory Anna as part of her quasi-Victorian thing.

* CleavageWindow: Velveteen's costume shows a lot of cleavage. Superheroines often do this as a way of keeping people from paying to much attention to their faces.

** SlaveToPR: SPI forces their heroes to live their lives to maximize their marketability. Thus Action Dude was forced to hide his faith because Marketing didn't think a Jewish superhero would sell action figures. [[spoiler:Yelena]] was forced to pretend to a different sexuality for similar reasons, and Velveteen was forced to break up with her first boyfriend because Marketing ruled that support heroes weren't allowed to date front-liners.

* SupernaturallyValidatedTransPerson: [[spoiler:The Princess.]]

* StockSuperpowers

* {{Transgender}}: When asked their real names, one of Velveteen's friends announces the name their parents called them is differently genderered from the one by which we currently know them.

* InfantImmortality: Averted, roughly half of all Junior Super Patriots don't live to get an offer to become full Super Patriots (who have an average lifespan of 35). Part of the reason Vel wanted out was having to attend the funerals of half a dozen teammates.

* ThemeNaming: Chapters are usually named "Velveteen vs. <Something>", unless she doesn't appear in that chapter, in which case the name is "Velveteen Presents <Focus Character> vs. <Something>".

* AnAesop: Child labor laws exist for a '''very''' good reason.
* AnIcePerson: Jackie Frost.

** Vel and Tag are the only supers with animus powers in their generation, because [[spoiler:Supermodel]] murdered all the others. They were spared because the inherit limits to their powers (Vel can only control inanimate objects that have faces, Tag can only create objects from things he painted) made them appear too weak to be a threat.

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: How the Princess gets her powers.

* ThereAreNoTherapists: Sort of. There all therapists for heroes, supplied and payed for by Super Patriots inc. [[spoiler: They're just all evil, brainwashing bastards with no compunctions about subjugating and enslaving children.]]

* TooDumbToLive: Not even going to mention the stupidity of binding supers with contracts and blackmail. See BullyingADragon above. This is to mark the indescribable stupidity of adding a clause in said contract that allows the aforementioned supers to rebel against SPI "if they have reason to believe they have been compromised by a super villain". They may as well have been intentionally looking for treason one day.

* TooDumbToLive: Not even going to mention the stupidity of binding supers with contracts and blackmail. See BullyingADragon above. This is to mark the indiscibable stupidity of adding a clause in said contact that allows the aforementioned supers to "fight management if they have reason to believe they have been compromised by a super villain". They may as well have been intentionally allowing for potential treason one day.

* AdultsAreUseless: From Velma's point of view, the adults are either borderline abusive, or Marketing.

* BullyingADragon: Unlike many examples, the Marketing department is fully aware that the people whose lives they ruin for pleasure/prophet are fully capable of wiping them, painfully, off the face of existence. They get away with it by using brainwashing and blackmail, sometimes a combination of the two.

* SelfFulfillingProphecy: SPI claims that people with non-trivial powers who don't have "proper guidance" (Which in most places can only be provided by SPI) tend to go supervillain. They try not to mention that most of their examples only qualify because SPI harassed them until they were DrivenToVillainy in self-defense.

* SlaveToPR: SPI forces their heroes to live their lives to maximize their marketability. Thus Action Dude was forced to hide his faith because Marketing didn't think a Jewish superhero would sell action figures. [[spoiler:Yelena]] was forced to pretend to a different sexuality for similar reasons, and Velveteen was forced to break up with her first boyfriend because Marketing ruled that support heroes weren't allowed to date front-liners.

''Velveteen Vs'' (2000) is a short story series by Creator/SeananMcGuire about a former superheroine named Velma "Velveteen" Martinez who was one of the young heroes "adopted" by The Super Patriots, Inc. On reaching legal adulthood she decided to walk away from the superhero life, but the Marketing Department wants her back, and are willing to do a great many things to get her.

The series is available to be read off [[http://seananmcguire.com/velhome.php the author's site]] as well as more recent updates on her Website/LiveJournal. There are also three published compilations, ''Velveteen vs the Junior Super Patriots'', ''Velveteen vs the Multiverse'', and ''Velveteen vs. the Seasons''.

!! This series contains examples of:

* AmplifiedAnimalAptitude: in Princess' case, her animal companions can do anything a Disney princess' can do, and more.

* EverythingsBetterWithSparkles: One of Princess' Powers

* BaconAddiction: Jackie loves bacon. She loves teasing Yelena (Who can't eat bacon for fear of not being able to fit into her costume anymore) about the bacon even more.

The series is available to be read off [[http://seananmcguire.com/velhome.php the author's site]] as well as more recent updates on her LiveJournal. There are also three published compilations, ''Velveteen vs the Junior Super Patriots'', ''Velveteen vs the Multiverse'', and ''Velveteen vs. the Seasons''.