-->''“And no, I don’t call it ‘enhanced strength’. We, as a society, have called it super strength for well over a century – ever since the first graphic novels featuring characters sporting it appeared in the 1930’s. I don’t see the point in changing that now, just because in the past thirty of forty years super strength is a reality thanks to psionics being born and cybernetics taking big leaps forward and the media thinks that’s a reason to make it sound scientific.''\\
''I’m super strong. I’m not ‘enhancedly’ strong or whatever crap they want to call me.”''
-->-- '''The Whitecoat'''

The Descendants is a WebSerialNovel, Written by Landon Porter. It can best be described as an all text [[ComicBookTropes comic book]], as it is presented in the form of issues, annuals, one shots and mini series just as if it was any other comic book universe.

Primarily, the main body of the work concerns itself with a group of [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters characters]] as they work to protect themselves and each other from a corrupt organization that wishes to capture and experiment on the younger members of the group.

The series swings between being a love letter to comic books, reveling in traditional ComicBookTropes, and a deconstruction of the DarkAge of comics. WordOfGod even states that early versions were a blatant TakeThat at Marvel's [[Comicbook/CivilWar Civil War]]. Luckily, it stays mostly in the vein of the love letter, mostly to [[WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld Teen Hero]] books and family themes.

A [[CharacterSheets Character Sheet]] for this series can be found [[Characters/TheDescendants here]].
It can be read [[http://www.descendantsserial.com here]].

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This series provides examples of:
* AffablyEvil (Most villains. Even the demons are polite. Liedecker's schtick, in particular, is to be an upstanding member of the community.)
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys (Subverted in an issue of the same name.)
* AntiVillain (Vorpal, clearly. Liedecker to a lesser degree.)
* BadassNormal (Liedecker)
* BigBad (Simon Talbot and Project TOME)
* BookOfShadows (The Book Of Reason, and presumably the rest of The 4 books, spontaneously grow new material. Even in digibook copies.)
* TheChessmaster (Brother Wright)
** Simon Talbot is starting to show signs of this too.
** And Thunderhead.
* CodeName (Academy students had a tradition of giving themselves these, so most psionics in the US have one.)
* CuteMonsterGirl (If it's female and non-human, it will be one of these. Of course, YourMilageMayVary )
* DarkChick (Shine and to a lesser extent, Impact)
* DeathByOriginStory (Whitecoat’s favorite professor)
* DifferentlyPoweredIndividuals (The superheroes are called "prelates" by the media, but many of the heroes (as per the page quote) [[GenreSavvy know exactly what they are]].)
* EnemyCivilWar (Most apparent with the Brother Wright/Project TOME split, but [[spoiler:Morganna/demons and demons/demon baboons, too]])
* EnemyMine (Even demons intent on hunting down and consuming the emotions of humans don't like Morganna.)
* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys (Ape Knight and a horde of demon baboons that appear in one issue)
* EverythingsBetterWithPlatypi (Morganna keeps one around for the poison)
* {{Expy}} (Liedecker is essentially [[{{DCAU}} Diniverse Luthor played sane]] and much, much more dangerous.)
* GadgeteerGenius (Not only Laurel, but Warrick’s non-powered girlfriend as well.)
* GenreSavvy (Warrick swings between this and WrongGenreSavvy from issue to issue.)
* IHaveTheHighGround (Warrick, most heroic fliers)
* InstantRunes (Occult uses these during the 4 arc.)
* InTheHood (Occult wears a hood that casts magical darkness over her face.)
* InvoluntaryShapeshifting (Seems to happen a lot to tertiary characters.)
* IWasJustPassingThrough (Odd heroic sample with Hope 'helping' Vorpal with some smugglers when she just wanted to get to a repeater.)
* MagicalGirl (Occult is a MagicWarrior)
* MetaOrigin (most heroes are [[{{Mutants}} psionics]] )
* MindControl (both Avatar and Thunderhead's schtick, although Morganna doesn't hesitate to apply it when needed)
* {{Mutants}} (Called 'psionics' here.)
* MysteriousWatcher (it’s been almost [[strike:24]] 36 issues and we still don’t know who “George” is)
* NightmareFuel (Fellgaze’s power)
* NightmareFuelStationAttendant (Juniper has moments of this.)
* OurMonstersAreDifferent (Trolls and Demons especially)
* ParentalAbandonment (Mostly averted: We’ve met almost all the main characters’ parents and know why they’re allowed to stay at Freeland House)
* PublicDomainCharacter (Morganna… only not really)
* RougeAnglesOfSatin (Rare, but all the more grating for it)
* SecretIdentity (Though at this point, there’s not much reason for it: their biggest enemies know who and where they are.)
*ShoutOut: (Many, but especially the names of the tentacles [[SluggyFreelance Isp and Osp]])
* ShowWithinAShow (''Malady Place''. The first act of the pilot is on the site.)
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsRealism (Firmly on the Idealism side)
* SuperHeroSchool (And how: The Academy, the Brunswick School, Voice’s School, the Liedecker Institute…)
* SuperHero
* SuperpowerLottery (Some people control universal forces, some people... are prematurely bald.)
* TakeThat (The briefly seen villain Wartorn more or less *is* Mark Millar and paraphrases Millar as a justification of his villainy)
* TheLibby (Lily Goldenmeyer and with the new school comes Betty "Rapunzel" Sinclair)
* ThouShaltNotKill (Constantly. It's rare to even have a ''villain'' kill someone.)
* TomeOfEldritchLore (The 4, each of which contain the source code for the universe's local magical laws. One of them is called the Book Of Madness. All have their own force of will, are extremely dangerous, and perhaps worryingly, can be photocopied or digitized with both copies retaining those attributes.)
** The Book of Passions in particular seems to think it's perfectly okay to sic monsters on its ChosenOne.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity (Liedecker. He’s managed to get the heroes to name a school after him! )
** Not him, his father. SoYeah.
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