Motivated Young Teen Heroes Organized in Solidarity (or MYTHOS for short) is an in-progress superhero-related work by Strix Obscuro.
After years of tensions between Lawston's police and the local superheroes boils over into a police raid that goes horribly wrong, the surviving teen superheroes are suddenly recruited by supposed ex-superheroine called Mythologist to form a new organization, the Motivated Young Teen Heroes Organized in Solidarity, the world's first labor union for teen superheroes. By banding together, they will push back against Lawston's increasingly brutal cops and stop the flood of new villains into Lawston who now see the city as virgin territory.
There's just one problem - the Mythologist is actually just an angry young woman who's obsessed with superheroes, and doesn't actually have any powers of her own. Actually, there's another problem - she's the stepdaughter of the city's corrupt mayor, and has to keep her identity secret from both her new followers and her family.
This work contains examples of:
- Against My Religion: Euphony is a devout Jain who has sworn off violence, materialism, and eating meat, among other things. Considering how difficult it is to be a superhero in the field when you're a pacifist, she prefers to handle the clerical side of MYTHOS.
- Back-Alley Doctor:
- Back in the old days, Lawston had the Seraph, the "Dark Night Doctor" who provided medical care for those who couldn't go to a hospital.
- Doctor Columbine is a madwoman who performs radical brain surgeries to "cure" criminals. MYTHOS reluctantly contracts with her to provide off-the-books medical care for their members. Thankfully, she doesn't hurt kids.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family:
- Hotline's mom is a supervillain, her stepdad is a supervillain, her stepbrother is a supervillain, and her biological dad is a demon.
- Stray's family includes her sociopathic telepath grandfather, her violently-abusive grandmother, and another grandmother who is a recovering Mad Scientist.
- Cast Full of Gay: Most of the heroes in MYTHOS are at least bi-curious.
- Compelling Voice: Euphony can influence people with her voice. Being a devout Jain who takes the whole "don't-harm-people-with-your-words" edict seriously, she tries to avoid using this power as much as possible.
- Death Seeker: Maquette has tried to kill herself multiple times because of her severe dysphoria. Her regenerative powers prevent it from sticking.
- Deconstructor Fleet: The series examines all the logistics of actually running a superhero team populated by teenagers and young adults, as the Mythologist and her staff must work out how to keep a small army trained, outfitted, and housed. The series also explores the legal implications of having lots of essentially unlicensed vigilantes around.
- Disability Superpower: Frequently deconstructed. Stray is deaf, but does not have any powers that negate this, Mythologist does not have any special computer skills despite her injured leg, and while the wheelchair-bound Principal does have computer skills, those skills are limited to being really good at research and calculation.
- Divine Parentage: Godson's dad is an ancient god.
- Dream-Crushing Handicap:
- Sofia Angelos had dreamed of becoming a superheroine, but a severe leg injury pretty much ended that.
- Subverted with Maquette; she hated being a child star and was almost relieved when an accident left her horribly disfigured. Unfortunately for her, her parents paid a lot of money to grant her regenerative powers, which has ended her dream of living in anonymity.
- Expy: Naturally, this series has a few of them.
- The Mythologist's supposed backstory as a former nocturnal vigilante named Knightbird whose career ended when a cop shot her in the leg is a variation of the origins of DC's Oracle.
- The Progeny are all expies of the Runaways.
- The Young Lovers are parodies of the Young Avengers, particularly the Gillen/McKelvie iteration thereof.
- The Last Chance Legion is an expy of the Suicide Squad, with its boss Octavia Parish being an expy of Amanda Waller.
- Fiery Redhead: Hotline is a redhead with impulse-control issues and the power to ignite air currents.
- Former Child Star: Before the accident that led to her getting her powers, Maquette was a child star named Pearl Jinx. When an accident left her with severe burns all over her body, her parents went to great lengths to restore her appearance. Much to her horror, they made her look like she was still a teenager so that they could put her back in the movies.
- Half-Human Hybrid:
- Hotline's mom was born a regular human, but her dad is a demon.
- Runt and her big brother Overrite are both the products of a marriage between a human man and an alien warrior woman.
- Human Alien: The series has a number of them, including the Alvians (New Gods expies), Deanorians (Highlight's people), and Auronians (a race of flying bricks).
- Intangibility: Stray can make herself intangible and unnoticeable.
- Jerkass Gods: The Lytonian gods are dicks who keep tricking humans into making deals with them for power; these deals always end up having nasty conditions attached.
- Masochism Tango: Hotline has a toxic relationship with her ex-partner Bullyboy, who mistreats her and betrays her every time they get back together, but she can't bring herself to leave them.
- Naturalized Name: Maquette was born Perla Jankowski, but adopted the stage name "Pearl Jinx" back when she was a child star. With her career long over, she's gone back to her birth name.
- Secret-Keeper: Euphony is the only member of MYTHOS who knows that the Mythologist is actually Sofia Angelos. The rest know her as Vivian Homer, a supposed ex-superheroine.
- Secret Project Refugee Family: The Progeny were all subjects of a secret project to sacrifice teenagers to physical gods so that a Mad Scientist could gain more power for himself.
- Shout-Out: Highlight's people, the Deanorians, are named for Karolina Dean, the character of whom Highlight is an expy.
- Team Mom: Stray somehow ended up as the team mom for her squad.
- Touch of Death: Carry-On has a low-grade version; she gradually drains energy from anyone she's carrying, which fuels her ability to fly. Her victims are usually fine, however, as long as she doesn't carry them for too long.
- Trumplica: Lawston's Mayor, Randall Luger, is heavily based upon Donald Trump.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Stray can project a field around herself that makes people not notice her.
