Literature / Renegades

We were all villains in the beginning.

Renegades is a trilogy of superhero novels by Marissa Meyer, composed of Renegades, Archenemies and Supernova.

Once, prodigies were feared and despised. Children born with unusual powers were shunned at best, and killed at worst... Until Ace Anarchy came. The most powerful prodigy of all time, he overthrew the government and plunged Gatlon City into the chaos of a superpowered gang war. But as people cowered in their homes, fearful and powerless, hope arrived in the form of the Renegades - the first superheroes.

Now, ten years later, Ace Anarchy lays dead, and the Renegades rule over the city, struggling to rebuild society and government. There are parades in their honour, public trials to join them, and tourists travelling to the city just to see them. But not everyone is a fan. Far beneath Gatlon, Ace's remaining Anarchists, among them his niece Nova, strive to keep his vision of the world alive. And with the upcoming trials, Nova - known to the world as the elusive villain Nightmare - might just get her wish... and, just perhaps, regret it.

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Tropes present in Renegades:

• Action Dad: Adrian's dads, being the superheroes Captain Chromium and Dread Warden, obviously qualify.
• Action Girl: Most female prodigies: Nova, Tsunami, Ingrid, Thunderbird...
• Affably Evil: Most of the Anarchists can actually be rather affable whenever they're not obsessing over revenge on the Renegades. Leroy is the most outwardly pleasant and friendly of the group, Honey can be chatty enough towards her teammates when she's in a good mood, and Winston is actually pretty polite to his captors (although his troubled mental state likely has something to do with it). Ingrid, on the other hand, fully averts this by the end of the first book.
• After the End: The story takes place after a Class 1 apocalypse known as the Days of Anarchy that collapsed pretty much every pre-existing country. The Renegade Council is apparently the closest thing to a legitimate government on the entire planet and has struggled to reestablish infrastructure for years on end, which has some people worried that they may be becoming tyrants in their own right.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Hawthorne. For all she was a thief and a drug peddler, she's absolutely terrified when Frostbite and her team torture her to death.
• Alliterative Name: Alec Artino and his alias Ace Anarchy both count. Also Honey Harper.
• Almost Kiss: Happens several times to Nova and Adrian before they finally hook up, mostly because both of them are really awkward when it comes to relationships.
  • Oscar and Ruby come within moments of kissing near the end of Archenemies, but Adrian cuts them off because there's more important things that need attention. Namely, capturing Ace Anarchy.
• Amplifier Artifact: Ace Anarchy's helmet could amplify his power, which is how he became the world's strongest prodigy. Supernova reveals that it's capable of amplifying any power.
• And I Must Scream: As of the end of Archenemies, Danna is stuck in her butterfly form, unable to reform into a human or even communicate with her teammates, thanks to a member of her swarm being held hostage by Nova. It still doesn't stop her from aiding the team.
• Animal-Themed Superbeing:
  • Tamaya Rae's alterego(Thunderbird) has wings and is eagle-themed
  • Honey Harper's power centers around controlling bees and wasps
• Antagonist Title: The first book and trilogy as a whole is named after the Hero Antagonists of the series, the Renegades as Nova tries to take them while they try to capture the Anarchists.
• Arc Words: "One cannot be brave who has no fear." This was a phrase used by Adrian’s mom when she was alive, and a card with those words was the only clue to her murder. The fact that Nightmare uses it makes Adrian think she knows something about her death. She picked it up from Phobia, who naturally knows it from being one of Adrian’s rogue art constructs.
• Artful Dodger: Magpie is a young girl living in the streets and stealing from people, at least until Adrian catches her trying to rob Nova and takes her to the Renegades headquarters, hoping to reform her into a productive member of society (which she's not particularly keen on, even if it gives her food to eat and a roof over her head).
• Art Initiates Life: Adrian/Sketch has the ability to bring his drawings off the page as functioning objects, and he can draw nearly anything, so long as he can imagine how it will work, though they will keep the size at which they're drawn.
• Ax-Crazy: Ingrid, AKA The Detonator, is obsessed with personally hurting Captain Chromium, to the point where she completely derails everyone's plans. The moment the rest of the group realizes how far gone she is, they boot her out.
• The Baby of the Bunch: At sixteen, Nova is the youngest of Anarchists, having been brought into the group by her uncle as a child.
• Bad Powers, Bad People: Several anarchists have outright villainous powers, such as Phobia's ability to manifests fears, Ingrid's explosive-creation or Leroy's poisonous touch.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Oscar and Ruby are at each other's throats constantly, which both Adrian and Nova chalk up to the obvious attraction between them. By the time of Archenemies several months later, their arguing has gotten even worse, while the romantic tension has become even more obvious, to the point that everyone else on the team is desperate to tell them to just Get a Room!.
• Bittersweet Ending: Ace Anarchy is finally put down properly and Max uses the helmet and Nova's bracelet to save Gatlon City. However since both amplify his powers he ends up absorbing the powers of every prodigy in the world. Releasing them creates a supernova that not only returns the prodigies powers, even the ones that were neutralized, but everyone in the world has powers now. The act however leaves Max powerless, but it also means he's not cut off from the world anymore. However, the epilogue implies that any peace claimed is only temporary. Not all powers are created equal, a hierarchy will eventually rise up, and villains won't just go away. And Magpie is revealed to be Evie Artino, but it's likely she and Nova will never realize who they are to eachother.
• Black-and-White Insanity: It becomes apparent as the plot thickens that the Renegades Council sees prodigies in this light. A prodigy is a Renegade, otherwise their a villain. And thank to Agent N, if a prodigy has no desire to be a Renegade then they're no longer a prodigy. As a result prodigies are just as oppressed as they were before the Age of Anarchy.
• Bloody Murder: Ruby can turn her blood into various weapons, which she uses to fight.
• Body Horror: Downplayed. Because the Renegades would likely have Nightmare’s fingerprints, Nova has to burn away hers with the help of Cyanide’s acid. After she had her fingerprints done, it mentioned that they were obviously mutalated.
• Body to Jewel: Ruby's blood crystallizes outside of her body.
• Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: Played with. On one hand, Ace Anarchy and his gang plunged the country - and, the implication is, the world - into chaos as he dismantled government and gave all prodigies free reign, leading to the society collapsing. On the other hand, Nova says that this was never his intention, and he simply wanted to free the prodigies from oppression. However, the reveal of Ace's god complex and the extent of his manipulation of Nova call those claims into question.
• Boring, but Practical: The reason Adrian picks Insomnia for his team in the first place - while being The Sleepless in neither flashy nor particularly useful in combat, it's invaluable during stakeouts and investigations.
• Boom, Headshot!: How Ingrid dies at the end of the first book.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": The Renegades wear an R on their uniforms.
• The Bus Came Back: Narcissa Cronin, the mirror walker introduced in Renegades but completely absent in Archenemies makes a return as a major secondary character in Supernova.
• Captain Superhero: Captain Chromium.
• Card-Carrying Villain: The Anarchists all proudly call themselves villains and how they wish to bring down all of society, only for it to be subverted when Ace Anarchy objects to be called a villain and Queen Bee clarifies that they're just being ironic.
• Celebrity Superhero: The Council. They are revealed to sell merchandise of themselves and be massive media presences.
• Cold-Blooded Torture:
  • In Archenemies, Frosbite's team tortures Hawthorne for pleasure, telling her that when she is neutralized, they'll be no proof of this as her extra limbs will be gone. They kill her when Adrian catches them doing it.
  • In Supernova Honey does this to Adrian.
• Captain Superhero: The Council is led by Captain Chromium.
• Color Character: Red Assassin, Ruby's alias.
• Combo Platter Powers:
  • Sentinel, thanks to Adrian taking a "whatever feels cool" approach. He can jump two stories, manipulate fire, shoot lasers from his hand and has a power armour and, as of the end of Archenemies, immunity to all posions, diseases and Power Parasite abilites.
  • Max, thanks to his power parasite abilities, has, among others, telekinesis, metal manipulation, matter fusing, and "some" invisibility.
• Cosmic Motifs: Stars specifically. For starters, our lead character is named Nova and the last book in the trilogy is called Supernova. As a child Nova created a story for herself that prodigies received their powers from the stars. She’s fond of stargazing. And a key part of Nova's romance with Adrian is when he recreated a star from a childhood dream of hers, which now resides in her bracelet.
• Create Your Own Villain: The events of the series are set off by the council not saving her family in time.
• Daddy's Little Villain: Uncle's, technically - Nova's been raised an Anarchist because her uncle was the Ace Anarchy.
• Dark Action Girl: A number of villains are women, including Ingrid, Nova and Hawthorne, and none of them shy away from a fight.
• Death by Secret Identity: Ingrid learns of Adrian's identity of the Sentinel just minutes before she is shot.
• Death of a Child: Nova's infant sister is killed in the prologue. The epilogue reveals that she’s actually alive as Magpie, but has no idea who she is.
• Decapitation Presentation: After Captain Chromium beheaded Ace Anarchy, he carried his helmet speared on a pike outside to show that the Battle of Gatlon was over. Except not really - the damaged helment is a fake, the real one is held by the Renegades' R&D department, and Ace threw himself into the fire before Chromium could kill him.
• Death-Activated Superpower: Oscar gained his powers after being declared dead for 10 minutes from smoke inhalation in a fire.
• De-power: In Archenemies, the Renegades premiere Agent N, a chemical derived from Max that can "neutralize" prodigies, taking away their powers. Nova considers this horrifying, as in her opinion it pushes Gatlon one step closer to becoming a totalitarian state, but Ace and others are overjoyed, and want to have it.
• Differently Powered Individual: Prodigies is the catch-all term here.
• Dirty Cop: While most Renegades really are good people, it soon becomes clear that there are some bad apples among the bunch, and there is no system in place to prevent abuses of power. This gets worse when Agent N is introduced. Nova asks what happens if someone misuses it either intentionally or accidentally, and is pretty much told "that won't happen, so we don't need to worry about it."
• Disney Villain Death: In contrast to the official version of the story, Ace Anarchy threw himself off the cathedral and into the fire before Captain Chromium could kill him.
• Doting Parent: Hugh and Simon are endlessly supportive of both Adrian and Max, and they have no trouble with Adrian bringing Nova to their house, even encouraging him to make a move on her.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Whenever Adrian's dads tell Nova they find her trustworthy and inspiring for younger Renegades, or whenever Adrian talks about hunting down Nightmare, the reader and Nova will both cringe internally. There’s just as much cringe whenever the Sentinel is badmouthed in front of Adrien.
  • Up to eleven on the occasions when Nightmare and Sentinel fight, as they absolutely hate each other in their masked identities, but are developing a romance in their Renegade identities, and neither has a clue.
• Drama Queen: Honey is prone to theatrically overreacting to everything, going into histrionics when her "babies" (AKA the insects she commands) are threatened. This being said, when push comes to shove she's rather reliable.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Both Nova and the agent registering her for the trials think Insomnia is a lame nickname, but Leroy suggested it to Nova, and by the time of the trials, it's already grown on her.
• Emergency Impersonation: After Nova is seemingly outed as Nightmare and imprisoned, the villain makes a public appearance, claiming to have framed Nova in retaliation for Ingrid's death and to make the Renegades look bad. She's actually Narcissa, having allied with the Anarchists, and everyone is convinced Nova is innocent, since all the evidence really is circumstantial. For her part, Nova is thankful, but also feels slightly insulted that no one could tell the difference between them.
• Everyone Is a Super: What happens to the general populace at the end of Supernova. It is implied that power hierarchies will come to be again as not all superheroes are created equal.
• Extranormal Prison: Gatlon City puts its prodigy criminals in Cragmoor Penitentiary, a facility specializing in holding people with unusual means of breaking out.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Several varieties.
  • Captain Chromium can summon and shape chromium, most famously using it to create weapons.
  • Nova's father could summon wisps of ethereal energy and transform them into a strange, magical metal.
  • One of Max's parents had general metal-manipulation powers.
• Failed a Spot Check: Evie actually survived the gunshot that was supposed to kill her. The landlord found her crying about an hour after Captain Chromium declared her dead. However, she’s also a prodigy whose powers were awoken that night, so her case may have been similar to Oscar's.
• Faking the Dead:
  • Nova's and Ingrid's plan at the end of the first book is to fake Nightmare's and the Detonator's deaths in order to throw the Renegades off their trail. Except Ingrid intended to actually kill Nova, and Nova ended up really shooting her. This being said, the plan succeeded as far as throwing people off Nightmare's trail.
  • After Sentinel is seen falling into the river, Adrian decides to abandon the persona, at least for a while, to convince everyone the vigilante has actually died.
• Fall Guy: When Frostbite's team kills Hawthorne, they use the fact that Sentinel tried to intervene to frame him for it.
• Fate Worse than Death: At the end of Archenemies, Danna is stuck in her butterfly swarm form, unable to transform back and warn her teammates about Nova.
• Foreshadowing:
  • As part of her identity as "Nova McLain", it's said that she lives with her uncle as opposed to two made up parents. Nova uses this uncle as an excuse so she doesn't have to stay with the team longer than necessary. Towards the end of Renegades, Adrian suspects her uncle is sick. Sure enough, the last page reveals that Ace Anarchy is still alive and in poor health.
  • In the prologue Nova's father is extremely hesitant to rely on his brother for help.
  • Magpie is quite fixated on Nova's bracelet.
• Fights Like a Normal: Nova, particularly when posing as Insomnia, as being The Sleepless is supposed to be her only power.
• Flight: Adrian's mother, Lady Indomitable, could fly.
• Follow the White Rabbit: When Adrian notices one of Danna's butterflies (and she's been incommunicado for the past several hours), he can only follow her, as she cannot speak in this form, straight into Ace Anarchy's lair, although he does have the foresight to call on Ruby and Oscar upon realizing there's danger ahead.
• Forced Sleep: Nova's main power lets her knock out anyone she can touch skin-to-skin in an instant, though she cannot use it as Insomnia, thanks to this being Nightmare's signature power.
• The Friend Nobody Likes:
  • None of the other Anarchists really like Winston/The Puppeteer because his powers creep them out and he tends to be a loose cannon. When he is captured, none try to rescue him and only Nova feels any guilt over it. He was allowed to live with them because he was one of the original gang and they needed his powers in case an open war with the Renegades started up again.
  • When Indigo/The Detonator is killed the Anarchists are not really heartbroken and it becomes clear that none of them really liked her but worked with her because she was so powerful.
  • Frostbite and her team fill this role for the Renegades. They are too powerful to kick out of the Renegades without a good reason and they are good in hiding just how corrupt they really are.
• Friend to All Children: Adrian. When he and Nova are searching for Nightmare at a theme park, they're sidetracked by a birthday party for a kid who's a superhero fan, and Adrian spends a long while just entertaining the kids, ignoring his mission.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Nova has an uncanny talent for turning common household items and trash into advanced gadgets, which she uses to augment her combat abilities.
• A God Am I: Ace is revealed to have a god complex after he comes out of hiding, stating that this is the day prodigies become gods and that he's going to destroy society again and he's going to rebuild it with him as it's god.
• Good Feels Good: Nova takes to superheroing surprisingly well, which worries both her and Ingrid.
• Guile Hero: As Nova's power is extremely short-ranged (and as a Renegade, she cannot use it at all, as it would connect her to Nightmare), she relies on her gadgets, hand-to-hand combat and wit to win.
• Handicapped Badass: Oscar has a rare bone disease and needs a cane, but this doesn’t stop him from performing heroics as Smokescreen.
• Happily Adopted: Adrian was adopted by Hugh and Simon after his mother died, and clearly loves both of them.
• Harmful to Minors: As a six-year-old, Nova watches helplessly as her family is murdered, then holds the killer at gunpoint until her uncle comes in and kills him right next to her.
• Harmless Freezing: After Frostbite freezes half her body, Ingrid doesn't seem to be injured or otherwise harmed in any way - although somewhat justified, as Sentinel unfroze her quite quickly.
• Hate Sink:
  • Frostbite and her group are generally the worst Smug Supers of the entire Renegades, with Frostbite herself being willing to torture suspected villains so that they'd lash out and give her the excuse to arrest them. Even their fellow Renegades despise them - early on, Nova's claim to fame among them is that she beat up Gargoyle, Frostbite's number two, much to everyone's joy.
  • Although The Anarchists are villains and desire revenge on The Renegades for causing their downfall, most of them still have a few likable qualities. The exception is Ingrid Thompson AKA Detonator. At first coming across as a temperamental yet nevertheless loyal member of The Anarchists, her true personality as a cold-hearted sociopath who puts Revenge Before Reason begins to shine through. She goes behind her teammates' backs in an attempt to kill Adrian to hurt Captain Chromium, accuses Nova of going soft rather than take any responsibility for her plan going badly, betrays and attempts to kill Nova for her supposed weakness, and sadistically attempts to blow up all of Cosmopolis Amusement Park as a final act of spite against The Renegade Council. No one is upset when Nova shoots her in the head as a result.
• Help Mistaken for Attack:
  • When Adrian sees Nightmare leaning over Max's unconscious, heavily wounded body, he assumes she was trying to kill him, when in fact she saved his life.
  • Earlier, when Oscar and Ruby fight Phobia and Adrian transforms into the Sentinel to help them, the instant Phobia escapes they prepare to fight him. He ends up having to reveal who he is to them.
• Heel Realization: After learning the truth about Ace hiring the gunman that killed her family, Nova realized her father kept her powers secret so his brother wouldn't make her into a villain. Which is exactly what happened.
• Heroes "R" Us: The Renegades.
• Hihi'irokane: Though never referred to as such, the metal that Nova's father could create is pretty close to it - reddish, extremely durable, and capable of channelling prodigious power.
• Holding Out for a Hero: This is Nova's main problem with the Renegades: people are less willing to take matters into their own hands because everyone assumes that the Renegades will take care of all the problems. As a result, there is no police force (because who would want to be a cop with prodigies patrolling the streets?), Gatlon's economy is in shambles (because their only export is superheroes), and the city has turned into an autocracy, because no-one cares about representation when Renegades protect everyone.
• Hypocrite: Early on in Supernova Frostbite calls out the Renegades Council on their ineptitude during the books so far. There was no convincing proof that Nightmare was even dead, then she got a hold of Agent N and Ace Anarchy was really alive the whole time. This causes her to call the Council out on using the Renegades as pawns. However, Frostbite contently forgets how she abused her position and was a little too eager to use Agent N herself. So she ends up coming across as someone looking to blame someone for the loss of her powers and wanting to get out of dodge before Max could reveal that Frostbite was the one who critically injured him. Which, ironically enough, directly leads to her losing her powers.
• An Ice Person: Frostbite can create and manipulate ice.
• Ideal Illness Immunity: The Amulet of Vitality protects the wearer from all illnesses, poisons, and even prodigious abilities that directly affect the body, like Max's power-draining. After Adrian tattoos himself with its pattern, he gains the same.
• I Know What You Fear: Phobia can sense what people around him are most afraid of, and can transform himself into embodiment of various fears.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Max, whose Power Parasite abilities keep him kept in quarantine, often wishes he could play and act like a normal kid, and finds his life claustrophobic and dull.
• In a Single Bound: Adrian can jump over two stories high thanks to the springs he's tattooed on the soles of his feet. This being said, this is one of Sentinel's signature abilities, so he doesn't use it in his Sketch persona.
• In Their Own Image: After Ace reemerges from hiding he declares that he's going to tear down all of society again, only this time he's learned from his past mistakes and instead this time he's going to take over after he's done destroying everything and rebuild society with him ruling over as a god.
• Invisibility: Dread Warden can turn completely invisible, including whatever he has on him.
• I've Come Too Far: Nova never outright says it, but she clearly realizes it after finding one of Danna's butterflies in Ace's lair and trapping it in a jar. Her secret is out if she ever allows Danna to reform, and the ruse can only stay up for so long.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Frostbite and her team of trigger-happy Smug Supers end up De Powered by the same Agent N they were so eager to use on everyone, making them the nothings they mocked Nova for being.
• Last-Second Word Swap: When he realizes he's about to blow Nova's cover wide open, Puppeteer changes her name in his story to Noreen. The swap is so obvious, no-one believes him, but it does hide her real name.
• Mad Bomber: Ingrid can create bombs with her mind, and does she ever love to use them.
• Making a Splash: Tsunami can conjure and control water.
• Make It Look Like a Struggle: During the Library fight, Nova only half-handcuffs Ingrid so that the Detonator can escape without blowing her cover.
• Manipulative Bastard: Ace Anarchy checks most of the boxes of a manipulative parent (or uncle, as case may be), demanding utter obedience, quashing any independent thoughts and guilt-tripping his charge into following his vision.
• Manly Tears: Simon tears up when the Amulet of Vitality lets him finally hug Max.
• Mass Hypnosis: Winston/Puppeteer can mind control entire groups of people. Apparently, he can only do that with children, though Nova can't tell if it's an actual limitation or just a preference.
• Mass Super-Empowering Event: There are several competing theories for the origin of prodigies, from aliens to chemical waste. However, one that gains evidence in-series is that exotic particles from an ancient supernova spread to Earth centuries ago, and their interaction with adrenaline from a traumatic experience creates superpowers.
  • At the end of the series, Max takes in and releases every superpower on the planet, which results in everyone getting powers.
• Meaningful Name: Nova’s name could refer to supernova, alluding to her interest in stargazing. Nova can also mean “new”- she’s not only the youngest Anarchist, but the newest Renegade and member of Adrian’s team.
• Meaningless Villain Victory: Throughout Archenemies, Nova is trying to procure Ace Anarchy's helmet so that he might have his powers restored. She manages to steal it at the end of the book, but at the same time, Adrian and his team arrest him, rendering her success meaningless.
• Mind over Matter: Both Ace Anarchy and Max have telekinesis, the latter thanks to absorbing Ace's power. Ace was apparently extremely powerful, as stories tell of him uprooting entire buildings at the start of his revolution.
  • Archenemies clarifies that the sheer strength of Ace's powers are actually partially due to the power-amplifying helmet made for him by Nova's father, but even without it, he's still capable of precisely manipulating dozens of objects and throwing Adrian-in-Sentinel-armor around like a ragdoll.
• Missing Mom: Adrian's mother was one of the original Renegades, but she was murdered under mysterious circumstances before the Battle of Gatlon.
• The Mole: The premise of the story: Nova - the villain Nightmare - joins the Renegades as the superhero Insomnia in order to spy on them for the Anarchists.
• Motive Misidentification: When Nightmare breaks into Adrian’s house and steals his Rebel Z comics, Adrian thinks that she’s figured out he’s the Sentinel and is planning to expose him using the evidence in the comics. In reality, Nova had a suspicion that the enigmatic Phobia was inadvertently created from the comics, and put little thought into the Sentinel look-alike in them.
• More than Mind Control: Callum/Wonder can make people think about the beauty of the world around them, though the practical applications of this are rather limited. It only works if people are already feeling thoughtful in the first place.
• Mutual Kill: Ingrid and Nova intend to stage one to throw the Renegades off their trail.
• My Greatest Failure: Captain Chromium considers the death of the Artino family to be one of his.
• Never Found the Body:
  • One of the reasons Adrian is dubious of Nightmare's death at the end of the first book is that her body was never found - of course, she's actually his teammate Nova, still alive and kicking.
  • Ace Anarchy's body was never recovered in the chaos after the Battle of Gatlon. Predictably, he's still alive.
• Nice Guy: So long as it's not about Nightmare, Adrian's the purest cinnamon roll in the world. He's endlessly nice and supportive, helps whoever he can (including villains), and at one point derails an operation so that he can cheer up a group of kids at a birthday party.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Captain Chromium is practically invincible, although the opening of the book implies that a poisonous dart through the eye might've done the trick if Nova hit him. As it is, nothing leaves a scratch on him - not even Max's power absorption abilities or swallowing a liquid dose of Agent N.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Ace ends up dropping any good intentions he once had after reemerging from hiding and instead declares that he's going to destroy society again, only this time he's going to take over it afterward and rule over as a god.
• Not Quite Dead: The end of Renegades reveals that Ace Anarchy survived the Battle of Gatlon.
• Omniglot: During the trials, one of the applicants can speak every language in the world. While he doesn't get into a superhero team, he does get hired by the Council.
• Only Friend: Winston more than likely considers Nova to be this. To the point where he throws himself in front of Frostbite’s ice spear to save her.
• Only Known by Their Nickname:
  • Phobia's real name is unknown; at one point, Nova wonders if his parents didn't just name him Phobia after seeing his powers. It turns out that he doesn’t actually have one, being a rogue construct and not even human.
  • Nightmare's real name is unknown to the world at large, which is what lets Nova infiltrate the Renegades.
• One to Million to One: Danna/Monarch can transform into a swarm of monarch butterflies, making her an excellent scout and spy.
• Papa Wolf: Captain Chromium is ready to pull a burning library apart with his bare hands to find Adrian.
• Personality Powers: Some cases, particularly among the Anarchists.
  • The Detonator can create explosives with her mind, and has the explosive personality to match.
  • The Puppeteer can Mind Control children, and has a mind of a psychotic Manchild.
  • Phobia dresses in all black and keeps apart from others.
• Pest Controller: Honey/Queen Bee can manipulate bees, hornets and wasps.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Ace Anarchy singlehandedly brought down all of society by wreaking so much damage that he destroyed governments and caused civilization to collapse. Turns out that while he is powerful on his own it's because of his helmet that he was powerful enough to do that.
• The Peter Principle: The Council is composed of the original five Renegades, as their victory over Gatlon's various gangs made them the rulers of the city. Though they're trying their best, it's pretty obvious, at least to people willing to look at them critically, that a group of friends who formed a superhero team in their basement is not very well suited to administering a state - the economy is still in shambles, many civil projects are started and abandoned before they're done, and a lot of people still have to scavenge for a living.
• Photographic Memory: The prodigy Librarian can perfectly remember anything he's ever read.
• Plant Person: The villainess Hawthorne has six plant-like tentacles covered in thorns on her back.
• Playing with Fire: This is apparently one of the most coveted and most common prodigious ability, though in the story, only Sentinel has it.
• Poisonous Person: Leroy/Cyanide can secrete acidic poisons through his skin, and is a skilled chemist besides, making money on selling more-or-less legal poisons.
• Power of Creation:
  • Nova's father could apparently turn energy into matter, using it to create various objects, among them Nova's bracelet and Ace's helmet.
  • Captain Chromium can create various chromium objects, such as weapons or boxes, out of nothing.
• Power Incontinence:
  • Max can never turn off his power stealing ability, which is why he's living in a containment chamber.
  • Apparently, this is a problem for many young children born with prodigious powers before they learn to control it - when he was little, Adrian infested his childhood home with homicidal squiggles during his dinosaur phase, and Nova recalls that her mother had problems breastfeeding her because Nova's touch would put her to sleep.
• Power Parasite: Max drains other prodigies' powers and gains them, which is why he's in containment at all times. It also has the side-effect of rendering his victims unconscious, making it impossible for them to leave his area of effect.
• Protective Charm: While working in the archives, Nova discovers the Amulet of Vitality, which can protect from poisons and acids. As she and Adrian later discover, it also protects against Max's power and Agent N. Adrian ends up tattooing the pattern on his skin to let him visit Max.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Rejects, a group of prodigies looking to take down the Renegades and their Black-and-White Morality and give prodigies a real chance to live their lives as human beings.
• The Reveal: Several in Supernova.
  • Everything Ace told Nova about her family's death was a lie. David Artino built the helmet that amplified Ace's power. Feeling responsible for his actions, he went to the Council and revealed the secret behind Ace's power. Ace hired the gunman himself for his brother's betrayal. He likely would have killed Nova if she wasn't a prodigy.
  • The Renegades were there that night. Lady Indomitable was watching the Artino's apartment and would have been the first to respond. But the night of the Artino murders was the same night she died. Phobia was responsible for her death. Her own fear scared her enough that she forgot she could fly, if only for a moment. It was likly orchestrated by Ace.
  • Phobia was created from Adrian's drawings. He lived so long, compared to his other creations that die anywere between a few hours to a few days, due to young Adrian embuing him with everything he's ever feared. He's essentially a living embodiment of Adrian's fears.
  • Evie survived the gunshot. And she's a prodigy. Magpie. But neither she nor Nova are aware of this.
• Revenge Before Reason: This is the reason why Ingrid is The Friend Nobody Likes among the Anarchists, she nearly blows Nova's cover at the very first opportunity to try to kill Adrian to spite Captain Chromium, and calls Nova traitor when she refuses to try and kill Renegades whenever she can.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Nova's and Ace's family was killed by a hitman from the Roaches gang, Ace went out and murdered all of them in a single night.
• Second Super-Identity: Both of the main protagonists take up alternate identities to suit their needs, which forms a key part of the series. Nova, normally the villainous Nightmare, becomes the heroic Insomnia to spy on the Renegades, and has to rely on her Fights Like a Normal skills to compensate for supposedly only having a non-combat power. Adrien, normally the heroic Sketch, turns into the vigilante Sentinel to investigate his mother’s murder, and uses his art power and tattoos to give himself Combo Platter Powers. Both of them use face-concealing masks in their non-Renegade identities to keep up the charade.
• Secret-Keeper: Near the end of Anarchists, Ruby and Oscar find out that Adrian is Sentinel, and agree to keep it a secret.
• Self-Disposing Villain: At the Battle of Gatlon, Ace Anarchy threw himself off the roof rather than be killed by Captain Chromium. However, the end of the first book reveals he actually survived the fall.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Donna cannot reform back into her human form unless each and every single one of her butterflies is either together with others or dead. At the end of Archenemies, the Anarchists use this to stop her from alerting the team to their plans.
• Shock and Awe:
  • Thunderbird can summon, as her name implies, thunder and lightning.
  • Nova's weapon is a taser.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Captain Chromium and Dread Warden are the world's "it" couple, and just watching them makes Nova's teeth rot.
• Slave to PR: The Council. This is how a neutralized Frostbite gets the Council to bow to her desires for retribution against Nightmare. And after Nova is released from prison due to "circumstantial evidence" pinning her as Nightmare, she get's a personal apology from Captain Chromium himself. And Nova is fully aware of the ulterior motive behind it.
• The Sleepless: Nova hasn't slept since she was six years old, and when Max's power renders her unconscious, she finds it disconcerting. As it turns out, she can still sleep, if the conditions are right, although this might be because of Max draining some of her power.
• Smoke Out: Oscar/Smokescreen can summon and control clouds of smoke and vapor, which he mostly uses to hide his movements and obstruct the vision of his enemies.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation:
  • Captain Chromium can create weapons made from, fittingly, chromium.
  • During the Age of Anarchy, Nova's father was forced to create guns with his powers for the Roaches gang.
• The Spook: Phobia. Neither the Anarchists nor the Renegades know anything about him - not his name, not where he came from, not even precisely what he looks like, as he prefers to hide in the shadows.
• Staged Shooting: The climax of Renegades is intended to be this, as Ingrid and Nova intend to fake a Mutual Kill in order to throw the Renegades off their trail. Except Ingrid didn't intend to fake it.
• Stupid Evil: Ingrid is obsessed with getting revenge on the Renegades at all costs, and her shortsightedness ends up sabotaging the Anarchists attempts to bring them down. After they go to great lengths to plant Nova as The Mole in the Renegades, Ingrid sabotages her very first mission there by lying to her and attempting to kill her squad, nearly blowing her cover, costing the Anarchists one of their few reliable source of weapons and forcing them into hiding, resulting in the other Anarchists kicking Ingrid out.
• Superpower Lottery: The superpowers vary greatly in both scale and usefulness - for every Captain Chromium with Nigh-Invulnerability, there's someone like the girl at the trials who can inflate her head like a balloon to float a little.
• Super-Strength: Several Renegades have this as their secondary power, including Captain Chromium and Gargoyle.
• Super Team: The Renegades originally started as a group of six prodigy friends hanging out in Dread Warden's basement. By the time of the story, however, their numbers have grown so much they're more like a superhero syndicate, composed of a number of smaller Super Teams.
• That One Case: For Adrian, it's his mother's death. She was killed by falling from a great height, which he considers outright improbable, given her power was flight.
• Tragic Keepsake: Nova has the unfinished bracelet that her father was making for her when he died. She always keeps it on her, and the thought of losing it makes her panic.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Some prodigies gain their abilities this way, while others are born with it.
  • Ruby's power manifested after she swallowed a bunch of jewels to keep them away from looters, and was almost killed for it.
  • Oscar's smoke manipulation triggered after he died from inhaling smoke in a house fire.
  • Nova is an interesting case in that she could induce Forced Sleep since she was a child, but only became The Sleepless in response to her family's death.
  • Winston Pratt, the Puppeteer’s powers manifested as a child a few weeks after a family friend molested him. After his neutralization and a bit of therapy, he’s notably much happier.
  • In Supernova it's theorized that everyone has the potential for the powers of a prodigy. But for those who weren't inherently born with these powers, they manifest after the individual faced great trauma. Which goes a long way to explain why no one else in Ruby's family has any powers, why Oscar's manifested after he was dead and why their powers relate to said trauma.
• Triple Shifter: Nova, thanks to being The Sleepless. She works as Insomnia during the day, hangs out with the Anarchists in the evenings, and works on her own, personal projects during the night.
• Tsundere: A non-romantic type with Magpie. She generally acts like this around everyone, but even after Callum dies she dosn't want to admit that she liked him.
• Ultimate Blacksmith: Some prodigies are capable of producing supernatural objects, such as magical weapons, Amplifier Artifacts or other, weirder items, either by crafting them by hand or shaping them with their power.
  • There was once a medieval blacksmith who forged items with supernatural properties, such as the Amulet of Vitality.
  • Nova's father and Captain Chromium could/can both create powerful items out of thin air, with the former crafting amplifiers (and other, less explained, things), while the latter's creations are indestructible to all but him.
• Urban Hellscape: Before Renegades defeated Ace, Gatlon was filled up to brim with gangs rubbing against each other, violently competing for territory, and all who lived there were either gang members or civilians trying to keep their heads low. Whenever someone brings up the city's current problems, someone else will point at that time to say it could be worse.
• Villain Protagonist: Nova's the protagonist, and a member of the Anarchists, a group that wants to kill the Council and plunge Gatlon back into chaos (though things aren't exactly black-and-white). In fact, her first action in the story is an assassination attempt on Captain Chromium.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Phobia can shapeshift into various fears, such as swarms of insects, fire or darkness.
• Waif-Fu: Nova has to fight the Gargoyle in the Renegades trials.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • Ace Anarchy fought against the opression of prodigies by waging a one-man war against civilization by destroying governements and bringing society to its knees. Ace later drops his concerns about protecting prodigy rights and instead plans on tearing society down again so he can rule over.
  • The Anarchists genuinely believe that the Renegades are holding society back and that the only way to fix that is by tearing all governments down by force to give everyone freedom.
• Winged Humanoid: Thunderbird has functioning wings.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • The killer from the prologue has no trouble murdering infant Evie, and would've done the same to six-year-old Nova if she didn't knock him out.
    • As it turns out, Ace was the one hired the gunman and fed Nova the story about his brother dealing with the Roaches. Ace was perfectly willing to have both of his nieces killed, just to get revenge on their father, and only spared Nova because he saw she could be useful.
  • The Detonator has no problem setting a library full of schoolchildren on fire.
  • Ace Anarchy, it turns out, isn't much of a standout either, as during the Battle of Gatlon, he apparently did his best to murder then-infant Max.
  • Max's biological parents wanted to throw him off the rooftop once they realized what his power was.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: While a villain, Nova isn't fond of hurting children and makes a point of avoiding them. When rationalizing having killed Ingrid, one point she brings up is the fact she was going to murder children. Also, she's furious when The Renegades believed she harmed Max.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: Honey's backstory. As a child, she accidentally stepped on a hive of bees and crushed it, then passed out from the stings. When she woke up, she found out that she killed the hive queen, and the bees somehow decided that she's the new one.

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