Up, up, and away.
The Pantheon Saga is a Superhero Literature series by C.C. Ekeke.
The superhero Titan is the most powerful superhero in the world and dies at the hand of his archnemesis, Lord Borealis, triggering a power vacuum that demands to be filled. A variety of heroes react to his death with a mixture of confusion, anger, and ambition as they struggle to see if they have what it takes to fill his shoes.
The series follows three seperate lead characters:
- Greyson Hirsch: A Saint Louis investment banker with superpowers and severe family issues. He forms Superheroes Anonymous with his therapy group. He is married and volunteers at youth centers. He is dating a woman named Lauren Gerard. He possess power over gravity.
- Quinn Bauer: A female African American reporter that is struggling to distinguish herself at her job reviewing restaurants. She gets the opportunity of a lifetime to interview the Vanguard when she stumbles onto a shocking truth: Titan was murdered by someone other than Lord Borealis.
- Hugo Malalou: A fifteen-year-old Titan fan who inherits the powers of the superhero after the paragon's passing. His father was Driven to Suicide and he is unpopular at school, resulting in him carrying a simmering anger under his otherwise cheerful surface. He is Samoan in his ethnicity.
This series contains the following books:
- Age of Heroes
- Monsters Among Men
- Generation Next
- Gods of Wrath
- Absolute Power
- United We Stand
- Age of Villains
Examples:
- Abusive Parents: Greyson's father hates superheroes and loathes Titan in particular. This causes significant pain for Greyson as he worships Titan.
- Alpha Bitch: Hugo's girlfriend, Brie, pretends to be one to fit in with the popular crowd. It turns out Becoming the Mask is in play and she's long since become the real thing.
- Amazon Chaser: The superheroines of the world are sex symbols, with many men (and women) appreciating their muscular physiques.
- Asshole Victim: Titan turns out to be this as not only was he a notorious womanizer, which is a case of
Values Dissonance at best but he actually blackmailed one of his teammates into sex before arranging for her brother to OD on drugs. Most readers would cheer his death except for the fact his murderer also killed a dozen other innocent people in the process. - Became Their Own Antithesis: Greyson originally was a man who admired superheroes and hated his abusive superhero hating father. He becomes the greatest enemy of superheroes in the world.
- Big Bad: Greyson becomes the ultimate villain of the series and lays waste to much of superherodom.
- Broken Pedestal:
- Hugo loses a lot of respect for Titan when he finds out he was a womanizing lech. It's actually much worse and his respect is utterly gone after the last of the revelations.
- Greyson gradually comes to blame the Hurricane for most of his problems. It's actually his fault.
- The Vanguard get this once it's revealed that Titan was a #MeToo-level abuser of his coworkers and that they'd covered it up. Oh and Morningstar killed him among many other people.
- Bury Your Gays: The Hurricane is the most prominent gay hero in the world, though no one knows this, and is killed by Greyson at the end of the conflict.
- Cape Punk: This is a series that depicts superheroes as entitled celebrities that are constantly caught between trying to maintain their squeaky-clean images and dealing with their foibles as human beings. Unlike, say, The Boys, the heroes are mostly good people but when they break down then they break down hard. It also emphasizes the incredible temptations of power.
- Clark Kenting: A wig and long dresses protects Lady Liberty's secret identity.
- City of Adventure: San Miguel is where almost all of the action takes place. It's technically the real California city of San Luis Obispo, but is very different in size and population due to the story being set in an Alternate History, as a 1987 earthquake resulted in the city being renamed and rebuilt as a major metropolis.
- Da Editor: Helen Madden is this of SLO Coast Daily, the newspaper that Quinn works at.
- Expy: The series has numerous ones for many heroes.
- Geist is one for Batman. He is an urban legend that targets serial killers, pedophiles, and other individuals with his "two strike" rule where he executes you if you get out and commit a second crime.
- Titan is obviously one for Superman but has elements of the Hulk (gaining powers due to a nuclear bomb exploding). He is an Inuit who lost his family and tribe in the 1991 attack.
- Lady Liberty is one for Wonder Woman. She is the leader of the Vanguard and apparently gained her powers from a gemstone in the Amazon.
- Sentinel is one for Captain America. The co-leader of the Vanguard and peak human potential, he is The Paragon and a hero 24-7. He is also dating Seraph and the darling of the conservative community.
- Seraph is one for Supergirl. Mikaela Guerrero possesses light based wings and is a Catholic heroine with heavy religious emphasis on her powers as well as personal faith. She is also a habitual cheater on her boyfriend.
- Robbie Rocket is one for the Flash. Robert Geoffrey Gilford is a outspoken jerkass from Canada.
- Vulcan is one for Thor, being a man who claims to be the Greek God of Smiths.
- Dynamo is a sentient android and a stand-in for the Vision. He turns out to be another Expy for Iron Man, being a Teen Genius inside a suit of armor.
- Wyldcat is a heroic version of Catwoman named Dannel Winchester with a British accent and an Even the Girls Want Her vibe.
- The Hurricane is this for Iron Man. Richard Saint Pierre is a therapist by day and an armored vigilante by night. He has the help of a tech genius and partner to protect Saint Louis.
- Lord Borealis is a stand-in for both Lex Luthor and Magneto with the former's intellect as well as the latter's powers.
- Face–Heel Turn: Greyson undergoes this when he undergoes a Trauma Conga Line and kills multiple people, including Hurricane.
- Girl Posse: Brie travels with one, which she claims is just trying to fit in.
- The Hero Dies:
- Titan's death triggers off the events of the series.
- Hurricane also dies at the hands of Greyson.
- Legacy Character: Hugo receives Titan's powers after the latter's death. He doesn't immediately get the full dose, though.
- Leg Focus: Lady Liberty's legs are commented on many times in the story.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Morningstar believes this and ends up becoming a mass murderer trying to kill Quinn and cover up her murder of Titan. It eliminates any sympathy that the reader might have had for her in avenging herself.
- The Obi-Wan:
- Doctor Saint Pierre is this for Hugo. He's also the Hurricane in disguise. Later, he is struck down by his own student.
- Lady Liberty becomes this for Hugo after she determines he's worthy of being a hero.
- Redemption Rejection: Greyson almost achieves it in the second book when he helps liberate a country from a superpowered apartheid state but then is betrayed by his comrades who just want to set up a new dictatorship. He decides to blame all superheroes for this.
- Reformed, but Rejected: Lord Borealis made a Heel–Face Turn with Titan's help but even five years later, he's still considered a supervillain and immediately blamed for Titan's death.
- Sanity Slippage: Greyson suffers this throughout the series until he becomes a Hero Killer monster that everyone fears and loathes. With good reason.
- Slut-Shaming:
- Brie did this to a girl in middle school, forcing her to transfer.
- Titan gets this after its discovered he had numerous groupies he slept with due to his squeaky clean image.
- Statuesque Stunner: Lady Liberty is 5'11 and dominates her surroundings.
- Villain Protagonist: Greyson goes through a Trauma Conga Line to become the Big Bad of the series.
