YMMV / Ex-Heroes

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Did Legion really rape the reanimated Banzai or was he just lying to upset Gorgon?
• Base-Breaking Character: In universe, Madelyn was seen as either the Messiah or just another ex.
• Complete Monster: Agent John Smith is a metahuman who uses his mind control powers to get anything he wants in life, including making many women sleep with him against their will. One young woman dies of a brain aneurysm due to the stress of this, but Smith views the event with amusement rather than remorse. Smith gets a government job and uses his powers to initiate a Super-Soldier program so he can control the soldiers into doing his bidding. Smith views the billions of deaths in the Zombie Apocalypse as nothing more than an obstacle to his plan, keeps his soldiers from rescuing any civilians, and arranges for several of them to be killed to cement his control. Smith tries to put his soldiers against the protagonists, abandons everyone when danger reaches their base, and hijacks the mind of a resident of the Mount to upload a copy of his mind into her body and take over the Mount while trying to trap the heroes in a horrific, permanent nightmare.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Banzai, a Sweet Polly Oliver hero with interesting Personality Powers, has a decent amount of fans even though she only appears in some brief flashbacks.
  • Lady Bee and Billie Carter are tertiary characters at best, but are better-liked than the other regular humans on The Mount due to being Badass Normal Disaster Scavengers with some good Casual Danger Dialogue. Lady Bee's Kaleidoscope Hair and Billie's tattoos also add to their colorfulness.
  • The Driver doesn't show up until the second book and doesn't get too much characterization, but his Mechanical Lifeforms powers, Gosh Darn It to Heck! habit, and the needling he gets about his Atrocious Alias make him popular.
  • Max Hale only appears in the third book (and a flashback in the first one) but is viewed with interest and seen as being underused due to his Manipulative Bastard Terror Hero schtick, Wild Card schemes, and the unusual premise of his identity and powers (a human possessing the body of a demon instead of the other way around).
  • Marduk has yet to appear and is rarely mentioned but attracts a lot of interest for being an Iranian hero who can turn into a dragon.
• Fanfic Fuel: Other costumed heroes in Japan (Zzzap mentions they are enduring the apocalypse and protecting people), England, and Iran are mentioned but never seen, making it interesting to speculate how they fare in the war against the zombies.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Many fans would rather disregard the last few sentences of the third-to-last chapter of Ex-Isle and the implication that Danielle is a Zombie Infectee right after her great A Day in the Limelight.
• Fetish Retardant: Common Knowledge in-universe has it that Cairax was zombified when he was having oral sex with zombie Jessica Alba. Ultimately set straight by Hale, who maintains that he "just" slipped her a little tongue.
  • Rodney / Legion also uses an undead superheroine for sex. Goes well and beyond past Squick.
  • Smith contemplating necrophilia because Corpse Girl is eternally young.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The fact that Stealth’s father was an international terrorist explains where she got her skills from.
  • Cerberus' comments about her casual sex with Agent Smith become rather squicky when you find out from Smith's backstory that he had used his persuasion powers to instigate the sex, essentially raping her without her even realizing. Made worse when he makes it clear it was to get back at her for mocking him.
  • The fact that Christian Nguyen has powers explains all of the Too Dumb to Live that the people in the Mount have had over the course of the series. For example the people who freaked out over Peezee in Ex-Heroes split into two factions the ones with the ones with Henry all backed down once Cerberus explained how illogical their actions were, while the ones with Christian all attempted to rush Gorgon.
    • After Death movement in Ex-Communication which was nothing short of suicidally stupid.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In Communication max said that though the box is big Karen can’t think outside of it. Then in Purgatory Karen didn’t really believed the insanity until her father mentioned she had been mentioning his name in her sleep plus her gut feeling made her dive full force into his story.
  • Barry believed his name is relatively unique later we find out that there were three B. Burkes and two Barry Burkes listed in Albuquerque.
• Jerkass Woobie: For four months Christian Nguyen was trapped with her own worse nightmare
  • She’s upgraded to Woobie status once the reveal happens given that there is no way of knowing when or even if she can be freed
  • Christian Smith has become the punching bag of the Mount.
• Magnificent Bastard: Max Hale is a witty sorcerer who casts dark magic rituals to take control of the demon Cairax and possess its body for superhero work, becoming a popular defender of the helpless. While defending his home city from zombies, Max is infected and killed after trying to French kiss a zombified Jessica Alba and his spirit horrifically tortured by Cairax, enduring until finally after days that feel like years of resistance and defiance, he agrees to help Cairax conquer the wasteland in return for his soul's freedom. Max returns to life by possessing a newly deceased body and makes his fellow heroes think he is forcing them in a cowardly manner to protect him from Cairax while helping Cairax possess a Fallen Hero. Max is mortally wounded after unexpectedly betraying the heroes, but lives long enough to see his friends defeat Cairax with a plan Max gave them. Max reveals he was working towards Cairax's death and his own salvation the whole time, passing away for the second time without fear.
• Nightmare Fuel: Ex-Purgatory is chock full of these thanks to what the characters perceive as being the "real world" being an illusion.
  • Any click of a pen and itch could be an ex-human close to you or currently eating you alive.
  • For that matter you might not actually exist you could be nothing more than a figment of someone else’s imagination
  • You’re walking down the street minding your own business and suddenly you're in a post apocalyptic world surrounded by zombies
• Tear Jerker: Gorgon's reaction to seeing Banzai's zombified corpse.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character
  • Kid Hero Banzai has a fun backstory, distinct powers, and is the only Asian-American hero in the series (as well as the youngest one until Corpse Girl shows up), but, to the disappointment of many fans, dies in the flashbacks to the initial outbreak rather than sticking around as one of The Mount's protectors.
  • Max Hale is an intriguingly manipulative Terror Hero with a unique set of magical powers and actually manages to come Back from the Dead after dying during a flashback scene in the first book. He dies again in the same book where he returns, and never really gets to fight zombies with his spells instead of his Cairax form.
  • The scavengers and wall guards (Billie, Jarvis, Lady Bee, Makana, etc.) do a good job of acting as brave and friendly Badass Normal support personnel who fight alongside the heroes, but a common complaint, especially for the first two books, is that they're always just there and get minimal backstory and Character Development despite their interesting potential.
• Rewatch Bonus: Due to the author's penchant for Foreshadowing two even three books ahead, the series is far more entertaining the second time around.
• Squick: The I Love the Dead fate of Banzai and Jessica Alba's bodies. Fixed in the latter case.