Line #40 Literature/Archvillain


1	[[quoteright:230:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/453dfd2ce0564251c659711cfa204112.jpg]]
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3	''Archvilain'' and its two sequels, ''Mad Mask'' and ''Yesterday Again'' are middle-school superhero stories with a twist: they focus on the apparent villain of the story.
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5	Local prankster Kyle Camden gains superpowers and super-intelligence in a strange blast of plasma radiation. At the same time, "Mighty Mike" Mathews, a mysterious boy with superpowers, arrives in town, and immediately becomes the local superhero and celebrity. But only Kyle knows the truth about him: Mike is an alien, who beamed down from space in the same plasma blast that gave Kyle his powers. Even worse, Mike has not only stolen the spotlight, he's also stolen Kyle's best friend [[ImpliedLoveInterest Maira]]. With the help of his trusty ArtificialIntelligence Erasmus, Kyle vows to expose Mike's secret and/or embarrass him publicly, and force him to leave Earth. Unfortunately, it turns out that attacking the local superhero with a laser gun isn't a good way to win public trust, and now everyone thinks Kyle's secret identity, the Azure Avenger/Blue Freak, is a supervillain...
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7	Much of the story focuses on the possible AlternativeCharacterInterpretation of Kyle and Mike: is Kyle the VillainProtagonist, a misguided anti-hero, or is he really the hero? And is Mike really the perfect [[TheCape boyscout classic hero]] he appears to be?
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10	!Tropes
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12	* AlliterativeName: There's a few:
13	** The Azure Avenger
14	** Mighty Mike
15	* AmbiguouslyEvil: The main question of the books: is Kyle good, evil, or just misunderstood?
16	* AmnesiacHero: Mighty Mike, who has no idea who, or even ''what'', he really is.
17	* ArtificialIntelligence: Erasmus
18	* TheCape: Mighty Mike is about as pure and idealistic a hero as you can get.
19	* CardCarryingVillain: Mad Mask is openly evil (and insane). Averted with the Blue Freak/Azure Avenger, who doesn't think of himself as evil, even if everyone else does.
20	* ChildHater: Sheriff Monroe and The Great Nemesis seem to be this, but it's doubtful whether they truly hate Kyle, or want to guide him towards the right path.
21	* DamselInDistress: Maira needs to be rescued at least once per book, usually by Mike.
22	* DrivenByEnvy: Kyle's primary motivation for trying to destroy Mighty Mike.
23	* EnemyMine: Blue Freak and Mighty Mike work together several times to save the day, although all the credit usually goes to Mike.
24	* FlyingBrick: Mighty Mike has flight, invincibility, super speed, super strength, freeze breath, and laser vision are among his powers. Kyle as well, although he only has flight, super strength and super speed.
25	* HazyFeelTurn: Kyle deciding to work with Mighty Mike [[spoiler: after he finds out that Mighty Mike was a weapon created by Kyle's future self]].
26	* HumanAlien: Mike, although even he doesn't know it, being an AmnesiacHero. Only Kyle saw him beam down from space. [[spoiler: Subverted as of book three: Mike's not an alien, he's an artificial human created by Future!Kyle and sent back to help his past self.]]
27	* HumongousMecha: Ultitron
28	* JobTitle: OneWordTitle variant. It's named for the VillainProtagonist.
29	* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Kyle's brainwashing machine can remove memories as well as control minds.
30	* LoveTriangle: While there are no official pairings, both Mike and Kyle seem interested in Maira. In-universe, most people think that Maira and Mike are a couple.
31	* MadScientist: Kyle, thanks to his enhanced brain power.
32	* {{Malaproper}}: Mike, thanks to the plasma scrambling his brain, often mixes up words.
33	* NiceGuy: Mike, particularly in book three, where we get to see him from Maira's point of view instead of Kyle's. He really seems to want to help everyone as best he can. Though there are some hints that he's not quite as nice when it comes to his rivalry with the Blue Freak.
34	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Mighty Mike makes a number of errors while superheroing, including blowing on a house fire and almost spreading the fire into the forest, and leaving radioactive containers unsealed.
35	* NotEvilJustMisunderstood: According to Kyle, anyway. He thinks that he's the real hero, while Mike is an alien who's probably here to eat our brains or something.
36	* OneWordTitle: JobTitle with a VillainProtagonist.
37	* PetTheDog: In addition to saving kittens from trees, stopping forest fires and helping little old ladies cross the street, Mighty Mike literally pets a dog on live TV. Kyle, naturally, criticizes his dog-petting technique.
38	* PhotoOpWithTheDog: Possibly why Mighty Mike keeps rescuing people on live TV.
39	* {{Portmantitle}}: A fusion of the prefix "Arch-" for "highest in standing" and "Villain".
40	* SchoolIdol: Mike, to the point where students will literally fight over who gets to sit with him at lunch. Before Mike showed up, Kyle had been the most popular kid in school, and he doesn't appreciate being replaced.
41	* SecretIdentity: Kyle as the Blue Freak. Averted with Mike Mathews/Mighty Mike, who doesn't hide his identity.
42	* SheIsNotMyGirlfriend: Maira objects to her new nickname, "Mighty Mike's Girlfriend"
43	* SignificantGreenEyedRedHead: Maira has green eyes and red hair.
44	* SuperheroesWearCapes: Mighty Mike wears a green cape, which leads to capes becoming a popular fashion accessory at their school. The Blue Freak also wears a cape, since Kyle publicly hates capes and wants to throw people off his trail.
45	* {{Technopath}}: [[spoiler:Mad Mask isn't actually a techno-genius, it's just that]] he can control tech with his mind.
46	* TimeTravelTenseTrouble: When Kyle travels back to 1987.
47	* TrappedInThePast: In ''Yesterday Again'', Kyle gets trapped in 1987. [[spoiler:Lundergaard also turns out to have been trapped in the past by his time travel experiments with Future!Kyle. In the end, Jack ends up stranded in 1987 as well. We never find out what happened to him, but its implied that he stayed in the past and took TheSlowPath.]]
48	* UnreliableNarrator: Kyle is this.
49	* VillainProtagonist: Kyle, although he's the hero in his own eyes.
50	* VillainTeamUp: Blue Freak and Mad Mask team up to take down Mighty Mike in the second book. [[spoiler: As often happens, the insane villain betrays the sane one, forcing Blue Freak to help Mighty Mike stop him.]]

Context Literature / Archvillain