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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/games_of_supervillainy_2.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350: Anti-heroes, anti-villains, and everything in-between.]]
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4''Literature/TheGamesOfSupervillainy'' is the second book in ''Literature/TheSupervillainySaga'' series by Creator/CTPhipps. The series is published by Crossroad Press.
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6Get ready for the action-packed follow up to ''Literature/TheRulesOfSupervillainy''. This time with zombies, zombified heroes and villains, cults, magic, superscience, a dragon, a Greek demigod, and so much more!
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8Gary and Cloak have returned from the supervillain prison on the moon only to discover the city he plans to conquer and rule with an iron fist has been overrun with the living dead. Once again taking up the mantle of Merciless: The Supervillain Without Mercy TM, Gary will have to pull it together quickly, find his wife, his gang, and a whole lot of help to stop the Brotherhood of Infamy from slaughtering the population of Falconcrest City and opening a portal to summon a primal force of destruction.
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10But Gary has a plan, or at least he's sure he'll have one soon. Just give him a second.
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13!!This book contains the following tropes:
14* AllMythsAreTrue: Greek mythology, Judaism, Neil Gaiman-esque ubergods, Lovecraftian abominations, and more all seem to be real.
15* ApocalypseHow: Falconcrest City has been sealed away from the rest of the country by the government and superheroes forbidden from going in. Later, it is covered in a magical doom to make absolutely sure no one gets in.
16* TheAtoner: Keith Karkofsky a.k.a Stingray [[spoiler: looks back at his pre-mortem career as a supervillain with great shame]].
17* BackFromTheDead: Combined with CameBackWrong. All of the dead in Falconcrest City are rising from the dead as intelligent superpowered zombies. [[spoiler: Mandy undergoes this herself with her transformation into a vampire.]] This includes a couple of supervillains Gary killed in ''The Rules of Supervillainy''.
18* BigBad: The Nightmaster is the head of the Brotherhood of Infamy and trying to summon Zul-Barbas.
19** Zul-Barbas serves as the GreaterScopeVillain which will destroy the world then remake it without superpowers so he can destroy it again and again at his leisure.
20* BerserkButton: Anything related to Mandy is this to Gary.
21** Gary and Cindy both consider Neo-Nazis fair game to murder en masse being Jewish and supervillains both.
22* BrickJoke: Amanda Douglas mentioned her father was part of an evil cult in ''The Rules of Supervillainy'' as an aside Gary ignored. [[spoiler: It turns out to be {{Foreshadowing}} everyone rich and powerful in Falconcrest City is part of the Brotherhood of Infamy.]]
23* BrokenPedestal: Amanda Douglas [[spoiler: finds out her father murdered her mother for the Brotherhood of Infamy]].
24** Gary has a lesser one when his brother informs him, in no uncertain terms, that supervillainy was the worst mistake of his life.
25* BroughtDownToNormal: This turns out to be [[spoiler: the ultimate aim of the Brotherhood of Supervillainy. They want to destroy the universe and remake it as a place without superheroes, supervillains, or superpowers]].
26* CameBackWrong: All of the zombified superheroes are AlwaysChaoticEvil while the more evil humans maintain more of their personality. [[spoiler: Mandy as a vampire is TheHeartless as we find out in the final chapter.]]
27* CanadaEh: Parodied. The Backwoodsman makes fun of this attitude by being as stereotypically Canadian as possible until he gets called on it. Then he promptly drops the act and becomes a serious superhero.
28* {{Clocktower}}: Where the final confrontation with the Brotherhood of Infamy takes place.
29* CoolCar: Gary manages to acquire the Nightcar. Unfortunately, it doesn't come with instructions.
30* ConvectionSchmonvection: {{Justified}}. Gary specifically says that the fire and brimstone Gehenna was actually deathly cold.
31* {{Cliffhanger}}: Seemingly averted then played-straight in the final chapter. [[spoiler: Mandy has lost her soul and Gary has to figure out a way to get it back.]]
32* DamselInDistress: Gary assumes Mandy is one of these due to a letter from Adonis. [[spoiler: It turns out she's in no danger whatsoever.]]
33** Mandy actually is pretty good at subverting this as every time the heroes are imperiled, she's usually the first one to get out.
34* DealWithTheDevil: Gary is willing to [[spoiler: make a deal with Zul-Barbas to bring back Mandy even though it might cost him his soul.]]
35** Gary makes ''another'' similar pact with [[spoiler: Death in order to speak with his brother one last time.]]
36* DidWeJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu: Gary has a conversation with {{Death}} and keeps his snarky attitude throughout, much to Cloak's horror.
37* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Almost literally so as Zul-Barbas is an {{Expy}} of Cthulhu. [[spoiler: Instead, they end up dramatically weakening the Great Beast by sabotaging his summoning and using the Reaper's Scythe to outright ''kill'' the EldritchAbomination.]]
38* DistaffCounterpart: Gary considers Amanda Douglas to be one of these while she insists she's the Nightwalker, not Nightgirl.
39* DrivesLikeCrazy: It turns out driving a tank-meets-sportscar like the Nightcar is harder than it looks.
40* EldritchAbomination: Zul-Barbas is one of the Great Beasts and is, for all intents and purposes, Cthulhu.
41* ExactWords: Zul-Barbas tries to pull this on Gary in their deal. Gary sees through it immediately.
42* {{Expy}}: Quite a few as always.
43** Zul-Barbas is Cthulhu with the serial-numbers filed off.
44** The Book of Midnight is one for the Necronomicon.
45** Nightgirl seems to be one for Spoiler/Batgirl/Barbara Gordon.
46** The Backwoodsman seems to be a send-up of Wolverine from his brief description.
47** The Brotherhood if Infamy seems a cross between the Yellow Sign, Cult of Cthulhu, and Court of Owls.
48* GenreSavvy: Gary immediately sees through Zul-Barbas' transparent attempts at manipulation.
49* AGodAmI: Adonis has this going for him, primarily because he's a Greek Demigod.
50* TheHeartless: [[spoiler: Vampires turn out to be this in the setting. Mandy has all of her memories and personality but no emotional tie to her friends or family.]]
51* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Mandy gives her life to protect Cindy. She comes back as a vampire, though.]]
52** [[spoiler: Sunlight also died trying to stop the Brotherhood of Infamy, killing three of the remaining Reaper's Cloak wearers.]]
53* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler: Sunlight makes a HeroicSacrifice to help stop the Brotherhood's threat.]]
54** [[spoiler: Mandy, potentially, though she's still running around as a soulless vampire and Gary intends to fix it.]]
55* TheLostLenore: [[spoiler: Mandy]] becomes this for about a minute [[spoiler: and then Gary decides to make use of BlackMagic to raise his wife from the dead]].
56* {{Mentor|s}}: Sunlight, of all people, becomes one of these to Nightgirl.
57* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Gary being absent from the city for a month has allowed it to become overwhelmed with zombies.
58** [[spoiler: Gary also turns Mandy into a vampire using the Book of Midnight, which is not just super-powers with fangs but also a curse transforming you into TheHeartless.]]
59* NotDistractedByTheSexy: Mandy barely acknowledges Angel Eyes' presence and finds him annoying where other women (and men) find him nearly irresistible.
60* PaperThinDisguise: Gabrielle had one of these in school, basically amounting to glasses and putting her hair up. [[spoiler: Also, hypnotism.]]
61* PoliceAreUseless: We find out why [[spoiler: in that they're secretly controlled by the Brotherhood of Infamy]].
62* PunchClockVillain: The Amazons are hired by the Brotherhood of Infamy to help them in their massacre of the city's population.
63* {{Psychopomp}}: Gary agrees to become one of these for Death in exchange for extra power.
64* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Arthur Warren a.k.a The Nightwalker was the original founder of the Brotherhood of Infamy before he became TheAtoner.]]
65** [[spoiler: The Brotherhood of Infamy has secretly been controlling the city for the entire time, explaining why PoliceAreUseless and the city's perpetually depressed crime-ridden state.]]
66** [[spoiler: Mandy the vampire doesn't have her soul and only barely feels anything for Gary.]]
67* ReligionOfEvil: The Brotherhood of Infamy. [[spoiler: Subverted by the fact, while their methods are deplorable, their desire to rid the world of superheroes and supervillains makes perfect sense given how crazy they've made the world.]]
68* RuleOfCool: The only way to explain two Jewish anti-heroes fighting a Nazi Robot and Neo-Nazis during the zombie apocalypse.
69** Or Gary riding a cybernetic T-Rex with laser-beam eyes against a bunch of Amazon warriors to the tune of "Walk the Dinosaur."
70* ShoutOut: Tons as per usual to everything from Star Wars to Underworld to Neil Gaiman.
71* SinisterScythe: Gary acquires one of these when he becomes Death's agent.
72* StupidJetPackHitler: Gary ends up fighting a giant Nazi robot, which apparently was a fairly common weapon during this world's version of [=WW2=].
73* StupidSexyFlanders: Gary has a lot of problems with Adonis despite his avowed heterosexuality.
74* ThoseWackyNazis: Being Jewish, Gary doesn't find Neo-Nazis using Old [=WW2=] Nazi superscience all that funny.
75* TookALevelInBadass: Amanda Douglas, a former socialite and kidnapping victim from the first book, did this by becoming Nightgirl.
76* TRexpy: Gary rides a cyborged one of these as his mount.
77* WeaponizedAnimal: Cybernetic dinosaurs with laser beams and rockets.
78* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: How the Brotherhood of Infamy sees itself. Gary doesn't buy it for a second.]]
79* WhatTheHellHero: Getting the chance to speak with his dead brother results in Gary getting an earful about how supervillainy is ''not'' a good lifestyle choice.
80* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: Falconcest City is revealed to be on the other side of Lake Falconcrest which is on the border of Canada.
81* ZombieApocalypse: The central theme of the book with Falconcrest City being overrun with the living dead.
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