Calamity gets more development, but she is primarily a vigilante, angry at the world because of unfairness. By the end of the story, Danny and Calamity have become more developed characters so I’ll happily give the sequel a try. Do I believe that such statements would be made so quickly upon meeting this young 15 year old teenager in the context of a business/recruitment meeting? She doesn’t have any hobbies: she saves people because she’s able to do so but doesn’t have any particular characteristics.

It’s important to remember that Danny is only fifteen, so a lot of the idiotic stuff that Danny and Calamity get up to is on point for their age. A superhero novel is gonna need action scenes to work and oh my god, do Dreadnought‘s action scenes work. hoping for another year of feeling more like myself, more reading, more writing, more art, more craft, more travel, more wholeness. In a world where the skies are filled with superheroes and supervillains, 15-year-old Danny's dreams come true when the famous Dreadnought perishes in her arms and passes his powers on to her - powers that include super-strength, flight, and an outer body that matches the girl Danny's always been inside. When Danny says that she’s just as much of a girl as Greywytch, the senior superhero responds, “Do you even know how to put in a tampon?Until Dreadnought fell out of the sky and died right in front of her, Danny was trying to keep people from finding out she's transgender. Massie begins with the birth of Queen Victoria and describes the history of England and Germany up until the outbreak of World War I. I've finished wiping the chipped remains of last week's polish off my toes, and have a clean canvas again.

There's a hole in his chest about the size of a golf ball, his suit charred and melted at the edges. She is obviously insecure due to her father's continuous verbal abuse, but she's a smart and resourceful main character. For me, this book feels like a first draft that was published without any changes made by an editor. Transgender youth are truly at a high risk of being abused and becoming homeless (both things happen in the book) and it’s good to see those problems being addressed, but Danny’s parents have no other characteristics than Abusive Parent and Doormat Parent. Because Danny is not yet an adult, the Legion of Superheroes is divided on how to approach her unique situation.This scene happens at the beginning of the book and I think it sets the tone for how a lot of the superhero stuff is handled. The development of the British Navy is also covered in substantial detail, with Jackie Fisher presented fully. There are men both disappointing and noble, but the women and girls—white trans girl Danny, Latina crime fighter Calamity, technician/scientist Doc Impossible (racially cued only with a long black braid), and cyborg supervillain Utopia—drive the story and the action.