Archenemies
Year: 2018
Author: Marissa Meyer
Length: 877 minutes / 14.62 hours
There’s a trope in comic books about how supervillains’ schemes sometimes make sense. Maybe they want to solve some systemic problem with society, but the way they go about it is all wrong. There’s often a leap of logic between “let’s solve global warming” and “I want to build an ice ray to freeze the entire planet.” Because this trope falls apart in the cartoony logic that graces the pages of comic books, it’s refreshing to see some truly fantastic moral ambiguity between villains and heroes (all with quite unique powers and abilities) in Marissa Meyer’s Archenemies.
While there were a few moments of illogical villains in Renegades, this sequel really delves into these characters who think they’re doing the right thing—from both sides. I love how there are heroes who take their “we are justice” ideology too far, while there are also villains out there trying to improve the broken society that favors the heroes’ worldview. The “who are we to judge?” theme that keeps coming back in this book really highlights the entire problem with the superhero genre. This brilliant handling of the concept of true justice should be the best reason to pick up and read this series.
On top of this, there’s the heart-pounding thrill of Nightmare continuing to infiltrate the world of the heroes. She takes calculated risks to accomplish her goal, but there’s also tremendous character growth when she realizes that maybe being a hero might be better than getting her vengeance. Of course, these doubts creep in as she develops deeper feelings for Sketch—who also has a lot of “secret identity” antics that made the whole thing entertaining to read.
A shining example of the moral ambiguity of superheroes, I give Archenemies 5.0 stars out of 5.
