Cbr16bingo cult
Anna is good at crunching numbers and analysis, and she puts those skills to work as a henchman for any villain looking for help. But times are tough. She had had a pretty good gig going, but the thing about henching is that eventually superheroes destroy lairs, and that means layoffs. Anna along with her friends June and Greg find themselves back at the temp agency (there is a temp agency just for henchmen) desperate for some job, any job, that will pay for the ramen and rent. June has a minor power, and Greg is an IT guy. Anna eventually gets a job for a minor villain, but at a PR event, her new boss makes an unexpected move and the superhero SuperCollider intervenes in a spectacularly violent way. Anna is collateral damage and her leg is mostly destroyed. Now without work and having to live with June while recuperating, Anna fumes. She is furious at the thought of all the damage supers do — to property and to people, innocent or evil. She starts crunching numbers and can demonstrate that the maiming and killing that superheroes do does not make financial sense (even when directed against bad guys) and that superheroes’ antics cost outrageous amounts of money that other people have to pay. She of course is experiencing this first hand and it infuriates her. Anna starts a blog that gets traction and also gets the attention of #1 villain Leviathan who brings her onto his team. Anna’s power seems to be strategizing from the numbers and finding superhero weaknesses that seem inconsequential but can actually end up having devastating impact on supers. Her successes start to rack up, and Leviathan relies on her more and more, but her successes also draw the attention of SuperCollider and his “family,” which has a cult feel to it. The adulation of superheroes is cult-like in general, with law enforcement and the public not wanting to hear that their heroes have actually hurt people unnecessarily.
I love Anna, her abilities and her anger. While it might seem strange to root for the “bad guys,” what becomes clear is that the good guys are not all that good. She finds others who, like her, were “collateral damage” in super fights, and she uses their stories to tarnish the images of superheroes. Anna also discovers and exploits the weaknesses and secrets of supers and uses social media and Leviathan’s extensive resources to ruin them one by one. While this makes her invaluable in the eyes of Leviathan, it also sometimes makes her feel a little bad for some of the serious and unexpected consequences that result. Collateral damage can cut both ways. Anna has complicated feelings about Leviathan. On one hand, like everyone, she is intimidated by him, but she also finds herself very attracted to this powerful, brilliant mysterious villain. Ultimately, he will call the shots for his team, leading to a showdown that could put Anna and her team in grave danger.
I really enjoyed reading this and finished it in a few days. I sincerely hope that we see more of Anna and her team in future stories. One of the themes I particularly enjoyed had to do with the role of women as sidekicks even when they are smarter and/or more powerful than the men they assist. There are a lot of really great side characters in Hench including Melinda the driver, Keller the head of Leviathan security and Leviathan himself. There were a few questions I had that I wish had been answered though. Why was Anna initially drawn to hench work? What is her family background (there is a brief mention of estrangement)? Does she have some power that was missed in childhood testing? There is potential for future stories involving Anna, her team and the friends she has lost, so I really hope we get more.