Dreadnought: Britain,Germany and the Coming of the Great War

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There's a little wall segment sticking out from the side of the mall, an architectural brain fart that serves no function I can see, but is perfect for giving me a little privacy in the heart of one of the largest, most densely-packed cities in the country. With a last glance around to check if I'm in the clear I duck out of the parking structure and head down the back side of the mall, toward the ramp that heads up to the elevated roadway running through the city's heart. My major criticism is that it is too short, and that having read it so soon after its release I now have to wait far too long to read the sequel. On top of her hunt for Utopia, she juggles the new friction with her friend David who believes she’s his chance for a date, her abusive father’s mounting pressure to “fix” her body, and the reaction from Legion Pacifica when they learn the new Dreadnought is a trans girl. Daniels lived in Ashland, Oregon until she was ten years old, where she was exposed to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, before her family moved to Los Angeles, California.

Shortly after, when Danny corrects the Legion on misgendering her, Greywytch states “You were raised to be a man. One day, while painting her toenails behind a supermarket, she finds herself in the middle of a fight between two superheroes and it ends quite badly for the good guy. Dreadnought is a coming-of-age story: it’s all about Danny coming to terms with her own power and her own agency, not just as a superhero, but as a person (and as a person who chooses to be a superhero), and it’s one that doesn’t shy away from consequences, either.Dreadnought is one of the most famous superhero in the US and well, Danny didn’t expect him to die and pass all of his powers into her hands. Danielle is just a trans kid trying to survive long enough to escape home and start hormones when she turns eighteen. She's allowed to be weak and scared and unsure, but in the end, she knows who she is and who she's always been. I appreciate the entertainment aspect of the story while also learning about one trans girl’s experience.

For a character that we spend so much time with, watch deal with horrific abuse, we don’t really get to see anything else. In the same way, Graywytch is so deranged in her transphobia that she’s almost a parody figure, especially since her only characteristic is her transphobia. When I turn eighteen, if I haven't killed myself yet, I'm going to move out of the house and go on hormones.

A sequel, covering the naval war between Germany and Britain, Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea was published in 2004. All of the characters have one role to play and can be described in a few words: the pervese BFF, the transphobic superhero, the nice girl, the sexy one, the friendly one, the bully etc etc… That’s not character building for me. There are white capes who are not as good as they claim, and a super villain who is a narcissist that’s trying to stop something terrible, but going about it in the wrong (evil) way. Unfortunately, her parents would rather “cure” her and turn her back into Danny, and her reception among the other heroes is mixed at best. Even when she’s not tiptoeing around her own home or rushing threw breakfast to avoid a confrontation, she’s battling back the tides of idiot, stupid, worthless he’s branded into her head.

Her family is abusive, her friends abandon her, and she’s trying to learn to deal with her powers mostly on her own with only the guidance of another teen hero named Calamity. Given the fact that Greywytch is nothing more than a political ideology, readers lose out on this important thought exploration. I think it's a notable achievement to make a character so decidedly OP while still making me as a reader feel like shit can go wrong at any time. She's taken to meet Dreadnought's colleagues (some welcoming, some not) in the Legion Pacifica and gets some answers to burning questions. Pure genius … I’m not exaggerating the potential of Priest’s Clockwork Century’ Paul Goat Allen, ‘Exceptional .And lurking in the background is the shadowy figure of a new super-villain, a black cape that somehow managed to kill the last Dreadnought, leading Danny to inherit his powers.