WormWorm is a well acclaimed and long (LONG!) running, but now complete, web serial about superheroes. I finally got around to starting it 3 days ago. Currently I'm on Arc 19, so about 2/3 through, and after three straight days of reading I am both impressed.... and thoroughly sick of it.
The writing is fine, heavily character focused most of the time, if a little simplistic. Decent set of characters, especially the protagonist, Taylor/Skitter. It's very good at changing things up, moving from earlier frames of reference to new and completely different ones while still feeling natural. Fight scenes are described in more detail than they really need to be, and are about four or five times the length they need to be, but it IS a superhero story so I can forgive some "then the villains moved to THIS position and we shot MORE LASERS" writing porn.
The plot, though, whoof. So far the progression has been along these lines (minor spoilers for arc directions, though I'll try to avoid specifics):
- New young heroes starting out, vs minor villains and gangs. Sure, fun and expected.
- Heroes vs villains on the city level. Also expected, and probably still the highlight of the story with all the interplay involved.
- Heroes and villains together vs an "unstoppable" kaiju-esque monster. Oddly boring for what it was, but sets up what I assumed would be the second half of the story, with the monsters threatening to destroy the world.
- Minor villains, gangs and anarchy in the monster's wake. Your leaders are not who they seem to be, whoo-ooo spooky! Still by the book though. Providing character development in downtime, or it should have anyway.
- The unstoppable supervillain team full of baby-eating psychopaths arrives in town! Lots of back and forth and this power beats that power. The world is threatened with obliteration, again. Three times during this arc, actually. These guys are the worst. This arc is the worst. Unrelentingly grim to a previously untouched level, the villains are insane and evil for evil's sake, and everybody's hax powers prevent the status quo from being radically altered. A requisite few characters die, but the reader can predict exactly who with a quick mental count of "how much pagetime did they get?"
- More politics! Totally expected betrayals! Things take another turn for the grimmer and darker! The world is threatened with destruction, again. Everything is interrupted constantly with flashbacks and interludes from characters no one cares about.
- Heroes and villains together vs an "unstoppable" kaiju-esque monster, who is also a baby eating psychopath, who is also a former ally with a grudge! Dark Phoenix nods everywhere! The world is threatened with destruction, again. More horrible things happen to our protagonists. The sheer amount of grim darkness and world destruction convinced me I must be near the end, so I caved and checked the table of contents to see how much was left, because the slogging was getting to me and I figured it had to be near the end.
It's not. There's still an entire third of the story left.
I... I don't care anymore. I don't care if the world gets destroyed. I don't care if Skitter's secret identity gets revealed, or if she gets maimed or lobotomized into an earthworm. In fact I'm kind of expecting it now, from the title. I don't care if Bitch or Grue die, or if Legend can stop the evil corporation that's been teased so many times it's all out in the open now.
I can't even really say the story did anything specifically wrong, it's just drastically overplayed its hand so many times that I've built up an immunity to the emotional impact it's trying to strike with. Flaws that used to be excusable are coming into higher and higher relief as they get repeated. The Protectorate is STILL getting on Skitter's case about the Slaughterhouse Nine, with the same accusations that they attracted them or didn't pacify them. That made sense as an arc point when they did it once, but this is going on what, the tenth time now and nobody's even noticed? I know the author is trying to hammer a message about victim blaming, but we got that ages ago and it's still repeating ad nauseum.
Maybe the true message is that I'm supposed to be a bad person for getting tired of it.
I don't know.
I'll keep reading to see how it turns out, but it's already nearly self-parody and some sort of space alien transcendence ending has been foreshadowed enough to blot out the sun.
EDIT: Finished. The last third caught me off guard and was not nearly as good as the first 2/3s. Same basic complaints stand. The story is good on a micro level, but breaks down pretty hard on a macro level. This could be attributed in no small part to its serial nature. Still, the first parts and the characters are good enough in their own right. I really wish this had an editor with a giant axe, and another editor with a rolled up newspaper to swat the author over the head. It DOES make some good points, it does entertain, just... wears it all out, and keeps running until the wheels fall off.
