It's FriYay!  Well, at least is here in the State, so what better way to kickoff the weekend than another installment of Larafan's Literary Likes.  I apologize for the delay this week, but rather than gush a plethora of excuses at ya'll (and I have a bunch), I'll just get to it.  This week's spotlight is on:

The Super One by Marknew

While the name Marknew probably needs no introduction to most of the long time readers here, his word processor has been rather quiet the last few years, opting mostly for small vignettes and/or a few select interactive story chapters over at writing.com.  However, back in the late 90's and early 2000's, there was arguably no more prolific ubergirl and/or FMG writer than Marknew, whose calling card of writing "snatching power from a male and giving it to the female" gave us many classics in the genre.  In spite of writing so many great tales, one of his works stands out head an shoulders above the rest...The Super One!

I discussed the whole "Mount Rushmore thing" a few weeks ago with Serena's Lucky Day -- but speaking without hyperbole --The Super One would be up there as well for me.  Published originally at DtV back in 2005, The Super One is a wonderful tale of a global superpowers lottery on Earth where ONE lucky winner would be chosen to receive superpowers.  Of course, in true Marknew form, the male protagonist, Andrew, is selected as the winner, but never quite receives his prize due to a serendipitous stroke of luck for his nemesis, Andra.  And we're not talking some pitiful superstrength and superspeed here.  We're talking 1,919,080,981,800 different powers (it's explained in the story), making Andra possibly the most powerful character ever in the SWM-verse!

That is perhaps one of the things that I find so appealing about the story is that I find it indredibly entertaining DESPITE her insane level of power.  Full disclosure, while I love a girl who can toss a volvo a mile out to sea with minimal effort, I'm not really a fan of super-OP (overpowered) characters in my stories.  I know, I know....different strokes for different folks.  Still, in The Super One, Marknew never really goes into full-on "Super Saiyan" mode with Andra, choosing rather to pick and choose his display of her powers usually one at a time in various handpicked parts.  In fact, most of the time she just talks about them rather than showing them off.  An interesting approach that works beautifully in his whimical approach to his goddess-like anti-heroine.

True to form, Marknew also brilliantly sets everything up throughout the story, choosing for some characterization of the five or so finalists before actually jumping head first into the "power up" part of the story which is magnificently written so much that I "homaged" it (aka stole it) for one of my stories, Tink, Tink, Boom,  when Tinkerbell gains her superpowers.  In fact, if I really think about it, I'd have to say that this story, more than any other, has influenced me in terms of specific imagery, plot ideas, and gaffes that I've used in my writing. Hell, I even "homaged" the whole story in my story, The Chosen One (giving Marknew full credit, for the record)!  THAT'S how I know I love this story! :P

I know Marknew is still out there, popping in from time to time on DA, writing.com, and sometime even here at SWM.  With any luck, he's prepping another masterpiece like The Super One.  If not, I just hope he realizes the ubergirl fiction universe is missing one of its great Jedi Masters.