Where do I start? First off, kudos to the author! He did an amazing job keeping the story interesting and fresh.
Normally, when you hear "Marvel or DC fanfic," you think of the Marvel Universe or the DC Universe—No. The author took a whole different approach, and not to spoil it for potential readers, I'll simply say I quite like it.
Now to the review:
Writing Quality:
This one is entirely on me, so I do have a bit of bias in saying the quality is great. However, I can't deny there are many issues, especially in the beginning chapters when I was still undecided on whether to remove all the Chinese elements. They're mostly gone now, but all that's left is for me to contemplate which idioms to keep and which to scrap. So, 4 stars.
Uploading Stability:
Readers who joined during September 15-21 will probably think this deserves 0 stars, lol. But for everyone else who has been around long enough, I'm sure they won't fault me for giving myself a 5-star rating.
Story Development:
5 stars. Hell yeah! This is the reason the story is so fun to translate. There are so many twists and turns that always manage to excite me. The plot is amazing, and I have zero complaints. Good job, author!
Character Design:
Oooh, this is a tricky one. You see, the main character is Charlie, and he's... well, a typical, standard character. Nothing unique. No particular emotional turmoil. No... nothing. I feel like if he were replaced with any random passerby, the story wouldn't change much. This is where I think the author missed the mark.
However, on the other hand, I feel like this might have been done deliberately. The story seems to focus more on the characters Charlie controls rather than Charlie himself. Unfortunately, the characters are pre-designed—they have a whole cinematic universe just for them, so there's not much originality there. The only saving grace is the side characters. They have their own stories, their own feelings, and the way the author portrays them honestly works wonders. I low-key cried at the end of Ivan's tale. Still, I have to give this 2 stars.
World Background:
Ehh... by Chapter 100, we've only seen one city and a few key locations, so there's not much in terms of world-building. In fact, it's kind of bland. 1 star.
If you ask me to picture the world, all I can say is "Riverton." Now, this is actually fine—there are many interesting works of fiction that take place in just one city. These aren't web novels but actual books I've read, like A List of Cages by Robin Roe, After the Shot Drops by Randy Ribay, and My Sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier.
However, the issue here is that those books have vivid descriptions, not just of the characters but also of the buildings, the streets, the cracks in the pavement, the smell of smog in the air, and the distant sirens. Unfortunately, this story lacks that level of detail, so 1 star.
---
Sooooo, I did the math and... damn, 3.4. That's kinda low. I didn't expect that, especially since I really like this fic.
Welp... boo-hoo.
- Sword out
