Powerless

“On that morning his parents offered to drive him, but Daniel knew it was hard enough being the new kid without getting chauffeured around by your parents. He knew better than to give in to the butterflies in his stomach. The first day at a new school was like the first swim in a cold lake—it was better to just dive in and get the initial shock over with.”

Here, Daniel prepares for his first day at his new school in Noble’s Green. This passage calls to the difficulties of starting over somewhere new. Daniel had a school and friends in his old home, and even though he’d always felt like an outsider because of his interests, he knew where he fit and felt comfortable enough with the area he’d carved out for himself. Now, though, he is forced to enter a completely new situation, and his analogy to jumping into a cold lake refers to how shying away from the situation won’t change it or make it any better. Daniel will have to face starting over no matter what, and he’d rather do so quickly than drag it out in protest.

“Now Mr. Snyder smiled, but there wasn’t any warmth in it. In that one grin, he confirmed all of Daniel’s earlier misgivings about him. Mr. Snyder was just another bully.”

Before this passage, Eric has arrived late to class, sopping wet and grinning. The teacher came down on him, both for his tardiness and appearance. When Eric argued, the teacher taunted Eric about how his mother is always working because she’s a single parent trying to support her family, and this ended the argument because it hurt Eric’s feelings. Watching the exchange makes Daniel angry because the teacher is supposed to be a supportive role model but is no better than Clay and Bud. In this way, the teacher represents what Clay or Bud could grow up to become, only with superpowers. In addition, this passage shows that bullies are not restricted to the playground. Adults may be bullies just as much as children.

“Rohan was a bizarre kid, no doubt, yet despite everything the two were fast becoming friends. But Rohan’s behavior was definitely strange. Sometimes he would put on his nose clip or even stuff earplugs in his ears for no reason whatsoever. And Rohan had a tendency to zone out. He’d be in the middle of a heated defense of pirating over detective work and suddenly start staring off into space. Daniel had to practically shake him to get him to come back to earth.”

These lines come while Daniel is reflecting on how life at his new school is going. After his fears about starting over, Daniel is glad that he’s been able to find friends, even if those friends sometimes act strangely. This passage also shows Daniel’s ability to put clues together and observe things to gain information. Daniel doesn’t know what Rohan’s behavior means yet, but he does know there is something different about the other boy. In terms of superpowers, this excerpt shows the drawbacks of having extraordinary abilities. When Rohan wants to focus his heightened sense on something or when there is danger far away that he can detect, the powers are a useful gift. However, when Rohan is in a regular situation, his powers don’t just switch off. His senses pick up on things whether he wants them to or not, which makes it difficult for him to concentrate.

“It must be a terrible thing to be special and have no idea why. Gram was fond of saying that everyone was looking for their purpose in life but only a few found it. These were probably the most special children on the face of the planet, and they were clinging to a bunch of old comics and conspiracy theories for answers.”

Daniel thinks this after he’s been brought in on the secret of the superpowered kids. In the process, Eric explained Johnny Noble and the comic books, as well as his personal theories about why they have their powers and what they might be able to do to keep them past age 12. Daniel’s thoughts reflect his understanding that there isn’t always an explanation for everything. The supers just got their powers one day, and once they did, they had to follow a set of rules they didn’t even know existed before then. Though they cope the best they can, the whole situation is overwhelming, and they deal with this by hoping there’s more to it all, even though there’s no proof to suggest there is.

“The two bickered some more before returning to their random demolition. As he watched the senseless destruction, Daniel thought what a waste it was for two troublemakers like Clay and Bud to have powers. And here was Daniel, as unremarkable as bread.”

Here, Daniel and Eric have snuck into Clay and Bud’s junkyard so Eric can warn Clay to leave Eric alone. The two bullies are busy destroying cars and throwing things, and Daniel’s thoughts reflect how the powers don’t discriminate. Often in superhero media, powers are gifted to those who earn them by exhibiting desirable qualities, and when this isn’t the case, the gifted find a way to become worthy of the powers by using them for good. Clay and Bud turn this trope on its head by using their powers for typical activities of troublemaking 12-year-old boys, showing how powers don’t automatically change someone or even make them want to change.

“He spotted Louisa, Rose and Rohan right away, and now all that was left was Simon and the two fliers. Because of her invisibility powers, Rose might have been nearly impossible to find, but luckily she got a case of the giggles whenever she tried to hide.”

This passage comes while Daniel is playing hide-and-seek with the supers, and it represents how powers don’t make people good at everything. Daniel’s ability to puzzle out clues and notice patterns makes him good at the game because he understands how each super uses their power in their favor to hide. As a result, Daniel can find them by exploiting this understanding. Even Rose, who can turn invisible, is easy to find because she’s the littlest kid and giggles, which tells Daniel all he has to do is listen for her. Following this passage, Daniel uses Eric and Mollie’s competitive streaks to make them come out of hiding. Altogether, this foreshadows how Daniel’s quick thinking and eye for patterns help him defeat the Shroud.

“Daniel mulled this over for a minute. He knew his friend could see things at far distances, but the moon was hundreds of thousands of miles away.

‘You mean you can see all that way? Details and everything?’

‘Yep.’

‘Then how come you wear glasses?’

‘I’m farsighted. I need these for reading.’”

This exchange between Daniel and Rohan represents another way special abilities don’t make the kids all-powerful or without flaws. Rohan has just explained to Daniel that he can see details of the moon as if he were using a superpowered telescope. In response, Daniel is amazed at the sheer strength of Rohan’s senses, and the difference between what Daniel and Rohan can see highlights how perspectives differ. Daniel can see the sliver of the moon in the distant sky while Rohan observes details of the moon’s surface, and while it at first seems like Rohan’s sight is better, in truth, each perspective offers something the other doesn’t have. Rohan needing glasses to read is ironic given how strong his sight is, but it also shows that the powers have limitations. Rohan can see details of the moon, but the tradeoff is that he can’t read small print well.

“It was strange to be sitting here talking to Michael after all he had heard about him. It reminded him of the first time he saw Gram after finding out that she was sick. He hadn’t known then what to say or what to do, and he’d been terrified of saying or doing the wrong thing. Looking at Michael, Daniel felt the same way.”

Here, Daniel has just met Michael, the kid from the Prologue who lost his powers, and Daniel feels awkward because he knows about an entire part of Michael’s life that the boy has forgotten. Since Daniel’s never been in this situation before, he relates it to the closest thing he can think of—his experience of dealing with learning his grandmother was sick. This shows how individuals call on past experiences to inform how they react in a given situation. It also offers a link between diseases of the body and the mind. Daniel doesn’t yet know that Michael’s powers were removed against his will, so he thinks of the missing memories like amnesia, rather than a violation. As with his grandmother, Daniel struggles to know how to respond. He doesn’t want to do something wrong, but he also doesn’t want to make Michael feel weird.

“‘You have the power to make Louisa swoon. It’s kinda gross, actually.’

‘Me? But I—’

‘Seriously,’ laughed Rohan. ‘Have you noticed the way she looks at you? You don’t need super-senses to see it.’

Daniel rolled his eyes, but the truth was that he had noticed. He just wasn’t sure what he was supposed to think about it.”

This conversation between Daniel and Rohan is a reminder that, even though Daniel and the supers are dealing with extraordinary problems related to superpowers, they are still kids with appropriate uncertainties for their age. Rohan and Daniel have noticed that Louisa likes Daniel, and while Daniel is aware, he doesn’t know what to do. Daniel’s uncertainty is ironic because he is far more prepared and certain about the investigation into the powers disappearing. Rohan’s line about not needing heightened senses to see Louisa’s feelings offers a link between the “normal” kid world and the world of superpowers. Louisa’s feelings are very obvious, which Rohan conveys in terms of how his heightened senses aren’t needed to notice them.

“‘It’s a drawing of Holmes fighting his archenemy, Professor Moriarty, at Reichenbach Falls,’ Plunkett explained. ‘Their fighting pushes them both over the bridge, and they tumble over the falls to their shared doom. A grand death, very dramatic.

‘Of course, Doyle brought him back eventually,’ Plunkett said with a smile. ‘No one stays dead for long in adventure stories.’”

These lines of Plunkett’s dialogue come during the first time Daniel visits him. Plunkett has been keeping a close eye on Daniel since he started spending time with the supers, and this shows how Daniel and Plunkett are similar. Like Daniel, Plunkett is adept at noticing clues and patterns and putting them together to arrive at conclusions and gain information. He does this with Daniel and tailors his conversation to topics Daniel likes to win Daniel’s trust, which works and foreshadows how Daniel’s similar thought process lets him destroy the Shroud later. The final line is a crack at authors of fantastical tales. Particularly in fantasy books, characters rarely stay dead after dying, and this suggests Plunkett may return in the sequels despite his apparent death at the end of Powerless.

“Looking back on it now, he found that things that once had seemed mundane took on sinister meanings. What had Plunkett really meant with all that stuff about the death of Sherlock Holmes? Was he trying to warn Daniel? To threaten him? In stories the villain often liked to toy with the hero, to play a game of cat and mouse before the final pounce. But that was in stories, and stories could not be trusted. In stories good always triumphed over evil, and like so many other children, Daniel had seen enough of the real world to know that wasn’t always true.”

This passage comes after Daniel’s first visit with Plunkett and his discovery of the Shroud in Plunkett’s original Johnny Noble sketches. The opening line speaks to the human tendency to find meaning in things after the fact. While things don’t always have hidden meanings, they do in this case, and Daniel stumbles upon the truth of Plunkett’s identity here, even though he doesn’t yet realize it. The final lines refer to the difference between stories and reality. Daniel notes that his life is not a book and that he needs to remain vigilant because there is no guarantee the superheroes will win, and the villain will lose. These lines also highlight that childhood is not always an innocent time. Daniel understands that life isn’t always pleasant. By doing so, he marks himself as a determined protagonist, willing to continue even knowing that he may not emerge victorious in the end.

“‘Let me guess,’ he said. ‘St. Alban’s was never rebuilt and years later…’

‘Yep. A mining company came in and dug a limestone quarry in the very same spot. The quarry suffered accident after accident, and eventually it was abandoned.’

Daniel felt a small chill go up his spine at the thought of all that misery occurring in a single lonely place, on the dark side of this very mountain.”

These lines come shortly before Mollie and Daniel arrive at the quarry on the far side of the mountain. The passage provides clues about the mystery surrounding the supers, as well as important historical context for Noble’s Green and the quarry itself. Though the kids don’t know it yet, the fact that the quarry and orphanage share a location links directly to the rule about danger waiting at the quarry. Plunkett uses the area as a base because it’s on the same ground where he missed developing superpowers, which shows the significance of location in shaping the narrative’s unfolding events.

“Daniel heard her saying, ‘My mom’s gone,’ over and over, and this struck Daniel as strange for some reason. Gram was just Gram—he didn’t think of her as someone’s mom. In the same way, Daniel’s mother was just Daniel’s mother—he didn’t think about her being someone’s daughter.”

This passage comes shortly after Daniel’s grandmother dies, and it reveals how the roles people are assigned can be limiting. To Daniel, his grandmother is his grandmother, and it isn’t until she’s gone that he realizes she was more. In addition to being his mother’s mother, she also had a childhood and life before children. This moment foreshadows that Daniel will later learn more about her, including that she was one of the original supers. This moment also marks a change in how Daniel thinks of his mom. Up until now, she’s been just his parent, but now, he understands that she, like him, has parents and a history.

“‘Imagine the following scenario, Daniel: One day, for whatever reason, some of the children of this town start doing incredible things, magical things. Some can fly, some are strong, some are fast. Now imagine that another child realizes that he has a power, too. Only this isn’t a nice, shiny power like his friends’. He can’t fly, he can’t run super-fast; all he can do … is steal other powers. He’s like a leech, this one. He can take the powers away from others, absorb them and make them his own. And what’s more, when his friends lose their powers, they lose their memories of ever even having had them.

‘Just imagine, watching your friends do all these wonderful things while you stood there, unable to join in. How long could you resist? How long before you took some of that power for yourself?’”

These lines of Plunkett’s dialogue come during Daniel’s second visit with the man. Plunkett has begun his deception by making Daniel aware of the Shroud, and these lines continue the lies by implying Eric could be the Shroud because he is the only super with more than one power. Plunkett also uses Eric’s history to make his story sound realistic. Having lost his father at a young age, Eric has been without a father-figure role model, and with the right twists from Plunkett, Eric’s story easily becomes one of a jealous and bitter boy who wants to be special. Since Daniel doesn’t know Eric well, he is easily swayed by these lies. Coupled with Daniel’s feelings of jealousy, this moment is the catalyst for Eric getting captured in the book’s later chapters. This is also Plunkett’s tale, and since Daniel sees similarities between the story and Eric, these lines show that even seemingly opposing people can be similar in certain ways.

“Daniel looked up to see Eric floating above them, Mollie by his side. Daniel had to shield his eyes as Eric drifted down, the sun shining like a halo behind him. It should have been one of those wondrous scenes, an image that Daniel would’ve remembered forever, but after what Daniel had learned it was horrible. His friend was something grotesque.”

Here, Daniel has recently decided Eric is the Shroud. He’s just found Rohan, intending to tell his friend the truth, but the arrival of Eric and Mollie stops Daniel because he fears what Eric will do if his secret is exposed. Though Eric isn’t the Shroud, this moment symbolizes how evil isn’t always ugly. Even if Eric was the Shroud, this moment would still have an unmistakable beauty to it. Since Daniel believes Eric is the Shroud, though, the moment is tarnished, showing how individuals’ perspectives change how they see things.

“On the opposite wall there was a map of Noble’s Green and the surrounding countryside—one of those satellite photos taken from space. Daniel had seen the exact same kind in the observatory gift shop on the day that Eric had saved his life.

The day that Eric had saved his life…”

This excerpt comes while Daniel and Rohan are exploring Eric’s room. The map has pins in it, which Daniel identifies as Eric’s way of keeping track of his good deeds. In this way, the map is a clue that Eric isn’t the Shroud, but Daniel is too caught up in his fear to recognize this. The map itself reflects the trope of superhero fiction where heroes have a physical manifestation of their heroism, either for their personal use or to show others how much they’ve accomplished. The final line emphasizes the complicated nature of good and bad. Regardless of whether Eric is the Shroud, he saves Daniel’s life during the field trip to the observatory. This is another clue that Eric isn’t the Shroud, but since Daniel still fears Eric is evil, he is torn about this memory. Daniel wants to believe Eric saved him out of the goodness of his heart, but he struggles to reconcile this belief with what he suspects about Eric.

“Daniel’s mother didn’t say much to him when the officers brought him home, his little brush with the law being just one more thing to deal with. This made Daniel feel worse than any punishment would have; with all the grief she was feeling right now, she shouldn’t have to worry about him as well.”

Here, Daniel and Rohan have just been picked up by the police for breaking into Eric’s house. After coming up with a cover story, the cops let them off with a warning, and when Daniel returns home, he is disturbed by his mom’s lack of reaction to what he did. This shows how quiet disappointment is often worse than yelling and anger. Daniel has gotten in trouble before, and he expects a certain reaction from his parents. He knows how to deal with that reaction, so when he doesn’t get it here, he doesn’t know what to do. His mom’s reaction is dulled because she’s still grieving the loss of her mother, and this makes Daniel feel even worse because he doesn’t want to hurt her more than she already is.

“They spotted the first car as they were leaving Rohan’s house. As Rohan scurried down the tree that served as his bedroom escape ladder, they watched the car disappear slowly in the distance. By the time they saw the next one, Daniel’s parents would have noticed that he was missing, and Rohan’s disappearance might have been noticed as well. When they saw the third car, there was probably an all points bulletin warning that half the children of Noble’s Green were gone. With Louisa and Rose now in tow, Daniel couldn’t help but feel like the Pied Piper in the fairy tale, leading the village children off into the hills, never to be seen again.”

Before this scene, a battered Mollie arrived at Daniel’s house with news that Eric was captured by the Shroud. Here, Daniel realizes Plunkett fooled him, and his guilt coupled with Eric being in trouble leads him to gather his friends, even though he’s afraid he’ll only be putting his friends in danger. Daniel’s actions show how sometimes doing the right thing is more important than the rules. He only has one chance to save Eric, and he is willing to deal with the consequences. The final lines refer to the German legend of a piper who was hired to play music to lure rats from a town. When the people refused to pay the piper for his service, he led the children away like he did the rats. Daniel compares himself to the piper because he feels like he is leading his friends into trouble, which is compounded by the fact that he was wrong about Eric.

“Still, despite the occasional panicked retreat, they were making good time. They had a few flashlights between them, which they used to light their way, and though Clay’s bragging was an annoyance, it did keep them from dwelling on their fears. For that reason alone, Clay was proving to be a valuable ally—he was so irritating that everyone forgot to be afraid.”

Here, the supers, including Clay and Bud, are on their way to the quarry to rescue Eric. Daniel’s observation about Clay’s bragging speaks to how emotions counter or complement one another. The group fears what they’ll find and is afraid they won’t get there in time to help Eric. Because of this, Clay’s continuous chatter about how great he is keeps everyone’s minds off what lies ahead, showing how fear and annoyance counter one another. This also represents how people play roles that aren’t always intended. Daniel brought Clay along for his super-strength, but Clay has turned out to be equally important as a distraction.

“‘They tell the story of this mountain,’ said Plunkett, gesturing to the painted walls. ‘This place had stories many thousands of years before our ancestors walked its forests. We are such a funny race, humans. Compelled to scratch our lives out in ink, on paper or rock. Whether it’s a limestone wall or the pulp pages of a comic book, I suspect it’s hardwired in our DNA—the urge to record our lives.’”

Here, Daniel has been captured by the Shroud and brought to Plunkett’s lair within the quarry. The quarry is carved directly out of the mountain, and the lair contains wall art from ancient civilizations that depict supers with the power of gods. This art is one of many resources Plunkett used to understand how the powers work and where they come from, and his dialogue here speaks to the innate desire of humans to leave their mark on the world. These wall carvings represent a story from hundreds of years ago, and the other forms of expression Plunkett mentions here show how art and legacies evolved as humans changed.

“That’s true today. But what about tomorrow? Or next year? Or the year after that? Eric has yet to suffer jealousy. What will he do the first time he has his heart broken? What kind of man will he be then? We both know something of poor Eric’s family. All his life, men have bullied him, pushed him around. What happens the day he decides to push back?”

Before this excerpt of Plunkett’s dialogue, he has argued that he’s right to strip children of their powers when they turn 13 because it is unsafe to allow them to grow up and become powerful adults capable of great destruction. Daniel argues that Eric isn’t the type of person who would grow up to do harm, and these lines are Plunkett’s response. Though Plunkett’s justifications for his actions are based on generalizations he can’t prove, his logic has merit here. Eric is currently someone who just wants to do good and help people, but there is no telling how a seemingly insignificant event could change Eric’s attitude or who he becomes. Eric is just as capable of destruction as heroics, which reflects the theme of The Consequences of Power. The power itself is neither good nor bad, but it can be used in good or bad ways.

“Shoving the ring into his jeans pocket, he ran along the tunnel, out into the open and toward the battle. He felt smart, he felt brave and he felt ready for a fight. Plunkett had made a mistake—one so obvious that Daniel had almost missed it. The old man had lived in a world of comic-book villains for too long.”

Here, Daniel has just finished working through everything Plunkett said about the superpowers and how he became the Shroud. In his hopelessness and fear, Daniel nearly missed that Plunkett gave away the object of his power—the meteor stone. Now that Daniel has realized this, he knows how to defeat the Shroud. These lines reflect The Meaning of Heroism. Daniel hasn’t been suddenly graced with superpowers, but he doesn’t need them to save his friends. In fact, his lack of powers is what will let him stop Plunkett. Daniel’s heroic attitude here represents how everyone has the potential for greatness. The final line emphasizes how Plunkett monologued so much that he gave away his weakness, a classic comic-book villain blunder.

“‘So we bike home the old-fashioned way. Anyone want to place a few bets on who’ll be grounded the longest?’ asked Rohan.

‘My mom’s gonna kill me,’ said Mollie.

‘Are you kidding?’ said Daniel. ‘The sheriff was over at my house! I’m an outlaw!’

‘Yeah, but I’ve been missing the longest,’ bragged Eric.”

This exchange between Daniel and the supers comes after the Shroud has been defeated. Clay has left, and the kids have concluded they will have to keep dealing with him in the future. For now, though, the immediate danger has passed, and the easy banter shows that everything is right for the time being. In addition, this passage is another reminder that the supers are just kids, albeit ones with big secrets to keep. This moment also marks Daniel finally feeling like he’s part of the group. He used his own “superpower” of solving mysteries to defeat the Shroud, and he is in just as much trouble as his friends, meaning there is truly little difference between Daniel and the supers.