An intriguing, ambiguous situation has been set up here: a bullied, miserable incognito superpowered teen finding the friends she never had among the minor supervillain gang she plans to infiltrate and betray.

The matter of fact way she deals with her unhappy life comes through poignantly (there is a sense of emotions being muffled and deeply suppressed to the extent that it affects her judgement about other things), action scenes have vivid, solid detail, and cityscapes establish atmosphere. Technically, the site is very basic with white on black text, which is not the most comfortable reading experience for me, but it is used commonly enough that some people must like it. The writing is sound, flows well, and tends to be error-free. So far: compelling – I hope Worm continues to live up to its promise!

Ed Note (Nov 5 2011): It is . . . It just gets more and more interesting! Wildbow is an excellent writer. Recommended.

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May stories take time to develop. You stick with them at first because there is an interesting premise, and hope that persistence will pay off. Worm is not that story.

Worm did what a great story must. It pulled me in the from the first page and didn’t let go until [more . . .]

I’ve been reading online serial superheroic fiction for a long time now, and I’ve read most of the good stuff, and dragged my way through the first few chapters of a lot of the crap. As of right now, Worm is right there at the top of my list as the most compelling and well-written of the lot. Between the [more . . .]

There’s a lot of superpower-related media out there right now. Enough that it’s easy for even a well-crafted superhero story to seem derivative and unmemorable. But Worm is not one of those stories.

Worm manages to reject enough of the usual superhero cliches to stand on its own. Fifteen-year-old Taylor’s power [more . . .]