Amazon Cover
Wearing the Cape is a long-running series by Marion G. Harmon. The first one seems to be a YA, but quickly breaks away from that.
Reading Mr. Harmon is hard for me because he write the way I would like to write. (No real surprise with the combination of a background in financial, plus a higher degree in history.) Jealousy please get behind me so I can enjoy the story. His first person POV is fantastic. The reveals of character in Book One, from a cancer survivor to the death of a childhood friend, are perfectly timed and not overwhelming.
The stories themselves are excellent superhero prose. Lots of actions, but different battles. Not all are slugfests. And the reason why someone would want to be on a superhero team is clear. Not everyone is Superman (or Atlas type) – but then Superman can’t win every situation. What happens when the bad guy is Nature? You can’t punch nature in the nose. The mix and match of abilities to situations is intriguing and well done.
And the worldbuilding – what happens after superheroes shows up – keeps on getting deeper and better the longer the series continues. A superpower cleanup crew to rebuild that which is broke after a battle. The politics and government wanting to protect people from danger, but also protect liberty, is believable.