Magically Superpowered humans fight--for control of earth and to save it from a mega-powered super-being.

I read approximately two-thirds of this and lost interest. I also started with this book, so I might be missing something for lack of context.

The magically superpowered heroes and villains in a modern take on classic pulp fiction just weren't doing it for me. It reminded me in a way of [b:Invasion|16078549|Invasion (The Secret World Chronicles #1)|Mercedes Lackey|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349871841s/16078549.jpg|23901613], which I liked slightly better, but still am not going to read more in that series. Maybe if it was written more solidly in the pulp or modern style it would have worked. I'm not sure. Because of the pulpiness, most of the characters were cardboard for me. Interesting, but cardboard. Also, the world wasn't different enough for having all these superpowered beings living in it for decades--it mirrored significant events of our world too closely to make sense to me.

What worked for me? As mentioned above, even if the characters were a bit flat, some of the main ones were kind of interesting. The action was fun.

NOTE: I read this in the 2014 Hugo Voter Pack.