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As anyone who knows me knows, when I find something I enjoy, I like to share it with everyone I know. And, through this column, with people I don't know. In the last year, I've read several super-hero novels of varying quality, the best of them, in the last week or two.
The first, in this recent bunch of superhero novels was Soon I Will Be Invincible, by Austin Grossman. I've written about it before, in this space. Then came Devil's Cape, by Rob Rogers, but are very good. Imaginative and well-written.
Then I stumbled onto Hush Money and Heroes 'Til Curfew by Susan Bischoff, both as much teen romance as superhero fiction, Bischoff's style has a familiar ring to it. I'm pretty sure she's a Joss Whedon fan. Good stories and characterization, but missing a lot of the world-building that I'm such a fan of, even though there's an interesting world going on around the characters. The scope of the stories just never seems to pull back and show the bigger picture.
Next I read Confessions of a D-List Supervillain by Jim Bernheimer, an interesting twist, in that a D-list super-villain saves the world. A fun read, check it out.
After that, I read They Tell Me I'm the Bad Guy by R. D. Harless, and was very entertained by it. Really hoping he does a sequel, because there's obviously more to see here.Again, we have a villain, a reluctant villain, saving the world.
But, for my money, the best of the lot are the books by Marion G. Harmon (G. for George, in case you wondered) Wearing the Cape, Bite Me: Big Easy Nights, and Villains, Inc. This one has it all. The layered world-building that I enjoy, a variety of interesting characters and some truly novel twists on various character archetypes and superhero tropes.
Ten years before the story begins, an event occurred that caused the first super-humans to appear. For three minutes, there was a worldwide blackout and everyone on Earth lost consciousness. Disaster ensued, of course, many, many people died and some heroes were born that day. The first superhero was then a young baggage handler from Texas, who suddenly manifested superman type powers and flew up to rescue a plummeting airliner. He would become Atlas, later leader of Chicago's premier super-team, The Sentinels.
Admittedly, I used the book cover for reference on both pics in this month's column. Atlas's costume is meant to be leather, padded to make him appear more muscular than he is, because his powers really have nothing to do with muscles. It also helps keep him from being easily recognized out of costume, even though he doesn't have a true secret identity.
About ten years after the Event, a college freshman is caught up in a terrorist incident, a villain drops a section of freeway overpass on her car. This triggers her "breakthrough" and she manifests Atlas-type powers, herself. Right from the first, she proves herself a true hero.
The advent of super-humans did not leave the world unchanged. The sudden appearance of super-humans has caused some fairly major upheavals in the Middle East and China. The President of the United States is a former member of the Sentinels.
The variety of different character types mirrors that of any long running comic universe, there are wizards and monsters and tech-types, as well as the superhero/villain types common in comics.
I think any fan of good comic books will enjoy these books. The second book, Bite Me follows the adventures of Artemis, a vigilante whom Astra befriends in Wearing the Cape. Artemis is a vampire, but a different kind of vampire. Her story actually made me not hate vampires, again.
Please check them out. You can download the first 14 chapters of Wearing the Cape at:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/254299
One other thing I noticed...this guy is as bad as me about sticking characters with "A" names.
Joe L. Singleton
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www.heroblog.com
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Copyright © 2013 Joe Singleton
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