Have you ever noticed how history so often ends with naked men in the desert? Alexander the Great died stark, raving mad, at the age of 30, in the desert. General George A. Custer was found after Little Big Horn, naked, except for one sock, one boot, and an arrow through his penis [It’s true, ask your history teacher]. Maybe, it is only men who seek to change the flow of destiny that end up naked in the desert? But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning….
I grew up loving comic books and it’s obvious that Austin Grossman author of, “Soon I Will Be Invincible,” did too. The realm of heroes and villains gets an irradiated dose of angst and realism in this quirky debut novel from Grossman, who also works as a video-game design consultant
The story is told from the perspectives of two main characters. There’s Dr. Impossible, a diabolical, super-villain and sufferer of Malign Hypercognition Disorder (you know evil, mad genius syndrome). Who sometimes wonders if “whether the smartest man in the world has done the smartest thing he could with his life?” He’s lost his freedom, his girlfriend, and his hidden island fortress.
And then there’s Fatale, a lonely cyborg and the newest edition to the world’s greatest super-hero team, the Champions. She’s a mixture of flesh and chrome, a gleaming piece of technological might that was built to be the next generation of warfare, but she struggles with a damaged past, and questions her own self worth, her appearance. Not to mention that being a cybernetic organism is high maintenance, and forget being a mother–that’s where the atomic power plant went.
The world is hard on evil geniuses. I mean, all I ever wanted was to be an answer to a trivial pursuit question, a question on Jeopardy, to write my name in the snow. I empathize with Doctor Impossible. Over the years he’s tried to take over the world in every way imaginable: doomsday devices, robot armies, insect armies, dinosaur armies, traveling backward in time to change history, forward in time to escape it. All failures, but this time it’s going to be different.
The timing for Austin Grossman’s ambitious and entertaining first novel couldn’t be more fitting. With movie franchises like “X-Men” and the “Spider-Man” films storming the box office, and programs like “Heroes” dominating television, his funny, refreshing look at the world of heroes and villains offers the wit and charm that is sometimes lacking from the more serious side of comic book heroes: “To be a super-villain, you need to have certain things. Don’t bother with a secret identity, that’s a hero thing.” The rumor mill has it that this book is already being made into a movie, and you can bet that there won’t be any waiting a half hour to blow something up, or any dance numbers.
This is classic super hero fare with giant robots, mystical relics, and snazzy form fitting outfits. Every comic book cliché is affectionately embraced, and then smashed to pieces. What makes this different is the intimate look into the psyche of both the heroes and the villains, because even Metahumans are people. People who worry about shopping lists, relationships and their latest endorsements. So grab a beach chair, some sun, and settle in for a pleasurable and engaging read that will win over diehard comic superhero fans and newbies alike.
Oh, the hubris of evil, the arrogance that is me! All I wanted was my name to echo throughout the ages, to have school children forced to write my name on pop quizzes, to have my likeness carved on a mountainside. But here I lie naked in the blistering desert sun, with one boot Soon, I will have the power. Soon, the world will be mine. Soon, I shall be invincible!