Book Review: Superheroes edited by Rich Horton
Superheroes as we know them more or less started in the comic books of the late 1930s, with the most obvious first “true” superhero being Superman. And comic books have largely shaped our perceptions of costumed superheroes ever since. But sometimes prose is a perfectly acceptable way of writing about people with unusual powers and distinctive appearances who fight crime and injustice. There have been quite a few anthologies of short stories in the field, and this is one of them.
The sixteen stories cover various aspects of the superhero genre, from the superheroes themselves, through supervillains, and to the civilians who have to try to survive in these larger than life worlds. The lead story is “Sunlight Society” by Margaret Ronald. A nethead (a cyborg able to interface with computers) is called in to deal with a virus in a superhero base’s computer. But that’s not all he’s there for, and the information he seeks will cost him dearly.
“Wonjjiang and the Madman of Pyongyang” by Gord Sellar is the story of a South Korean superhero who’s been forced into the role of leader for a multi-national team operating in his homeland and sometimes in neighboring countries. Unfortunately, politics has freed his North Korean nemesis, budget cuts have gotten Wonjjiang laid off, and our hero’s overbearing mother is pushing him to get married. (Sadly, the one woman he’s interested in already has a boyfriend.) One of the more “traditional” superhero stories in the book.
A couple of the stories are of special interest. “Wild Card” by Leah Bobet is set in the Shadow Unit continuity, about a secret group of government agents that normally battle serial killers who’ve developed super-powers. Except that this time, the “anomaly” has picked on someone whose personal mythology comes from comic books, and he’s decided to become a full-fledged super-villain. Somewhat lighter than the usual Shadow Unit story.
Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn) contributes “Dirae.” Suddenly in the city there’s a woman who appears out of nowhere to save lives like a real-life superhero, then vanishes again until the next rescue. It’s told from the perspective of that woman as she slowly comes to realize she literally does disappear between those incidents, with no clue where she’s spending the rest of her time, if any. She tries to work out who she really is and what’s happening to her. Mr. Beagle is an excellent fantasy writer, and this is one of the best stories in the book.
The weakest story for me was “Secret Identity” by Kelly Link. A young woman comes to a hotel to meet a man she got to know on the internet; by coincidence (or is it?) there’s a superhero convention going on at the same time. The secrets she’s been keeping from her prospective lover are compared to a hero’s secret identity. I didn’t like the main character and found most of the people she interacted with boring. Overall, a decent collection of 21st Century superhero themed writing.
There’s some vulgar language and sexual situations in the stories, and a couple of them deal with euthanasia. I’d recommend this to senior high students and up.
