Good Superhero Stories

Good stories about heroes can be found outside the funny pages, it turns out. Last summer I read Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible and I enjoyed it immensely. The story shifts between the perspectives of Doctor Impossible, a brilliant scientist, global menace and loser; and Fatale, a lonely cyborg and rookie addition to a JLA-like group of heroes known as The Champions. The dynamics and characters of the story will feel familiar to comic reading veterans, but the ride through courtesy of the villain and  struggling heroine are pure fun.

 

If you'd like to find out a little bit more about the author, his background and what inspired him to write, NPR spoke to him in October 2007. 

There's a whole world out there of comic-book-inspired fiction and I've only just scratched the surface. There is Perry Moore's Hero; Jonathan Lethem's Fortress of Solitude; Tom de Haven's It's Superman; From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain by Minister Faust; Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis and The Devil You Know by Mike Carey. Star Clipper has almost all of the above titles in stock right now, but I'd love to get feedback from those of you who have already picked some of them up. Stay tuned as I report on more, true believers!

-AJ