Getting Started in Superhero Fiction

Over the years, he’s tried to take over the world in every way imaginable, using doomsday devices of all varieties (nuclear, thermonuclear, nanotechnological) and mass mind control. He’s traveled backwards in time to change history, forward in time to escape it. He’s commanded robot armies, insect armies, and dinosaur armies. A fungus army. An army of fish. Of rodents. Aliens. All failures. But not this time. This time it’s going to be different.

Fatale is a rookie superhero on her first day with the Champions, the world’s most famous superteam. She’s a patchwork woman of skin and chrome, a gleaming technological marvel built for the next generation of warfare. Filling the void left by a slain former member, we watch as Fatale joins a team struggling with a damaged past, having to come together in the face of unthinkable evil.

Soon I Will Be Invincible is a thrilling first novel, a fantastical adventure that gives new meaning to notions of power, glory, responsibility, and (of course) good and evil.

Review: The first superhero book I ever read and one that left the biggest impression by the brother of the guy who wrote The Magicians. This is the story of Doctor Impossible, a Lex Luthor meets Doctor Doom-esque villain who suffers from Malign Hypercognition Disorder. What does that mean? He’s an evil genius. He can’t not try to take over the world. Opposing him is FATAL, a beautiful cyborg who is a new hero and awkwardly thrust into a group of Teen Titans-style heroes (who haven’t been teens for a while). They’ve been at it for decades but one day, well, Corefire (AKA Superman’s analog) dies and everything changes—or does it?

But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his will. 

Nobody fights the Epics…nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them. 

And David wants in. He wants Steelheart – the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David’s father. For years, like the Reckoners, David’s been studying, and planning – and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience. 

He’s seen Steelheart bleed. 

And he wants revenge.

Review: It would be a poor list without including one of my favorite genre writers. Steelheart, first book of the Reckoners trilogy, deals with a world where superheroes are real and they’re all evil. For whatever reason, gaining a power turns you into a sociopathic monster. Steelheart is the strongest of these heroes and our protagonist wants to take him and every other superhero down. However, things are not what they seem but when are they ever? A great standalone read but also great as part of a trilogy of books.

Now, a year later, the Mighty Dragon and his companions must overcome their differences and recover from their own scars to protect the thousands of survivors sheltered in their film studio-turned-fortress, the Mount. The heroes lead teams out to scavenge supplies, keep the peace within the walls of their home, and try to be the symbols the survivors so desperately need. For while the ex-humans walk the streets night and day, they are not the only threat left in the world, and the people of the Mount are not the only survivors left in Los Angeles. Across the city, another group has grown and gained power. And they are not heroes.

Criminal masterminds, heroes in power armor, bottles of dragon blood, alien war drones, shape-shifters, and ghosts – no matter what the superpowered world throws at her, Penny and her friends come out on top. They have to. If she can keep winning, maybe she can clear her name before her mom and dad find out.

Review: Quite possibly the single most adorable superhero books ever made and ones I almost put on the essential list. The Inscrutable Machine is a trio of superpowered teens who wanted to become superheroes in middle school but have been labeled supervillains. Harmless adorable supervillains. Penny Akk is embracing it with gusto, though, and each of the stories told about the characters is great. Eventually, the books

Reese Roberts was the guardian of Iron City. Its fearless protector. The only one willing to do whatever it takes…until he was shot on the streets and left paralyzed from the waist down. Now, the vigilante known as the Roach has disappeared. Faded into legend. 

It’s been years since Reese could take on crime and clean up the streets. He’s a shriveled old drunk, living like a hermit and waiting for his life to end. All that’s left to do is wallow in the mistakes that led him here. To wonder if he went too far. 

But when a copycat steals his suit and takes justice into his own hands, a new killer emerges, leaving brutal messages behind. He wants to eliminate the Roach for good this time. 

It’s time for Reese to re-emerge from his shell and fight back. Who else can stop the flurry of killings? Definitely not the corrupt police department. Iron City needs the Roach again. Only, this time, he’ll need to save it without his legs.

Review: On the opposite end of the spectrum from the Please Don’t Tell My Parents is The Roach. Reese Roberts was once the Batman-esque protector of Iron City. Except he was a lot meaner and nastier than Batman, barring the Tim Burton and Frank Miller ones. Still, he protected the innocent up until he was paralyzed from the waist down. It’s a fascinating story of disability, struggle, and old fashioned superheroism with an edge. Very dark but very enjoyable.

Apprenticed to one of the world’s most powerful (and supposedly dead) villains, she is thrust into a strange world where the lines that divide superheroes and criminals are more complex than they seem. The education of a villain is not an easy one, and Tori will have to learn quickly if she wants to survive. On top of the peril she faces from her own teacher, there are also the capes and fellow apprentices to worry about, to say nothing of having to keep up a civilian cover.

Most dangerous of all, though, are those who loathe the guild’s very existence. Old grudges mean some are willing to go to any length to see the guild turned to ash, along with each one of its members. Even the lowly apprentices.

Review: Drew Hayes is the undisputed master of indie superhero fiction, which is a somewhat specifically sized pond but no less a kingdom. The Superpowered series and Corpies are both extremely fun, but this is the one that stands above the rest. There’s been a treaty between the villains and heroes for a long time, almost to the point there’s peace, but this is a situation that cannot last. An apprentice supervillain and the world’s strongest man are about to find out how fragile the world they live in is.

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Hope did, but she grew out of it. Which made her superhuman breakthrough in the Ashland Bombing, just before starting her freshman year at the University of Chicago, more than a little ironic. And now she has some decisions to make.

Given the code-name “Astra” and invited to join the Sentinels, Chicago’s premier super-team, will she take up the cape and mask and become a career superhero? Or will she get a handle on her new powers (superstrength has some serious drawbacks) and then get on with her life plan?

In a world where superheroes join unions and have agents, and the strongest and most photogenic ones become literal supercelebrities, the temptation to become a cape is strong. But the price can be high – especially if you’re “outed” and lose the shield of your secret identity.

Becoming a sidekick puts the decision off for awhile, but Hope’s life is further complicated when The Teatime Anarchist, the supervillain responsible for the Ashland Bombing, takes an interest in her. Apparently as Astra, Hope is supposed to save the world. Or at least a significant part of it.

Review: Wearing the Cape is about a world where superpowers appeared in an event called the Breakthrough. Hope Corrigan gains the power of Supergirl when she barely survives a terrorist attack and immediately tries to figure out how superheroes work. A lot of attention is paid to how superheroes “could” work in a semi-plausible world. I also really like Hope, she is a noble and goodhearted heroine but still very believable. The story is also interesting, involving time travel in such a way as to not actually be confusing, as well as asking what is the best response to a transformative event in society.

So it all came down to this. One young woman and an army of misfit toys vs. the assembled might of the nine members of The Junior Super Patriots, West Coast Division who had come to take her down.

They never had a chance.

Velveteen lives in a world of superheroes and magic, where men can fly and where young girls can be abducted to the Autumn Land to save Halloween. Velma lives from paycheck to paycheck and copes with her broken-down car as she tries to escape from her old life.

It’s all the same world. It’s all real. And figuring out how to be both Velveteen and Velma is the biggest challenge of her life, because being super-human means you’re still human in the end.

Join us as award-winning author Seanan McGuire takes us through the first volume of Velveteen’s – and Velma’s – adventure.

Review: Velveteen Versus is one of my favorite book series on this list but sadly is only available on audiobook format as well as online (link: https://seananmcguire.com/velhome.php). Poor Velveteen was sold by her parents to the Super Patriots Corporation. Now an adult and horribly traumatized, she wants to live a normal life, but the corporation never lets any of its assets away. I really enjoyed the book and suggest purchasing all of them on Audible.