Masked

May 24, 2010
Anders (Fast Forward) delivers an ambitious collection of superhero tales that provide top-notch plots and characterizations while honoring their four-color roots. In Daryl Gregory's superbly metafictional "Message from the Bubble Gum Factory," a former sidekick finally realizes the broader implications of superheroes. Stephen Baxter nicely applies hard science to the futuristic "Vacuum Lad." Gail Simone's "Thug" and Mike Carey's "The Non-Event" bolster predictable plots with solid characters and prose. Joseph Mallozzi's "Downfall" and Marjorie M. Liu's "Call Her Savage" embrace comics clichés and make them both more complex and more entertaining. Only Mike Baron's dull, heavy-handed, and predictable "Avatar" stands out as noticeably weak, though Peter and Kathleen David's witty "Head Cases" feels more like the opening of a novel than a complete story. Overall, Anders has assembled a solid anthology that provides first-rate entertainment.

July 1, 2010
Since Clark Kent first donned his red cape in 1938, comic-book superheroes have been steadily gaining notoriety in all niches of popular culture. In the last decade, with novels such as Michael Chabons Pulitzer-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Klay (2000), superheroes have even gained respectability in mainstream literature. This volume of short fiction, featuring all manner of costumed crusaders and average-appearing citizens harboring secret crime-fighting identities, continues the trend. Under the guardianship of Prometheus Books SF editor Anders, some of the leading names in comics and speculative fiction make contributions here. The superhero in Matthew Sturges Cleansed and Set in Gold, obtains his assorted powers from consuming the flesh of other dead superheroes. Mike Barons Avatar recounts a martial-arts-trained teens disillusioning efforts to deliver vigilante justice. Stephen Baxters Vacuum Lad is a Saudi-born superhero wannabe who fortuitously survives a space accident. Although several tales stray into pulp-fiction territory, countering Anders promises of literary merit, every author here provides abundant creative vision and a sure sense of heroic storytelling.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)