Enemies & Allies

Review

Kevin J. Anderson’s Enemies & Allies is a pulpy little alternate history story starring Batman and Superman as they struggle to maintain peace between the Americans, the Soviets, and the military-industrial complex. Like the older genre novels and Golden Age comics that no doubt formed the novel’s inspiration, the prose is perfectly straightforward and devoid of any and all pretense. It’s a science fiction take on the Cold War as perceived by two of America’s most iconic superheroes, and doesn’t feel the need to pretend it’s anything else.

The novel begins with a mutual distrust between the two main characters and their attempts to figure out their opponent’s motivations. As they slowly begin to realize their compatibility, the larger plot pitting corporation against corporation and hegemony against hegemony begins unfolding itself. Anderson plays quite a bit with contrasts here, juxtaposing Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor’s respective bids for government contracts with America and the Soviet Union’s attempts to preserve their status as the premier international superpower. Though the more obvious and prominent comparison takes place between the idealistic, highly visible Superman and the more cynical, coldly private Batman.

Anderson admits that he takes some liberties with the historical timelines, such as Joseph McCarthy being alive during the launch of Sputnik. It’s unnecessary, but I appreciate the effort he put into giving readers the actual facts behind the real people and events present in the novel. In spite of the changes, Anderson’s research still shows through the story. Lois Lane’s determined struggle against the glass ceiling reflects many of the frustrations experienced by women remaining in the work force following World War II. Though she unsurprisingly ends up playing the classic damsel in distress role, Lois at least does so in a manner that subverts the gender politics of the time. In many ways, she actually came off as a more interesting character than the alien Superman and übermensch Batman. If nothing else, this version of Lois Lane is far less insulting than the hilariously politically incorrect portrayals from the early half of the twentieth century.

Bibliographic Information

Anderson, Kevin J. Enemies & Allies. New York: William Morrow, 2009.

Further Reading

Though not a novel, Darwyn Cooke’s DC: The New Frontier harnesses the same Cold War tension as Enemies & Allies, placing familiar superheroes in a universe closer to our own reality. It’s a stunning piece of both art and literature that even those who do not enjoy comic books may find impressive.

~Riot

Soon I Will Be Invincible

Review

The vast majority of my superhero intake comes from comic books and their inevitable movie adaptations, so I was curious to read Austin Grossman’s novel Soon I Will Be Invincible as a familiar story in a new (to me) format. It is a relatively straightforward superhero tale, though it dabbles occasionally in postmodern self-awareness regarding the stereotypes and clichés of the genre. Enough to add some cheeky interest, but not so much it comes off as cynical or mocking towards the inspirational material. Kudos to Grossman for successfully striking such a difficult balance.

Soon I Will Be Invincible features two narrators, each on opposite sides of the law. It opens with the villian Dr. Impossible, one of the “one thousand, six hundred and eighty-six enhanced, gifted, or otherwise super-powered persons” (3) on the planet, rotting in prison following his twelfth attempt at global domination. His story of rising through the ranks of supervilliany is juxtaposed with that of novice heroine Fatale. Following a marvelous technological reconstruction after being nearly obliterated by a speeding bus, Fatale struggles with both her new identity as a half-cyborg and her place as the newest recruit on an elite crimefighting team. While the first-person accounts of each narrator’s experiences are intriguing, it is Fatale’s bittersweet revelations and emotional trials that stand as the most tragic and multidimensional.

Though the villian’s perspective can sometimes offer a different and compelling take on the good-versus-evil dynamic, Dr. Impossible – practically by his own admission – is motivated by little more than his own flat greed and lust for power. There could have been much more to his character, I think, but all that is offered is a typical blind avarice and bland recounting of unrequited love. Perhaps that was Grossman’s intention, however, and even though my personal preference would have been to see a little more meat on Dr. Impossible’s character, I can understand how that fits into the narrative as a whole.

Fatale is the true heart of the story, and the novel is worth reading simply because her attempts to come to terms with her cyborg implants and rookie status offer genuine emotion and pathos. She and Dr. Impossible both grapple with feelings for partners they will never have, but the pangs in her flesh-and-iron heart plunge far further into the complexity of how it effects her in a manner that readers can relate to much easier. Likewise, in coming to grips with inhabiting a new body and trying to fit in with a new set of allies can conjure up similar sympathies in readers since such experiences are almost universal.

My sole complaint is how Fatale and Dr. Impossible speak with similar cadence as narrators. The pacing of the novel is not thrown off by this, thankfully, but as they are two completely different characters it would make sense for them to relate their experiences and feelings in their own personal parlance. Not quite to the point of over-the-top vernacular, of course, but maybe some subtle verbal quirks to differentiate between who is speaking to the audience. Grossman writes with a graceful prose and certainly deserves note for that; I just think it would have perhaps better established Dr. Impossible and Fatale as narrators if we could hear the stories in comparatively more unique voices.

Bibliographical Information

Grossman, Austin. Soon I Will Be Invincible. New York: Pantheon, 2007.

Further Reading

Subtract superpowers. Add fervent Cold War paranoia and a blood-spattered underworld and you have the graphic novel that every psychological evaluation of the superhero genre has sought to emulate and recreate since 1986, but has yet to beat – Alan Moore’s and David Gibbons’s Watchmen. Any comic or book that aims to deconstruct and explore the nuances and personalities that drive superhero stories that has been published since then owes a debt of gratitude to this masterpiece.

~Riot