Reason Magazine

Print|Email

Reason Writers Around Town: Brian Doherty on Superheroes

In the New York Post, Senior Editor Brian Doherty reviews a new collection of superhero short stories and ponders the enduring appeal of caped crusaders and masked avengers.

Read all about it here.

Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason at any time.

|7.28.08 @ 5:33PM|

Second paragraph of Brian's review made me laugh (yes, out loud):

Dealing with the easily absurd notion of the superhero in a more realistic, gritty, human way than the old-fashioned comic book conception is not a new idea - even in comic books. When the editors announce they will be presenting heroes who are "conflicted, frustrated, freaked out ... a little nuts ... a lot like us," it sounds like the mission statement of Stan Lee when his Marvel Comics reinvented the superhero in the 1960s. But not even Lee dealt with the tragi-comic aftermath of a flying superhero's philandering with dozens of young woman in a small southern town, as in Will Clarke's "The Pentecostal Home for Flying Children."

I'm going to get this book.

Neu Mejican|7.28.08 @ 7:55PM|

Stevo...

You will probably like this one too...

Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex

By Larry Niven

http://www.rawbw.com/~svw/superman.html

Brian Carnell|7.28.08 @ 8:00PM|

Austin Grossman's novel 'Soon I Will Be Invincible' is a nice, moderately humorous take on the superhero genre.

|7.29.08 @ 8:07AM|

"ponders the enduring appeal of caped crusaders and masked avengers"

Maybe we're just a nation of dorks, who knows.

|7.30.08 @ 2:48PM|

Stevo...

You will probably like this one too...

Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex

By Larry Niven

http://www.rawbw.com/~svw/superman.html


Thanks -- but I've actually read that one already! I think it's in my copy of Niven's All the Myriad Ways collection.

It's a classic.

Leave a Comment

advertisements

Get Reason E-mail Updates!

Manage your Reason e-mail list subscriptions

Site comments/questions:

Media Inquiries and Reprint Permissions:


(310) 367-6109

Editorial & Production Offices:

3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd.
Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 391-2245