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.

Comments

Stevo Darkly | July 28, 2008, 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 | July 28, 2008, 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 | July 28, 2008, 8:00pm | #

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

Douglas Fletcher | July 29, 2008, 8:07am | #

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

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

Stevo Darkly | July 30, 2008, 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.