Flyboy Action Figure Comes with Gasmask

It's a little hard to decide on the genre of this book. There's people with superpowers as the main characters so maybe it is science fiction. But there's not really any scientific explanation of the superpowers so maybe it is fantasy. On the other hand the main characters seem so normal, fitting in their superpower escapades around their jobs and classes and other activities. So maybe it's literature, a little off the wall, but literature just the same. Whatever it is it was a really fun read. Who knew people in Toronto could be so cool? (she says with her western Canadian bias against anything based in TO)

Ryan is a university student in Toronto. He's from London, ON originally and he seems like a bit of a hick. After all he is 21 and show more still a virgin. He has a major crush on Cassandra, a waitress in the diner he frequents. Oh yes, and he can turn himself into a fly. Cassandra wasn't always a waitress. She is also 21 but she's seen a lot more of life than Ryan. She grew up in BC and was in a punk girl band for a few years. The band fell apart when Cassandra got pregnant (by an alien -- maybe it is science fiction after all). Cassandra decided to move to Toronto (do West Coast people really do that voluntarily?) to have her baby. She's been in Toronto for about 2 years when the book starts. Eventually Ryan works up the nerve to ask Cassandra out and they have a great time. He reveals his big secret to her, something he has never told another person. She invites him over to her place to demonstrate and one thing leads to another. Cassandra realizes that she has the ability to make things disappear and she and Ryan team up to right injustice. One of the first things they do is change a big cigarette billboard because Ryan's mom has breast cancer and Ryan blames it on his mother's cigarette habit.

There's some big issues in this book as well as the humour. Munroe published this book with Harper Collins but he now publishes independently and some of the issues with big media show up in this book. There are also subplots about sexuality and drug use and I've already mentioned the cancer and smoking issue. But, mostly, the book is about young love between two people with superpowers. Well worth the read. show less

How do I get myself into these books?

A twenty-something college student narrator, living with several roommates in Toronto, Canada, finds the girl of his dreams with whom he can share his deep, dark secret--he can turn himself into a fly. She is not shocked by this revelation at all. In fact, she has her own deep, dark secret--she has the ability to make things disappear from the face of the earth.

They were made for each other.

And, though it surprises me to admit this, they have something to say to this forty-something reader who discovered the book on the shelves of the local library and was drawn to the title and the promise of something a little different.

Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gas Mask is not really about being a show more superhero. It's really about living through a stage when your life can go in any direction, and how this knowledge paralyzes when it should liberate. Someone is getting a band together and needs flyers handed out. Someone is performing at a poetry reading. Someone is having a party. There is this girl or this boy someone wants to meet. There's a demonstration this weekend. No one has any money once the rent is paid. Everyone wants school to end, but no one knows what to do after it does.

Why not use your superpowers to stir up the establishment?

I enjoyed Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gas Mask because it captured the sense of stasis of my own college years. Mr. Munroe understands what that experience is like, much the same way that Bryan Lee O'Malley, author of the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World series does. I'm not going to argue one influenced the other here, Mr. Munroe's book is first (1995) for the record, but the two would make an interesting pairing. Being in one's 20's, trying to determine how to move forward and not wanting anything to change turns out to be a lot like falling for a girl with super-powers. show less

I really didn't expect to like this book as much as I did. I picked it up for practically free at a library fundraising sale, stuffed into my huge $5 bag sale bag.

Having had a slightly punk politically minded if not active stage in my late teens, I really related to and liked the characters. Their smart mouthed cynicism reflects people I know and love. And the scifi aspect is more fun than technical, never really explained because the characters themselves don't understand how they came to be the way they are.

Flyboy is a really fun, quick read. I will look for other books by this author.

Two youngsters (Flyboy and Ms.Place) use their super powers to fight cigarette ads, unfair laws, and evil. The plot is sweet and simple; the characters are the main attraction of this book. Each character has their own interests and style of talking--even the protagonist's friend's rival gets character development. The dialog sounds like conversations I'd have myself, and the people talking sound like people I'd like to know. It's all in all a fabulous, energetic take on modern life.

Flyboy is not exactly deep, nor subtle, but Munroe brings rich characterizations and skewed wit to what is admittedly a very strange genre. If Douglas Coupland is the godfather of Canadian quirk, then Munroe is that fun-loving uncle you wish would visit more often.

Read the rest of the review here.

This is a quirky little novel, no doubt about it. I think Munroe is a young writer who hasn't yet come into his full narrative voice--the potential is certainly there, but a few more years of maturity are needed before 4 & 5 star novels start appearing. It reminds me of John Irving's "Setting Free the Bears," a much longer work that hasn't been entertaining enough to me to justify my reading it through.
As should be clear from the other reviews, Flyboy is about a college student who has the ability to turn into a fly. You would think that this capability would open the possibility to some pretty interesting situations--but it really doesn't. Through cosmic coincidence that is never explained, the hero meets and falls in love with a woman show more who turns out to have super powers herself. The source and ramifications of her powers are even more mysterious. Like the Irving book, this is about young idealists who decide to tweak their collective noses at authority through a relatively harmless, yet visible, symbolic act. Munroe's book has so many unfinished story lines that it almost seems as if a sequel were planned.

Looking for works by Canadian authors, I picked this up in a Chapters store during a visit to Toronto. It was fun and I enjoyed it, but a more experienced author would have made it more thought provoking. A psychologically-oriented reader will probably be able to draw some profound connections between Flyboy's angstful search for his identity, recurring questions show less

I loaded this one onto my Palm and was reading it here and there on public transit. Easier to pull out than a book and lighter too. When real e-books happen, I will be on that bandwagon... Anyway, Flyboy was light and entertaining, with endearing characters, goofy and sweet. It was bizarre enough to keep me happy. Cute! (August 10, 2004)