Soon I Will Be Invincible: A Novel

Seriously, as much as this book can be referenced as a slice of comic geek heaven-cake, I can't stress enough that **this book deserves to be read by a wider audience**.

Smartly constructed, superbly written, the foibles and eccentricities of these heroes and villains (and oh what a villain!) are excellently handled. The comic book references are not overbearing, making it very accessible people whose only experience with the genre have been the SUPERMAN and XMEN movies.

This is more of a playful homage to the superhero genre then a deconstruction of it (read "The Watchmen" if you want that), that mostly works because the author appreciates that the villains are almost always more fun then the heroes. In this case particularly since Dr. Impossible is so driven by his resentments and ambitions and enthusiasms (Wil E. Coyote could have been his godfather) that he dominates the book, whereas the team of heroes tasked with bringing him to justice, yet again, are so suffering from the thousand-yard stare that they've lost much of their flair, but they haven't quite yet become anti-heroes. The exception is the new gal Fatale, a cyborg ex-intelligence operative who sees the Champions as a meal ticket (it takes show more a lot of upkeep to keep a half-machine girl going you know), and who has the cynical and conflicted anti-hero pose down pat. Much of the payoff of the novel comes in the form of Dr. Impossible and Fatale having their own personal moments of insight, and moving beyond mere obsession and embracing promethean drive. If I have a particular problem with this book it's that early on Fatale reminds me too much of Justina Robson's character Lila Black, though Grossman does wind up with a character that's considerably different in outlook from Robson's take on the half-machine girl. show less

I’m a comics fan, though I don’t read them much any more, and I generally enjoy superhero prose. Other than Marvel and DC novelizations and adaptations, this genre used to be pretty hard to come by, save for George R. R. Martin’s Wild Cards series and John Varley’s old Superheroes anthology. In the last few years, we’ve seen a resurgence of superhero fiction – which I’m glad to see – and this is one of the most popular and widely-known of these recent efforts.

Please note that some mild plot spoilers follow.

Soon I Will Be Invincible is really two interlinked stories, told in first-person perspective in alternating chapters. The first concerns Dr. Impossible, a super-villain “evil genius” who has been defeated a dozen show more times by the super-heroes of the setting and begins the novel in prison. As an evil genius who always has a plan, he quickly escapes to try to take over the world again. The second story is told from the perspective of Fatale, a novice cyborg superheroine who has just been invited to join the world’s premier superhero team. She and her teammates are desperate to find and stop Dr. Impossible, not the least of which because he is suspect numero uno in the death of the world’s most powerful superhero.

Grossman examines and in some cases deconstructs the various tropes we have come to expect in all comic-book superhero stories. Present here are analogues of all the major superheroes (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, etc.), along with some unexpected ones (e.g., there is a retired superheroine who is an adult analogue of Lucy from the Chronicles of Narnia). Everyone in the book is flawed, heroes and villains alike – which adds to the book’s charm – but it’s clear that Grossman loves the genre, unlike some authors (who shall remain nameless here) who set out to deconstruct and thereby destroy the genres they dissect. Characterization is thorough and vivid, the plot is clever with plenty of action and plotting, and the dialogue is witty. Grossman is an extremely talented writer and I hope we see some more fiction from him soon. Soon I Will Be Invincible came out in 2008 – what’s taking you so long, man?

The novel is action-packed, insightful, funny, and at times, poignant. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I give this one 4 stars out of 5, and I’d have rated it higher had the ending been stronger. If you enjoy superhero comics or prose at all, you should check this one out, as it made quite a splash when it came out, and is a strong entry in the genre.

Review copyright 2011 J. Andrew Byers show less

Soon I Will Be Invincible is Austin Grossman's super-hero novel which currently has Hitch art plastered on phone boxes across the country. It's the story of Doctor Impossible, possibly the world's greatest super-villain, freshly broken out of prison once again and set on his latest world-conquering scheme, and Fatale, an ex-NSA cyborg who's been recruited into the newly reformed superhero team the Champions, as they struggle to find out what's happened to their missing former colleague, the Superman-esque CoreFire. The story is told in alternating first-person narrative between these two, as the heroes inevitably get drawn into Impossible's plans.

This is a funny book to read, and one whose biggest strength is probably also its greatest show more weakness - the matter of fact style that Grossman adopts in approaching all the standard features of the superhero genre. His characters take everything exactly as it comes, and while they frequently stop to convey the wonder and sheer unreality of what it'd be like to live in a world with super-powered peopl ein it, they also reflect on all the mundane aspects of that that often get neglected. The result is similar to one of those TV programmes where stage magicians explain how they do all their tricks - on one level it's fascinating, but on another, it feels as if a spell is being broken and you're seeing aspects of a world that really, you're better off not knowing about.

Grossman also touches on virtually every standard superhero plot and character point you can think of. His core characters are obvious riffs on famous comic characters, and superhero plots are thrown in from left, right and centre, often in casual throwaway moments. When you're already very familiar with those characters and plots, it served to pull me out of the narrative a bit, as part of my brain was continually going "oh yeah, that's so and so" or "ah, yeah, he's taken that from THERE".

Plotwise there's nothing too startling going on here; Fatale deals with the rookie-joining-the-established-team thing as they search for the truth behind CoreFire's disappearance; and Impossible is a thoughtfully cackling villain, going through the motions of trying to conquer the world one more time. The plots come together with a few fairly predictable twists, then leave off with a degree of open-endedness which I am assuming is intended more to play off that aspect of superhero genre writing than to leave open any possibility for a sequel - the book is complete in and of itself I'd reckon.

The highpoint is without a doubt Doctor Impossible, a thoroughly likeable super-villain who is struggling as much with the genre conventions of his role as he is with the day to day business of fighting the heroes and taking over the world. I'm not sure if it was Grossman's intention, or just that he fails to make his heroes as likable as his villain, but I was definitely rooting for the nefarious plans of the good Doctor in the final battle rather than for the heroes...

Overall then a reasonably enjoyable book, but a slightly frustrating one. Quite how much of that is due to its over-familiarity with the genre to folk who know it, I'm not sure - I'd be interested to see what non-comics readers make of it. Unlike other books which occupy this subgenre where superheroes meets mainstream narrative fiction, this is an utterly stereotypical example of what you would expect if someone set out to write a 'literary' novel about superheroes. Worth a read if you're curious, but there are better things to occupy your time.

Oh ... and while the appendices at the back are mildly diverting, the real surprise at the end of the book was the colour end-plates of fictional comic covers for The Champions, all drawn by Hitch - an unexpected pleasure after the reading was done. show less

I love this book. It's flawed and too many characters talk too bluntly about their origins like it's all a big old group therapy session, but I love the psychology of the book. I love the contrasting viewpoints of the heroine and villian. I love that Dr. Impossible seems so sick of the bullshit, that both sides are having identity crises all over the place, that the Superman-analogue is a jerk and the Batman-analogue is autistic. I love that the author took the concept down to the sociological level, that superpowers affect everything from the economy to the housing market to the neighborhoods gathering around superfights like they would a car accident. This book is so, so full of happy for me.

This is a must read for anyone who appreciates good sarcasm. If you don't particular like super heros or comic books you can still appreciate the rich irony and oh so delicious cynicism the author dispenses with a shovel.

Also a surprisingly feminist message is delivered in the end. Which just tickled me to no end. I could just feel the the greasy taco slide from the fleshy fingers of the Fanboy Comicbook Guys as the they read the final chapters. The insipid "What?!" frozen to their face as they realize "I have read a Grrrl book!"

I will be looking for more works from mister Grossman.

I find it interesting that so many compare this book to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's Watchmen, because in truth this book is the converse of Watchmen. Moore's premise was: What would the world *really* be like if there were costumed crimefighters? If there were an invincible, superpowered hero? He took the world of comic books apart.

Grossman, on the other hand, accepts the comic-book universe in all its glorious and inglorious silliness: super-science, mysterious aliens, alternate continuities, time travel, lab accidents creating superpowers, magic, and supervillains who always lose in the end. Then he tries to give characters in this world believable, human motivations and emotions.

He is not entirely successful at this. Fatale, the show more cyborg who is one of the two viewpoint characters, never feels as fully fleshed out (if you'll pardon the expression) as the other viewpoint character, the villain Doctor Impossible. (Lily would have been a more interesting character, but it would have been nearly impossible to use her for viewpoint while keeping secret her big reveal at the novel's climax.) And he strikes the occasional false note, as when Fatale, early on, refers to someone as resembling a Star Trek villain -- I don't think Star Trek would exist in the world he has presented us with.

However, on the whole Soon I Will Be Invincible is an enjoyable, compulsively readable, and -- strangely enough -- believable novel. Nearly every subplot and character arc is brought to a satisfying climax, and if at the end we are left wanting more Doctor Impossible, that dedicated scientist would have it no other way. show less