Enemies & Allies

Enemies and Allies sets forth a comic book thriller set in the early 1950s, creating a weird time frame with both Batman and Superman just a couple of years into their superhero gigs (even though both origins are one or two decades earlier, respectively). They're both still figuring out how to make their own lives work when they both stumble upon a plot involving Lex Luthor, a rogue Communist general, Area 51, unbelievably advanced technology, and, they each believe, the other vigilante. This makes them enemies. Until they, inevitably, become allies.

This is a cool setup. And I wanted it to work. There are some nice mid-century touches. The novel format should allow us a bit deeper into each man's head than a comic usually does. I liked show more the chance to play amateur psychologist with these guys.

But the writing gets in the way, and so does the plot. There are huge sections where the author seems to have forgotten the old writing chestnut: show, don't tell. He explains everything. Sometimes before something happens. Sometimes without giving a plausible chain of events. Things just happen. This managed to ruin any chance I had of enjoying the formulaic plot, which seemed borrowed from any number of sources, including Watchmen.

With interesting storytelling, I could have easily lost myself in the hackneyed plot and allowed it to unfold. Instead, I found myself almost screaming, just tell the story, and then skipping over whole sections where I was pretty sure I knew what was going on (especially the pointless Lois Lane and Jimmy Olson side plots). Anderson must be a better writer than this, otherwise they wouldn't keep letting him into major franchises like Dune, Star Wars, and Star Trek. But I almost felt like he was writing down a couple of grade levels, down to the level of someone's idea of today's early adolescents. But the book is not marketed that way and was not worthy of the knowledgeable, educated comic fans, both teen and adult, who are the book's real target audience. show less

Enemies and Allies takes place in the late 1950s and tells the story of the first meeting of Batman and Superman. I don't like most prose superhero fiction, but this one was enjoyable, well paced, and kept me up well past my bedtime with it's alternating Batman/Superman cliffhanger chapters.

The origin of the "World's Finest" teamup has been told many times before (I can think of 5 versions without straining). This one is one of the better ones, and setting it in the 1950s with the attendant cold war and paranoia rather than '30s or modern day is a nice choice. The novel was a bit darker than you'd expect, especially if you were expecting a "New Frontier" vibe. I still found myself visualizing either Darwin Cooke's bright animation style show more or the 50's Superman tv show. The Clark Kent portrayed in E&A is thankfully not the one dimensional klutzy nebbish from the comics of that era, but more akin to the more competent Kent portrayed by George Reeves.

Things which could have been better - a lot of the fun of a Batman & Superman team up is the mutual suspicion (which this book did have) but tempered with good natured oneupmanship (barely suggested, maybe if there's a sequel). Also, a few jarringly anachronistic words and phrases made it in. And, as more of a Batman fan I was a bit disappointed that he seemed to get less screen time than Superman and his supporting cast. All in all a fast, fun, light read. show less

Enemies and Allies by Kevin J. Anderson is an interesting alternate history look, not only for Batman and Superman’s first meeting but also a new look at the USA of the 1950s, complete with the Cold War and banging shoes at the UN by a certain Russian (nope, not Khrushchev!).

Anderson wrote Last Days of Krypton and then wrote E&A right afterwards, but E&A cannot really be considered a sequel. It stands on its own.

I was impressed how he portrayed Batman as a brooding man who is prepared for anything and makes no assumptions. The “Dark Knight” aspect of Batman was not introduced until the 1980s or so, so to see this in the 1950s was surprising. (Comics history note: the 1950s Batman was fighting alien invaders and wearing rainbow show more colors with his sidekick Robin. No Robin in this alternate!).

Superman has a few run-ins with Lois Lane as he tries to figure out the lovelorn column for the Daily Planet. Even with all his powers (he thinks), he cannot solve these troubling relationship problems. This part of the story is trying to humanize Clark Kent but it comes off as a page filler. Not a lot of character development here. Not even when we meet Ma Kent and Superman tells his mom his troubles – could have left this on the editing floor, Kevin!

The crux of the story centers around Lex Luthor, a corporate magnate who has Wayne Enterprises’ directors in his pocket and collects all sorts of stolen data for his defense contracts.

A kryptonite meteor is being mined by the Russians. It is interesting that this story shows Superman as new to Kryptonite and he weakens at the close proximity to the stuff. Will Batman use it as well?

Neither Batman nor Superman trust each other but they help each other anyway with a common enemy afoot. Tossing nuclear missiles is the least of Superman’s worries!

Bottom Line:

Unfair criticism of Anderson by some reviews as far as character development is concerned but heck, it reads as a comic book and isn’t that the point?

Mixing real corporate espionage with two iconic characters and then creating an alternate history with Luthor’s megalomania and secret Russian spies makes for some fun reading. It’s fast and fun, but probably only good enough to read once. show less

Note: This review is based on an Advance Reader's Edition copy sent by the publisher.

'Enemies and Allies' was a fun, easy read. Kevin Anderson has captured the feel and tropes of the 1950s (Commies and Aliens galore!) as well as the spirit of the 'World's Finest' comics from the same era.

In keeping with its comic book origins, the plot is simple but engaging while the prose format allows Anderson to flesh out the characters in ways those silver age teamups never could. While he may, perhaps, spend a bit too much time providing background and basic characterization for characters who are already American cultural icons, those scenes (and some of the associated 1950's and comic book name checks) are fun and about the time they begin to show more get tiresome, the plot picks up tremendously.

Adding to the enjoyment is the simple fact that both Batman and Superman come across as well characterized. There are no jarring moments for either and their initial distrust of the other hero's motivation and methods was handled well and made their eventual teamup that much stronger.

I definitely recommend 'Enemies and Allies' to anybody who enjoys the characters and is looking for a light and lighthearted escape. show less

Enemies and Allies by Kevin J. Anderson is an interesting alternate history look, not only for Batman and Superman’s first meeting but also a new look at the USA of the 1950s, complete with the Cold War and banging shoes at the UN by a certain Russian (nope, not Khrushchev!).

Anderson wrote Last Days of Krypton and then wrote E&A right afterwards, but E&A cannot really be considered a sequel. It stands on its own.

I was impressed how he portrayed Batman as a brooding man who is prepared for anything and makes no assumptions. The “Dark Knight” aspect of Batman was not introduced until the 1980s or so, so to see this in the 1950s was surprising. (Comics history note: the 1950s Batman was fighting alien invaders and wearing rainbow show more colors with his sidekick Robin. No Robin in this alternate!).

Superman has a few run-ins with Lois Lane as he tries to figure out the lovelorn column for the Daily Planet. Even with all his powers (he thinks), he cannot solve these troubling relationship problems. This part of the story is trying to humanize Clark Kent but it comes off as a page filler. Not a lot of character development here. Not even when we meet Ma Kent and Superman tells his mom his troubles – could have left this on the editing floor, Kevin!

The crux of the story centers around Lex Luthor, a corporate magnate who has Wayne Enterprises’ directors in his pocket and collects all sorts of stolen data for his defense contracts.

A kryptonite meteor is being mined by the Russians. It is interesting that this story shows Superman as new to Kryptonite and he weakens at the close proximity to the stuff. Will Batman use it as well?

Neither Batman nor Superman trust each other but they help each other anyway with a common enemy afoot. Tossing nuclear missiles is the least of Superman’s worries!

Bottom Line:

Unfair criticism of Anderson by some reviews as far as character development is concerned but heck, it reads as a comic book and isn’t that the point?

Mixing real corporate espionage with two iconic characters and then creating an alternate history with Luthor’s megalomania and secret Russian spies makes for some fun reading. It’s fast and fun, but probably only good enough to read once. show less

Once in a while I like to read something out of my comfort zone. This month Kevin J Anderson was good enough to supply me with a book way, way out of my comfort zone. I received a copy of his soon to be released Enemies & Allies, a novel in which The Dark Knight meets The Man of Steel. I have never read a Graphic novel nor have I read a comic book since grade school, but being a big fan of Batman I was delighted to have a chance to read this book.

Anderson sets his story in the 1950’s, which adds to the book’s charm and character. The plot centers on the two super heroes learning to trust each other in order to stop evil Lex Luthor and a General in Stalin’s Russia. I personally liked Anderson’s Cold War inclusion, it made the show more plot believable. Anderson moved the story right along, there never seemed to be a point where the plot dragged.

Though the book Enemies & Allies is not advertized as a young adult novel, I did wonder more than once, if this book was written for 11 year old male readers. The text can be overly simplistic, and the dialog seems to be lifted from older comic books. My 17 year old son read the book the same week as I and found though he liked it, he too wondered what age level Anderson was going for.

The most intriguing aspect of Anderson’s book is the development if Batman. Though some of the back story seems to be lifted from the movie Batman Begins, I found Anderson’s explanation of why Batman does what he does satisfying. I can not say the same for Anderson’s Superman; here Superman comes across as slightly arrogant. The first time we read about Superman saving people Anderson writes “Although it was difficult to show modesty after carrying a giant passenger ship across the sky, the Kents’ had taught him to be humble”. Throughout the book Superman sees himself as protector of the people, yet Anderson never fully explains why this is. After doing such a fine job with Batman’s character development I was a little surprised at this. My son and I had a very interesting conversation about the psychology of both Batman and Superman because of Anderson’s portrayal of Superman; we agree that Batman has better reasons to call himself a super hero.

All in all I have to say this is a fine book for those who love old fashion comic book fun. Anderson can be counted among those who add to the super hero genre and now I can say I read something way out of my comfort zone and enjoyed it. show less

Media tie ins can be good, bad, or okay. This one bordered between good and okay.

Basically what Anderson wrote was a novel length story much like those that were in the comic books around when Superman debuted.

It's set during the Cold War, around the time that Joe McCarthy was persecuting people, Khrushchev banging his shoe and Sputnik was still up in the sky, all he did was add in the fact that Superman can pluck boats from the water and Batman is skulking around a Gotham City that's a separate city from New York, New York (I think).

They're both at the relative beginnings of their careers when the story begins. Anderson does a pretty good job of balancing out the Bruce Wayne versus Batman and Clark Kent versus Superman parts of their show more characters. A lot of writers (in TV, the comics, movies or novels) tend to pick one or the other of the guys identities and stick with that one as the 'real' one, when it should generally be written in a much more sophisticated way than that. Anderson doesn't take that easy way out.

I also like that he takes parts of the restart movies of both franchises and uses the best parts of them here and there throughout the book (I could so see a scene like the one in Martha and Thomas Wayne park taking place in a current Batman movie).

All in all a good solid book. Maybe there will even been a sequel or something. (Oh, and a reference to Oliver Queen, almost gave the book a fourth star just for that). show less