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 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.
