Customer Reviews

Who Can Save Us Now?: Brand-New Superheroes and Their Amazing (Short) Stories

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Most short story collections I have read have been fairly even in the stories contained within the particular collection, as far as how much I have enjoyed them or how well I felt they were written. Who Can Save Us Now? is an exception to that.

There are several very good stories that I enjoyed quite a bit - notably Tom Biessell's My Interview with the Avenger and Owen King's The Meerkat.

However, others were not up to par for me, with weak, obvious or missing plots (In Cretaceous Seas, Mr. Big Deal).

The good ones were worth getting through the not-so-good ones, none of them are overly long to feel your time was wasted. Four or five stars for the good ones, two or three for the others, average rating for the book of three stars.

The last decade or so has seen a remarkable "legitimization" of graphic storytelling, be ranging from indie "comix" to the superhero genre. The latter is a genre that's come to dominate the summer movie season, and with literati such as Jonathan Lethem and Michael Chabon as its paladins, it shouldn't be surprising that more and more fiction writers find it intriguing. This collection of twenty-two stories, six of which appeared previously in such places as Virginia Quarterly Review and One Story, gathers some of these experiments in an attempt to reimagine the superhero's place in our everyday real world. One note of caution is necessary: though the word "superhero" appears in the subtitle and on the jacket, it might convey the wrong message. The protagonists of these stories are not so much heroes as they are people with paranormal abilities or attributes -- which are sometimes put to heroic purposes and sometimes not. So, if you're looking for new takes on the traditional Superman/Batman/Wolverine/Etc. superhero, you might be disappointed.

However, if what you're looking for are interesting writers taking on an interesting premise, then you won't be disappointed. I tend to measure anthologies by their ratio of stories I'm glad to have read vs. stories I'm not glad to have read, and that usually works out to roughly 1:2. In this case the ratio is reversed, and there are really only two or three stories I really didn't care for. I generally really like Jim Shepard, but his "In Cretaceous Seas" just didn't work for me, and feels somewhat shoehorned into this collection (it previously appeared in Vice). And Richard Dooling's "Roe #5" was a rather conventional clone-gone-wild story. But almost every story has at least one interesting idea or conceit that makes it worth reading. For example, although I didn't love Will Clarke's "The Pentecostal Home for Flying Children," I did enjoy the notion of a horny superhero leaving behind a bunch of bastard children with the ability to fly.

My favorite stories were probably the melancholy ones, such as David Yoo's tragicomic "The Somewhat Super," about a secret support group for those with useless paranormal powers, or Scott Snyder's "The 13th Egg," about a sailor whose exposure to atomic bomb tests in the Pacific turns him into a post-traumatic stress victim with mutant powers. The two real stunning pieces were Cary Holladay's "The Horses Are Loose," about a girl who can only use her power once in her life and must make the difficult choice of when to do so, and J. Robert Lennon's "The Rememberer," about a girl whose perfect memory dooms her to a lifetime of sorrow. Which is not to suggest there aren't some more whimsical pieces, most notably Sam Weller's "The Quick Stop 5," about a colorful crew of convenience store workers who are transformed into strange superheroes after inhaling some toxic fumes. Other standouts include Tom Bissell's mock Esquire-style magazine profile of a vigilante superhero and Stephanie Harrell channelling a somewhat jaded Lois Lane on the topic of Superman's early days.

On the whole, the collection works well as both an accessible introduction to some of American short fiction's young talent, and as an example of how a mostly visual genre can be reimagined in fiction.

Usually when I'm reading an anthology I'll find a few outstanding stories sandwiched in between tales of varying quality. So you can imagine my surprise as I made my way through this collection and found story after story after story that delighted and impressed me. The origin stories were definitely my favorite, but I appreciated all the different takes on the superhero genre, and was happy to experience characters that were new and immediately accessible. If you like fantastical tales, but don't want to deal with the decades of continuity attached to folks like Spiderman, Superman, and the X-Men, this collection is your answer. It proves, without a shadow of a doubt, that superheroes are more complex than we give them credit for, and gives comic book fans a new form in which to experience their preferred method of storytelling. Chris Burnham's illustrations are an added bonus, capturing the essence of each piece with his skillful hand.

The cover of "Who Can Save Us Now" is an homage to the quintessential comic book, Action Comics #1. The primary colors arranged just so, the burst effect around the graphic, even the brown tape along the spine, all combine to elicit a primeval attraction within a comic book fan. However, where Action #1 has as its main focus the introduction of Superman, complete with that iconic pose of him smashing a car on a boulder while bad guys flee in terror, "Who Can Save Us Now" has a portrait of a pensive man dressed in a leotard and cape gazing out of an office window. This should have been the first clue that these weren't going to be stories about superheroes that your grandfather read as a child.

A comic book is a lot like a soap opera, only with capes and cool codenames: At the end of an action-packed episode, the main players cannot come out changed. Superman will always be 29, Spider-Man will always be down on his luck, Aquaman will always be lame. Too much change tends to isolate fans, who are usually either OCD afflicted individuals that need all change in their lives to be submitted in triplicate three months beforehand, or emotionally stunted boy-men that still can't accept they aren't thirteen any more. This leaves comic book stories as the ultimate anecdotes. Fun and adventurous anecdotes, sure, but anecdotes nonetheless. Short stories are different. What they typically lack in action, they make up with the life lessons or universal truths exposed through the changes that occur to the characters. A short story should pack an emotional punch and leave the reader feeling like they have been decked by one of the superheroes in the aforementioned comic books. Unfortunately, the stories in "Who Can Save Us Now" pick the worst elements of both of these and pack no punches, emotional or otherwise. If you're expecting anything groundbreaking from it, stay far away.

No, there isn't a lot of action in "Who Can Save Us Now." In most short story collections this isn't a problem; oftentimes the best ones are considered so because of the emotional action they contain. Thing is, the stories here don't contain much of an emotional impact either.

About half of the tales contained in the book are pointless. "The Horses are Loose" (one-shot super-powered girl tries to help her mother), "Quick Stop 5" (band of gas station misfits obtain super powers), and "League of Justice (Philadelphia Division)" (fifth-line heroes save the day) are some that fall into this category. These, along with "In Cretaceous Seas," "The Sisters of St. Misery," "Mr. Big Deal," and "The Somewhat Super" have weak or non-existing themes and what action sequences they do contain are rendered ineffectual by their author's mediocre writing skills. Skip them. Other stories like "Roe #5" (aborted baby comes back to visit), "The Rememberer" (woman never forgets), and "Bad Karma Girl Wins at Bingo" (self-explanatory) are also pointless for these same reasons, but at least have interesting or unique concepts to fall upon. They're short enough that you can read them and not feel like you've wasted too much time.

Three of the stories -- "Girl Reporter" (Lois Lane tells all), "The Oversoul" (crazy voyeur saves the day), and "Nate Pinckney-Alderson, Superhero" (the idols of naive children) -- all have some semblance of a theme, but the characters are so reprehensible that all that shines through are their perverse character flaws. Poor execution by their authors doom them to failure.

Still others -- "The Meerkat" (cliched love story of a hapless, insecure superhero), "When the Heroes Came to Town" (more insecurity), "Man Oh Man, It's Manna Man" (didn't cliched stories about evil preachers go out of style circa 1989?), and "My Interview With the Avenger" (portrait of a vigilante) -- fall solidly in the middle of the pack. They're all competently written, have a modest amount of action, and at least attempt to have some semblance of a theme. But there's nothing here that hasn't already been said a hundred time already and they contain no outstanding prose to make reading any of them worthwhile.

The remaining stories lead the group. "Remains of the Night" (the twisted story of a hapless Batman-like character as told by his butler) and "The Pentecostal Home For Flying Children" (what happens when papa, the rolling stone, is also a superhero) are very well-written tales that illuminate interesting themes, but ultimately fail in the execution of their endings. Skip the last page of each; you'll feel better for having done it. "The Thirteenth Egg" (boy returns from WWII with a burning secret) suffers from the same pattern, but it's so well-written and deals with the theme of "you can't go home again" so astutely that it ends up being a real joy to read. Again, just skip the last page.

Arguably the best story in the book is "The Lives of Ordinary Superheroes," a tale of aging and ultimately moving on. Like "The Thirteenth Egg," its theme is quite poignant, but it doesn't suffer from a weak ending. However, its author's uneven writing style does tend to occasionally distract during its reading. Don't give up on it, though; it's a real gem (at least in relation to its compatriots). Plus, it's the last story in the collection, which, if you're one of those masochists who just have to finish a book no matter how bad it is, will add to its enjoyment.

In the end, I just cannot recommend this book, no matter how big of a comic book or superhero fan you may be.

This book is not only about superheroes, it's about superheroes by people who know how to write. Tom Bissell's story is about a magazine writer who secures a one-on-one interview with a superhero-slash-masked vigilante. John McNally's story is about a human-sized silverfish superhero (dubbed "the creepy superhero") as told from his servent's perspective. Will Clarke's story is about the offspring of a certain libidinous superhero: the orphan boys now fly around Shreveport and spy on sunbathing girls. David Yoo writes about a group (a support group?) of men and women with dubious powers; nonetheless, they're afraid the government will want to exploit them. Sam Weller's "The Quick Stop 5" is about a group of slackers who work at a Quick Stop and gain powers based on what they're holding when there's a toxic tanker spill in the parking lot. Some of these are origin stories in the best comic book tradition. Some are stories about the dark nature of being a superhero. Some are hilarious. Some are downright creepy, like Richard Dooling's "Roe #5", which reminds me of the kind of scary old-time sci-fi stories I read when I was a kid. (Except that this one isn't for kids.) This book has killer Russian robots (Owen King's story), a young girl who can use her power only once (Cary Holliday's story), a town menaced by the presence of superheroes (Michael Czyniejewski's story ). And more. Jennifer Weiner, who's famous for her book GOOD IN BED, has a story in here, too. I know I wrote mostly about the stories by guys (probably because I'm a guy) but there are stories by several women, too. This is a great book. In all honesty, it may be more to the liking of someone who likes Michael Chabon, etc., than someone who strictly reads superhero comic books, but I would think anyone interested in reading new takes on an old genre would be interested in this one. BTW...Nothing I wrote here is a spoiler. These are just the premises to get the stories going. I tried to touch on several of them because I don't think the person above me (or is the dude below me?) even read the book, which is too bad. It's a truly unique collection.

Finally finished it!

"Who Can Save Us Now?" is good, not great!

If you where to only read the best stories, it's a five star quality book, but everyone has their own opinion on which stories were best, so your stuck reading them all and deciding for yourself....

It seemed to me that alot of the writers didn't quite grasp what a super hero story is and got totally of course & to make matters worse, their stories were long winded!

The book has twenty two stories, eight of which I thought were exceptionally written:

Remains of the Night by John McNally (* 1 of 4 best)

The Pentecostal Home for Flying Children by Will Clarke

The Thirteenth Egg by Scott Synder (* 1 of 4 best)

The Snipper by Nora Jablonski

Man Oh Man - It's Manna Man by George Singleton (* 1 of 4 best)

My Interview w/ the Avenger by Tom Bissell

Mr. Big Deal by Sean Doolittle

The Somewhat Super by David Yoo (* 1 of 4 best)

Start with one of those 1st and proceed with caution on the other stories not mentioned~

I generally fit short stories into two basic categories: plot driven stories, the sort you find particularly in genre magazines like Analog or Ellery Queen; and "slice of life" stories more driven by character and description, more likely to be found in college periodicals. I prefer the former, which is why I picked up Who Can Save Us Now?, a collection of short stories that promises new takes on the superhero genre.

Most of the tales in this anthology are by relatively unknown authors. In fact, the only familiar name for me was Owen King, who also co-edited, and that's because he's Stephen King's son (and the family connection doesn't stop there as Kelly Braffet, another writer in the book is Owen's wife). The stories themselves are a mix of both my story categories. With 22 stories total, I will just limit myself to describing a few noteworthy stories.

The book kicks off well enough with Stephanie Harrell's "Girl Reporter" (which actually won an award for literary excellence). Though never mentioned by name, this is essentially a Superman story from Lois Lane's viewpoint, but it's a tale of the Man of Steel before he constructed his public image and was more of an enigma. Sam Weller's The Quick Stop 5 presents a group of unusually powered heroes (one is essentially living beef jerky) who all work at the title convenience store.

J. Robert Lennon's "The Rememberer" describes the perils of a perfect memory with a woman who can never forget anything, suffering each loss in her life with never-fading permanence. David Yoo's The Somewhat Super gives an indication as to what happens when you have a super power that really isn't very super (like being able to hop relatively quickly). King's contribution is "Meerkat", in which the title character acquires abilities of that particular animal.

Of course, when you compile an anthology of stories by different writers with different styles, not every tale will be equally compelling, and there are some weak ones in this set. A more fundamental issue is that the book doesn't really live up to its promise: there are a lot of stories that aren't really superhero stories; just because a character has an unusual ability doesn't make the story a superhero story.

In fact, outside of King's story, there really aren't any tales of superhero vs. supervillain (maybe only King really "got" the idea of his own book). And at this point, the superhero genre has been so thoroughly deconstructed and parodied (in movies like Mystery Men and graphic novels like the Watchmen, among many others) that Who Can Save Us Now? doesn't really offer any fresh perspectives. But even if this anthology doesn't really deliver on what it offers, there are enough entertaining (and often humorous) stories in the bunch to be a fun read. I rate it a low four stars: Who Can Save Us Now? is simultaneously good and a bit of a disappointment

A lot of genre anthologies, in my experience, are like albums from a band you kinda like. (I mean, back when albums actually existed.) You buy it, and there's a couple of great tunes there that got a lot of radio play, one or two hidden gems that are surprisingly good, and then...the rest. I expected much the same of this collection, but was pleased to find a fairly high level of quality throughout. This is not to say that everything within is entertaining or interesting--a good number of stories fail to resonate, but even the misses show a significant degree of skill, and while you may not like or appreciate where the author went, their efforts are not clumsy embarrassments (as was the case with much of the superhero anthology "The Darker Mask").

There is, of course, not much here about ultra-powerful mega-humans battling fiendish extra-planar invaders or duking it out in downtown Manhattan, crashing through skyscrapers and tossing around taxis. It's more about B-list heroes, or wannabes, or the mundanes who cross paths with the costumed vigilantes. More, say, the classic Defenders rather than the Avengers. It's less about cosmic glory and more about minor and fleeting triumphs, if not quotidian disappointment.

Standouts include: editor Owen King's "The Meerkat", about a second-rate hero who most unfortunately derives his powers from the small but ferocious African herpestid; Noria Jablonski's "The Snipper", about the low-grade angst of an ungifted teen misfit in a community where uber-abilities are common; Sean Doolittle's "Mr. Big Deal", about a cop who can immediately and permanently strip supers of their powers; David Yoo's "The Somewhat Super", about a group of people who have talents that are abnormal but singularly useless; Kelly Braffet's melancholy and affecting "Bad Karma Girl Wins at Bingo", in which the heroine constantly attracts everyone else's bad luck; and Jennifer Weiner's "League of Justice (Philadelphia Division)", which features another group of low-level talents trying to help society. This last story excels at scenes of supernatural abnormality, which are effectively sketched out in such a way as to suggest some moodily atmospheric set pieces from a superior horror movie--although ultimately this angle doesn't quite integrate into the denouement, and the story feels a bit unfinished.

Most of these are found in the second half of the book, so hang in there.

Oh, and the illustrations by Chris Burnham are excellent.

I know that having superheroes in the written form isn't anything knew; the major comic companies have been fooling with the form over the years. However, the creation of NEW heroes strictly in the written form is a more recent development, and one that I've been making my way through of late.

To that end, I read this collection, and - on the whole - it wasn't bad. Nothing fantastic, mind you. There were stories that I did feel didn't quite get the whole point of the superhero, merely presenting folks that might have an odd power or two. One in particular I did like along that vein ("The Thirteenth Egg" by Scott Synder) I enjoyed more because it veered into horror territory than was simply another "random guy that gets some power but doesn't actually do anything with it."

Worth a read from the library, but I couldn't see myself spending money on it.

using the idea of the classic superhero to examine modern economic, political, and societal fears seems like a fascinating undertaking (something promised in a well-written introduction by the editors). instead, all we get is a collection of half-witted parodies and tired cliches. very few redeeming qualities about this book, with the sole possible exception of the introduction itself. i guess it started off as a pretty good idea that was ultimately undermined by bad writing and weak submissions by the contributing authors. if parody and cliche is your bag, this might be worth your time. just don't expect much.