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

by Owen King (Editor), John McNally (Editor)
Key Phrases: ghetto man, ordinary superheroes, brown bodysuit, The Rememberer, Manna Man, Abigail Paylor (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Twenty-two of today's most talented writers (and comics fans) unite in Who Can Save Us Now?, an anthology featuring brand-new superheroes equipped for the threats and challenges of the twenty-first century -- with a few supervillains thrown in for good measure. Edited and with contributions by Owen King (We're All in This Together) and John McNally (America's Report Card), Who Can Save Us Now? enriches the superhero canon immeasurably.

With mutations stranger than the X-Men and with even more baggage than the Hulk, this next generation of superheroes is a far cry from your run-of-the-mill caped crusader. From the image-conscious and not-very-mysterious masked meathead who swoops in and sweeps the tough girl reporter off her feet; to the Meerkat, who overcomes his species' cute and cuddly image to become the resident hero in a small Midwestern city; to the Silverfish, "the creepy superhero," who fights crime while maintaining the slipperiest of identities; to Manna Man, who manipulates the minds of televangelists to serve his own righteous mission, these protectors (and in some cases antagonizers) of the innocent and the virtuous will delight literary enthusiasts and comic fans alike.

With stunning illustrations by artist Chris Burnham, Who Can Save Us Now? offers a vibrant, funny, and truly unusual array of characters and their stories.

About the Author
Owen King is the author of We're All in This Together: A Novella and Stories. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Bellingham Review, The Boston Globe, One Story, Paste Magazine, and Subtropics, among other publications. He lives in New York with his wife, the novelist Kelly Braffet. In researching the events described in "The Meerkat" he benefited from the kind assistance of Maile Chapman, and the scholarship of Peter Golub, Russian translator and expert in the history of Soviet Nuclear Defense Robots. Thank you, both. As to the matter of his favorite superhero, King writes that after agonizing deliberations, he has settled on Captain Marvel, because "no matter what the situation, it can almost always be improved by simply shouting 'SHAZAM!'"

John McNally is the author of two novels, The Book of Ralph and America's Report Card, and a short story collection, Troublemakers. His next book, Ghosts of Chicago, a collection of short stories, will be published this fall. A native of Chicago, he lives with his wife, Amy, in North Carolina, where he is associate professor of English at Wake Forest University. The first word he ever spoke was "Batman," who has remained, in his darker incarnations, his favorite superhero. John's first creative work, a play written in the fourth grade, featured an overweight superhero who gets stuck inside a phone booth while changing into his costume. He is happy to return to the genre, albeit thirty-four years later.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; Free Press Trade Pbk. Ed edition (July 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416566449
• ISBN-13: 978-1416566441
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #280,992 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fresh look at an old idea, May 22, 2009

By	Josephine Cassidy (Sedona, AZ) - See all my reviews

I think people who are giving this book mixed reviews are kind of missing the point. In no way are the stories in this book attempting to supplant Superman, the X-Men et al. in the "go forth and save the world with many mighty explosions" sense. The main complaint about this book seems to be that the stories and the characters that populate them don't seem to fit the reviewers' ideas of who and what a "superhero" is, and that has nothing to do with the book and everything to do with the reader's expectations and willingness to be surprised. Most of the contributors in this book are authors of literary fiction, so when they're asked to explore their own ideas of what a superhero is, it's pretty unlikely that the results will be heavy on the crash-bang-boom big-budget pyrotechnics. If that's what you're looking for, re-examine your own expectations and look elsewhere.

What you'll find in this book are thoughtful, well-written stories from a number of up-and-coming authors. The stories themselves examine everything from the trials that come with living with superpowers ("The Meerkat," "The Rememberer") to the trials that come with living with people who have superpowers ("The Remains of the Night," "Girl Reporter," and, come to think of it, "The Meerkat," again). These "superheroes" live in worlds that rarely show up in summer blockbusters: worlds without supervillains, or worlds where marketing and publicity take precedence over the ability to shoot lasers out your eyes, or the worlds that are left behind after the battles are over. Will any of them inspire thirty-year comic franchises with multiple timelines and alternate universes? Probably not. Were they meant to? Highly unlikely. Will they maybe, just maybe, make you stop and think about what's lurking behind the latex suits and high-tech gadgetry? If you're an open-minded reader with an appreciation for good writing and fresh storytelling, almost definitely. This book is highly recommended, and more than that, it's a hell of a lot of fun.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Superhero Fiction That I Shared With a Friend Immediately Upon Finishing!, May 22, 2009

By	Lincoln Crisler "Fiction Writer" (http://lincolncrisler.info) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Who Can Save Us Now? is a great collection of short fiction exploring a wide-range of the effects superpowers can have on humanity in general, but also on heroes, villains, sidekicks and bystanders. I'm a huge superhero fan, a comics reader for over a decade and creator of a comic of my own that should see publication by year's end if I play my cards right. This book scratches an itch I oftentimes find no cure for; superheroes dealt with in a mature and innovative manner. I still read comics but my tastes run towards either the older superhero stuff or Vertigo and Avatar titles. Editors Owen King and John McNally assembled a great superteam of fiction that I shared with a friend as soon as I finished the last page. 4.5/5

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some very good, some very average, October 20, 2008

By	Elmore Hammes "Writer and Reader" (Anderson, IN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.