Super Stories of Heroes &
Villains
Edited
by Claude Lumière
Despite
my very spotty knowledge of traditional superhero comics, I'm a
sucker for a good superhero (or supervillain) story. For
me, much of the appeal lies in the genre's embrace of the outlandish
in its quest to explore what it means to make the choices we do;
these stories are far removed from the black-and-white
characterizations that once drove the comics, and many stories
unapologetically tackle difficult moral questions head-on. The
stories embody the collapsing distinctions between science fiction,
fantasy, and mainstream fiction; even
seemingly mundane heroes like Sherlock Holmes display an aptitude for
superhuman achievements, and in these postmodern times heroes,
villains, and those who fall in between appear in a variety of
guises. Super
Stories of Heroes & Villains,
while
focusing on humans (or, rarely, suspiciously humanoid aliens) who
have enhanced physical and/or mental abilities, offers far more
variety than newcomers might expect. Herein are stories that
construct heroes built on familiar paradigms, resurrect some
recognizable comic book stalwarts, and deconstruct and reexamine the
ways in which we seem to expect the superpowered to behave. It is
this diversity that makes the collection so compelling, a
product of the included authors' impressive imaginations and editor
Claude Lumière's decision to showcase pieces from an array of genres
and thematic approaches. The stories are, by turn, triumphant and
tragic, the protagonists heroic and haunted, and the reader is
greeted with new perspectives on every page.
Thematic
anthologies like this one can easily become repetitive, relying on
retreads of a common theme, and Lumière's selections reflect both
his extensive familiarity with and his enthusiasm for the superhero
subgenre. Though his introductions to the collection and to the
individual stories are often clumsy at best, his selections are
generally accessible to readers who are approaching this type of
story for the first time. Even "Übermensch!", "The
Nuckelavee: A Hellboy Story", and
"The Death Trap of Dr. Nefario",
which rely most heavily on preexisting literature, will reward those
with the most basic passing familiarity with the traditional
canon.
Lumière does,
I believe, err in including Win Scott Eckert's essay and Jess
Nevins's "The Zeppelin Pulps"- the former would be far
better suited to a passing reference in the collection's introduction
and the latter only makes sense because of the editor's wink and
nudge in his preface- and, moreover, exacerbates the problem by
placing them back to back. Even so, he generally avoids clumping
similar stories, and the book largely preserves a nice, consistent
momentum from one selection to the next.
This
is all to say very little of the stories themselves; so many of them
are outstanding by so many different measures that it would almost
require a story-by-story analysis to properly rate the collection.
Even
the less successful stories, not coincidentally those that are least
directly engaged with the superhero theme, at least force the reader
to critically reconsider the subgenre. Stories like "Grandma",
"The Biggest", and "The Rememberer" share a rich
melancholy tone and a devotion to realism, insofar as superheroes can
be realistic, that balances some of the more traditional
swashbuckling adventures, and the collection has triumph and tragedy
in nearly equal measure. Together, the book's stories encompass a
complete narrative arc, from glorified origin stories and dazzling
mid-career highs to meditations on the fleeting nature of youth,
health, and fame, as well as plenty of stories that fall in between.
And all of this in an array of vividly imagined settings and
impossibly inventive abilities assigned to protagonists, villains,
sidekicks, and bit players alike, as each author took a basic,
nebulous concept and applied their own interpretation, interest, and
skill. Super
Stories of Heroes and Villains
includes a few miscues, but the overwhelming majority of its stories
are of the highest quality, a
testament to the full range
of vibrant possibilities inherent in some of the oldest tropes in
speculative fiction.
Grade:
A-
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