The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

The finished version of Austin Grossman’s Soon I Will Be Invincible has an extra treat that the proof version I first read didn’t – a bonus section of colour artwork (on glossy paper no less). There are sketches and preliminary pencils by Bryan Hitch for the wrap-around cover he created (see below), plus a number of fake comics covers featuring the book’s superteam, the Champions, all with a nice, old-fashioned feel to them (a couple even boast pretend wrinkles and creases like an old issue rescued from the bargain bin) – a really nice touch, I thought, and it pretty much tells you right there where the novel is coming from, because the actual story is an affectionate pastiche of those 25 cent, four-colour comics we read in our youth. Yes, it does take the Mickey out of the genre in places, but the author also clearly loves those superhero comics too (and be fair, there is a lot to take the Mickey out of!).

This isn’t a postmodern dismemberment and reinvention of the genre, it is closer to Pixar’s Incredibles in tone – it knows the stereotypes and cliches and it revels delightedly in them because the author knows most of the readers know them too and will share the joke (although, like the Incredibles, so much of superhero lore is embedded in pop culture even non comics fans will still get most of it). And you know, much as I love watching Alan Moore or Warren Ellis taking apart the genre and rebuilding it into their own fascinating comics Frankenstein’s monster, there are times when you want a straight, fun superhero read which knows what it is and plays to it. And that’s what this offers, with a nod and a wink and a smile and spandex, a hugely enjoyable – and often damned funny – tale of superheroes and a villain – Doctor Impossible – determined that this time his convoluted scheme for world domination (again) will work, while passing observations on the genre at the same time. And we fanboys (and girls) can also have fun ‘trainspotting’ which hero is a homage to which ‘real’ comics character or which classic comics story Grossman is referencing and giggling at a down-on-his-luck Doctor Impossible having to change into his costume in a dingy alley before striding into a seedy bar where second rate villains hang out, or his observations on how he and other villains protect their lairs with lasers, mines and forcefields while the heroes don’t seem to bother with securing their HQ because they assume no-one would break in there… Sheer fun for any comics fan; Austin Grossman’s Soon I Will Be Invincible is published by Penguin this August.