I was surprised to see that Soon I will be Invincible got such positive reviews. I had picked it up from the library shelf a few times, and put it down again, and actually got it out once and returned it without reading it. Superheroes in prose, with the heroes given flaws and the villains given motivations. Again. I definitely read this twenty years ago, and again ten years ago, and frankly, I think it would be every bit as daring and progressive to write a superhero piece where the good guys didn’t quarrel among themselves over petty shit, and where the bad guys really did just want to take over the world, and where the narrative tension came from the heroes trying to defeat the villains.
Ah, well.
Given all that, Invincible is a good example of its sub-sub-subgenre. Austin Grossman clearly knows his superhero comics of the fifties and seventies and nineties. The details of villain-ness particularly over the decades are handled well, with nice references to the kinds of concerns (and fashions) that played out in the comics. There were a couple of annoying bits where Mr. Grossman was clearly talking about a specific well-known character and/or event in the comics but felt he had to give the character a different name and very slightly different power, or to change the location or timing of the event while leaving it essentially transparent. On the other hand, there were several lovely bits where in describing an action sequence, Mr. Grossman was able to evoke with prose an image in my mind of the panel-by-panel visual of what “really” happened. Which was really lovely.
And, you know, there was a plot, and Doctor Impossible tried to take over the world, and the New Champions tried to stop him, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.