Basic Action Super Heroes!

Just wondering what super hero novels, if any, people have read before.

I picked up Path and the Bold (which was an anthology for Silver Age Sentinels), and ordered Path of the Just (which is actually the first anthology for SAS), as well as Devils Cape (which was written by a long time poster to the Hero Game forums, and iirc, did some writing for HERO back in the day).

Anyone got any other suggestions?

Andy Briggs has a couple of decent (teen) novels HERO.Com Rise of the Heroes and Villain.Net Council of Evil. My own copies came from my niece (who put down her Twilight books long enought to realise her Uncle likes superheroes on his birthday)

I had not heard of those before. I'll have to look into them!

There was also an anthology of superhero fiction edited by John Varley called, not unexpectedly, Superheroes.

It's significant (at least to me) in that it contains a story by Mike Stackpole called "Peer Review" that stars his creation, Revenant, a personal favorite of mine.

For those not in the know, Revenant is a character Mike created for a long-ago Champions campaign that grew to legendary status and even ended up appearing in Aaron Williams' P.S. 238 comics.

For those who 're interested, the ISBN for the anthology is 0-441-00137-8. I don't know if it's still in print.

I also highly recommend Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman. Great treatment of the superhero genre in the same vein as Kurt Busiek's Astro City.

Originals:
The Darker Mask - Kind of an odd collection of stories. The overall tone is very street-level, but it was pretty enjoyable over all. I think that this one is very much a subjective taste so read reviews or maybe pick it up at Barnes & Noble and give it a flip-through before you buy.

Superheroes - Picked this up today on Nestor's recommendation. All total I spent $4 on a "Very Good" used copy, so here's hoping!

DC:
Green Lantern: Hero's Quest - I'm a big fan of Kyle Rayner as Green Lantern and this novel is all about him inheriting the ring and learning to use it. It was a very good origin story, imo.

52 - This is the novel adaption of the comic series and, personally, I really liked reading it. I think that it gave another level of depth to the characters, some of which are my absolute favorites in the DC Universe (Black Adam, Booster Gold, The Question).

I have read several others but these three are the ones that have stuck with me. I have a Hulk book at home but I can't remember the title. I really like reading the novels based on comics/characters but I'm always on the lookout for the original supers stories too.

Nestor wrote:Kurt Busiek's Astro City.

As a side note, I highly endorse anything written by this man.

I recently read Busted Flush, part of the Wild Cards series. It's really good. I recommend it.

urbwar wrote:Path of the Just (which is actually the first anthology for SAS)

I tried out for both anthologies back in the day.

danbuter wrote: part of the Wild Cards series. It's really good. I recommend it.

Actually I'd recommend the entire series.

I have never read the Wild Cards series, and on general principle, I won't read any of them. Not until A Dance with Dragons is released.

I enjoyed Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines, which is a genre-crossover between supers and zombie apocalypse - what do the super heroes do after the zombie outbreak.

I also liked Devil's Cape, which urbwar already mentioned.

I read a few of the Wild Cards books when they first came out, long time ago now. I should see if I still have them, I barely remember them. They didn't really excite me back then, I was more into four-color. I'm not sure how they'd fare with me now, or how the series has progressed.

I liked the Wild Cards series at first, but it suffered what I call the Shared World Syndrome.

When you get a group of writers sharing a world, inevitably one or more of them decide they want to trash it. You know, just bring everything crashing down. I don't know why.

It happened with Wild Cards, it happened with Thieves' World, and it happened with an APAzine-style shared world Play-by-Mail game I was in. Twice.

Ex-Heroes is on my list to get. I'm a big fan of the rpg All Flesh Must Be Eaten (I've done playtesting on it since the core rules, and wrote a supplement for another publisher, but they lost their license before it got released).

Anyone ever read Gladiator? Some say it was the novel that influenced the creation of Superman. I got a pdf of it from Project Gutenberg, so I'm going to likely read it with my new Adobe Digital Editions program

I've read quite a bit of supers fiction so here's what I can think of:

1. Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman, very possibly the best supers fiction book out there. Does 4 color comics and puts real depth to the characters. Bonus in that there are 2 main characters, 1 hero (Fatale) 1 villain (Dr. Impossible). Doc Impossible is very likable.

2. Chance Fortune (book 1) and Chance Fortune in the Shadow Zone (book 2) by Shane Berryhill, YA fiction that captures the feel of supers comics very well w/o being campy at all. Very well written. The 2nd book is not as good as the first...but still worth the ride.

3. Black and White (bk 1) and Shades of Grey (bk 2) by Jackie Kessler and Kaitlin Kittredge, more realistic takes on supers that still wear costumes set in the near future. Very imaginative and well written collaboration from these two authors who normally write horror books ironically. Jet and Irridium continue to be two of my favorite characters and that says much about the quality of the writing.

4. Masked, an anthology of supers fiction by well known comic authors such as Peter David, Gail Simone, and Bill Willingham. I'm reading it right now. It's, been ok so far. Of the four stories that I've read so far, only one has really appealed to me.

5. The Shiva Advent from the Sentinels series, by Van Allen Plexico, very true to 4 color comics w/ the story of a Avengers-like team. Plexico has written 2 non-fiction books about the Avengers and it shows in his fiction books. Enjoyable.

6. Tales of the Red Panda: The Crime Cabal (bk 1), The Mind Masters (bk 2), and The Android Assassins (bk3). Haven't read any of them yet. But I'll bet they rock. I LOVE the Red Panda podcast series (Decoder Ring Theatre). All by Greg Taylor. Great looking covers pics too.

7. Brave Men Run! by Matthew Wayne Selznick, a real indie book, kind of short, but really fun and well written. The world is very realistic and has a very X-men type feel to it. The main character and his girlfriend and very likable. The book get's bonus points from and old timer like me for being set in the 1980's and makes continuous references to things like Flock of Seagulls and others 80's phenomenon.

8. Ex-Heroes, by Peter Clines, a zombie-apocalypse world with supers as the protagonists. Very fun if grostesque (NOT for kids) but pretty superficial. Don't expect much depth from the characters. But there isn't much depth in alot of comics either. And I could totally see this as a comic. I very did take a liking to the main character, the Mighty Dragon and appreciated his heroism.

9. Axiom Man by A.P. Fuchs, really fun w/ an edge of occasional horror, Fuchs rights alot of indie horror fiction. For an indie author this guy is really prolific. I've only read the intro book but it was really enjoyable. Axiom Man has the feel of a low level superman/paragon type super. Also I like that Axiom Man is the only known super in the world till Red Saw (the bad guy) shows up. And that's in Winnipeg, Canada! Refreshing.

10. Interworld by Neil Gaiman, not specifically supers, but the characters do have powers that could qualify as low level supers and the whole theme is based on interdimensional travel (and very, very well done at that) which is a common staple in supers stories. A very original concept, very fun, and very well written (of course, being Neil Gaiman).