Soon I Will Be Invincible: A Novel

Soon I Will Be Invincible is more or less the father of modern superhero literature, specifically that new category of storytelling: capepunk. Capepunk stories are those tales which dissect the nitty-gritty storytelling of superhero stories and ask what they'd be like in the real world.Some capepunk stories are quite optimistic like Wearing the Cape, others pessimistic like Sad Wings of Destiny, and a few are a mix like Confessions of a D-List Supervillain. Soon I Will Be Invincible is one of the latter. It presents a world exactly like the kind in comic books but pulls back the curtain to reveal how much goes on to make the stories in superhero stories tick. Half of the book is from the perspective of Doctor Impossible, an aging middle-aged supervillain who is halfway between Lex Luthor and Doctor Doom. The world's smartest man, he suffers Malign Hyper-Cognition Disorder (i.e. he's an evil genius), which compels him to try and take over the world. He's aware, on some level, all of his plans are going to fail but is compelled by his ridiculously potent intellect that he must try anyway. It's, in a weird way, one of the more authentic portrayals of mental illness I've encountered in fiction as it is treated with sympathy and care despite the utter ridiculousness of the condition. The book gives a sympathetic take to its lead even if it never shies away from the fact his actions are self-destructive and foolhardy. He doesn't even have anything he wants to do once he takes over the world, it's merely something which he must do. This, of course, is part of the book's delightful out-of-universe subtext. Doctor Impossible tries to take over the world because he is a comic-book villain and that is what comic-book villains do. In existentialist terms, he is a Sisyphian figure compelled to ever push a boulder up the side of a mountain only for it to roll back down again. It's kind of fascinating, especially when you note this time Doctor Impossible might actually succeed. Having such an unrepentant but tragically sympathetic nutter trapped in such a situation where you want him to win is an interesting premise for a book. The book lampshades many of the time-honored tropes of comic books from the Silver Age and how they've changed as we move closer to the modern age. Doctor Impossible is a relic of a bygone era but the modern superheroes, with their sleek chrome cybernetics as well as badass weaponry, aren't nearly as potent as the ones of old. The only one who has ever stood a snowball's chance in hell of standing up against Doctor Impossible, despite his eternal loser status, is Corefire (a transparent stand-in for Superman). And Corefire is missing, presumed dead. Without him, can Doctor Impossible win? Would he even want to? Contrasting against Doctor Impossible is Fatale, the newest member of the Champions. Awed by her recent invitation to join the Justice League/Avengers of her world, she struggles to fit in despite being a relatively new heroes. Furthermore, her awe turns to dismay as she gets to know the various heroes and their many-many flaws. I liked Fatale less than Doctor Impossible but am glad we got an insider's look into the superheroes. Understanding them is every bit as important as getting Doctor Impossible's perspective on things. The Champions, themselves, are an interesting collection of damaged individuals. On the surface they have it all with wealth, fame, and costumes which fit in all the right places. Underneath it, they have all of the angst and struggles which post-Spiderman superheroes are cursed with. It turns out for all of Doctor Impossible's apparent harmlessness to the readers, he's a pretty terrifying figure to heroes and struggling against his schemes leave lasting scars. That's in addition to what it takes to devote yourself to 24/7 to devoting world-ending schemes. I especially like how the author chose to handle action in the book. Conflicts are theatrical, beautiful, colorful, and full of emotion. Doctor Impossible's attempt to escape from prison, a throw-down battle at a coffee bar, and the final confrontation are all delightful. I think readers will get a kick out of them. Seeing the battles from the perspective of Doctor Impossible and then from his opponents lends vastly different perspectives on what happened. The ending falls somewhat flat because it doesn't attempt to break the mold with its universe. This is about giving insight into Doctor Impossible's mindset rather than about how he learns a valuable life-lesson. I will say, there are a great number of twists which include one which left me positively gobsmacked. Check this out when you have the time. This is a book with great world-building, characterization, and countless in-jokes for those who are even peripherally interested in comics.10/10

This book does a few good things, and some things that I wasn't enthused about. On one hand, it sets up a world with magic, aliens, mutants, cyborgs, and different dimensions well enough. The heroes and villains have their own in-groups, out-groups, relationships, and interactions. On the other hand, while the world feels reasonably fleshed out, this book feels like the first act of a more grand story, or as an introduction for a series of disconnected stories. There are some kind of fun things happening plot-wise, but this isn't exactly the best-written piece of superhero media I've ever seen or anything. I kept feeling like, since I knew there wasn't a sequel, there would be some major twist that kind of turned the whole novel on its head, but it just kind of wrapped up how I'd assumed it would. There were a few things that surprised me a little bit, but the general plot arc was exactly what I was expecting.Maybe I'm just a jaded 20-something and this would be the coolest book ever to someone really into young adult novels, but I honestly just wished there was a sequel that didn't have to set up the world and completely zeroed in on having a killer plot with the kinds of twists and turns that I would have expected from a plot devised by a world-conquering super-genius.I also think that, while I can appreciate how the author can write 2 different internal monologues for 2 different "main characters" that feel unique, I do think that having that glimpse behind the curtain that comes from a story told from these perspectives does dull the mystery a bit. There's potential there for creating dramatic irony, but I feel like it fell a bit short of the mark there. By the end I was thinking, "If this was only from the heroes' perspective, this could have been a good mystery." In fact, I'm kind of tempted to read only the hero chapters until the third section of the book, maybe, to see if that changes things. Regardless, though, this would be deviating from the way the book is likely to be read on a first sitting, and it seems contrary to the intended experience.TL:DR - Don't listen to the quotes on the cover about how subversive and unpredictable it is - it's average. Not bad, not amazing, but good enough to read once and donate it to a library or something. Even in 2007, this is not ground-breaking stuff. The big difference is that it's a novel, not a comic. Give it a shot if you like superheroes, but you should probably read it once, then maybe donate it to a library or book exchange or something.

One for the Comic Nerds like me; if you've read a lot of Marvel and DC stuff, the references, homages and tropes in this book are blindingly obvious. The fact that half of the book is told from the perspective of a the Super Villain, Doctor Impossible, is one of the best things about it. In spite of the fact that Impossible is trying to take over the world and is more than willing to kill people if he has to, it's very difficult not to feel sorry for him at some points. Hell, I was almost rooting for him to win by the end, even though both the reader and Impossible himself know this can't happen.A major theme in the book is just how joyless the life of a Super Villain is. For all their powers and weapons, they hardly ever win anything but short term victories. Even Doctor Impossible himself admits that he could have done far more productive and rewarding things with his superhuman intellect if he'd just gone straight. But that very intelligence brings with it a psychological compulsion to attempt to take over the world; being a Super Villain is in a very real sense a form of mental illness.Highly recommended.

Last year I read 'You' by Austin Grossman - a great book about game development that really resonated with me. I may have only done hobbyist game development, but a lot of what he describes matched my own feelings perfectly. This evening I finished 'Soon I Will be Invincible' by the same author. It's a complete shift in terms of tone, nuance and writing confidence, but it's also an early contender for 'most fun book of the year'.The plot is so (intentionally) cliche that it's not worth recounting, but it's basically the story of a few own-brand Lidl versions of famous super-heroes and the battle they have with an Aldi version of Doctor Doom. What's interesting about it is that it tells the story as a pair of interleaved narratives, one from Dr Impossible (the supervillain) and one from the newly recruited superhero Fatale. In doing this, the book manages to delve a little into the purported psychology of villainy, as well as the social interplay of personalities available in a Justice-League style supergroup. In doing *that* it emphasises just how incredibly weird comic book conventions are, and the impact on the real world that such personalities would have - how society is changed by their mere presence, regardless of their actions.Fundamentally a very simple book with some really clunky writing in parts, but really enjoyable and well worth checking out.

More a character study than a superhero punch up, which isn’t a bad thing.But the character study is lightweight at best and we get deluged at one point with origin stories that don’t add a lot.Add to that the tendency for the story to be all over the place ..for instance Corefires origin must be covered in one form or another 6 or 7 times in the novel....why? Poor scripting I’d suggest.

Not the first time I have read SIWBI, and probably not the last. The most brilliantly original crafting and telling of a superhero team story since Alan Moore's Watchmen. The two perspectives from which the tale is told ooze emotions - fear, hatred, sympathy, sadness, envy - from every paragraph. Ive been reading superhero stuff since I first learned how to, in 1962, and still do, and this was a fantastic addition to my memory banks. In a genre where I thought I had seen everything, this was as new and fresh as dew. Dazzlingly well done, young Grossman. Everybody should read SIWBI, before some pc twat dishonours its originality by turning it into a crap movie. Read it before you die.

The superhero genre has been one of the most colourful in all history. The idea of superpowers, extra-ordinary individuals & their worlds has generated some of the greatest fiction of all time. Obviously, when we think of this, we look to Marvel & DC Comics. In recent years, we've also been treated to some refreshing, original and innovative takes on the superhero concept; for example, Disney/Pixar's The Incredibles and Mur Lafferty's Playing For Keeps.Soon I Will Be Invincible naturally appealed to me right away. Not just because of its subject-matter, but also because of Bryan Hitch's GORGEOUS artwork for the cover. This hardback version is a thing of beauty in my hands. The dust-jacket is immediately eye-catching, what with Hitch's illustrations and the foil-stamped title. The book itself is all-the-more of a masterwork with the binding, paper-quality, font variations and more of Bryan's colour illustrations/sketches in the back of the book, some presented as actual comic-book covers! It's a true work of art, with the story to match.Speaking of story, Austin Grossman has written a typical cliché of a comic-book plot. Supervillain wants to take over the world, and the heroes must stop him. That's the POINT of these kind of adventures, and while it NEVER gets old, Grossman wisely presents a twist for his novel to stop the whole thing from being redundant.The twist is the EXPERT first-person narrative that Austin writes, alternating between two central characters; Doctor Impossible - a supervillain who's continually defeated/yet obsessed with ruling the world - and Fatale - a cyborg super-heroine and rookie who's been drafted to join the almighty team of heroes, the Champions. Neither character has anything to do with each other (apart from being on opposing sides!), but this is why Soon I Will Be Invincible succeeds. Great variety and contrast of insight.Grossman pours a lot of qualities into both Impossible & Fatale to make them appealing. It's more than just a case of one being villain, the other being hero that makes this joint narrative a real winner. Both are as human as you & I, and because of their contrasting backgrounds, attitudes, situations, personalities & motivations, it makes the whole experience so refreshing. Not only can you RELATE to Dr. Impossible & Fatale (in some regards), this also helps advance the intelligent plot along.But a key thing about Grossman's writing is that he keeps it all completely coherent. You won't get lost reading into the proceedings, and as much focus as Dr. Impossible and Fatale receive, the author manages to provide sufficient examination on the rest of the colourful supporting cast. The influence of Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Avengers etc is blatant throughout, but again, it's so refreshing because of the human environments/domestic situations which grounds it all. A special appendix of all the players and timeline for this universe (provided by Austin) helps clarify certain details and makes the read even more of a fun, intelligent read.Soon I Will Be Invincible is a work of excellence. It's well-paced, utterly engaging, breathes originality into a classic concept, has tonnes of character, and is bound to appeal to not only comic lovers, but sci-fi fans as well. Austin Grossman has produced a simply terrific novel here, one of the most outstanding in recent memory. Well worth a look.