Soon I Will Be Invincible !!!!!!

[ultramandingo]

.......has any one picked this up yet? i havent, but it sounds great ( plus chip kidd!)
or i could just wait for the movie

Soon I Will Be Invincible
by Austin Grossman
(Pantheon)


Reviewed by Donna Bowman

The vogue for pop-friendly re-narrations that spawned Wicked has caught up, inevitably, with DC and Marvel, and the result is Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible, a novel told largely from the perspective of a supervillain. Everything about the concept and marketing, right down to the bold primary colors of Chip Kidd's irresistible jacket design, is predictable. But who knew that the book would be so singularly winning? The premise's wink-wink irony melts away as the story progresses, revealing a page-turning confrontation that's pure super-team suspense. For adults who were once Justice League or Avengers fans—or even for adolescents currently nuts for the X-Men—Grossman's thrilling first-person rendition of a comic-book world will stimulate and deepen the superhero sensibility.

The novel's chapters alternate between the nefarious plotting of the villain, Doctor Impossible, and the tentative entrance of a young heroine named Fatale into the legendary Champions team. While most of the revisionist laughs come from Impossible's reminiscences about past world-domination schemes (giant airships always lend a touch of the dramatic) and grumbles about post-penitentiary slumming with third-rate henchmen in abandoned strip malls, Fatale's narrative slowly accumulates real tension and emotion. She's a cyborg super-soldier assembled from cutting-edge technology after an accident. When the Champions reform under the leadership of celebrity superheroine Damsel after the death of CoreFire, Impossible's nuclear nemesis, Fatale gets an invitation to join. At first, she's overawed by her newama teammates—Elphin (a real fairy), Feral (a human-sized cat), and the mysterious Lily (formerly Doctor Impossible's girlfriend). But as she musters up her courage to talk to Blackwolf (a Wolverine pastiche who's Damsel's ex-husband), she also starts down a road that will answer questions about her own creation.

If it were all postmodern snark, Soon I Will Be Invincible would be a one-season wonder, fluffy fun for the geeky set. Not that humor is lacking; when Impossible breaks into a stop-and-shop and heists an ATM with his super-strength, he recounts, "I carried it into the back parking lot and tore it apart; then I ran as fast as I could. Not my finest scheme, but these are trying times." But Grossman has created something far more affecting: a loving prose recreation of superhero-team dynamics shaded by the never-ending tragedy of supervillaindom. He embraces his pulp plot and his original caped creations without hip attitude, and that's the secret origin of a terrific book.

A.V. Club Rating: A

http://www.avclub.com/content/node/62526

.......plus check out
http://www.sooniwillbeinvincible.com/

and click on that department of meta human affairs eveball thing
theres a membership aplication to join " The Champions"" - plus a international meta human data base

[ultramandingo]

........... i filled out their membership aplication to join the so called champions and was REJECTED . bah !
you willl all be sorry!!!!!

http://sooniwillbeinvincible.com/maps/rejected.php?name=ultramandingo

"Your application has been denied. ultramandingo
Based on the answers you have given to the application exam, our staff has determined that you ultramandingo are not Champions material. Your psychological evaluation reveals you to be an unstable individual, likely driven to random acts of general mayhem and destruction.
Rather than using your powers for the good of humanity, we have determined that you ultramandingo are far more likely to use them for your own gain, perhaps in some delusional power-mad grab for world domination.
As such, your file has been referred to the Department of Metahuman Affairs, Corrections Division, where agents in the field will be assigned to monitor your location for the inevitable day that you unleash havok on the unsuspecting populace. The map below indicates the locations of Champions reserve members in the field, as well as known supervillain suspects such as yourself. Under no circumstance should this map be used to form coordinated assaults on superhero locations or to organize sinister cabals of villains for criminal activities.
As a suspected victim of Malign Hypercognition Disorder (evil genius syndrome), you are encouraged to warn friends, family and innocent bystanders of your condition, for their own safety. "

[Cayman]

It sounds pretty cool. I've got it in my library queue.

[ultramandingo]

........bwahaha

http://sooniwillbeinvincible.com/maps/accepted.php?name=ognidnamartlu

- "ognidnamartlu,

Congratulations, and welcome to the Champions Prime reserve force. If
you're reading this your powers are probably K-class or better, one of
the heavy hitters of the superhero universe. When planet-eating gods
or interdimensional invasion fleets arrive, or maybe the Moon is a
little ways out of alignment, you get called. Let the karate kids and
backyard inventors clean up the street – you're built for the cosmic
stuff.

I'm Damsel -- but then, you know that. I've only saved your planet
forty-seven times " -


.......im my own arch enemy !!!!!

[ultramandingo]

........ so im about 100 pages into it ( SPOLIER !) the super smart lex luther guy just took out the wolverine type newbie guy . kinda a jsa - jla , astro city , the boys , watchmen deal . granted most of this stuff has been coverd in funny book allready - plus its kind a hard not to imagine it being drawn by alex ross - but this grossman guy knows his stuff , you gotta check it out for the chip kidd design stuff . groovey

[malephoenix]

This sounds interesting. Keep us posted. (With spoilers in tags, if you don't mind.) I'd really like to see what other superhero fans think of it in general before I invest time into it.

[ultramandingo]

.......from the first page

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780375424861&view=excerpt

"This morning on planet Earth, there are one thousand, six hundred, and eighty-six enhanced, gifted, or otherwise-superpowered persons. Of these, one hundred and twenty-six are civilians leading normal lives. Thirty-eight are kept in research facilities funded by the Department of Defense, or foreign equivalents. Two hundred and twenty- six are aquatic, confined to the oceans. Twenty-nine are strictly localized—powerful trees and genii loci, the Great Sphinx, and the Pyramid of Giza. Twenty-five are microscopic (including the Infinitesimal Seven). Three are dogs; four are cats; one is a bird"


........im at the part where our hero fatale the cyborg chick gets her offical champions costume !

[ultramandingo]

.......just finished . cool twist ending , a shout out to Narnia and of course a set up for the sequel. if so , hope they go for a legion of doom type team up next time - more that enuff supervillians were introduced. or at least some super pet cameos or a talking gorilla . check it out before the lame holywood version

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Grossman

"Soon I Will Be Invincible which is currently being made into a feature film."


The novel is a spoof and homage to comic books, featuring a mad genius supervillain, Doctor Impossible, who suffers from "Malign Hypercognition Disorder" ("evil genius" syndrome). Impossible battles a Justice League of America-style super team, including an ultra-strong and ultra-self-conscious cyborg called Fatale. Instead of focusing on bang-pow action, Grossman turns comic book action inside-out and looks at the awkward loneliness suffered by heroes and villains who don't fit into human society -- and whose super-powered bodies are often their greatest sources of suffering.


http://sooniwillbeinvincible.com/SuspectCard.png"