Thread: Superhero/beings Book recommendations;

I was just wondering if there were any books based on Superheroes or villains that anyone would recommend. I'm not talking the original superman or spiderman stuff, like a proper novel based on a super-being. I have no idea where to search, as typing it into google just brings up things such as Superman etc.

Thanks in advance to any recommendations,

Tom.

Good question! I was just thinking about that this morning. I am writing a superhero book, and was wondering if there are really any succesful ones, other than comic books. I would love to read a few to get some ideas of how some of it would look in a novel. I'm assuming the key to a great superhero novel as compared to a comic book or movie would be it's inherent believability, as well as more depth of character.

Without stretching the point too much, there's Sturgeon's More Than Human (superbeings rather than superheroes), Zenna Henderson's tales of the People, collected as Ingathering, and AE van Vogt's Slan novels (for starters-the late 50s had a lot of superhero/superbeing novels). For spandex-class superheroes, Kenneth Robeson's Doc Savage novels and Philip Jose Farmer's Purple Book would fill the bill. There are also a number of halfway decent novelizations of comic superheroes by people like Peter David and Diane Duane who know their business.

Dante's Inferno
Grendel
Touch

If you can find them, there's the Wildcard series. I forget who wrote it, but there was an incident in the story's world that gave a percentage of people in the world super powers, while it mutated others. People with the superpowers were known as Aces and quite a number of them became the spandex wearing superhero types while others sold out to the government, corporations and Hollywood.

Now people with the mutations were known as Jokers, and even if they had superpowers, because of their disfigured appearances, they were treated as second and even third class citizens. Needless to say, a number of them became villains. Pretty interesting stuff.

Update! George R. R. Martin did the series. For more information, try this site: www.wildcardsonline.com/

Now, if you're willing to read very well written graphic novels, I suggest either Watchmen or Rising Stars. Those are excellent different looks of worlds where superpowers are introduced. Very good reads indeed. Actually, I think Watchmen either already is or will be (when the movie gets closer) done in novel form. A number of superheroes have stories done in novel form...Spider-Man, The New Avengers, Thuunderbolts, X-men, ect...thy'd obviously show you how a superhero book could be done.

While not a book, the graphic novel The Watchmen is a must read for anyone who is into super hero's, literature, and good storytelling overall.