Superheroes Edited by John Varley and Ricia Mainhardt

Like most folks of my ilk (and here I mean geeky), I’m a sucker for superheroes.

Not all, but most. I don’t care for the Green Lantern¹ or The Hulk.

I was optimistic but ultimately disappointed by Mystery Men, as I like the idea of alternate superheroes. So this book, purportedly a series of essays about alternate superheroes, sounded good to me.

It was okay. As an Amazon reviewer noted, a couple sharp pieces, and the rest just so-so, one-joke stories.

She Who Might Be Obeyed was so convoluted as to be almost unreadable.

Truth, Justice and the Politically Correct Socialist Path the story by the editor that hypothesized Superman’s life had he landed in the USSR (which served as the inspiration to do the collection) was somewhat predictable but very witty.

Others were arty and pushed the margins of what one would define as a superhero.

But, all in all, fine mind candy.

¹ My sole contribution to Free Parking, a Dad’s Garage sketch show of some years back, was a piece called The Green Lantern Buys A Stamp where I itemized the lameness of GL when he fails to convince the citizenry that he needs to cut in line at the post office as a matter of life or death. He ends up being bludgeoned by the crowd, saved from death only by the sudden appearance of the Wonder Twins.