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Got this for Christmas (thanks Mum and dad, plus Amazon) and I really enjoyed it, actually. More to the point, I think it would make a great film, which is where the money lies, I hear, rather than in sales of silly old hardbacks ...
The cover art is great (a Bryan Hitch wraparound) and there's a bonus in the hardback in the form of a couple of Hitch-drawn spoof-comics covers at the back - one of Blackwolf (Wolverine, natch), one of Fatale and a rather super Baron Ether, plus a double-page spread of the battle on Titan.
I think it's an excellent premise, for a start, and I like the way the storylines and origins meld neatly in the last few chapters where you find out exactly who is whom and why. The Narnia thing I loved too - and was pleased with myself for spotting
MILD SPOILER
that "Peter's Hammer" is the Pharaoh's hammer Impossible uses to beat the crap out of CoreFire at the end.
END SPOILER
Flaws: CoreFire has no personality and is largely absent for much of the novel - but then again, how do you rewrite Superman? Damsel lacks something for me - I guess I can't really visualise her, nor really tell which of the flying lovelies on the cover she's meant to be. Grossman appears to lose all interest in Feral three-quarters of the way through and drops him for the final confontation.
Rainbow Triumph is ill-explained and under-used (and with a name like that, should be bisexual at the very least), and the Champions as a team appear to be somewhat overstaffed. I'd drop RT in the film version. Also, for a fairy who's spent eight centuries living in England, Elphin sure does talk like a Yank, when she's not being all cod-mediaeval - "expressway", for fuck's sake.
On the other hand, I loved the explanation of Lily's origin, and the final confrontation/reveal between Impossible and CoreFire. I also adored the way Grossman handled the practicalities of supervillainy, with the clandestine meetings in old warehouses like a sort of underground fan-convention - the mundane details of having to hitch out of town and then change into his costume in the bushes were funny and deft, I thought.
And let's not forget Impossible's escape plan at the end, kicking the door wide open for a sequel - which I, for one, would definitely read.
Top stuff, I reckon, on the whole - a clever and nicely-plotted combination of the familiar and the novel. And a great title. |
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