“Soon I Will Be Invincible” moves fast, like the superheroes who populate its pages. It takes quite some time to engage, however, because debut novelist Austin Grossman is so enamored of the worlds he is fashioning that he overstuffs them.
Nevertheless, “Invincible” is a fresh, warm take on comic books, science fiction and pop culture. Whether it will reach a market broader than its apparent target – guys who like such topics – remains to be seen.
Like the cartoon movie “The Incredibles,” videogame design consultant Grossman’s book aims to bring the dimension of humanity to two-dimensional figures.
The key mover is Doctor Impossible, a megalomaniac scientist who plots to control the world by manipulating its orbit and creating an empire of ice. Battling him are the New Champions, a ragtag crew of superheroes including Fatale, an appealing cyborg never quite sure where she stands; Elphin, the last surviving fairy; and Lily, who used to be someone else, someone more human.
Impossible’s most steadfast nemesis is Corefire, the erstwhile, thoroughly regular Jason Garner. A chronic outcast, Impossible “created” Corefire when he accidentally suffused Garner with the so-called Zeta Beam during a failed experiment at Harvard.
Erica Lowenstein, Garner’s girlfriend and the object of Impossible’s geeky lust, saw the accident, became a reporter and, like many others in this garish, intellectually stimulating speculation on the 35th century, moved through various identity levels. Grossman’s hybridization of character and genre is as engrossing as the battles that stud the book.
The writing is kinetic and often witty. Also sharp: Grossman’s contemporization of imagery spanning James Bond (Impossible stages his world takeover from an island hideaway, a la Dr. No) and the Fantastic Four (model for the New Champions).
Despite the virtuosity, however, it’s hard to see why one should care about the characters, even though Fatale, Lily, the cranky Damsel and the shadowy Baron Ether are quite entertaining.
Like Jonathan Lethem’s “Fortress of Solitude,” another – and far more deeply flawed – attempt to bring gravitas to pop culture, “Soon I Will Be Invincible” struggles to resonate emotionally.
Carlo Wolff is a Cleveland freelance writer and author of “Cleveland Rock & Roll Memories.”
NONFICTION
Soon I Will Be Invincible
By Austin Grossman
$22.95
