Just another WordPress.com weblog

Since the introduction of Superman in 1938, superhero comic books have undergone a slow maturation from cartoonish to naturalistic. Despite the fantastic central idea of a superhero, for the last twenty-five years, a realistic approach to storytelling has finally brought the art form legitimacy.

Recently superhero novels set in their own universes have begun to proliferate. Most of them are dark superhero noir, cultivating realism,   like the modern comic books they are based on.

Following tonally in the footsteps of Those who Walk in Darkness, and thematically in the footsteps of Soon I Will Be Invincible, Tom King’s A Once Crowded Sky tells the final story in an age of super heroes.

The characters are drawn from common comic book tropes. Soldier is wolverine crossed with captain America, a cryogenically preserved grandson   of George Washington. PenUltimate is Robin to Superman instead of Batman, Strength is something like Wonder Woman with issues, Doctor Speed is the Flash with a medical practice.

The books secondary characters are a combination of familiar characters with the serial numbers rubbed off and original creations.

The first thing you should know about a Once Crowded sky is that its good. The style is more literary than the comic book illustrations at the beginning of each chapter indicate. The second thing you should know is that the novel is depressing. Its the comic book novel equivalent of All Quiet on the Western front.

The plot. An energy force known as the Blue threatens to destroy the universe. The Ultimate, (a robotic superman,) understands the only way to stop it. All super heroes must sacrifice their powers and this combined energy will seal the rift through which the energy is pouring into our world.

All make the sacrifice accept one, PenUltimate, robin, who has decided being a superhero is too much sacrifice and is retired.  Then the book begins.

If your sold, the novels good,  stop here. Miner spoilers follow.

Calling a once crowded sky a superhero novel is not completely accurate. Because when the book opens there is only one superpowered individual left in the world.

The others have all been depowered. So its more accurate to call a Once Crowded Sky a post superhero novel.

How depowered individuals deal with the loss of so much power is one of the  novels major themes. The answer, for the most part is they deal very badly.

The absurd nature of comic books is lampshaded on almost every page. Former superheroes talk to one another about villains they defeated, and how the villains come back again and again. They call their conflicts the game, a game they all loved to play. And now its gone.

for All but PenUltimate, who got sick of being a superhero and quit, so when everyone    agreed to sacrifice their abilities, he wasn’t there and is thus left the worlds last superhero.

He begins the novel using his powers only to continuously save the depowered Wonder Woman, who despite now being only human keeps trying to fight  three or four armed thugs at a time.

But when an unknown force begins attacking the city, PenUltimate teams up with Soldier, Captain America/Wolverine/the Punisher, to figure out who is responsible and starts trying to be a superhero again.

A Once Crowded Sky toys with your expectations. Given that it is a novel about superheroes with only one superhero in it this was bound to happen. The types of city spanning battles where people punch their enemies through buildings are mostly absent,  happening primarily in flashback.

Through the snappy comic book dialogue,  King evokes a pitch perfect shared history for his characters. We don’t get to see a lot of it because we’re coming in at the end, but that makes the bits of backstory we do get more interesting.

Soldier, the Captain America stand inn, runs into all the normal people who used to be superheroes. Most of them talk over old times, trade stories of playing the game.

The novel at its best looks at the idea of saving the world every day and what that would do to people. Some are happy to be human again, others are devastated. Doctor Speed, the Flash, drinks now that he is no longer spending  his time saving civilians.

All the major comic book tropes  are examined, from characters being killed off and later coming back to supervillains always escaping from jail, to the question present in every comic book, who wants to dress up in a costume and save the world?

King handles his ex-superheroes with a surprisingly deft touch for a first novelist. If handled poorly the genre conventions of superhero stories can make a superhero novel into shit far more easily than can the same elements in a comic book. But MR. King handles the idea of masked men in tights flying around well.  He draws his characters in such a way that going from superhero to ordinary person is made relatable.

The flashbacks that are found often throughout the novel provide just enough superheroics that a reader will not feel slighted by there lack. The contrast these flashbacks raise between who these people used to be and who they are now is one of the novels major strengths.

Many of the former heroes are shown in an unfavorable light, unable to cope without their game. This is not a heavy handed rebuke, its an outgrowth of the plot.

The plot of the novel isn’t why you should read it. Naturally its ripped straight from a comic book. A dark comic book. Its well done, but A Once Crowded sky is more a meditation on power,  the obligations of having it, the consequences of losing it, and what people will do to get it back.

Although the superheroes are realistic, the world they live in is in all ways  the world of comic books. King knows the laws of such a world  and created the world of the novel to follow them with a fanboys fidelity. this constant contradiction between the world of stories the superheroes inhabit and the humanity  of the same heroes is one of the novels biggest strengths.

As A Once Crowded Sky continues, the facts of comic book life intrude further into the characters thoughts and actions, and the general absurdity inherent in living in such a world becomes apparent.

But it is not apparent to most of the superheroes. They wander around like ghosts now that they cannot play the game, and when a slim chance arises which might allow them to regain their abilities, they jump at it without looking back.

It is  only soldier, who has served in every war since the first world war with twenty years of superheroism after desert storm who begins to question the meaning of all the superhero lifestyle. What’s the point of beating a bad guy when he’s going to come back in three months?

At no point does a once crowded sky disappoint. It  does  become overly meta towards the end when King is making his final points about comic books, but never so meta  that the story is ruined.

If you are looking for a straight up homage to superhero comics, look elsewhere. But if your in the mood for something kind of bleak, and you would  like to read a well written and engaging deconstruction of that Genre, pick up a Once Crowded Sky.

My taste in literature is wide ranging. If you enjoyed this book review, follow the blog.