I grew up flirting with comics. My mother would buy my Archie and Richie Rich (her favorite, as if by sympathetic magic of buying his comic, she could become Richie Rich and have his wealth). After a few years I found the comics I loved – Godzilla and Shogun Warriors. Yeah, most kids liked Batman. I was a purveyor of Japanese culture even back in middle school. Blame Star Blazers. By high school and college I'd found X-Men, Batman, Electric Warrior and Spiderman. I still pick up the occasional comic book to keep in touch.
Liking the comic book universe, and being an online addict, I found City of Heroes and played out every hero and villain type I wanted. It's a fun game, but after 3 years I'm getting a bit tired.
So here we are, with a novel about a super villain and his new plot to take over the world. Soon I will Be Invincible has two viewpoint characters, the incarcerated Doctor Impossible (breaking out of jail due to being underestimated) and the cybernetic Fatale (newly joining a legendary team of heroes). The chapters alternate between each and the staging device works well to show the world Grossman crafted.
Doctor Impossible gives us a view on world-threatening, ultra-threat level super villains never seen in comics; he's stuck in prison garb, on the run, stealing from a laundromat, hiding in a motel room, shopping at Radio Shack for parts to his new weapon. It's deliciously mundane and pragmatic. Fatale, however, is the new girl in the biggest team in the world, and comes in in awe and sees the petty wickedness of her heroes as they argue, fumble of their unresolved feelings, stumble over difficulties with family and constantly play dominance games with each other to establish the hierarchy. Both the heroes and villains worlds are far less pure than we can imagine; this is the reality show of superhumans.
The plot's not overly complex. What story about a comic book world needs to be the Brothers Karamazov? The world's biggest hero, Doctor Impossibles greatest enemy Core Fire, goes missing. Everyone's quick to assume Impossible killed him from his jail cell, somehow. This leads, naturally, to giving Impossible a chance to escape from prison and begin a new plan to conquer the world – but first, since the heroes are after him, he needs to become invincible, as he has a bad habit of getting stopped at the last minute of his plan and pummeled to an inch of his life. He lays out the plan in steps and proceeds methodically, with occasional stops at villainous watering holes and such to show he's still the most dangerous man in the world. Thus, he hides in bushes and changes into his costume. Cops are looking for him, after all.
Fatale has no initial direction to her story beyond a desire to join the superteam. Mostly she shows the cost of being a hero – she had an accident and now has replacement limbs, and her story is echoed in all the other heroes. Each has lost something along the path to power. Family, the world they loved, their friends, their lovers, each paid dearly for what they can do. And most don't seem too happy about the cost.
The story advances, Impossible outwitting the heroes like the supreme genius he is, and yes, he does become invincible. Yes, he is stopped eventually, but it feels like Grossman deliberately didn't have the heroes earn it. Doctor Impossible is struck from the side in a contrivance wonderfully typical of comic books, and yes, the author did set it up well and paid for it slowly through the story, so it doesn't feel cheap. It feels more like Grossman slapped the entire concept of a team of heroes saving the world upside the head.
One flaw I found in the book is one I've seen in a few other places. Everybody knows everybody, everything is connected. Sharp eyes through the story and appendix reveal who made who, who must be connected to who, who is really who, where the magic doohickey came from, and so on. Examples – a young Doctor Impossible accidently created his nemesis, Corefire. A queen of a fantasy land describes a weapon she lost track of decades ago and which is relevant to the world-conquering plot Impossible is constructing. Corefire's girlfriend and perpetual hostage becomes a factor in the story later. A villain who 'came out of nowhere' has a deep origin if you look closely. Impossible's mentor created one of the heroes on the team, and so on. I grew tired of this while playing World of Darkness. Let's not have all events in a neat bundle wrapped up in the author's worldcraft. Instead try to have the chains and connections between characters be a little seperate. I'm not sure if Grossman wanted to have all things tied together deliberately or if it was just a worldbuilding shortcut. I'd like to see this structure twisted into two webs of causality, each competing... but maybe I'll try that ina book someday.
Soon I will be Invincible is only available now in hardcover, but I don't regret paying the full price. It was a fun read of a realistic version of the unreal. I'll read it again in a few years, and would check out more of Grossman's writing. He's not a writer that makes me giddy, but he has good ideas.
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