The main failing of Soon I Will Be Invincible, I think, is that it doesn't quite rise up to the next level of exploring heroics. Even in the comics medium, the stories of Alan Moore or Grant Morrison have advanced the heroic stereotype into intriguing new realms. Grossman seems content to stick closer to the surface, unlike recent novels by Jonathan Lethem or Michael Chabon that also dig into comic books as inspiration. You can imagine it as a perfectly enjoyable comic book by John Byrne and Chris Claremont back in the '80s, but not quite as a masterpiece of the medium.
As a first novel, however, it's quite promising and filled with a cheerful sense of momentum. I'd dig reading a sequel, just to see how close Doctor Impossible can come to ruling time and space. "What does it mean to take over the world," he muses at one point. "Is there really a way to do it?" I'm not sure myself, but I wouldn't mind finding out, either.
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