Robert Mayer - Superfolks
Kurt Busiek (of Astro City and several other well-written comics) claims this is the book (and just to clarify, it is a short novel, not a comic) that started the whole “superhero deconstruction” thing, well before Watchmen or The Dark Knight Returns.
I don’t see it. Okay, I can see how it treats superheroes differently than they had been treated to that point — the story centers around a Superman-type character who has retired and has the usual midlife impotence (loss of super-powers) issues.
Thing is, it’s a comedy and it’s not that funny. The author’s favorite thing to do is name his characters after real people. Like a bartender named Gerald Ford, or a secretary named Marilyn Monroe. (Okay, I think the secretary was named Norma Jean Baker… same difference.) It’s sort of a parody of Superman, only he mentions Superman as a distinct character existing in the same world. It’s not really solid parody or satire… just some half-decent ideas strung together by less-than-half-funny jokes.
Okay, there are some good bits, don’t get me wrong. There’s a Catcher in the Rye reference that was really clever, and other small gags that worked out really well. Also, there are some pretty steamy sex scenes, but mixed in with the comedy and superhero adventure stuff, they made me feel sort of awkward for some reason.
Overall, I don’t get why this book is supposed to be so revolutionary. And it’s not just Busiek who says so — according to the foreword and back cover quotes, such comic book luminaries as Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore were all inspired by Superfolks. J. Michael Straczynski almost certainly borrowed a character — an eastern European “tailor to the heroes” — for his Amazing Spider-man. Oh, and Dave Gibbons (Alan Moore’s artist on Watchmen) did the cover for this new (2003) reprint edition. So this book comes highly recommended. Maybe I’m just missing something.