from: Free Press
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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.0108352
EAN num: 9781416566441
Format: Illustrated
ISBN number: 1416566449
Label: Free Press
Manufacturer: Free Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 432
Printing Date: July 15, 2008
Publishing house: Free Press
Sale Popularity Level: 53384
Studio: Free Press
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Product Description:
Twenty-two of today's most talented writers (and comics fans) unite in Who Can Save Us Now?, an anthology featuring brand-new superheroes equipped for the threats and challenges of the twenty-first century -- with a few supervillains thrown in for good measure. Edited and with contributions by Owen King (We're All in This Together) and John McNally (America's Report Card), Who Can Save Us Now? enriches the superhero canon immeasurably.
With mutations stranger than the X-Men and with even more baggage than the Hulk, this subsequent generation of superheroes is a far cry from your run-of-the-mill caped crusader. From the image-conscious and not-very-mysterious masked meathead who swoops in and sweeps the tough girl reporter off her feet; to the Meerkat, who overcomes his species' cute and cuddly image to become the resident hero in a small Midwestern city; to the Silverfish, 'the creepy superhero,' who fights crime while maintaining the slipperiest of identities; to Manna Man, who manipulates the minds of televangelists to serve his own righteous mission, these protectors (and in some cases antagonizers) of the innocent and the virtuous will delight literary enthusiasts and comic fans alike.
With stunning illustrations by artist Chris Burnham, Who Can Save Us Now? offers a vibrant, funny, and truly unusual array of characters and their stories.
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Rated by buyers 
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The last decade or so has seen a remarkable "legitimization" of graphic storytelling, be ranging from indie "comix" to the superhero genre. The latter is a genre that's come to dominate the summer movie season, and with literati such as Jonathan Lethem and Michael Chabon as its paladins, it shouldn't be surprising that more and more fiction writers find it intriguing. This collection of twenty-two stories, six of which appeared previously in such places as Virginia Quarterly Review and One Story, gathers some of these experiments in an endeavor to reimagine the superhero's place in our everyday real world. One note of caution is necessary: though the word "superhero" appears in the subtitle and on the jacket, it might convey the wrong message. The protagonists of these stories are not so much heroes as they are people with paranormal abilities or attributes -- which are sometimes put to heroic purposes and sometimes not. So, if you're looking for new takes on the traditional Superman/Batman/Wolverine/Etc. superhero, you might be disappointed.
However, if what you're looking for are interesting writers taking on an interesting premise, then you won't be disappointed. I tend to measure anthologies by their ratio of stories I'm glad to have read vs. stories I'm not glad to have read, and that usually works out to roughly 1:2. In this case the ratio is reversed, and there are really only two or three stories I really didn't care for. I generally really like Jim Shepard, but his "In Cretaceous Seas" just didn't work for me, and feels somewhat shoehorned into this collection (it previously appeared in Vice). And Richard Dooling's "Roe #5" was a rather conventional clone-gone-wild story. But almost every story has at least one interesting idea or conceit that makes it worth reading. For example, although I didn't love Will Clarke's "The Pentecostal Home for Flying Children," I did enjoy the notion of a horny superhero leaving behind a bunch of bastard children with the ability to fly.
My favorite stories were probably the melancholy ones, such as David Yoo's tragicomic "The Somewhat Super," about a secret support group for those with useless paranormal powers, or Scott Snyder's "The 13th Egg," about a sailour whose exposure to atomic bomb tests in the Pacific turns him into a post-traumatic stress victim with mutant powers. The two real stunning pieces were Cary Holladay's "The Horses Are Loose," about a girl who can only use her power once in her life and must make the difficult choice of when to do so, and J. Robert Lennon's "The Rememberer," about a girl whose perfect memory dooms her to a lifetime of sorrow. Which is not to suggest there aren't some more whimsical pieces, most notably Sam Weller's "The Quick Stop 5," about a colorful crew of convenience store workers who are transformed into strange superheroes after inhaling some toxic fumes. Other standouts include Tom Bissell's mock Esquire-style magazine profile of a vigilante superhero and Stephanie Harrell channelling a somewhat jaded Lois Lane on the topic of Superman's early days.
On the whole, the collection works well as both an accessible introduction to some of American short fiction's young talent, and as an example of how a mostly visual genre can be reimagined in fiction.
Rated by buyers 
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Most short story collections I have read have been fairly even in the stories contained within the particular collection, as far as how much I have enjoyed them or how well I felt they were written. Who Can Save Us Now? is an exception to that.
There are several very good stories that I enjoyed quite a bit - notably Tom Biessell's My Interview with the Avenger and Owen King's The Meerkat.
However, others were not up to par for me, with weak, obvious or missing plots (In Cretaceous Seas, Mr. Big Deal).
The good ones were worth getting through the not-so-good ones, none of them are overly long to feel your time was wasted. Four or five stars for the good ones, two or three for the others, average rating for the book of three stars.
Rated by buyers 
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This book was bloody awful..I gave up on it about 200+ pages in. I kept reading one story after the other hoping I'd run into a decent, well-written story, but no such luck. Pretentious writing coupled with plots and characterization straight out of some introduction to creative writing course at the local community college.
Avoid at all costs.
Rated by buyers -
I generally fit short stories into two basic categories: plot driven stories, the sort you find particularly in genre magazines like Analog or Ellery Queen; and "slice of life" stories more driven by character and description, more likely to be found in college periodicals. I prefer the former, which is why I picked up Who Can Save Us Now?, a collection of short stories that promises new takes on the superhero genre.
Most of the tales in this anthology are by relatively unknown authors. In fact, the only familiar name for me was Owen King, who also co-edited, and that's because he's Stephen King's son (and the family connection doesn't stop there as Kelly Braffet, another writer in the book is Owen's wife). The stories themselves are a mix of both my story categories. With 22 stories total, I will just limit myself to describing a few noteworthy stories.
The book kicks off well enough with Stephanie Harrell's "Girl Reporter" (which actually won an award for literary excellence). Though never mentioned by name, this is essentially a Superman story from Lois Lane's viewpoint, but it's a tale of the Man of Steel before he constructed his public image and was more of an enigma. Sam Weller's The Quick Stop 5 presents a group of unusually powered heroes (one is essentially living beef jerky) who all work at the title convenience store.
J. Robert Lennon's "The Rememberer" describes the perils of a perfect memory with a woman who can never forget anything, suffering each loss in her life with never-fading permanence. David Yoo's The Somewhat Super gives an indication as to what happens when you have a super power that really isn't very super (like being able to hop relatively quickly). King's contribution is "Meerkat", in which the title character acquires abilities of that particular animal.
Of course, when you compile an anthology of stories by different writers with different styles, not every tale will be equally compelling, and there are some weak ones in this set. A more fundamental issue is that the book doesn't really live up to its promise: there are a lot of stories that aren't really superhero stories; just because a character has an unusual ability doesn't make the story a superhero story.
In fact, outside of King's story, there really aren't any tales of superhero vs. supervillain (maybe only King really "got" the idea of his own book). And at this point, the superhero genre has been so thoroughly deconstructed and parodied (in movies like Mystery Men and graphic novels like the Watchmen, among many others) that Who Can Save Us Now? doesn't really offer any fresh perspectives. But even if this anthology doesn't really deliver on what it offers, there are enough entertaining (and often humorous) stories in the bunch to be a fun read. I rate it a low four stars: Who Can Save Us Now? is simultaneously good and a bit of a disappointment
Rated by buyers 
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Usually when I'm reading an anthology I'll find a few outstanding stories sandwiched in between tales of varying quality. So you can imagine my surprise as I made my way through this collection and found story after story after story that delighted and impressed me. The origin stories were definitely my favorite, but I appreciated all the different takes on the superhero genre, and was happy to experience characters that were new and immediately accessible. If you like fantastical tales, but don't want to deal with the decades of continuity attached to folks like Spiderman, Superman, and the X-Men, this collection is your answer. It proves, without a shadow of a doubt, that superheroes are more complex than we give them credit for, and gives comic book fans a new form in which to experience their preferred method of storytelling. Chris Burnham's illustrations are an added bonus, capturing the essence of each piece with his skillful hand.
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