As the author of the Supervillainy Saga, I absolutely love prose superhero novels. It’s a market that I managed to get in on the ground floor before the MCU managed to make it explode. There’s a benefit to superhero novels that aren’t often brought up and it’s the fact that the stories can have a beginning, middle, and end in a way that larger named franchised ones don’t. The rules of each supervillain world can also be dictated by the author as well, emphasizing or changing the rules so it may be a magical or technology-based world.
Here are my favorite superhero novels that I’ve enjoyed and things that have served as inspirations to my own work. I’ve tried to keep a balance of traditional and indie published works.
10] The Case of the Claw by Keith R.A. DeCandido
Blurb: The great metropolis of Super City is the home of dozens of costumed heroes: Spectacular Man, the Terrific Trio, the Bruiser, the Superior Six, and more.
This isn’t their story…
When the heroes are done punching out the villains, it’s left to the stalwart men and women of the Super City Police Department to restrain them, arrest them, and hope that this time there’s enough evidence to actually convict them.
SUPER CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT
THE CASE OF THE CLAW
The mutated spree killer known as the Claw has returned, leaving bloody victims all over Super City. While Homicide detectives try to find out who the Claw really is, uniformed officers must deal with the Bolt’s escape from the drunk tank, and the bumblings of aspiring hero Knight Dude. Meanwhile, the Superior Six claim they’ll cooperate with the police and stop the Claw—but they’re busy fighting the Brute Squad and stonewalling the cops. The SCPD must find out the Claw’s deadly secret, before he claims another victim!
Review: A bit of an oddball case, The Case of the Claw has multiple sequels but they’re not listed as part of the same series. For them, you’ll have to look under (the SCPD series). The premise is basically Gotham Central but in a nicer community. It follows regular cops working cases that often bump up against superheroes and supervillains. I love anything KRAC does and am a huge fan of his work in the Star Trek universe so this was always a guaranteed sale.
9] Velveteen Versus the Junior Super Patriots by Seanan Mcguire
Blurb: “How dare you? I never asked for you to hunt me down!” No, Velma Martinez hadn’t. But when you had once been Velveteen, child super-heroine and one of The Junior Super Patriots, West Coast Division, you were never going to be free, even if your only power was to bring toys to life. The Marketing Department would be sure of that.
8] Dreadnought by April Daniels
Blurb: Danny Tozer has a problem: She just inherited the powers of Dreadnought, the world’s greatest superhero. Until Dreadnought fell out of the sky and died right in front of her, Danny was trying to keep people from finding out she’s transgender. But before he expired, Dreadnought passed his mantle to her, and those secondhand superpowers transformed Danny’s body into what she’s always thought it should be. Now there’s no hiding that she’s a girl.
Review: Dreadnought is the story of a transgender girl named Danny Tozer. One day, she finds herself inheriting the power of Earth’s greatest hero, giving her a body as well as powers similar to Supergirl. I very much enjoyed this heartbreaking tale of coming to your own and learning to rely on yourself because no one else can be trusted. It’s an excellent LGBTAI story and I love the romance they have as well as the villains who are a TERF Druidess witch and techbro billionaire parody. Hmm, I wonder who they are similar to in RL.
7] Forging Hephaestus by Drew Hayes
Blurb: From Drew Hayes, author of Super Powereds and Fred, the Vampire Accountant, comes a series set in a new world of capes, cowls, and superheroes.
Gifted with metahuman powers in a world full of capes and villains, Tori Rivas kept away from the limelight, preferring to work as a thief in the shadows. But when she’s captured trying to rob a vault that belongs to a secret guild of villains, she’s offered a hard choice: prove she has what it takes to join them or be eliminated.
Apprenticed to one of the world’s most powerful (and supposedly dead) villains, she is thrust into a strange world where the lines that divide superheroes and criminals are more complex than they seem. The education of a villain is not an easy one, and Tori will have to learn quickly if she wants to survive. On top of the peril she faces from her own teacher, there are also the capes and fellow apprentices to worry about, to say nothing of having to keep up a civilian cover.
Most dangerous of all, though, are those who loathe the guild’s very existence. Old grudges mean some are willing to go to any length to see the guild turned to ash, along with each one of its members. Even the lowly apprentices.
Review: There’s a truce between the superheroes and the supervillains of the world. A set of rules ala The Ventrue Brothers to keep things from exploding into pure chaos as well as eliminating each other’s families. This doesn’t sit well with extremists on both sides and results in one of the oldest and most terrible of supervillains coming out of retirement.
6] Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m a Supervillain by Richard Roberts
Blurb: Penelope Akk wants to be a superhero. She’s got superhero parents. She’s got the ultimate mad science power, filling her life with crazy gadgets even she doesn’t understand. She has two super-powered best friends. In middle school, the line between good and evil looks clear.
In real life, nothing is that clear. All it takes is one hero’s sidekick picking a fight, and Penny and her friends are labeled supervillains. In the process, Penny learns a hard lesson about villainy: She’s good at it. Criminal masterminds, heroes in power armor, bottles of dragon blood, alien war drones, shapeshifters and ghosts, no matter what the super powered world throws at her, Penny and her friends come out on top. They have to. If she can keep winning, maybe she can clear her name before her mom and dad find out.
Review: Please Don’t Tell My Parents is a nice antidote to a lot of the grimdark which has been afflicting plenty of superhero stories. It’s the story of an adorable set of junior high school students who have superpowers and their decision to become supervillains after their attempt to be superheroes goes disastrously wrong. It helps that Penny Akk looks almost identical to Tegan Croft’s Raven on their audiobook covers. Sadly, there’s currently a kerfluffle and it’s not available in Kindle form. Hopefully, that will change soon.
5] Ex-Heroes by Peter ClinesBlurb: The first novel in Peter Clines’ bestselling Ex series.
Stealth. Gorgon. Regenerator. Cerberus. Zzzap. The Mighty Dragon. They were heroes, using their superhuman abilities to make Los Angeles a better place.
Then the plague of living death spread around the globe. Billions died, civilization fell, and the city of angels was left a desolate zombie wasteland.
Now, a year later, the Mighty Dragon and his companions protect a last few thousand survivors in their film-studio-turned-fortress, the Mount. Scarred and traumatized by the horrors they’ve endured, the heroes fight the armies of ravenous ex-humans at their citadel’s gates, lead teams out to scavenge for supplies—and struggle to be the symbols of strength and hope the survivors so desperately need.
But the hungry ex-humans aren’t the only threats the heroes face. Former allies, their powers and psyches hideously twisted, lurk in the city’s ruins. And just a few miles away, another group is slowly amassing power . . . led by an enemy with the most terrifying ability of all.
Review: Superheroes versus zombies is an inherently wonderful concept. It’s like pirates versus ninjas. In this case, the superheroes of the world are a lower-level than normal so they’re unable to stop the zombie apocalypse. They are, however, able to save a small group of people in Los Angeles. The series was abruptly cancelled but got a number of really good books out. Notably, I was really impressed with how the author addressed a lot of criticisms of the original book in-universe.
4] Wearing the Cape by Marion G. Harmon
Blurb: Who wants to be a superhero? Hope did but she grew out of it, which made her superhuman breakthrough in the Ashland Bombing, just before starting her freshman year at the University of Chicago, more than a little ironic.
And now she has some decisions to make. Given the code-name “Astra” and invited to join the Sentinels, Chicago’s premier super-team, will she take up the cape and mask and become a career superhero? Or will she get a handle on her new powers (super-strength has some serious drawbacks) and then get on with her life-plan?
In a world where superheroes join unions and have agents, and the strongest and most photogenic ones become literal supercelebrities, the temptation to become a cape is strong. But the price can be high—especially if you’re “outed” and lose the shield of your secret identity. Becoming a sidekick puts the decision off for awhile, but Hope’s life is further complicated when The Teatime Anarchist, the supervillain responsible for the Ashland Bombing, takes an interest in her. Apparently as Astra, Hope is supposed to save the world.
Or at least a significant part of it.
Review: Before Supergirl had her own series, she was a fairly obscure character mostly loved by hardcore comic book fans. Wearing the Cape is a tribute to Kara Zor-El by creating the character of Hope Corrigan, who is one of the best stand-ins you could make. In a world where thousands of people gained superpowers spontaneously, she gained the typical flying brick ones. I admit, I like the first book better than the sequels but it remains one of my all-time favorites of superhero fiction. There’s now an RPG setting based on the works.
3] Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
Blurb: “This book is fast, furious, compelling, and angry as hell.” — Seanan McGuire, New York Times bestselling author
Review: Hench is basically the female-led version of the Penguin series on HBO Max. Without spoiling, it takes you through the view of a sympathetic underdog story of a woman who works as a henchwoman before being severely injured in the process. This results in her starting an online campaign against superheroes that seems justified. Except, well, it’s not the story of a good person ruined by the system getting her revenge but the story of how a woman rising to be her absolute worst self.
2] Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
Blurb: The #1 New York Times bestseller from Brandon Sanderson, the author of Oathbringer, coauthor of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series, and creator of the internationally bestselling Mistborn trilogy. And don’t miss the rest of the Reckoners series: Firefight and Calamity.
Review: The Reckoners Trilogy would be the no. 1 on this list if it’s take on superheroes wasn’t a fairly dark one that isn’t quite what I was looking for. Superheroes have taken over the world and made it an awful, bad, and post-apocalyptic sort of place. The Reckoners are a unit of humans with special weapons devoted to taking them down. It’s a fun book trilogy but the superheroes are almost universally bad. Still, Sanderson’s prose is fun and the post-apocalypse/dystopian superhero setting is a fun one.
1] Soon I Will be Invincible by Austin Grossman
Blurb: Doctor Impossible, evil genius, diabolical scientist, wannabe world dominator, languishes in a federal detention facility. He’s lost his freedom, his girlfriend, and his hidden island fortress.
Over the years, he’s tried to take over the world in every way imaginable, using doomsday devices of all varieties (nuclear, thermonuclear, nanotechnological) and mass mind control. He’s traveled backwards in time to change history, forward in time to escape it. He’s commanded robot armies, insect armies, and dinosaur armies. A fungus army. An army of fish. Of rodents. Aliens. All failures. But not this time. This time it’s going to be different.
Fatale is a rookie superhero on her first day with the Champions, the world’s most famous superteam. She’s a patchwork woman of skin and chrome, a gleaming technological marvel built for the next generation of warfare. Filling the void left by a slain former member, we watch as Fatale joins a team struggling with a damaged past, having to come together in the face of unthinkable evil.
Review: Soon I will Be Invincible is the inspiration for a lot of what would eventually become the prose superhero genre. Doctor Impossible is the world’s greatest criminal mastermind but he’s also mentally ill (sort of). He has malign hypercognition disorder, which means he’s an evil genius. The book is both loving and condemnatory to the superhero genre and probably the best out of all this group for someone to read. Better still, the more you know about comics, the more a lot of the in-jokes will make sense.
Additional Recommendations: The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente, Broken Nights by Matthew Davenport, The Superkicks Initiative by Barry Hutchinson, Villains Don’t Date Heroes by Mia Archer, The Roach by Rhett C. Bruno, Superheroes Anonymous by Lexie Dunne
