A really interesting, substantial collection of super-hero short stories. Each of the authors takes an atypical look at the lives of their heroes, and offers thought-provoking, amusing, moving stories and more.

Stand-outs for me were by Lavie Tidhar, Aimee Ogden, Carrie Vaughn, and Kelly Link.

I ended up enjoying this anthology way more than I thought I would. I was expecting some standard superhero stuff but what we actually get is some really raw and human stories that can be very emotional.
Some of my favorites included:

Fool by Keith Frady – about a villain, Dr. Entropy who finally has the means to destroy the world but may be suffering from a crisis of conscious.

Pedestal Seanan McGuire – about a female superhero who moves to a suburb to try and be anonymous so she can have a normal life. A blogger discovers her, posts a pic, and brings a villain to the store where she’s shopping for ice cream. A great story about how those with fame are treated like they are no longer human and don’t deserve to have a life outside of the public one.

Over an Embattled City by Adam R. Shannon – about a man who has the ability to take reality and turn it into fiction, effectively removing those people or events from reality. And a girl who can remember what things were like prior to those things being turned into fiction.

I really enjoyed this anthology for how much more realistic it is, if superheroes and villains actually existed. What happens to your body in the long run after having a superpower for years? Does it deteriorate you mentally? Physically? How do people react to you? Can you ever have a normal life again?

This was way more enjoyable than I was expecting. I would definitely recommend.

ARC received via Netgalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

I was really looking forward to this anthology, especially because I’d heard so many good things about so many authors in the lineup, but unfortunately, it just ended up being extremely disappointing. Majority of the stories ended up being 2 or 2 and a half stars. Out of all 20 stories in the collection, only 3 were 4 stars or above.

I don’t expect to get along with every writing style in an anthology, it’s almost guaranteed that WON’T happen, but I didn’t like <i>so</i> many of the stories in this collection. Not only that but so many of the stories felt like they were just half of an idea and not a complete idea. I did really like Kate Marshall, Ziggy Schutz, and Adam R. Shannon’s stories and I’d recommend seeing if their stories are available anywhere by other than this collection. I’m grateful I at least got 3 new authors to check out because of this but overall, this was completely lackluster and kind of felt like a waste of my time.

Do you want to peel back the masks of superheroes? Well, this volume of short stories lets you do just that. You get the interaction between superheroes, find out that not all heroes are heroic - some are just clueless, and see how a superhero's significant other may see him or her. You have a rescue robot story, a haircut tale, a story where heroes are disappearing because of one comic book writer, so basically a very wide swath of superhero tales to consume. As with any anthology, some are better than others, but which lies within the reader's purview. So take a chance, read, and enjoy!

"Behind the Mask is a multi-author collection with stories by award-winning authors Kelly Link, Cat Rambo, Carrie Vaughn, Seanan McGuire, Lavie Tidhar, Sarah Pinsker, Keith Rosson, Kate Marshall, Chris Large and others. It is partially a prose nod to the comic world―the bombast, the larger-than-life, the save-the-worlds and the calls-to-adventure. But it’s also a spotlight on the more intimate side of the genre. The hopes and dreams of our cape-clad heroes. The regrets and longings of our cowled villains. That poignant, solitary view of the world that can only be experienced from behind the mask."

Yeah, I too was swayed to get this by the NAMES in this book!

I adore superheroes. They are one of my weaknesses and as soon as I saw this book, I jumped on it. It did not disappoint. The stellar line-up of authors have crafted short stories that all approach superpowers differently, and in often unusual ways. Like the story where gaining superpowers means you end up being forgotten. Or the one where a retired superhero doesn't realized she's retired. A number of the stories showed the human side of superheroes, the stories about those who were in their lives or on the sidelines.

There were a lot of stories that seemed to just end, which was a bit frustrating. I wish those had been expanded upon just a bit so that they felt more complete. But overall, a really enjoyable collection of stories. Well worth the read for every superhero junkie.

This was an incredibly entertaining collection. I love superheroes, and these stories offered a variety of different perspectives. It introduced me to writers that I wouldn't have otherwise tried before. "Pedestal" and "Salt City Blue" were fantastic standouts, though the stories were all great. It took me a while to get through, but that's not through any fault of the stories themselves. I am simply not as disciplined about reading anthologies straight through as I am a novel.

The collection is uneven, as per usual with anthologies, but swings a bit too far in the "meh" direction for me. There seems to be a literary subgenre that embraces vague and favors narrators who lack the ability to express themselves clearly; for me this engenders some very mediocre writing as it gives the writer an easy out. Can't figure out how to express a discontent from reality? Literally have your main character/narrator forget their name! It's that easy! This anthology indulges this writing tic far too much - a strong red pen and some pointed words would have benefited everyone involved enormously. All in all, the only story I can recommend is "Miss Liberty Gets a Haircut," which has been wisely placed as the first piece, and the rest are just okay.

A promising idea but it's let down with confusing or boring stories. I did enjoy a couple of the stories though.

This anthology is an extremely mixed bunch of stories. I never expect to love all stories in a collection but this one featured some crazy highs and lows for me. When I started reading the first few stories, I was sure this was going to be an anthology I would praise without end and recommend to everyone but after finishing it, I’m not so sure anymore. Some of the stories were absolutely AMAZING, but they made me expect too much of the ones that came after and the anthology lost a little of its original appeal for me, going from diverse and unique to “just” interesting.

THE STORIES

Ms. Liberty gets a Haircut by Cat Rambo
What a way to kick of this story collection! A great one on gender identity that had a rather sad tone but still made me laugh.

Destroy the City With Me Tonight by Kate Marshall
This one was so tragically sad, OMG, my feels.

Fool by Keith Frady
Considering that villains are usually my favorites, I was a little disappointed in this one. Not a bad story at all, quite interesting actually, but something was missing. I just didn’t feel it, even though I loved seeing a villain struggling with being the bad guy.

Pedestal by Seanan McGuire
Seanan McGuire just never disappoints, especially when it comes to short fiction. This is probably my favorite story from all of these because it’s so damn real, like, just replace this superhero with a celebrity/author/… anyone really, and it’s something we see every single day. Harassment and fan entitlement at its finest.

As I Fall Asleep by Aimee Ogden
Another quite sad story about a hero unable to quit. This is the kind of unique content I want to read about heroes.

Meeting Someone in the 22nd Century or Until Gears Quit Turning by Jennifer Pullen
I usually dig stories about cyborgs but this wasn’t really what I expected to find in this anthology and while I liked the overall idea of feeling incomplete regarding your body, I wasn’t overly impressed by the story.

Inheritance by Michael Milne
I love reading stories about what the life of heroes is like behind the scenes and this story features exactly the sad kind of content that I would expect, a story about a hero who is too busy taking care of the rest of the world, so that his family comes only second.

Heroes by Lavie Tidhar
A great story about how everything isn’t just black and white but heroes and their self administered justice just make that decision regarding what’s good and bad. Good idea and message but fell a little flat in execution.

Madjack by Nathan Crowder
Another great story featuring exactly the kind of content I expected to find in this anthology, about the loss of a hero and learning about who he really is.

Quintessential Justice by Patrick Flanagan
This one is definitely one of my favorite stories out of them all, mainly because it was so funny how it makes fun of the stupid ways superheroes “hide” their identities (e,g, different styled hair + glasses).

The Fall of the Jade Sword by Stepahnie Lai
Sadly, this one didn’t impress me at all even though I liked the idea behind it.

Origin Story by Carrie Vaughn
Considering the title, I expected something more amazing from this one because who doesn’t like epic origin stories but sadly this one was just average and didn’t do much for me.

Eggshells by Ziggy Schutz
It’s always the stories that draw your average person as a hero or show that heroes are just average people too that get to me the most and this one about setbacks in life, getting back to “normal” and asking for help was just the greatest.

Salt City Blue by Chris Large
While the idea of this specific story wasn’t bad at all, it just wasn’t for me.

Birthright by Stuart Suffel
This story could be another case of “it’s me, not you” because for most of the story I was just ???. It didn’t really get what the author was trying to tell with this story.

The Smoke Means it’s Working by Sarah Pinsker
Another case of “good idea, but fell flat”. I think the problem with this one, for me, was that it could have done better as a longer story.

Torch Songs by Keith Rosson
Basically the story of a defeated villain and I’m SO HERE FOR THAT KIND OF STORY. (also: circus setting!)

The Beard of Truth by Matt Mikalatos
The title sums up pretty good what this is about which made the whole story quite predictable and took too long to really get interesting for my taste.

Over an Embattled City by Adam R. Shannon
LOVED the idea behind this one. Somewhat Inception-y and about what our fictional heroes mean to us.

Origin Story Kelly Link
This one didn’t work for me at all. Way too much dialogue for my taste,.

OVERALL
Overall, Behind the Mask is a must read if you are into comic books or superheroes and villains in general. It gives you a completely new look into their lives, often critically, and makes you think about how you view your favorite characters as well as real life heroes. This anthology features some great, often diverse, stories that completely blew me away, but sadly also some stories that weren’t for me at all. As I expect from an anthology, the good and the bad evens out, but after a great start, I was somewhat sad that it didn’t leave a better overall impression with me. The stories that I did love are definitely worth getting this book though, they were that good.

----------
"...the only thing we love more than revering our heroes is destroying them."
- Over an Embattled City by Adam R. Shannon
----------

I really don't understand how the stories are selected for anthologies like this one... I am continually amazed at how uneven the quality is. I understand that everyone has different tastes, but even given that, I cannot see how one person could have liked all of the stories selected in this (or most) collection. Perhaps editors literally just put the word out about their topic (particularly when it's an unusual and specific one, like this) and go first come, first served... That's pretty much all I can imagine, because the quality of this collection is unbelievably uneven.

The topic is superheroes - but lest you think this is going to be a book abut X-Men or the latest Marvel movie teaser, let me clear something up right from the get-go: these superheroes (and super villains) suck. Or, rather, their lives do. I thought the "behind the mask" idea would be cool - I liked the concept, pointing out that the supers, like fairy tale princesses, were still fundamentally people (well, most of them), which would logically mean that their lives would have highs and lows like everyone else's. But I guess I never really thought about the practical implications of that. They have issues with their secret identities and super powers, with their responsibilities and the consequences of their actions. They are dissatisfied and bored and irritable - they are, in short, utterly human. That should make them more appealing, but what it mostly just made them was annoying. It is, after all, no more enjoyable to listen to whining when it comes from someone with a mask and a cape than it is to listen to it from your neighbor or the clerk at the supermarket...

There were a few truly excellent and wholly original stories (Pedestal by Seanan McGuire, The Beard of Truth by Matt Mikalatos, Over an Embattled City by Adam R. Shannon) and a few more that were solidly good (As I Fall Asleep by Aimee Ogden, Meeting Someone in the 22nd Century or Until the Gears Stop Turning by Jennifer Pullen, Origin Story by Carrie Vaughn). But the vast majority were either boring or eye-roll inducing or just plain ridiculous (e.g., Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut by Cat Rambo - this is the opening story and was utterly nonsensical to me, and Kelly Link's Origin Story, although my issue there may be with her, rather than this particular story - I find her to be a VERY eclectic and uneven author)

I really should learn my lesson with short story collections; with the VERY rare exception, I usually find them altogether too uneven for my taste. Still, there's always at least one standout and I'm a sucker for the promise of that standout...

Stunning smorgasbord of super stories
These stories are bite-sized and range from light-hearted to heart-breaking. The superhero genre is an old one by now, but these authors each manage to put their own spin on the people behind the masks. Some of them made me uncomfortable with the angsty 'reality' that superheroes would bring, others were a total mind-screw.

My favourites were those that kept the optimism of the genre alive, but through a different lens.
Standouts for me – though others can and will like others – were Madjack by Nathan Crowder (a Bowie tribute), Eggshells by Ziggy Schultz (about asking and needing help), and Salt City Blue by Chris Large (slice of life with sudden superpowers).

Great to dip into or to plough through in a sitting, will almost certainly make you rethink that desire for superpowers

I have so many positive feelings about Behind the Mask.

When I first glanced at the blurb, this superhero anthology seemed like it'd be entirely MY THING. I mean, I am honestly always talking about how much I love original superhero stories that have nothing to do with the Big Two's stable of overpowered and inconsistently characterized heavy-hitters.

It wound up being like…80-90% MY THING (which is still good).

While Behind the Mask had a couple of stories that missed the mark for me (largely in minor ways), it had a LOT more stories that had the kind of interesting ideas that I look for in superhero stories and plenty of "hits".

While I want to be fair to all of the authors in this anthology because, for the most part they were all innovative or interesting even if some of them weren't my thing, if I were to sit here and write a review for every single story here, we'd be here a while. So I'm going to focus on some of the stories that stood out the most to me and some of the stories that couldn't hold me.

My favorite story in this anthology is Seanan McGuire's "Pedestal" because it is actually everything I've ever wanted from this sort of anthology. Part of that is because I fan-Stitch over Seanan as often as possible, but okay "Pedestal" is a look at an aspect of superheroics that folks tend to overlook: the misogyny that lady-adjacent superheroes would face.

In a world where superheroes are public figures on par with pop stars, entitlement runs rampant among "fans" and shit gets real awful, real fast. This story features a wannabe-paparazzo, a tentacle monster from another dimension, and a superhero that just wants to get her ice-cream in peace. (Also, while the summary calls it light-hearted it's basically about fan entitlement and invasions of privacy so… Your mileage may vary on that.)

Speaking of favorite stories, Stephanie Lai's "The Fall of the Jade Sword" is a very close second for me because it feels like one of those old-time radio plays that I've been obsessed with for the past few years. Seriously, the language that Lai uses is so vivid that I had absolutely NO trouble picturing Mok-Seung as she starts to follow in the Jade Sword's footsteps.

"The Fall of the Jade Sword" has familiar elements that I always find fun in superhero media (i.e., superheroes in training, the sort of secret identity), but it's also unlike most of the work I've read in the genre.
Mok-Seung is an awesome protagonist and I would totally kill for another longer work focused on her adventures working alongside the Jade Sword and learning to adapt together.

I also largely enjoyed the first story in Behind the Mask, Cat Rambo's "Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut" because it sort of serves as a commentary on superheroes, gender, and being who you say you are (as opposed to what/who other people say you are). It was largely a hit for me aside from some dialogue at the start about "porn star superheroes" where I couldn't tell if the characters were criticizing these oversexualized superheroes or the culture that created them. I loved this story because it felt a lot like reading Warren Ellis' work on Stormwatch and The Authority (but with you know… more queer ladies).

I also thought that this was a good story to start the anthology with because of the tone it sets and how, right off the bat, we're shown this absolutely atypical superhero narrative.

"Meeting Someone in the 22nd Century or Until the Gears Quit Turning" legitimately shook me. Author Jennifer Pullen got me to let my guard down with this super sweet rom-com vibe with quaint couple Sandra and Greg. Only to rip my heart out at the halfway point.

Here I am at the halfway point and I'm busy pondering the nature of cyborgs and then WHAM, I get hit right in the feels.

Why?

Because this story deals with miscarriages in a realistic and utterly heart-breaking way. Look, I'm not saying I ugly cried a bit but well… I kind of did.

(That being said, if your triggers include pregnancy and miscarriages, this is a story you might want to skip.)

Honorable mentions for awesomeness go to Carrie Vaughn's "Origin Story", Kate Marshall's "Destroy the City with Me Tonight", and Aimee Ogden's "As I Fall Asleep".

Now I'm not going to linger too long on the stories that I didn't like, but well… there are a few and I am a complainer at heart.

First, Keith Frady's "Fool" was… not my cup of tea.

His villain Dr. Entropy felt like a grimmer, darker Gru from Despicable Me (not an insult, I love those fricking moves) and the whole "tired villain decides to destroy the world rather than conquer it" plot is one that has never appealed to me.

I get that it doesn't end the way you'd expect, and the use of an intuitive android as a hero in the story is novel, but yeah… despite the fact that Frady is a talented writer, his story is just not my thing.

But hey, it might be yours!

Chris Large's "Salt City Blue" wasn't bad, but I honestly could not get why Skyball was so awful about Helen's ~little surprise~ and the tone of the story was a little too VH1 reality television series for me. But if you liked the nonstop drama of Grace Randolph's Supurbia, you might like this story.

Other stories that didn't work for me include Matt Mikalatos's "The Beard of Truth" (which felt a bit like something I'd see on Adult Swim's programming block) and Kelly Link's "Origin Story" (which has so many – too many – Wizard of Oz references for my liking and couldn't get me invested in the characters on top of that).

Meerkat Press absolutely deserves props for Behind the Mask's high percentage of lady writers (I think that when I counted, it was like… at least half the authors on the book). I also genuinely appreciate the perspectives that these authors bring to the table because these aren't stories being told in comics. Many of them look at "the everyday", domesticity, and the relationships that these heroes have to maneuver through.

As with many other anthologies I've read, I have some general comments: Behind the Mask could (and should) have had more on-page queerness and stories centered on characters of color. If there's ever another Behind the Mask anthology collection or another superhero anthology from Meerkat Press, that's something I'm going to be looking for.

And boy do I want there to be another collection like this from Meerkat Press!

A collection of prose short stories themed, sometimes loosely, around superheroes and their worlds. Contributors such as Kelly Link and Lavie Tidhar were what got my attention more than that, though; if anything, I have the same scepticism of SF and fantasy writers doing superheroes as of litfic writers doing SF and fantasy. There can be the same sense of condescension, the notion that 'I've not been keeping up with this field, but I know better anyway', leading to an awful lot of pale retreads of ideas done to death in the field proper, which nonetheless expect to be applauded for their supposed bold originality. All the more so for the way superhero comics have ramified and dug deeper these past thirty years or so; when Larry Niven wrote 'Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex' in 1969, he was looking at stuff you'd never have seen in a Superman comic of the era; nowadays, any similar idea has probably been the subject at least of a dubious miniseries starring an analogue of the character in question. Fortunately, my fears on this count were largely unfounded; I suspect most if not all of these writers are proper superhero fans, and if some of the story engines aren't exactly original (the all-female superteam; the superhero pop star; the world whose heroes are gradually being retconned out of existence) then the treatments generally justify them all the same. Because ultimately, there are things prose can do better than comics. An issue of people sat around talking, or worse, musing to themselves, without any action to liven it up? There are a handful of artists who can sell that, but as a rule you're not playing to the medium's strengths. Whereas those quiet moments in between the big stories are perfect for prose, and that's what a lot of these pieces are; the vignettes, the marginalia, the calm before or after the storm.

First let me be straight up and say that short story anthologies aren't always my thing. Their usual unevenness bothers me. I was interested in this anthology because of the A-List of authors involved. It doesn't disappoint but it doesn't enthrall, either. For the most part, the stories are interesting, and some, for example Kate Marshall's "Destroy The City With Me Tonight," and Ziggy Schutz's "Eggshells," have stayed with me days after reading them. All these stories have an undertone of what a pain it is to be a superhero. Whether in Seánan McGuire's "Pedestal," where even going to the grocery store turns into a paparazzi event, complete with social media tagging disaster, to Carrie Vaughn's "Origin Story," where your ex-girlfriend recognizes you during your now-turned-super-villain bank robbery, being super is hard. And I guess that sadness and despair is part of what made the anthology less than enjoyable at times. I read one or two stories a day, and that was fine. That was plenty. Some good craft here. Very little joy.

I requested this book from NetGalley mainly because I am a fan of Seanan McGuire, but I was pleased to find that the majority of the stories worked well for me.

Among my favorite stories were:
Ms Liberty Gets a Haircut by Cat Rambo, which was a look at a female superhero who was created as a sex object, trying to take control of her life.
Destroy the City With Me Tonight by Kate Marshall, where random people become city guardians when maps of the city appears etched literally on their bones, and everyone who knew them as individuals forget they ever existed.
Pedestal by Seanan McGuire, where a heroine tries to have a private life in an era of internet stalkers. Set in the world of her short story series about a different heroine named Velveteen
As I Fall Asleep by Aimee Ogden speculates about what if an aging superhero develops dementia
The Fall of the Jade Sword by Stephanie Lai is a steampunk story in Australia with an Asian heroine dealing with prejudice and family expectations.
Eggshells by Ziggy Schutz uses superheroes to look at post-concussion syndrome.
The Beard of Truth by Matt Mikalatos made me laugh in his story of a world where people are randomly developing powers, and a young man learns that if he grows a beard, everyone around him is forced to tell the truth.
Over an Embattled City by Adam R Shannon has the interesting idea of a comic book writer who makes superheroes and villains disappear by finding out their origins and writing them into comic book characters.

By the end of the collection, there were only three stories out of the twenty that didn't work for me, and for a multi-author collection, that is an excellent ratio.

I extremely enjoyed this collection. It was a different side of the "normal" superhero stories. And, I discovered several new to me authors. I am looking forward to tracking down more of their work. Thanks for the twists!

I was pleasantly surprised by this anthology. It managed to surprise me more than once, and I loved the diversity of all the stories.

Since they are all so different, here’s a little something for each and every one of them. Even if I have more things to say for some and less for others, I didn’t disliked any of them. (And a wider conclusion on my overall feelings at the end)


Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut, by Cat Rambo
I read, reviewed and deeply enjoyed an anthology by Cat Rambo in the past so I was super happy to encounter her again in another anthology.
Here, I was reinforced in my initial thought that I needed to read more from Cat Rambo.
We follow a team of super heroines, some left their previous team because of harassment, and others just want to join a team. It focuses on Ms. Liberty, a cyborg created by young scientists. She wonders about her sense of self. This is a story about love and heroism, and is mostly about the characters and their discussions, about genders and being a superhero in the world they live in, what they feel, while the fights in the city are just mentioned in passing.

Destroy the City with Me Tonight, by Kate Marshall
Wow. This one was such an innovative vision of the super hero origin story. It looks at it via the idea that some people got a disease where a certain city calls to them, where they must go if they don’t want to experience pain in their bones, and here they become a guardian of the city and its inhabitants, magically forgotten by everyone they knew. I really loved the twists.

I read these first two stories before sleeping, and I kept thinking about them. I thought that even if all the other stories were disappointing, I could not give this anthology less than 3 stars on goodreads, just because of these first two. They really blew my mind and I would totally have bought a novel with these premises.
I was excited to read this anthology but didn’t have any expectations; after these two my expectations went off the roof!

Fool, by Keith Frady
This one is about the “bad guy”, Dr. Entropy, who is about to finally destroy the Earth. Except pushing the button isn’t as easy as he thought it would be. What is a villain without a hero to stop him?
This was a really great story, especially for people who are fascinated by villains and good and evil. (Which I am!)

Pedestal, by Seanan McGuire
Oh how I love to read Seanan McGuire short fiction! And this one did not disappoint, once again!
About a young woman superhero who tries to live her life in anonymity, but just cannot because people are jerks. Still, it was really nice in the end and like the first two stories, I was not expecting such a level of emotion and positivity. She has a power that has to do with her reflection and that was something I’d never seen before. Perfect idea for a short story, because I’m not sure a full novel could have worked with this idea, but I wouldn’t say no to more with this character.

As I Fall Asleep, by Aimee Ogden
Here we are with a superheroine disoriented by her surrounding and trying to keep on doing her mission while not sure about what is happening. While not the best, the final twist was truly heart-wrenching. The central theme here is growing older as a superhero.

Meeting Someone in the 22nd Century or Until the Gears Quit Turning, by Jennifer Pullen
I don’t feel this was really in the theme. While the woman the main character fall in love COULD be a superhero, she isn’t. Still, it was not a bad story. But it was sad and deals with something I’m not comfortable with: child birth. Thankfully, while the anthology deals with this maybe twice, it was never in an awful way like I have encountered in the past in other anthologies or scifi stories.

Inheritance, by Michel Milne
About a boy and the powers he inherits from his absent father, a famous superhero who cannot stay home since he always has to go save someone or someplace. This was really sad and sweet, the difficulties of maintaining relationships while being a superhero is a big theme in this anthology and I liked how this played out here.

“People like legends. They don’t like people.”

Heroes, by Lavie Tidhar
Welp this was a hard one. This one is set in Berlin and deals with war crimes and torture, when one person wonderful gift is used in the most horrific manner. While I found it important, it was short and I was relieved to go on another story after this one. I’m “glad” to see the nazi theme was only used once here on Behind The Mask.

Madjack, by Nathan Crowder
Another one about the offspring of a “super person”, tinted with rock music. It kinda made me think of Marvel’s Starlord, except the main character here is a young woman. While not much happened, I liked this story, how the main character gets to understand things about her father and about herself.
I feel I also can safely say this was a touching tribute to David Bowie.

Quintessential Justice, by Patrick Flanagan
Quintessential Justice really made me smile a lot. Here we are with some kind of superhero manager, Jaleesa, who works for the “Support Services Division of The Justice Guardian Brigade” and has to take care of a superhero (who talks in a very pompous way) who’s not very popular with the public but is still doing his best. Their platonic relationship was great and I enjoyed seeing them get to understand each other.

The Fall of the Jade Sword, by Stephanie Lai
This story is set in Australia among the Chinese community and in the future, where airships and augmented bicycles are normal. So there was a strong steampunk vibe in this story which I really liked. It is a story that really made me travel, but that I felt was very confusing at times. Still, it was fast paced and Mok-Seung was a great main character to follow.

“She sits by the window, a book in her lap. She’s reading The Art of War, a highly suitable text for a young woman growing up in a foreign land.”

Origin Story, by Carrie Vaughn
I’m not sure how I feel about this story. It was about a young woman who stumbles on her old boyfriend from high school, except he is now a supervillain robbing bank. It was entertaining but I don’t know how I feel about the end. I guess I would have wanted to know what happened after that. Still, the idea was good, not a bad addition to the anthology.

Eggshells, by Ziggy Schutz
Oh how I loved deeply this story. It is about Penny, a young superhero-to-be, and she gets injured while… playing hockey. She get a concussion which will affect her more than she thought she could be. This story deals with family, identity, dealing with a trauma and recovery. It was really a powerful story, in a very different way than the others.

Salt City Blue, by Chris Large
I still don’t know what to think about this story. Helen Marshal is a powerful woman, but not in the same way we’ve seen until now in this anthology. She’s a businesswoman, kinda mean to her employees and set on having the life she wants to. The superhero element here would spoil the story I guess so I’ll shut up, but I really loved the end, and still need some thinking on others. If anyone wants to discuss this one with me, do not hesitate.

Birthright, by Stuart Suffel
I don’t really know what to say about this one. It was interesting but I feel it was like a preliminary draft that an author would write about their world-building. For me there was something lacking, but I’m sure other people would love it. That’s the thing about anthologies, there’s a story for everyone, eventually.

The Smoke Means It’s Working, by Sarah Pinsker
This quote actually works super-well on describing the story so I’ll just live it there!

“Another day, another new job, and she was still no closer to her goal of becoming a superhero’s sidekick.”

Torch Songs, by Keith Rosson
Set in a carnival where ex-supervillain now sits and wait to die out after they’ve been arrested. This was depressing and ends in a cliff-hanger, but I liked the camaraderie that unfold between two old super villainess.

The Beard of Truth, by Matt Mikalatos
This was a slice of life story in a world where people can suddenly get superpowers, just like that. So when that happens, they have to call a number and state their superpower to be registered. Our main character here suddenly realise everybody has the urge to tell him their deepest secret or deepest truth that they wouldn’t reveal under other circumstances. This was actually very funny and the perfect length.

Over an Embattled City, by Adam R. Shannon
About an alternate earth and the main character is looking to put things in order, except everyone thinks she’s lost her mind. That was cool and I was very eager to know what was going on and how this would end.

Origin Story, by Kelly Link
So there’s two stories with the same title in this anthology, that’s weird but at the same time, considering their title and the subject, I understand.
I feel this was a weird story to end the anthology on. I didn’t really love that one, it was confusing with weird names, deciphering who was who and when they were talking. In the end I managed the figure things out but I was disappointing to end such a great anthology with that one.
Also, TW: rape.


So, I would TOTALLY recommend this anthology. While I didn’t love all of the stories (and it is totally normal and fine), they all had their place in here and I feel that the ones I didn’t connect with still have the potential to be someone’s favourite. This will make everyone see super heroes/villains in another light.

Some stories were lighter than others, some were really dark, but they all complement each other on what it must be to be a super-powered person, live in a world with super-powered being or live in the future… As a whole, it mostly showed the dark side of the superhero life, or the aftermath of this life, but it still was a great reading experience.

I also loved the fact that a lot of the stories had a woman or young woman as their main character. Plus it can be noted that there are almost as many women writers in there as men, with almost a 50/50 ratio and I appreciate the effort. AND not every character was white and straight, with settings variating quite a lot. So the diversity aspect of the anthology was another +1 on why I would recommend it!

While I expected to see some of the ideas in there, others totally took me by surprise and I feel this anthology is a beautiful gem, with a lot of original content in the growing theme of superpowered people, whether they are superheroes or supervillains.

An anthology of short stories that show how depressing it is to be a superhero. This book is full of angst and the dark side of doing good.