<i> *I received this book from the publisher and NetGalley in return for a fair review.*</i>

Holy Angst Batman! This sure is an angsty bunch of stories. Super depressing. Anyone who decides to become a hero is stupid (judging by these stories). These are stories of the lives behind the mask. The mask of superheroes. Turns out superheroes have crappy lives, who knew, eh (maybe anyone who has watched most superhero movies and seen how angsty and depressing superheroes are)?

<b>Cat Rambo: Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut</b>
FF; All Female Super Team

A group of all female superheroes boredly do stuff. Like bicker amongst themselves, interview potential new team members, fight others (and have the fight be basically described in the story in the super exciting way of one liners like 'fought parallel versions of ourselves').

One is a cyborg, another is an alien, another is a shape-shifting blob, another is 'the brain', etc. Two of them flirt with the idea of dating each other and then do. Hence my 'FF' tag.

Rating: 3.21

April 13 2017

<B>Kate Marshall: Destroy the City with Me Tonight</b>
Amnesia; Mental Illness; Forgetfulness

Apparently superheroes and super villains are a disease. A virus. One that can be sexually transmitted. And, as seems to be a common theme in this book based on the few stories I've read so far, being a superhero or villain is a super depressing angsty life to have. A curse, not a benefit.

Rating: 3.12

April 13 2017

<B>Keith Frady: Fool</b>
Super villain; mad scientist; secret lair; Tropical Island; volcano; robots

Just in case you didn't know - superheroes aren't the only ones with crappy, depressing, angsty lives - super villains also are super depressing people. The one here. Dr. Entropy who lives in a volcano on a tropical island building 'death machines' and stuff like that (also robots). He's inches away from pushing a giant red button that may or may not actually be connected to anything, though he believes that if he pushes it he will end all life on earth (well, at least human life). He is weirdly reluctant to push the button, though, and keeps monologuing. And doing even more monologuing. While starring up to see if anyone will stop him. Then more monologuing.

Rating: 3.03

April 13 2017

<B>Seanan McGuire: Pedestal</b>
Paparazzi

Paparazzi really are scum of the earth.

A young superhero attempts to go out in civilian clothing to get some stuff, like ice cream. You know normal human level stuff. She's afraid to go out, though, because, like how I started this mini-review, paparazzi are scum - as in, there are people who will thrust cameras in her face and take her picture.

Well, a blogger stops inches from her in the ice cream aisle and taunts her, then takes her photo. Posts it. Then, because the blogger left 'location' on - a giant squid appears and starts destroying the supermarket and the superhero has to fight the giant squid. Meanwhile the blogger continues to taunt her. Because, well - scum of the earth and stuff. I can seriously see an advantage of being a super-villain in this universe. I wanted to rip the blogger's balls off.

Of note: I believe this story falls within the same universe as McGuire's superhero series (Velveteen vs.).

Rating: 3.45

April 13 2017

<B>Aimee Ogden: As I Fall Asleep</b>
Mental Illness; Background LGBT Character*

A woman destroys a secret lab. Smashing computers and stuff. Beating up her former side-kick who, it appears, has turned traitor.

Story reminded me of one I'd read by Jude McLaughlin, the one where a reporter interviews an old retired superhero. Well no reporters here. Just an old ex-superhero with diminished mental abilities due to aging.

* The other woman in the story mentions how she had been on a date with a cute woman when she had to get involved in the action in this story

Rating: 3.7

April 13 2017

<B>Jennifer Pullen: Meeting Someone in the 22nd Century or Until the Gears Quit Turning</b>
Cyborg

A man meets a woman. Flirts. Dates. Marries. Time passes. Babies attempted to be born - fail. More time passes. Kind of both boring and annoying.

My greatest problem with this story is the part where it is set in the future and there kept being little comments here and there like 'what do you expect, hover-chairs, just because we live in the future?' Um, you don't live in the future; you live in your own present. But, meh, whatever. Close behind that 'greatest problem' would be the blunt style of the story. (Then there's the part where no superheroes are actually characters in the story).

Rating: 3.0

April 13 2017

<B>Michael Milne: Inheritance</b>
PoC, Family

A boy of a failed marriage grows older. His mother is an accountant. His father is . . . a superhero (and mostly absent father). The boy himself has 'inherited' super powers himself and attempts to fit in as best as he can. The mother, divorced from the father, dates others, marries others, many others. The end.

Rating: 3.39

April 13 2017

<B>Lavie Tidhar: Heroes</b>
Berlin, Spies, Cold War

Two superhero powered spies sit around in a room watching one of the gates into/out of East Berlin while waiting for the arrival of 'Medicus' - an ex-NAZI 'superhero' who was still in East Berlin when the Soviets took over back during WWII and then worked for them. The two spies, one from the USA, one from the UK, fight Jewish superheroes to 'help' the ex-NAZI go into US control.

Rating: 3.42

April 14 2017

<B>Nathan Crowder: Madjack</b>
Music; Aliens

A female musician plays on stage, suddenly she just 'knows' her father is dead, and everyone within, if I recall correctly, 30 rows begins crying (for this musician has emo power - sense others emotions/project emotions onto others).

Quite interesting and good story - I want more. So far it is/was the best story in the collection.

Rating: 4.30

April 14 2017

<B>Patrick Flanagan: Quintessential Justice</b>
Sidekick/support

This story is set from the point of view of a sidekick/support person – not a Robin type but more of a Alfred type. The kind of person who help get coffee, not the kind who will help fight bad guys.

Well there’s this superhero dude who is named QED. He goes about his day and the support person follows along behind. Constantly suppressing, and occasionally letting her eyeballs roll hard. For, you see, QED is a pompous type who needs constant reassurance and constant praise – so much so that there are paid ‘plants’ in the crowds who will cheer for QED. Oh, and once, the superhero actually does get into a fight with a villain.

Not a super exciting story but . . . there. And read.

Rating: 3.10

April 17 2017
<B>Stephanie Lai: The Fall of the Jade Sword</b>
Melbourne, Australia, Steampunk

A young Chinese woman grows up in some steampunk like Melbourne in some unknown date. She reads of a hero bouncing around named Jade Sword. She, the young woman, is not Jade Sword. She reads 'Art of War'. She sits on someone else's steam-bicycle and gets chased for her troubles. She falls off a roof. A few confuse her with Jade Sword. The real Jade Sword interacts with her, but it is unclear if the young woman realizes, in both encounters (one 'in costume', one 'in civilian guise'), that she has encountered Jade Sword. Refuses to be trained by Jade Sword. Or doesn't. Bloody confusing story.

Rating: 2.7

April 17 2017

<B>Carrie Vaughn: Origin Story</b>

A woman gets stuck in a bank robbery/hostage situation and expectedly recognizes the supervillain.

Nice enough story. Certain issues with it that I can't recall now beyond feeling that I had certain issues with it.

Rating: 3.73

April 17 2017

<B>Ziggy Schutz: Eggshells</b>
Young Adult

A young woman slip and falls, knocks her head against the ice. Has trouble remembering things. This symptoms go on long after they should have 'stopped' but she doesn't tell anyone and just continues on.

Quite a nice story really.

Rating: 4.55

April 17 2017

<B>Chris Large: Salt City Blue</b>

A rich powerful woman likes hanging out at bars. As a consequence, she begins glowing.

Interesting story.

Rating: 3.89

April 17 2017

<B>Stuart Suffel: Birthright</b>

A young woman in something like 2021 A.D. wanders around on motorcycle. Swims. Does stuff. She's elaborately described in the beginning - the thing that makes her a mutant - I couldn't make heads or tails of the description. So . . . she's different. And is the daughter of a 'birdwoman' - both mutated by the 'Darwin bombs' that had been dropped.

And . . . um . . not really sure what all else to say.

Rating: 3.50

April 17 2017

<B>Sarah Pinsker: The Smoke Means It's Working</b>
Sidekicks

A woman you wants to, someday, become a sidekick has gone to a special school so that she can operate a robot. Specifically a robot that helps wander wreckage, find people, and attempt to say to save them (as in, here's someone under debris, lift debris, lift person, carry person to an EMT person).

Neat story.

Rating: 4.15

April 17 2017

<B>Keith Rosson: Torch Songs</b>
Supervillains; carnivals

At a carnival several 'oddities' sit in a tent. People wander and stare at them. One used to be a supervillain, but is now just a shrivaled up thing. The point of view is with this 'thing', this 'Madam' of many names.

Interesting enough story. Deeper than my rating my suggest. But ultimately fails as being just a snippet. A snippet that ends with a cliff-hanger.

Rating: 3.30

April 18 2017

<B>Matt Mikalatos: The Beard of Truth</b>
Superheroes; Slice of life

A man, while driving around one day, suddenly realizes he has a superpower - the ability to, just by existing, get people to tell him the truth. Out-pourings of truth (though it seems more like - 'gets people to tell him super depressing things, while truthful, they are also the darkest things the person thinks is 'the truth').

Apparently people can just suddenly get superpowers. And, as part of that, they have to call a specific number. So he does. And stuff unfolds.

Just a small slice of life type story. Oddly satisfying for all of its shortness.

Rating: 4.15

April 18 2017

<B>Adam R. Shannon: Over an Embattled City</b>
Alternate Timelines/earths

A young woman of about 16 heads into the city, the city of New York, to . . . do many things. It is hard to say without being all spoiler-y.

She remembers another city, another time. She's like a character I read in something else, someone who had reached into their pocket and pulled out a coin. Had that years date on it. But some other guy was the head on the dime, the 10 cent piece. And that was how he knew he had slipped from one reality to another. Just like him, the lead character in this story 'slipped' from one reality to another - unlike him, the reality she came from is slowly disappearing - it's less of an alternate time/world/universe, and more of a reworking/unmaking/remaking of a specific time-line.

Neat story.

Rating: 4.22

April 18 2017

<B>Kelly Link: Origin Story</b>
Waitress

A waitress rolls around some ruins with the guy who she grew up with. Whose name is, apparently, Bisquit. Oh, and he's a superhero. He's in town for a parade. She's there because she lives there with her mom.

Weird and strange story.

Rating: 3.00

April 18 2017

<b>OVERALL</b>
<b>Cat Rambo: Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut</b>: 3.21
<B>Kate Marshall: Destroy the City with Me Tonight</b>: 3.12
<B>Keith Frady: Fool</b>: 3.03
<B>Seanan McGuire: Pedestal</b>: 3.45
<B>Aimee Ogden: As I Fall Asleep</b>: 3.70
<B>Jennifer Pullen: Meeting Someone in the 22nd Century or Until the Gears Quit Turning</b>: 3.0
<B>Michael Milne: Inheritance</b>: 3.39
<B>Lavie Tidhar: Heroes</b>: 3.42
<B>Nathan Crowder: Madjack</b>: 4.3
<B>Patrick Flanagan: Quintessential Justice</b>: 3.10
<B>Stephanie Lai: The Fall of the Jade Sword</b>: 2.7
<B>Carrie Vaughn: Origin Story</b>: 3.73
<B>Ziggy Schutz: Eggshells</b>: 4.55
<B>Chris Large: Salt City Blue</b>: 3.89
<B>Stuart Suffel: Birthright</b>: 3.50
<B>Sarah Pinsker: The Smoke Means It's Working</b>: 4.15
<B>Keith Rosson: Torch Songs</b>: 3.30
<B>Matt Mikalatos: The Beard of Truth</b>: 4.15
<B>Adam R. Shannon: Over an Embattled City</b>: 4.22
<B>Kelly Link: Origin Story</b>: 3.00
Overall ----------------------: 3.5455

April 18 2017

Superheroes. Superpowers. I'm a huge fan. Wasn't quite sure how to rate it, but in the end decide to be generous. Not every story in this anthology was a standout, but the quality was notably consistent and some were surprisingly good. Surprisingly, because with exception of 2 or 3 names, most of the authors were unknown to me and I've only read Vaughn previously. Majority of the stories have a female angle, female protagonists, etc. Don't think I should have read them all in a row in two sittings, this is the sort of thing to sample now and again, when the mood strikes. Also, first couple of stories don't really draw you in as much as the subsequent ones, but there are at least a few tales so original and clever, it makes the book well worth the price of admission. With superheroes' boombastic adventures all over tv and cinema, this anthology offers the obverse of the glitz and glamour, dealing with the actual social and emotional ramifications of donning the tights and, of course, the mask. Thanks Netgalley.

In a nutshell: very well-crafted anthology with lots and lots of amazing, thought-provoking stories, both by established authors (Kelly Link and Seanan McGuire for example) as well as authors who are less well-known. I enjoyed this mix of different voices a whole lot.

I have been thinking about this review all morning and still do not know how to write it. I always find anthologies difficult to assess and to review - there are so many things happening and obviously some stories resonate more with me than others. Also, for me the stories tend to blend into each other and I cannot always remember every one enough to even have an opinion about it after finishing the whole collection. That said: this was a pretty brilliant anthology. Tricia Reeks and Kyle Richardson obviously put a lot of thought and love and work into collecting these stories and to fit them into a more or less coherent order.

As you can tell from the title, this is a collection of superhero stories focussing on the maybe less often talked about aspects of being a superhero. Interestingly, most stories focus on female superheroes (and some supervillains) and the specific problems they might face (work/life balance, sexism in the workplace, losing your identity etc) and I obviously loved that to pieces. I don't know if this was on purpose or if those just were the stories the authors wanted to tell, but I appreciate it nontheless.

Every author put their own spin on the superhero genre and mostly they greatly succeeded. I did appreciate the newer voices more than the stories by the more established authors. Some standouts for me were Nathan Crowder's "Madjack" - a wonderful homage to David Bowie; Kate Marshall's beautifully imagined and original "Destroy the City with Me Tonight" (with the absolute best ending of all the stories); Aimee Ogden's "As I Fall Asleep" - sad and poignant and very very great; Carrie Vaughn's playful spin on a romantic comedy "Origin Story" (even villains have meet cutes!); and my absolute favourite of the book: Chris Large's "Salt City Blue" - I loved loved loved this one and its beautifully flawed main character and I do not want to spoil it but you should read it.

_____
I received an arc of this book curtesy of NetGalley and Meerkat Press in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for that!

Entertaining and wellwritten - although those expecting lots of BAM! and POW! may be disappointed as much of this material is about the personalities behind the mask. I enjoyed it.

I’m going to be honest, I was disappointed with Behind The Mask. Only a couple of the stories resonated with me – my favourite was probably Eggshells by Ziggy Schutz, about a young superhero who suffers a head injury and which explores the effects of that – and I certainly didn’t find any of them ‘laugh-out-loud funny’. However, I did like that there was a good variety of countries and cities represented, and I didn’t hate any of the stories.

I think this might be my shortest review ever, because I just don’t have that much to say about it. It was a nice idea that didn’t quite work for me. I must say though, that short stories rarely satisfy me. I always want to know more about the backstory, or what happens next, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised that Behind The Mask didn’t work for me. I’m sad that it didn’t though, because I’d been really looking forward to reading it.

I started reading superhero comic books when I was a mere sprout in the 1960's. I still love them-especially female superheroes. Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman was an inspiration, and I would probably watch the current Supergirl series even if the star hadn't been on Glee.


That's why I immediately jumped at the chance to read and review an ARC of Behind The Mask: A Superhero Anthology from Net Galley.








Sixteen of the twenty stories that appear in this volume are original to the anthology. Only four are reprints. The stories I liked best have never appeared anywhere else. Other stories were well-written but didn't appeal to me. There also were stories that didn't feel complete in themselves. They were probably sneak peeks for upcoming novels.


My #1 favorite of the anthology was "Destroy The City With Me Tonight" by Kate Marshall. I found it original and compelling. It's a riff on the idea of superheroes being linked to cities. The link in Marshall's story is much stronger. The story also deals with memory as a bond between human beings. When that bond dissipates, you feel isolated. People with superpowers feeling disconnected from humanity is a dangerous situation. The protagonist deals with an ethical dilemma that would cause her to morph from hero to villain if she made the wrong choice.


Another amazing standout story was "Madjack" by Nathan Crowder. It was a moving story about a recently deceased rock star with powers that would be very useful for someone in that profession. The protagonist is his daughter, a rock star in her own right. If this were in another science fiction anthology, no one would consider it a superhero story. It stretches the concept a bit, but I loved it. I now want to read Crowder's fantasy novel, Ink Calls To Ink.


I think that what these stories had in common is that they involved characters with enough stature to be called heroes, characters that I admired because they struggled against becoming villains. That's my motivation for reading about superheroes. I want to believe in heroes. I feel that they represent the best in us. In this world where cynicism and noir are popular, I feel that superheroes are the antidote. I found that hopeful vision in those particular stories of Behind The Mask which makes me glad that I read them.

A strong, varied anthology about superheroes, supervillains, and their regular lives.


The whole point of an anthology is to bring together wildly different styles and ideas, united by a single concept and see if it works. More often than not, it doesn’t. There’s always a varying ratio of duds to gems and it’s very rare to see a book of this kind that accomplishes the herculean feat of being good all the way through.
And yet here we are.

Behind the Mask presents 20 stories from 20 authors, all about heroes and villains and the way they live or influence normal people or see each other or… There is a wide range of ideas on display here, some more novel than others (The Beard of Truth is a nice story, but “what if your partner couldn’t lie to you?” is far from a fresh take on superpowers), and it is evident that all authors have a deep love of the superhero genre, as they gently poke fun at its conventions or outright skewer the sexist standards set in the last century and upheld out of sheer laziness.
I generally found the stories to be on the same level as a whole, though some stood out with more evocative writing styles and some boasted more unexpected stories that elevated the bland-ish writing. Still, there are some that I’d like to mention specifically, of course.
First, “Madjack”, a touching tribute to David Bowie and the power of music, that manages to evade the dangerous waters of schmaltzy hero worship, viewing its titular rockstar ubermensch through the eyes of his musician daughter. And its all the better for its downbeat, tasteful portrayal of her grief.
Second, “Pedestal”, which is extremely relevant and fun, though I have to admit that it is extremely on the nose at times, but some themes work even when subtlety is lost and this, thankfully, is one of them.
Third, “Salt City Blue”, which suffers only from pretty stale descriptions of sexual encounters that made me feel like the author himself wasn’t too interested in writing them. But the story is stellar and the side of heroes that it explores is new and exciting.
Fourth, “Torch Songs”, which Rosson writes the hell out of, even though the narrative could have used stronger pacing. It’s tough not to love this, as it is one of the better-written tales in the anthology, using vivid imagery and never flinching when the time comes to deliver a description that toes the line between “moody and atmospheric” and “gaudy”, always landing on the right side.
And, lastly, fifth, “Fool”, a tragedy which takes the “loser villain” trope, so often portrayed for laughs in cartoons and more comedic comic books, and plays it straight with a heartbroken man hoping to finally achieve some great dastardly deed and being unable to perform.
That’s not to say that the other stories aren’t good, I greatly enjoyed all of them, with just two stories being not entirely my cup of tea (The Fall of the Jade Sword, Origin Story #2). I would highly recommend this to anybody and everybody.

Overall, versatile and highly creative, this anthology sets some limitations for talented writers and lets us watch them flourish with each new story. A must-read for anybody who even remotely enjoys the concept of superheroes.