I have tried for nearly a year to finish this title but I just cannot. I was excited when I saw it and ready for an adult superhero story starting LGBTQ+ characters, but I cannot get past the content. Slurs, body shaming, mocking disabilities, misogyny. The list goes on. While I am eager to read more adult superhero books, not comics, this Fabulous in Tights gets a hard no from me. This isn't a brand of "comedy" I can get on board with.

This looked like a fun campy read about a superhero. I wasn't expecting a great literary work, I was even expecting the story to be completely predictable from page 5. But I was on board with that, because I was expecting fun.

And then the slurs started. Fatphobia, misogyny, ableism. One slur after another. The main character was honestly just trash.

Such a shame. I'd love more books about queer superheroes. Guess I'll keep looking, because this ain't it, chief.

Alec Archer was an out gay teen his parents turned out to the mean streets of Centerport. He had to prostitute himself to survive, but that he did. In fact he's survived a lot more than nasty tricks at this point. He's all grown up, and running a legal escort service, now that his former tricking partner was voted the mayor of Centerport. And not a little to early, because Alec met his beloved husband Peter when some of Peter's colleagues hired Alec's services to celebrate Peter's promotion. It was kismet, and Alec committed himself to being the very best partner he could, once Peter got over the shock and dismay of falling so hard for a rent boy--even a beautiful rent boy like Alec.

Meanwhile, Alec has an even bigger secret life than that of a former prostitute-turned-"madam"--he's strong and fast, virtually indestructible, and he moonlights as the Whirlwind to save the good folk of Centerport from all sorts of supervillains. The newest one on the scene, Thanatos, has targeted Peter's agripharmaceuticals company, Greene Genes, all a mess. Peter's boss, Jackson Greene, is an idealistic entrepreneur who's now dying of cancer. While this is going on, Thanatos has planned industrial espionage to steal the secret plans of the Feed the World program. This program could end world hunger, but there is a weird glitch and only the top scientist on the program can unravel it. The Whirlwind comes to the rescue, but he's only able to save a few folks that were trapped in the building before a bomb went off. It takes time for Thanatos to reveal his true purpose, and monetary demands.

Despite being both monogamous and completely committed to Peter, Alec can't deny he has a big attraction to Thanatos. There's something chemical about their mutual fascination, even though they are both unwilling to admit it. We mostly have the story told from Alec's POV as himself or The Whirlwind, but there are moments of third-person POV from others including Thanatos, and Jackson Greene. This whole story is engaging, with the kind of odd-ball heroes and hero support one might find in a Deadpool spin-off. I really enjoyed Alec, he's such a funny guy, and his deadpan humor had me smirking along as I turned the pages. This is the first book in the series and it's not exactly ending on a high note for Whirlpool. Thanatos is a bigger menace than he'd predicted, and the stakes are way higher than Alec could have fathomed; he's at risk of losing himself or Peter in this melee. I was a bit stunned with the ending, not because I didn't see it coming, but because I was really so engaged I didn't WANT things to go that way.

Not going to give any of the secrets away, but wow, am I hooked on Alec, and hoping his next book will bring both peace and happiness.

Representation: Gay MC and antagonist, multiple queer supporting characters

Alec Archer is the owner of a successful male escort service in Centerport, where sex work has been legalized. He lives there with his husband, Peter, that he loves very much. Centerport also happens to be the place that a lot of villains choose to kick off their career. Luckily, Alec is also Whirlwind, a superhero that works to protect Centerport from all of these evil plots. We encounter Thanatos, who has a mysterious plot to twist a plan to end world hunger, which is led by Peter. Thanatos is very, very clever and has figured out things about Whirlwind that no one knows, not even Whirlwind. Whirlwind and his friends race to stop Thanatos before the plot is unleashed.

Rating: 2/5 Honestly, the only reason why this book still has two stars is because I really like the concept of this book, some of the worldbuilding, and we need more queer superheroes. But there's too many issues with it for me to give it anything higher. This book is extremely campy, which isn't really a problem in itself, but combined with everything else, it just was too much. I didn't really like Alec as a person. Sure, he had some great banter, but overall his personality is kind of trash. Near the beginning, we meet him as Whirlwind and he's rescuing civilians from a burning building. He made way too many fatphobic comments, used several slurs, had a really creepy attitude towards a wheelchair user, and has the attitude of sort of a mean old queen. Weirdly self-absorbed at the same time as being a superhero who actually does care about the safety of other people. Just overall not a great person. There's also a slightly confusing thing with the marriage between Alec and Peter. It's said pretty early on that the marriage is secret, because Peter works in corporate, and people aren't all that open-minded and such. But later, it's said that people kinda just know about it, it's not really a "secret" and it was kind of just brushed off. Plus, Alec is a pretty well-known figure, being the owner of an escort business, so it'd be really difficult to keep that marriage a secret anyway. What was even the point of that? Let's talk about Thanatos. The whole description of his appearance was very interesting, and I did like it. However, there's some inconsistencies in it. For example, he's described as having a monstrous mask and it seemed to be something that fully covers the face. But then a leer and grin are described later on, it's just unclear on what the mask looks like. Because of certain things and the way that were described about Thanatos, I was able to guess who he was *very* early on. Overall, I just didn't really like the characters, it was very predictable for me, and kind of disappointing.

Fabulous in Tights is the first in a series of books by Hal Bodner centering around the most fabulous of superheroes, Whirlwind. By day, Alec Archer is the owner of a male escort service and a pillar of society (thanks mostly to his husband, who is a corporate bigwig for a major biotech company). But when trouble rears its head, Alec transforms into the Whirlwind, a mostly indestructible masked man whose costume is the perfect shade of turquoise and who delivers more one-liners and snarky quips than Rue Paul and the Terminator put together.

He’s fought a bevvy of supervillains in the past, including Erica the Eel, Momma Deadly, The Green Gecko, and Captain Dirigible, but now he faces his deadliest enemy ever, Thanatos – who just also happens to have the most beautiful eyes!

It’s going to take every bit of Whirlwind’s strength, determination, and luck to defeat Thanatos and rescue a kidnapped scientist before the villain’s evil plan to destroy Centerport comes to fruition.
And if that’s not bad enough, there are still home renovations to complete!

Fabulous in Tights is a laugh-a-minute action adventure that if made into a movie would require either the Farrelly Brothers or Seth McFarlane to produce. If you can imagine someone with Sean Hayes’ attitude, Wolverine’s indestructibility, and Prince’s sense of style, Whirlwind is that man, thanks to Bodner’s genius dialog.

An entertaining and engaging superhero narrative, with a very well written and explored MM Romance. For the most part, the plot is what you would expect from content about superheroes but the heart and clever humor truly make this story shine. While the reveal/twist was seen coming, it didn't put me off. Would definitely read more from Bodner in the future.

I absolutely loved this MM romance.

Such a great book with a solid storyline and great characters.

I eagerly look forward to reading more from this author.

A definite recommend!

The story had potential even if it was quite predictable, even for me who never guesses things right. It was written in a way really easy to get into and it sounded fun.

Then the slurs started and it was one cringe moment after the other. One fatphobic mention after the other. Saying a girl panicking was hysterical. Making fun of a guy on a wheelchair guessing at his illness. Throwing slurs at every turn. And I just couldn't take it anymore.

I finished the book because I was genuinely curious to see exactly where the author wanted to take the story. And the ending was anticlimactic at best. Rushed, a bit absurd. And still with the slurs.

It was a big no for me.

I really did enjoy the sound of this one. I was interested originally because it sounded to me like TJ Klune's the Extraordinaries and the Lightning Struck Heart had had a chaotic love-child, thus forming this read. So, if that floats your boat, I definitely recommend checking this one out!! It was fun but predictable and had a lot of questionable and ignorant moments (e.g. fatphobia)

Alec Archer runs a male escort service in Centerport. After spending his early years hustling on the streets, Alec is now happy and settled into married life with his husband, Peter. But Alec has an alter-ego as the super strong, fast, and impenetrable super hero, Whirlwind, who works to protect Centerport from all manner of bad guys — and does it with flair in his turquoise costume.

When Thanatos comes to town, it seems like just another in a long line of super villains looking to test their skills against the Whirlwind. Thanatos has blown up a local genetics lab to cover for the fact that he has stolen some crucial research that could have disastrous consequences in the wrong hands. Alec may find Thanatos alluring in his all black costume — particularly his amazing cape that Alec can’t help but covet — but he also knows that he must bring Thanatos down. But stopping the villain isn’t as easy as it would seem. Thanatos is outsmarting them at every turn and time is running out. Now, Alec must fight to stop the villain before he destroys the city — and threatens the world.

Fabulous in Tights is the first installment in Hal Bodner’s new Adventures of the Whirlwind series. The story is told in Alec’s first person POV, interspersed with third person narration from a variety of other characters. We get a nice sense of Alec as a character, including his past as a prostitute, his job now running an escort service, his love and adoration for his husband, and his close confidants who know about his alter ego as the Whirlwind. The book has a very comic book feel and there is a fun, campiness to the story that I enjoyed. I think there is a nice balance here of the more intense superhero storyline with humor and a bit of silliness that come from Alec’s personality.

This is a very specific type of sometimes over-the-top humor, and there were times where the jokes didn’t really land for me. Sometimes I just found the style a bit much; in other cases, it seemed mean spirited (multiple disparaging references to people being overweight, for example). But in general, I found the tone light and fun.
The adventure is set up well, with readers getting an eye into Thanatos’ plan fairly early on through his POV. So as we follow along with Alec trying to figure out what is going on, we are privy to more inside information as readers.
There is some nice conflict here, with high stakes and some intense sequences, even with the lighter tone. I also enjoyed the bits of world building into Alec’s super powers, as well as the sense we get about some of the other super villains out there. I did wish for a little more backstory into some of these encounters, rather than just dropping the names of bad guys the Whirlwind has fought. Still, I think Bodner sets up the super hero world well here. That said, this story really didn’t stick the landing for me. The ultimate battle between Thanatos and the Whirlwind rages until the very end of the book, and there were literally less than a handful of reading minutes left before we get the reveal of Thanatos’ identity and motivation. The ending is a strange combination of one part that felt fairly obvious to me and the other part totally out of nowhere, with zero groundwork laid throughout the story to support it. Things are made worse since there is just no time given to unpacking what we learn, as the story ends almost immediately after. So I was disappointed that after a nice development, the ending feels completely abrupt and without enough development to make it work.

From the relationship end, we see Peter and Alec solely from Alec’s POV. It is clear he is incredibly in love with Peter and those feelings really come through. Peter doesn’t know about Alec’s job as the Whirlwind, and so Alec has to work to keep him in the dark about what is going on. Peter is involved in the larger story, as he works at the genetics company where the research was stolen. But we don’t really get to know him much throughout the book and he doesn’t appear a lot with Alec. So on one hand, I could feel Alec’s connection to Peter through his POV narration, but I didn’t feel like we got much to time to really get a sense of them as a couple, or of Peter’s backstory.

Overall, I found this one to be a fun superhero story. I am a fan of this genre, so I enjoyed the adventure and think the hero/villain dynamic set up well. The humor is probably not going to be a fit for every reader, and while I mostly enjoyed it, there were some elements that didn’t sit well with me. And I think that the ending just didn’t come together and, sadly, detracted from the overall story for me. But I did enjoy my introduction to the Whirlwind and I will keep my eyes open for further adventures.

I want to thank the author/publisher for the opportunity to evaluate Fabulous in Tights (Adventures of the Whirlwind Book 1) by Hal Bodner before publication.

Overall, the story centers around The Whirlwind, a gay superhero and escort service owner. The story starts with a bombing and things go a bit out of control from there.

As a whole, I found the book highly enjoyable. It's witty and fun. There are just enough sexual innuendos to make it fun without going overboard and making it erotica.

As for faults, I found the book unfortunately predictable. I don't know if the author intended to make who the villain is blatantly obvious, but I figured it out very early in the book. In that respect, I wish there had been a bit more suspense.

👍🏼 Liked: If you’re new here, one thing you should know about me is that I try to rate books off the expectations you should have for them. This one is going for pulpy, campy fun, and I think that is more than achieved, so this is a job well done for me. I also thought there was an interesting plot about sex work. (This one does get a little PG 13 and has some mid level superhero violence and death.)
👎🏼 Less Keen On: I thought the reveal was a little obvious, so I was bummed there. Also, because this is camp, there are some off color jokes I could have done without. Sorry to be a spoil sport, but it IS 2021.
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📚 For Readers Of: The Red Lotus • Soon I Will Be Invincible

I recall adoring “Bite Club” as a teen, and I HAVE MISSED HAL BODNER! I love his sense of humor and those hilarious descriptive phrases. Even the About the Author blurb had me laughing out loud!

Watching Whirlwind lust after the villain was a lot of fun and I enjoyed the ride; I could get onboard with this being a new trope. I will admit, however, that there were some problematic elements in that Chapter 4 rescue scene that led to a less likable main character. In fact, Travis ended up being my favorite. And about the ending… all I can say is, “Well, that escalated quickly!”

Looking forward to following Alec into the next turquoise adventure. Thanks to NetGalley, Crossroads Press, and Hal Bodner for the ARC.

I had high hopes for Fabulous in Tights by Hal Bodner. I haven't seen enough gay superhero novels and think representation is so important, especially as a gay superhero fan myself. Overall, the book is fun! It's a quick read that pulls you in with its fast paced storytelling. I liked the suspense of figuring out who the villain was and enjoyed the hidden superhero identity of Whiplash. I really loved how the book normalized and recognized sex workers as workers, not something you see in any other books. My big issue with the book was how it approached weight and physical size, whether it be concerns around gaining weight impacting a marriage or jokes behind and to Doctor Harmon's face about his weight, these moments soured the experience of reading this book. While I know it's common to talk about body image in the gay community, the negativity towards folks not in top physical shape needs to change and shouldn't be used as comic relief in books.

Overall, I enjoyed this. It is a gay superhero story which was exactly what I needed. The secret of Thanatos’ identity wasn’t much of a secret but I wasn’t looking for a mind-twister. I had a few issues. In his first scenes, Alec had some sizeist and misogynist comments that left him less a gay superhero and more a mean gay stereotype. And they didn’t seem to suit his character in the later part. Almost like in the beginning, the writer wasn’t yet sure who Alec was. My other issue, and it’s entirely possible this is just me, is the switching from first person to third person POVs bothered me a lot. I don’t know how else he could have done what he needed to do but it’s not something I liked.

I was pretty excited when I saw this book. The cover is great and I loved the idea of the plot. The writing is great. I particularly enjoyed the witty banter and the time I spent in the mind of the main character. Right up until he made a fat joke - then immediately after an "anorexic" joke about two women.

Sorry, but it's 2021 and I can't continue to read and support books that body shame women and make light of serious eating disorders.

So as enjoyable as the first little bit of this book was, the unkindness of the jokes took me right out of the story and I figured I just wouldn't continue.

I'm certain that if you can get past that this will be an entertaining read! I'm clearly not the right audience for this book.

Fabulous in Tights is a simple easy read, transporting us into this alternate universe. With a fun premise, the novel delves into a world we do not see very often, having a gay superhero as the protagonist. Using many campy references and snarky jokes, we get to hear the many innermost thoughts of our imperfect and flawed hero. The descriptive imagery lets us imagine how everything plays out, set in plain language to be accessible and uncomplicated. Rather than starting with an origin story to ease us into the narrative, we are thrust right into the action, and just as quickly cut off with the abrupt ending. There is definitely more to unpack in the characterizations, especially after the reveal at the end, but while the escapist fantasy has the typical elements of a superhero story, and the plot is quite predictable, we can see how it could be extended into a series. Thank you NetGalley and Crossroad Press for the ARC!

This was a cute take on the superhero genre. I love The Whirlwind and the snarky action. The pheromone level insta-love/attraction thing was a little weird but not out of place for a comic book style story. My only issue was the end was very... abrupt. The "twist' was fairly expected but the outcome after that was... sudden and a bit weird. An enjoyable read, though and I'm certainly curious what will happen next!

Fabulous in Tights was a fun MM fantasy read. Alec comes across really well as a character and I immediately felt invested in him and his story. The side characters are also nicely fleshed out. The plot was a typical superhero tale and that worked well, especially with the strong injection of humour present throughout. I did see the twist coming ahead of the reveal, but that in no way spoilt my enjoyment of the story. I would certainly be happy to read on in this series, to find out where Alec's next adventure will take him. 4.5 stars from me.

Bodner presents such a distinct take on the superhero story and it'll be interesting to see where he takes it (there needs to be a sequel given how this story ends). The story follows Alec, a business owner by day and a superhero at night. As Whirlwind, he's a mashup of a few recognizable comic heroes, but the rest of his story is anything but your typical hero. First, he is gay and married. This is a major part of his self-identity and Bodner takes his time expressing how he feels this aspect of Alex impacts the storytelling. When we are not seeing the mundane aspects of Alec's life, Whirlwind is trying to stop his nemesis Thanatos, and their cat and mouse game allows for a mix of action and quips. There are some twists that are heavily foreshadowed that some revelations were a bit anti-climactic when we finally got to them. Yet, the finale does pack some heavy punches and leaves the door open for quite a few adventures.