James Garcia reviews Mark Edlitz’ new book, How To Be A Superhero…
Each day, the internet is flooded with news stories about each and every piece of development surrounding an upcoming comic book adaptation or superhero film. We here at Flickering Myth spend our days dissecting and discussing those various topics with as much fervor and excitement as any fan out there. Yet, while there are dozens of stories or quotes circling the web at any given time, they usually only pertain to one part of a larger story; actors give brief updates about their upcoming roles, writers and directors talk about various influences, etc.
Enter Mark Edlitz, whose impressive tome How To Be A Superhero puts all of those news reports to shame by diving headfirst into the expansive superhero genre with long, in-depth interviews with dozens of the genre’s veterans, like Adam West, Jack Nicholson, John Wesley Shipp, Helen Slater, Lou Ferrigno, and Julie Newmar, to more recent heroes and villains like Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, and Malin Akerman. He even talked to creators like Stan Lee, Joe Quesada, and Jon Favreau.
Each interview is better than the last, and Edlitz – a writer for such publications as The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times’ Hero Complex and Empire magazine – puts his wealth of knowledge and skills to good use in order to get the most interesting answers from his guests. As someone who’s followed this kind of news and information my entire life, I found it incredibly refreshing to get real, emotional comments from actors and actresses I thought I’d heard it all from already.
Edlitz’ novel is broken into eight segments exploring all aspects of superhero culture and the genre’s rich cinematic history. From Heroic Women to Supervillains and even a section dedicated to non-super heroes like Leonard Nimoy’s Spock or Roger Moore’s James Bond, How To Be A Superhero gets more interesting and expansive with each page turn. Some of those sections work better than others (and by book’s end several repeating questions may get a bit tedious), but interviews from Smallville‘s Michael Rosenbaum or Batman: The Animated Series‘ Kevin Conroy are standouts, as they openly discuss not only on the projects they worked on for a decade or more, but their personal approaches to their roles and what it means to be a hero.
What could have been a dry, lengthy question-and-answer transposition is made ever more enjoyable by Edlitz’ clear love for the material. If, like me, you’re someone who’s spent hours listening to director commentaries or pouring through countless behind-the-scenes images (which I wish there were more of here, but it’s the words that are important), you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of this novel. It may not be the “how to” that its title suggests, but will shed some light on what being a superhero means, straight from those who’ve been tasked with bringing our favorite characters to life.
Rating: 8.5/10
James Garcia
https://youtu.be/IWWtOQOZSTI?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
Originally published July 10, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
