Book: Captain Freedom: A Superhero’s Quest for Truth, Justice, and the Celebrity He So Richly Deserves
Author: G. Xavier Robillard
Published: 2011 (HarperCollins)
Pages: 255
Everything exciting has already happened to Captain Freedom at this point in his career, but he’s not willing to accept that. He’s vain, kind of dumb, overconfident and delusional about it all. And dammit, he deserves public recognition and an official archnemesis!
So the search and clash of all this is played as satire on something nobody has ever skewered before, ever: modern celebrity culture </end sarcasm>. It hits hardest when Captain Freedom throws out asides that reveal what he thinks is perfectly normal. A lot of those are brilliant little nuggets of hilarious entitlement. The rest, the Big Picture, the part that’s probably supposed to be the book’s comedic backbone, the string of incidents that wander chronologically through his superhero life without linking together in an arc or overall theme—eh.
It wasn’t boring and it WAS funny, but it did seem aimless.
This book seems like it would make a nice partner for "How To Succeed In Evil," a book that started as a serialized podcast story. "Evil" is about a clever lawyer, Edwin Windsor, who represents supervillains in a world where they and superheroes are pretty dumb, and one day Edwin sees the opportunity to be legitimately evil in a way that shames colorful capes and hot-aired monologues.
ReplyDeleteI endorse the "podiocast" because the voices are well done and there are sound effects every so often. More audiobooks should feature sound effects.