Book Chop: Ex-Heroes

Title: Ex-Heroes
Author: Peter Clines
Genre: Superhero zombie apocalypse
Verdict: Crude, with a good story, albeit a problem here and there.

I was looking at another book online when Amazon recommended me this one. I think that's how I found it. It's put out by a small press, so I doubt I would have heard of it otherwise.

Clines combines two staples of science-fiction and horror for something I've never seen a take on before: superheroes after a zombie apocalypse. Some of the heroes even become zombies themselves. It's really, really cool. I Am Legend meets Resident Evil and X-Men in less than 300 pages.

The heroes themselves are an interesting spread. In a lot of ways they were modeled after the heroes of WATCHMEN, including Zzzap/Dr. Manhattan, Mighty Dragon/Nite Owl, Stealth/Silk Spectre, Gorgon/Comedian, and Regenerator/Ozymandias (to an extent.) Not too many of them had original powers, but with superhero stories there isn't a whole lot that hasn't been done and isn't ridiculous either. (I did like Gorgon's power: he had these goggles he wore all the time, because if he made eye contact with people he could drain their energy and become temporarily stronger.)

The book had a cool format too: most chapters were in the present, but every other chapter or so was a flashback written in first-person from one of the heroes, giving just enough insight to show who they really were, and also tell an important part of the story. Mighty Dragon and Gorgon had some pretty basic crime-fighting stories, while Zzzap showed what the start of the apocalypse was like, and Regenerator showed how the whole mess started. Other chapters, like the origins for Cerberus, were just plain cool.

Downside? A lot of profanity, a lot of crass talk. Naturally gruesome as well, and of course there's at least one obligatory slut character. (The leader, Stealth, has Skank Potential, but she only dresses that way.) The story had some flaws, including a plot hole about the reveal of the villain, and why he was so bad. Also, why hole up in Los Angeles when you can go out into the neighboring farmland and thrive out there?

In the end I was glad to see that it wrapped up in a cool way, and victory for the heroes--as well as the people they protected--wasn't a clean rout. It cost them, and it showed a bit of the aftermath. Given that Clines is a screenwriter, the story was pretty visual, and would make a good flick.