This is a bit of a hard book to review because it was not what I expected, yet at the same time, exactly what it purported to be. This is an academic work and is therefore a bit denser than most people are used to. I admit that I had to remind my brain about how to read an academic work, which is prone to throwing many different names at the reader with very little context, as opposed to even a pop non-fiction book. This took several chapters before I got my brain back into academic mode.

That said, this was a super interesting book that followed superhero tropes through human storytelling history. Given the title, I guess I had expected more actual superheroes in the narrative. Instead, Gavaler explored the figures that preceded the superheroes that appeared in the comic books of DC and Marvel etc. These included mythological/religious figures, historical icons, and the heroes of old Westerns and noir pulps. At the same time, he placed superheroes into political, cultural, and social contexts, sometimes in ways that made me uncomfortable to be such a huge fan of fictional characters with roots in eugenics and white supremacy.

It was a fairly quick read for an academic work--much quicker than I remember some of my old history textbooks from college to be. And Gavaler was obviously as much of a superhero nerd as I was, making quick asides that were phrased to be an in-joke, a quiet nod to his fellow nerds.

That said, it is still an academic work and fairly dense. Some may find it a boring slog, in fact, when they were expecting something more light-hearted based on the subject matter. (They should probably not be looking at a university press, then.) I also wish that Gavaler had slowed down and given a bit more backstory sometimes to the figures he threw at the reader. This was less of a problem later on in the book, but earlier when he was writing about mythological and historical figures, he could have provided more background, particularly since some of the figures he discussed were very obscure.

Second, he seemed to assume that the reader was familiar with current superheroes and their stories, and would casually mention Magneto, or the Dark Phoenix saga with no context of their relevance. If the reader was a comic book nerd, this is not a problem. But an unsuspecting reader who has only a passing familiarity with superheroes and comic books would have probably been at least a bit confused and lost. This was a problem throughout the book. It may seem odd to consider that there is anybody alive who doesn't know Batman has a sidekick named Robin, but I'm sure that person is out there (though he or she would probably not pick up this book, so perhaps this point of criticism is moot).

Third, I felt that despite his great scholarship and analysis, Gavaler skirted around a critical question of, "Why superheroes?" Why are we fascinated by them and love them? And why did they see a resurgence and unprecedented rise in popularity recently?

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via Netgalley ( )