Only Mostly Dead

Soon I will be Invincible is the story of a a supervillain Doctor Impossible and his ongoing quest to become well, invincible. Actually his quest is to win out over his various nemeses and enemies - trouble is, he's the kind of guy that not only needs to win, everyone else has to lose.The story is actually split being the evil genius himself and Fatale the newest member of a team of superheroes that represent his main rivals. The chapters are alternately narrated by the Doctor and Fatale (a cyborg whose powers and origin are a mystery even to herself). But whilst this is the case it's definitely still Doctor Impossible's story.The idea of a different spin on superheroes is not new - from Watchmen to Mystery Men, from The Specials to Doctor Horrible's Singalong Blog this is territory that's been covered before. Here it's neither straight out spoof nor serious deconstruction. It's fairly light and fun though I did tire a little that every person with powers (and all the characters we meet, major and minor, have powers) seemed to get the space for their own origin story. It made the story not convoluted but a little dense with excess detail. I also felt that there was a better female character in the book to be the counterpoint to Impossible's pov. However I understand how making her the other narrator would have robbed her of some necessary mystery. It did feel though that Fatale, whose story (and back-story) is clearly intertwined with Doctor Impossible's was a little further from the true centre of gravity of the book.What I did like about the book was the characters. In particular I liked the sense of melancholy and longing for things to just work out. The sense of being an outsider and the feeling of ambivalence about powers. But in a world where pretty much anyone you meet is another superhero/villain then the story of an attempt to take over the world is like a drama about a bad day at the office - which is both a good and bad thing.