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+++ title = "The League of Regrettable Superheroes: Half-Baked Heroes from Comic Book History - Jon Morris" date = 2020-02-02
[taxonomies] tags = ["books", "reviews", "fun", "comics", "superheroes", "jon morris", "4 stars"] +++
GoodReads Summary: You know about Batman, Superman, and Spiderman, but have you heard of Doll Man, Doctor Hormone, or Spider Queen? In The League of Regrettable Superheroes, you’ll meet one hundred of the strangest superheroes ever to see print, complete with backstories, vintage art, and colorful commentary. So prepare yourself for such not-ready-for-prime-time heroes as Bee Man (Batman, but with bees), the Clown (circus-themed crimebuster), the Eye (a giant, floating eyeball; just accept it), and many other oddballs and oddities. Drawing on the entire history of the medium, The League of Regrettable Superheroes will appeal to die-hard comics fans, casual comics readers, and anyone who enjoys peering into the stranger corners of pop culture.
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An encyclopedia of failed super-heroes.
The intro for the book is really good in the point that, today, super-heroes are all in rage in the movies. But there are those who failed to get some attention and died in the darkness of the comic book world.
So, here they are.
I just felt it could have a bit more about the background of the heroes. Sure, some were promotional heroes (like NFL hero, the trucker hero, and so on) but still, what was the catalyst for the creation of such hero: Was it the times, the culture change, some requirement from higher ups, drugs...? Also, powers: Some have a short list of super powers they got, but they are not complete -- surely, it's mentioned that some heroes go through several revisions, so their powers change, but one could consider a revision another hero and just keep the powers with the heroes+revision. I'm saying this 'cause, as an encyclopedia, it would be nice to have an index by powers, so when one is looking for that hero that have, say, the power to create bubbles, one could just check the index for "bubbles" and there you go.
The book also need some more careful work by the editors. There are a couple of misspellings around, like a "thsoe" in the middle of the sentence. It's not that hard to figure out what was meant in these cases, but still... annoying.