Twenty-two of today's most talented writers (and comics fans) unite in Who Can Save Us Now?, an anthology featuring brand-new superheroes equipped for the threats and challenges of the twenty-first century -- with a few supervillains thrown in for good measure. Edited and with contributions by Owen King (We're All in This Together) and John McNally (America's Report Card), Who Can Save Us Now? enriches the superhero canon immeasurably.

With mutations stranger than the X-Men and with even more baggage than the Hulk, this next generation of superheroes is a far cry from your run-of-the-mill caped crusader. From the image-conscious and not-very-mysterious masked meathead who swoops in and sweeps the tough girl reporter off her feet; to the Meerkat, who overcomes his species' cute and cuddly image to become the resident hero in a small Midwestern city; to the Silverfish, "the creepy superhero," who fights crime while maintaining the slipperiest of identities; to Manna Man, who manipulates the minds of televangelists to serve his own righteous mission, these protectors (and in some cases antagonizers) of the innocent and the virtuous will delight literary enthusiasts and comic fans alike.

With stunning illustrations by artist Chris Burnham, Who Can Save Us Now? offers a vibrant, funny, and truly unusual array of characters and their stories.

INTRODUCTION

In 1938 a gawky, bespectacled man walked through a door, and when it opened again, a benevolent giant in red and blue tights emerged, gave a wink, and lifted right off the pages of ACTION COMICS #1 and into the sky. As the years have gone by, countless other champions have joined this remarkable gentleman in the firmament of the popular imagination, and created a mythology for the twenty-first century.

However, in the sixty years since Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman, our collective story has grown a good deal more complex. The black-and-white conflict of World War II is a speck in the rearview mirror, and the road ahead is a smashed causeway north of Baghdad. Racial and sexual politics have been radically transformed. Technology has made our planet miraculously and terrifyingly small. It's more apparent than ever that the worst of the bad guys don't wear spandex and live in underground ice palaces in Antarctica, but can generally be found in three-piece suits at the head of gleaming boardroom conference tables.

The raccoon-eyed purse-snatchers of the Golden Age comic books are the least of our problems. We have suicide bombers, dwindling oil reserves, global warming, and an international community in complete disrepair. Not even the biggest and broadest bulletproof chest could stop all these out-of-control locomotives.

To put it bluntly, Superman just wasn't built for times like these. The antidote? You're holding it in your hands!

Within these pages, you'll find twenty-two brand-new stories about men and women whose amazing abilities reflect and address our strange and confusing new conditions. These superheroes are different from the Technicolor do-gooders you remember from the rack at the drugstore. These heroes are conflicted, frustrated, freaked out, and desperate; they're brave and afraid and not sure; they're a little nuts. In other words, you're going to recognize these people -- they're a lot like us.

And the supervillains? We've got them, too. And maybe they're even more familiar, those carnival glass reflections of our murkiest compulsions.

Who Can Save Us Now? introduces a plethora of origin stories (How does a girl with bad luck come to shape the events around her? How did a band of Quick Stop drones become an unlikely team of superheroes?); stories of heroes whose powers derive from nature's most peculiar creatures (A flock of flying orphans, anyone?); stories of the sinister draw that unbelievable power has on all-too-believable men and women (Why is it that this little town never had any trouble until that band of superheroes showed up? What becomes of a man whose soul has been lit on fire?); and stories in which the extraordinary is used to help the ordinary and protect the innocent (What awesome power is capable of manipulating televangelists into assisting those truly in need? What vast strength empowers the hero of this city's disregarded streets, the defender of its disregarded people?).

You'll meet the Big Guy, the Rememberer, the Meerkat, Mr. Big Deal, the Silverfish, Bad Karma Girl, Ghetto Man, and, yes, even Bob Brown. You'll see submarine monstrosities, fiery conclusions, reporters searching for answers, and neighborhood taverns destroyed. Whether your own origin story includes an obsession for comic books and a penchant for the darker worlds of graphic novelists like Frank Miller and Alan Moore, or a love for superhero-inspired literary fare like The Fortress of Solitude and The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, we promise that within these pages you'll find stories that suspend your disbelief without insulting your intelligence.

How are we going to stay alive in this world of trouble?

Read on!

Can anyone save us now?

We repeat: Read on!

What use is all this fancy in the face of so much real darkness?

If we're honest, we have to concede that it's probably no use at all. The sky is falling. And yet if we're courageous enough to see things as they aren't -- to believe that a flying man can catch a flaming satellite before it destroys the city -- then maybe we can summon enough heart to see things as they could be. This is just a book, a few hours' diversion, but we believe in heroes, and we need them now, like never before.

...And look! There's one now -- Copyright © 2008 by John McNally and Owen King

Introduction

THE MOST UNLIKELY BEGINNINGS

Girl Reporter
Stephanie Harrell

The Oversoul
Graham Joyce

Nate Pinckney-Alderson, Superhero
Elizabeth Crane

The Horses Are Loose
Cary Holladay

The Quick Stop 5®
Sam Weller

THE BEAST WITHIN

Remains of the Night
John McNally

The Pentecostal Home for Flying Children
Will Clarke

The Meerkat
Owen King

A SHADOWY FIGURE

When the Heroes Came to Town
Michael Czyzniejewski

The Thirteenth Egg
Scott Snyder

In Cretaceous Seas
Jim Shepard

Roe #5
Richard Dooling

The Snipper
Noria Jablonski

BEHIND THE MASK

Man Oh Man -- It's Manna Man
George Singleton

My Interview with the Avenger
Tom Bissell

The Rememberer
J. Robert Lennon

The Sisters of St. Misery
Lauren Grodstein

Mr. Big Deal
Sean Doolittle

SUPER ORDINARY

The Somewhat Super
David Yoo

Bad Karma Girl Wins at Bingo
Kelly Braffet

League of Justice (Philadelphia Division)
Jennifer Weiner

The Lives of Ordinary Superheroes
David Haynes

Acknowledgments

Owen King is the author of We're All in This Together: A Novella and Stories. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Bellingham Review, The Boston Globe, One Story, Paste Magazine, and Subtropics, among other publications. He lives in New York with his wife, the novelist Kelly Braffet. In researching the events described in "The Meerkat" he benefited from the kind assistance of Maile Chapman, and the scholarship of Peter Golub, Russian translator and expert in the history of Soviet Nuclear Defense Robots. Thank you, both. As to the matter of his favorite superhero, King writes that after agonizing deliberations, he has settled on Captain Marvel, because "no matter what the situation, it can almost always be improved by simply shouting 'SHAZAM!'"

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Distributor: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: 07-15-2008
Pages: 432
Measurements: 9.000in X 6.000in X 1.000in X 16.345oz