Forgive Us Our Debits

Even if it hadn't happened in my lifetime, it had happened in my life, and I would carry it with me forever.

I think I've just read what will be the best book of the year, with an insight like that. Sunday at Main Street Books (where you can still get a free proof copy of a book with every purchase) I picked up the advance reader's edition of Marisa de los Santos and David Teague's first collaborative novel – this husband and wife have both written books of their own already – Saving Lucas Biggs (ISBN 9780062274649), and finished it this morning. Hard to put down, it read like I imagine Ray Bradbury would write The Grapes of Wrath.

In the company town of Victory, Arizona in the present day where Victory Fuels pretty much controls the business and the justice, main character Margaret O'Malley's father is sentenced to death under some highly circumstantial evidence by the title character. But Margaret's family for generations has had this genetic ability to travel – carefully, because history tends to resist change – back in time. And Margaret uses hers to travel back to a specific event in 1938 to keep Judge Biggs from becoming the company man he has (long story, but read the book which comes out in May!) …

Interesting nature vs. nurture argument here, often like the one I understand is posed about Captain America's arch enemy the Red Skull – would he have become a Nazi and a megalomaniac had he not had his mom die giving birth to him, his dad first trying to drown him and then cutting his throat the next day, gotten into petty gangs, killing the first girl he tried to “put moves” on, being inspired by a chance meeting with Hitler at his job and becoming … well, someone you REALLY don't want to sit down to dinner with. Mind the dust.

As far as I know, I'm it. The sole survivor of a holocaust … for the second time in my life.

The Elseworlds (DC's alternate reality imprint) story Superman: Distant Fires (ISBN 1563892898) written by Howard Chaykin makes an “accidental” nuclear war responsible for the loss of all super beings' powers – including Batman's arch enemy the Joker, interestingly enough, which makes you wonder what super power he has – and mutating the human and animal survivors. When Superman finds other survivors, he and they build a city and gradually their powers return, but new rivalries in this brave new world put the heroes at each other's throats, and it is not pretty.

 

 

THEN we come to Mary Shelley's interpretation … correction, the crossing of Superman's origin with the novel Frankenstein, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning's The Superman Monster where Frankenstein (keep in mind that's the name of the scientist, not the monster) is played by Lex – for this story, Vicktor – Luthor who finds Superman's rocket and with corpses and lightning reanimates him. The monster flees and is raised by a kindly couple while Luthor scrambles to get married and get funding to continue his unethical researches. One of the better adaptations, really.

Today's title come from Jeffrey and I reading the Lord's Prayer, David