Product Description

Doctor Impossible — evil genius, mad scientist, diabolical time-traveller, wannabe world dominator — has just broken out of prison. Again. After twelve foiled ploys (doomsday devices, mass mind-control, robot armies, insect armies, alien invasions, etc.), he's not about to be foiled again. Fatale, a patchwork woman of skin and alloy built by the NSA to be the next generation of warfare, is suddenly given the chance every superhero dreams of: to join the Champions, the once-famous group of beautiful young superheroes who have been newly reunited to stop Dr Impossible. We watch as Fatale becomes part of a team — its greatest hero missing, its members struggling with their damaged pasts as they come together in the face of unthinkable evil. Soon I Will Be Invincible is a wildly entertaining adventure about good and evil, bursting with attitude and humour, that features a cast of superheroes and supervillains with remarkably human emotions, and who inhabit a world strangely similar to our own . . .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #253236 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

DOUGLAS COUPLAND, author of Generation X and JPod
'Austin Grossman has a superpower himself -- it's called writing
... winning, smart and funny ... It's terrific.'

Wired Magazine
'Every comic-book cliché in this witty, stunning debut is lovingly
embraced, then turned inside out'

EOIN COLFER, author of Artemis Fowl
'100% enjoyment ... I devoured every page drawing the pictures in
my head ... It breathes fresh and ironic life into the superhero
stereotypes.'

Customer Reviews

...and then the world will KNOW my name!
Truly Truly Brilliant. Pratchett's humour/Gaiman's angst/DNA's twisting plotlines wrapped up in a spandex suit; without Moore's/Miller's dark depression.

May induce cackling insanely.

Witty and insightful
Grossman very carefully avoids parody or mockery of the superhero genre itself, or of its central tropes. This is a good thing. Instead he gives us a psychoanalasys of the stock characters. What drives a man to turn his genius to evil?

The story's two lead characters, Doctor Impossible (Villain) and Fatale (Heroine) are wonderfully self-aware and often second guess their own motivations. The former, having been imprisoned twelve times for twelve different world-domination schemes seems in little doubt that he will fail again. In fact, he seems to take it for granted while still lying to himself - surely, this time he must win? No, and he knows it. Doctor Impossible does what he does simply because he must. He at once strives to live up to society's expectations of a supervillain, while at the same time belittling those expectations.

Fatale, the cyborg superheroine protagonist exists in a state of uncertainty between the paragons of the superheroing golden age and her self-defined rust age reality. She doesn't seem to believe that either is real, but they're all she has to define her world. Again, the character lies to herself while fully acknowledging the facts.

This is one of those rare books that's precisely as deep as the reader wishes - it can be a throwaway pulp adventure story or a thought-provoking study of satre-esque philosophy.

At last! A Supervillain we can all cheer for.
This book is fantastic. Doctor Impossible is an evil genius bravely trying to take over the world whilst being thwarted by a pesky superteam.

Starting with Doctor Impossible in prison pondering his life and wondering whether he should have taken a path of scientific research rather than trying to take over the world, the story follows him through the implementation of his latest scheme. First he's got to raise capital to fund his new idea, which means such indignities as having to travel by bus and get changed into his villain costume in the bushes so he can make an entrance.

Meanwhile, a rookie cyborg is given a chance to join a reformed super-team who are out to thwart Doctor Impossible's evil plan.

If you're a fan of comic books or superhero stories in general then you will love this book - the narrative points out the absurdities of the superhero world, whilst making it all believable.