Book Review: All My Friends Are Super Heroes by Andrew Kaufman
Toronto has a lot of superheroes. But now there will be one less. The Perfectionist is flying to Vancouver to start over after the disappearance of her husband Tom. What the Perfectionist doesn’t know is that Tom is on the flight with her, and sitting next to her. She’s been hypnotized not to see him, and if he can’t break the spell by the time the plane lands, he’ll vanish from her life forever!
This is really more of a love story that has people who call themselves “superheroes” than it is a superhero story. To become a superhero in this world, one simply has to have one defining trait that becomes your superhero name. Sometimes, this grants actual powers. The Perfectionist can make things perfect, and Hypno can give hypnotic suggestions with real effects. Others are not so lucky, such as Wild Mood Swinger, whose “power” is uncontrollable mood swings.
There’s also no “supervillains” as such, just superheroes who are jerks, like Hypno. And very few superheroes fight crime; instead they lead ordinary lives except that they hang out with other people who are superheroes.
Tom is a “regular”, a more or less normal person who moved to Toronto, met and befriended the Amphibian, and got drawn in to the world of superheroes. He feels very lucky to have met and fallen in love with the Perfectionist, and doesn’t want their marriage to fail.
The story of the flight and flashbacks to the backstory is broken up with mini-biographies of the many superheroes of Toronto, told with wry humor. The tenth-anniversary edition, which is the one I read, has a bonus section with more mini-bios.
There’s a certain wistfulness to the prose; the characters are a bit thin on personality and depth, but work well enough for this short piece.
If you are primarily into superhero fiction for the epic battles and villainous schemes, this book is likely to be a disappointment. If, on the other hand, you’re looking for a love story with fantasy elements and a certain amount of dry humor, then this book is for you.
