Enemies & Allies - by Kevin J. Anderson
I was trying to come up with post ideas and I figured what is geekier than a book about Superheros? This novel gives a peek into what the lives of Batman and Superman were like back when they were first starting out life as Superheros in the 1950's.
Overall score: 3 out of 5 stars
Geekyness Level: At first glace high, but especially Superman fans may find the artistic licenses that were used to be a bit much (aka Superman fans might hate this book).
Find the book at Amazon
Basically it takes two separate stories (1 for Batman and 1 for Superman) and ties them together with a Lex Luthor plot. It's a totally different reality from anything I've read before in that they both meet almost right away and have to join forces to take down evil (Lex Luthor + some crazy Russian Communists, lolz).The book starts out pretty strong but things start to go downhill pretty quickly. Batman is very well done in this book, and I definately give it my "Batman fan stamp of approval". And I'm definately a much bigger Batman fan then the average person, and I offend easily when it comes to how he is treated, lol. XD
Superman (and his plot line) is a whole different story. He came off a little arrogant and bumbling. There were some things that were very good, like the idea that he has to concentrate to not use too much pressure and breaks his pencils when writing. But way too much other stuff made him come off as lame. He angsts for about 3 chapters about how to respond to some "Dear Abbbey" like letters for the Daily Planet. And I normally don't mind Louis but between her and Lex they had more page time then Batman. Also, Lex seemed to be a little off from what I've seen of him in other situations. He was even more arrogant then usual, enough so that he had huge blind sides all over the place, which doesn't fit with the idea that he's supposed to be Superman's arch villian.
Basically by the end of the book I was skipping most of the chapters that had the Superman symbol and only reading the ones with Batman. It's an okay story, especially if you like Batman, but I would recommend most Superman fans stay away or they might find themselves getting very angry. :(