Synopsis/blurb ...
None.
A short story that was published in the BEAT to a PULP: Superhero anthology back in 2012.
What makes a superhero? Someone with special powers ... Ordinary people doing good deeds ... Anyone with sophisticated technological gadgets and incredible agility? Superheroes can spring up from the most unexpected people in the most unusual places, and BEAT to a PULP: Superhero has gathered some of the best hardboiled and noir crime stories with a superhero bend. Billy Mitchell, the six-year-old "Red Avenger" in Kevin Burton Smith's tale, has an innocence and a special something that draws us to want to don a mask and tie a towel around our necks. Steve Weddle dissects the reality of a world in which super-powered "others" walk in the midst of normal people who tend to quote only parts of the Bible. And James Reasoner's story is set in a time not usually associated with superheroes -- the American Revolution -- yet Patrick Mainwaring finds the classic essence of a superhero. Other top contributors include Jake Hinkson, Garnett Elliott, Liam Jose, Sandra Seamans, Jerry Bloomfield, Thomas Pluck, Keith Rawson, Court Merrigan, Benoit Lelievre, and Chad Eagleton. If you like the work of Frank Miller or the recent Dark Knight films directed by Christopher Nolan, then you'll enjoy the grit of these thirteen tales in BEAT to a PULP: Superhero.
Don't know where I originally located this story to read, probably from the website listed below.
I've enjoyed Jake Hinkson's work before, probably not as much of it as I would have liked to have read, but that's a familiar theme for most of the authors whose work I cross paths with and admire. Hell on Church Street was enjoyed back in 2013, Saint Homicide in 2014 and The Big Ugly in 2020.
Apparently this story was a re-read, as I enjoyed it as part of my short story a day month back in August 2018. Funny but I don't remember reading it before.
Enjoyable, interesting, entertaining, a decent set-up and a satisfying pay-off.
Top marks for imagination, character, and a mystery element, with a puzzle created and solved in the space of a 20 minute read. I think I like reading about Superheros more than I enjoy seeing them on the big screen. At least we get where we are going a lot quicker.
Dry County, The Deepening Shade and The Posthumous Man still sit on the TBR pile.
Overall 4 stars from 5
It's a shame that the anthology that this one appeared in no longer seems to be readily available. Oh well, I'm not hurting for books.
Read - January, 2023
Published - 2012
Page count - 17
Source - Beat to a Pulp website
Format - PDF
I think BTAP was still functioning more as a magazine at that point, even if the issues had subtitles. Though perhaps a distinction without difference.
ReplyDeleteI still drop by the site now and again and I'm sure I have some of their anthologies on the pile. I kind of forget what I have after a while.
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