The Bookwyrm's Review of The Horror of Supervillainy by C.T. Phipps

Length: 225 Pages

Publisher: Crossroad Press

Release Date: April 1, 2021

Genre: Superhero Prose

Amazon Link

When I first heard The Horror of Supervillainy was in the works, I was super excited to get a review copy. This is one of my favorite series, and one of the reasons I started a review blog in the first place. The continuing adventures of Gary and company are something that I highly anticipate, and imagine I always will.

PLOT SUMMARY

Gary Karkofsky a.k.a Merciless: The Supervillain without MercyTM has decided to give up supervillainy and embrace the path of righteousness. Unfortunately, he's terrible at it and no one wants him to be their superheroic protector. That all changes when a talking raven arrives with the perfect quest to make his mark: rescue the President's daughter from Dracula.

Unfortunately, Gary is being led into a trap. The location of Dracula's castle is in Satan Swamp, which is where Gary suffered one of the few defeats of his life. There's also a camp full of superpowered children, the return of alternate reality allies, a pair of psycho killers in love, and an old enemy returned.

MY THOUGHTS

When you write a series that has dealt with time traveling Nazi's, elder gods, the personification of concepts like Life, Death, Chaos, an evil version of the main character and a giant Luchador villain who once destroyed the universe, you have to imagine its tough to think of something new to top all that. Well, since it's C.T. Phipps, someone steeped in superheroes, horror and pop culture, it'll be super easy, barely an inconvenience. While Gary, Cindy, Mandy and their family return, the new additions are fun too. These include crossovers from other parts of the Phipps extended universe including Jane Doe, Weredeer shaman, Case, cyborg assassin, The Accountant, bonded to the spirit of murder, and Final Girl, the bane of serial killers and monsters. They all fit together so seamlessly into a cohesive unit of snark, pop culture references and attitude, not to mention being just badass all around. 

The villains are some of the most interesting to date, including a certain Count from Transylvania, a magic leaching southern Sherriff somehow working in a southern swamp town in Michigan, and some villains who look suspiciously like some characters who wont be mentioned because trademark lawyers work the interdimensional barriers too easily. They definitely add the sort of insanity and chaos I've come to expect with this series, in the best possible way. 

World building has also been a consistent strength with this series, and Horror is no exception. We get to see a bit more of the wider world Gary lives in, even getting to see the city of Atlas City in Florida, which is not, I repeat, not, that city with a certain Mouse Mascot's theme park, and the trademark lawyers can't prove it is. It's a definite change from Falconcrest City, which always struck me as Gotham City if it went on a 3 day heroin binge with Nikki Sixx, then a three day coke binge with Sam Kinison. It's some of my favorite worldbuilding in fiction today. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

I can happily report that this is an excellent entry into a series that I can't see losing steam. It has an author that obviously still enjoys writing it, and keeps coming up with creative ways to add to the story and lore. Having a huge shared multiverse to draw characters and plots from also doesn't hurt. Fans of the series should really enjoy it, as should fans of superhero fiction in general.