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Almost Infamous Will Have You Rooting for the Bad Guys
With Almost Infamous, his first solo novel, Matt Carter does something few comic book satires have attempted: instead of making the heroes look like a bunch of debauched jerkwagons, he instead fleshes out the villains, adding darker shades to a world where superheroes rule supreme and disorder is swiftly met with superpowered justice. The result is a novel that rips apart clichés even as it celebrates them, heroes and villains are given equal weight, and the characters leap off the page with inhuman flair.
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At 18 years old, Aidan Salt is an unambitious layabout with an unstable telekinetic gift, living in a world where superheroes are real, and all the good supervillains have already been defeated. Not wanting to deal with all the paperwork involved in becoming a licensed hero and thinking (incorrectly) he could probably take the dingus hero-types in a fight, Aidan becomes a supervillain known as Apex Strike—and promptly gets arrested. But instead of spending the rest of his life in a super-prison, he is drafted into “Project Kayfabe,” a secret initiative that pits villains (known as the “New Offenders”) against heroes in staged battles, giving the merely mortal populace baddies to hate, and remind them why they need heroes. Aidan’s life is soon filled with sex, drugs, celebrity, and staged battles against Earth’s mightiest heroes. But being a pet villain isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and it isn’t long until Aidan and his friends find that they might have to do their jobs for real.
The novel’s own superpower is its characterization. Aidan walks the tightrope between unsympathetic enough that it’s funny when he’s put through hell, but not so much that you don’t want him to succeed…eventually. Colorful characters abound: Trojan Fox is a former a technological genius with serious interpersonal issues, and Odgjod is a villain fanboy from the third circle of Hell who escaped to Earth on a temporary visa. The league of would-be bad guys favor conversations peppered with quick, obscenity-laden barbs, and their sniping is a great deal of foul-mouthed fun.
The world-building is suitably splashy and filmed with comic book detail. In the best spirit of the visual form he’s aping, Carter shows much more than he tells, providing clues about the world in off-the-cuff comments and character quirks. Even when he does have to drop a bit of exposition on the reader, it fits within the details of the world: Aidan’s “Villain 101” history lessons, an intimidating speech to the Project Kayfabe draftees. It’s hinted we’re exploring a dystopian alt-history, (Aidan makes an offhand remark about “Vancouver, American Columbia”), and each glimpse of the larger world—its prejudices, its geography, even a brief mention of Hell’s treaties with humanity— only serve to enrich the setting.
Most importantly, Carter gets his references right. He’s drawing on a rich well of geeky waters, from the surface-level (“Kayfabe” is a pro wrestling term), to those that run deeper (Dr. Tongue’s 3D House of Stewardesses), but the nods and asides are an integral part of the setting, funny if you get them, but just as functional if you don’t.
Almost Infamous wears its influences on its sleeve, and with pride. It’ll have you rooting for the bad guys in no time.