Superfolks by robert mayer

I actually managed to read a book yesterday. That's pretty good for me. Most of the time I'm too tired but I was interested to read Superfolks. It's an influential pulp science fiction paperback that was initially published in 1977. It is important because it was a major influence on Alan Moore and the adult orientated superhero comics of the 1980s that are filtering though to mainstream movies and culture now.

Robert Mayer was an 'award-winning' jounalist before he knocked out Superfolks in 1977. It's not amazingly well written. It's just a science fiction pot-boiler but it does have some ideas that, for its time, were original. The story is about a retired 'superman' who lives in suburbia with his pregnant wife and two children. His powers have waned and he has fallen into middle-age spread. He commutes to his boring job as a copy-editor at a newspaper. He never married his 'lois lane' and instead married another woman. He has never told any of his lovers about his secret identity.

A crisis develops in New York city so 'superman' has to come out of retirement and save the day. Sadly he is less potent than he was in his youth and he can barely fly. And a sinister plot is afoot....

The novel is very much of its time, littered with throw-away references to american pop-culture and celebrities. There are also a few hippy references and a fair dollop of swinging '70s sex to improve sales. This is not a great book by any means but it has ideas. The ideas have been seen in films like who framed roger rabbit? as well as comic book classics like watchmen, miracleman and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Reading this book removes a bit of the shine from the genius of Alan Moore (a bit, not all).

So, an interesting read. A cheap thrill. Influential but not amazing.