Susano Posted August 6, 2008 Report Share Posted August 6, 2008 I just finished reading this Tuesday. All I can say is, if you haven't read it, do so. And yes, I'm already mentally working out how to build some of the characters. Doctor Impossible would be easiest, since we learn so much about him... Fatale is harder, since there's a lot of blanks there. Damsel, Corefire, and Blackwolf are further down the scale. I know who they are modeled after, so that helps, but their exact abilities are sketchy. Pharaoh is just scary... how tough do you have to be to take a 16" shell and just laugh it off? Anyway, don't expect to see much of anything till after GenCon... and even then I'm not sure when I'll be able to tackle some of the cast from Soon I Will Be Invincible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kal'El Wayne Posted August 6, 2008 Report Share Posted August 6, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible Bought read and loved it a while ago then completely forgot to mention it. Great book. Little depressing for the genre, I thought. By the way Susano. I've used your writeups for my many crossovers in my Champions games, but can't find the Charmed ones. Do you a) have any plans for them, and know where I can find them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan D. Hurricanes Posted August 6, 2008 Report Share Posted August 6, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible I just finished reading this Tuesday. All I can say is, if you haven't read it, do so. And yes, I'm already mentally working out how to build some of the characters... It's about time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted August 6, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible Bought read and loved it a while ago then completely forgot to mention it. Great book. Little depressing for the genre, I thought. By the way Susano. I've used your writeups for my many crossovers in my Champions games, but can't find the Charmed ones. Do you a) have any plans for them, and know where I can find them? I found it to be like Watchmen, a semi-realistic take on a world inhabited by superhumans, who along with their super powers, have all too real super problems. Charmed? Unless someone sent them to me (and I've misplaced them), I've never done any character sheets for Charmed (and never will, as I don't watch that show). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest steamteck Posted August 6, 2008 Report Share Posted August 6, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible How much like Watchmen? I was thinking of picking it up but I despise Watchmen with the fury of a 1000 raging suns. So should I not get it? The nihilistic world of Watchmen really got to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NestorDRod Posted August 6, 2008 Report Share Posted August 6, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible I'd actually compare it more to a slightly (and I do mean slightly) less cheery version of Busiek's Astro City. The characters act and do things that fit within the genre, but we get to see glimpses of "real life" behind the glitter and spandex. Definitely not nihilistic, so no worries there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted August 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible How much like Watchmen? I was thinking of picking it up but I despise Watchmen with the fury of a 1000 raging suns. So should I not get it? The nihilistic world of Watchmen really got to me. It's not a nihilistic world, it's just one far removed from the golly-gee-whiz Silver Age. People, even superhumans, have real problems, real lives, and real side effects of their powers. It's akin to the Marvel Ultimate universe in some ways, but with less deaths. Still, as one of the supers puts it, they are living in the Iron Age, and she fully expects the Rust Age to follow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted August 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible In case anyone cares -- here's my mind at work pondering Doctor Impossible. First, based on comments made by characters in the story, several people in the setting would have STUN-Only 75% Damage Reduction. As Proditor states in the chat "Some of the characters can shrug off 9d6 RKA AP EXplosions without taking appreciable STUN...." One could use an idea called "Fragile World", which I saw a long time ago in the Rogues Gallery APA -- which is anything done to a super is divided by 1/4, and anything a super hits has its defenses reduced by 1/4 (or something like that -- the idea was trying to replicate the London-wrecking fights of Miracle Man). As for the good Doctor, here's some base comments on his abilities: Strong enough to rip parking meters out of the ground. Fighting skills from his time in Thailand. Lots of points in Gadgets, Bases, Vehicles, and so on. A lot of robot followers. SPD of only 4. My impression was one of low SPDs on the characters. Most of the people seemed to have human-average SPD. Unless they kicked in some sort of enhanced combat processor -- such as Fatale. Some people seem to have SPD that costs END -- they go into a combat mode where time slows down (i.e. SPD goes up). He is fast however -- his DEX is above 20, and he has levels. Possible Overall Levels, since he has a ---> 300 IQ (but a 30 INT?) I don't think so... he's not that fast of a thinker.... Tough enough to take a hit from Corefire (see my comment on Damage Reduction). Corefire is Superman, so Impossible needs to be able to take a shot from Superman. He's not Lex Luthor, but more like Doctor Doom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmurie Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible It's a great book. Essentially, you're put inside of the heads of Fatale, the outsider/newbie to a Justice League type organization after it's Superman (called Corefire) has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. So you get to see what superpowered people are like with all their human foibles. The more interesting character is Doctor Impossible, in effect Lex Luthor, and the book does a really good job of showing why a super genius mastermind would keep trying to take over the world after getting trashed by the super heroes over and over and over again. Getting inside the head of the evil genius is the books best feat. He's vile and horrible, and yet you feel sorry for the poor devil by the end of the book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedifensor Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible I liked most of the book, but I thought the ending was a bit of a letdown. Maybe that was the point, but I wanted to see a bit more depth in the main character at the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balabanto Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible The book is written by someone with a great deal of sympathy for Lois Lane and everyone like her, and that's where the novel's greatest strength is. However, it's also it's greatest weakness. My instincts tell me that this book would have been better if I wasn't so picky, and that maybe I was looking for more out of it than I could get. Still, it's a great read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted August 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible I liked most of the book' date=' but I thought the ending was a bit of a letdown. Maybe that was the point, but I wanted to see a bit more depth in the main character at the end.[/quote'] In many ways, the ending was spot on for a comic or a comic inspired novel. The evil mastermind is beaten, but still manages to escape to bedevil the heroes again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maelstrom Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible Didn't care for the end, but I liked the rest of the book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible Actually, I read the book when it was released months ago and talked about it in some thread or another elsewhere on the forums at the time. It's not as fresh in my mind as then, but from my perspective Dr. Impossible wasn't as smart as he claimed to be (notice that everything about him ultimately really derived from the evil genius of the previous era, whose name I no longer remember). Also, Dr. I is really the only truly sympathetic character in the book. Everyone else has at least one pretty unsympathetic characteristic, and some characters have many. However Dr. I is an unreliable witness; events as told by him don't always match up with how they are perceived by others. Ultimately Dr. I doesn't really want to take over the world or blow it up or any other such thing -- he really wants _recognition_ and _acceptance_ -- to be cool enough to be in the "in crowd", to be appreciated for his amazing intellect and accomplishments. That's why he never really pulls the trigger on anything and allows himself to be defeated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible As far as the book is concerned as a read, it was very funny and enjoyable for me. I didn't take it too seriously and appreciated it for what it was, a good homage / send up. And I agree that it is far more akin to Astro City than Watchmen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba smith Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible It's not a nihilistic world' date=' it's just one far removed from the golly-gee-whiz Silver Age. People, even superhumans, have real problems, real lives, and real side effects of their powers. It's akin to the Marvel Ultimate universe in some ways, but with less deaths. Still, as one of the supers puts it, they are living in the Iron Age, and she fully expects the Rust Age to follow.[/quote'] thats ONE way to say it btw i saw stats for the chamed ones in the"hero games goes to the movies[and tv thread someone else must have posted them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba smith Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible when is siwbi in paperback/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted August 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible when is siwbi in paperback/ You can get it in a trade paperback format. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
proditor Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible Good luck with the scaling (You're going to need it). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Long Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible Read it, found it sort of "ehh." I don't regret the time spent on it, but it's not a book I'll ever go back and read again. It seemed to me the author had some hostility or skepticism toward the idea of costumed heroes and villains. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirby Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible So this isn't a Champions book from HERO Games then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba smith Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible You can get it in a trade paperback format. ok thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinecone Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible I read it (it was recomended here some time ago) I liked it...but it just fell a little short...I did get the feeling that the author did not like superhero's or their world... I liked the "likable" Dr. I. ...it made it feel like a tale told from his perspective. I would have liked a better understanding of transparent girl...after she got tired of playing wendy, what has she been up to? She turned into a real world weary merc somewhere...so whats up with that? I got the feel the story did not know how to wrap up...as though it was originally envisaged as a two part or (heaven help us) trilogy...but the author got bored and ended it quick... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted August 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible So this isn't a Champions book from HERO Games then? No, it's not. But it has some nice ideas and character concepts in it, especially if you want to run an Iron Age game that doesn't look like something from Image or Valiant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Re: Soon I Will Be Invincible I read it (it was recomended here some time ago) I liked it...but it just fell a little short...I did get the feeling that the author did not like superhero's or their world... I liked the "likable" Dr. I. ...it made it feel like a tale told from his perspective. I would have liked a better understanding of transparent girl...after she got tired of playing wendy, what has she been up to? She turned into a real world weary merc somewhere...so whats up with that? I got the feel the story did not know how to wrap up...as though it was originally envisaged as a two part or (heaven help us) trilogy...but the author got bored and ended it quick... Hmm...I found it to end quite well and in genre. I felt like the book did a good job of combining Silver Age and Iron Age shtick, introducing some underscoring of irony, but also tossing out some very comic-booky elements such as the ending. I found the authors approach to be nuanced, with some very subtle elements underlying the obvious surface level themes. What I'd really like to see, in fact, is a TPB Graphic Novel of it with artwork done by A. Ross. That would be slick. Was it the best book I've read in a year? No. Was it amusing and worthy of mention? Yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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