Superheroes donât start out super. Itâs a hoary trope thatâs a key part of every adventurerâs origin story. Superheroes donât have to be penciled onto the printed page, either. In the right hands, words alone can make the powers and responsibilities of a gifted protector come to life in a mind of a reader. League of Somebodies is a new novel that does just that, starting off with a trial by fire thatâs abusive, stomach-churning and darkly funny. Read the first chapter and see for yourself.
In the opening chunk of the debut novel from Samuel Sattinâwhoâs contributed to Kotaku before here and hereâLenard Sikophskyâs dad puts him mortal danger and berates him while the kid runs for his life.
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Itâs all part of a bizarre plan to make Lenard into a superhero. League of Somebodies is a meaty read concerned with the heavy weight of legacies and what it takes for a man to be super and for a metahuman to be a mortal.
If there was an alternate reality where comics god Jack Kirby taught a postgrad âreligion and superfamiliesâ lecture, this would be Sam Sattinâs final paper. Heâd get an A-, mind you, with grades taken off for impertinence and sarcasm. Still, for all its loopy science-fiction logic, itâs really a tale of what generations of men do or donât pass on to each other and how to make a break with the existential places that spawned us. Go on and see for yourself.
Samuel Sattin is the author of the chaos-inspired superhero epic, LEAGUE OF SOMEBODIES, described by Mat Johnson as âSo rich with originality itâs actually radioactive.â A featured up-and-coming author by in San Francisco Magazineâs 2013 âWriters on Writersâ Issue, his work can be found in Salon Magazine, The Good Men Project, io9, and, of course, Kotaku. He is a Contributing Editor at The Weeklings, and lives in Oakland, California, with his wife, beagle, and tuxedo cat. You can visit him here: www.samuelsattin.net
