It's Superman! A Novel
Read It's Superman! A Novel Online
Authors: Tom De Haven
“My favorite book of the year.”
—Denver
Rocky Mountain News
“De Haven is today’s best comics novelist . . . Some of the early sections could be Steinbeck meets
Smallville . . . It’s Superman!
. . . and it’s terrific.”
—Palm Beach Post
“This is a must for all Superman fans.”
—Philadelphia Weekly
“For those of you who share [a] love for books like
Carter Beats the Devil
or
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
, [
It’s Superman!
is] so up your alley that it should be renamed
The Book That’s Very Up Your Alley, Starring Superman.
There’s a humanity to the storytelling, and what it chooses to emphasize about all of the characters, that makes it a joy to read.”
—Comic World News
“One of the finest interpretations of Superman in any medium . . . Nothing would be more pleasing than to learn the author has a sequel or two in mind for this book.”
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“What fun! In the heart of winter, a cracking good, fast-reading beach book and more . . . More than just a story of humor and action,
It’s Superman!
is a tender, bittersweet tale of a young man who wants to do good, but is not quite sure how, and who is tormented by not being able to help everyone who needs him.”
—Utah
Daily Herald
“Sometimes even icons have to grow up.”
—The Onion
“This is one of the best novels I’ve read all year . . . The plot (a braid of a few intertwined storylines) moves like a locomotive; you can almost smell the movie popcorn and feel the salt on your fingers as you turn the pages. If the Superman story had never existed before, this would be it.”
—Manchester, New Hampshire
Hippo
“A fascinating ride . . . The novel stands alone in a field of superhero adaptations. While the book is about Superman, De Haven’s skill actually makes it about every one of us . . . We could be any one of them. In some cases, we are.”
—Diamond Galleries Scoop
“It’s Superman!
is not the first Superman prose novel . . . but it’s the first great one, transforming Superman—icon of comics, film, animation, and television—into a literary icon as well.”
—Montreal
Gazette
“It’s Superman!—the
new novel by Tom De Haven—tells the story like you absolutely, positively have never heard it before. If you thought
Batman Begins
was a revisionist take on a well-known pop-culture legend, you’re about to have your definition rewritten. This is . . . easily one of 2005’s top discoveries. Exciting enough to merit its title’s exclamation point.”
—Bookgasm
“[A] sprawling saga of Depression America. The narrative at once contemplates the blood and guts of evil (Lex Luthor is a cold-blooded killer, and Superman doesn’t save everybody) while it explores the possibility of doing good with extraordinary gifts. [An] absorbing read.”
—Reno Gazette-]ournal
“An entertainingly inventive piece of work that provides a real-life grittiness by using actual historical figures and by not shying away from the realities of violent crime. Both elements force the reader to take the novel more seriously, regardless of whether or not one is a fan of comic books.”
—New Jersey
Home News Tribune
“De Haven’s novel shows that, nearly seventy years after his creation, the Man of Steel still has plenty to offer.”
—Booklist
“De Haven, whose Derby Dugan trilogy beautifully reimagined twentieth-century American history through a pleasant sheen of media-tized irony, presents the man of steel as a sullen Depression-era teen, a bad WWII-era reporter and as ambivalent about his super powers throughout, all with a kind of knowing that reflects a deep immersion in pulp. De Haven gives readers X-ray vision for determining when his tongue is in his cheek here; using it is great fun.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Tom De Haven returns to the roots of the foremost archetypal twentieth-century superhero . . . Combining superhero action, pulp thrills, mythic Americana, and an engaged social vision, De Haven has significantly enriched both the Superman myth and the SF canon.”
—Locus
(Best of 2005 List)
“Before Superman hit the comic books or big screen, he was an awkward teenager slowly adapting to his astonishing powers. De Haven . . . has added a sophisticated, well-rounded, and compelling addition to the Superman genre. The verdict: proof that Superman’s appeal has withstood the test of time.”
—Bookmarks
It’s Superman!
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
2011 Del Rey Mass Market Edition
Copyright © 2005 by DC Comics
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
DEL REY is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Superman and all related characters and elements are trademarks of DC Comics.
Originally published in trade paperback by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 2006, and in hardcover by Chronicle Books, San Francisco, California, in 2005. Reprinted by arrangement with Chronicle Books.
ISBN 978-0-345-49675-1
Printed in the United States of America
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
PART ONE: THE WPA GUIDE TO SMALLVILLE
PART THREE: THE SAUCER-MAN FROM TINSELTOWN
PART FOUR: ANYTHING FOR HALLOWEEN?
For Margaret Hussey,
whose fortunate son I am.
A great part of this novel was written in a tiny cabin on a small island off the coast of northern Maine. I would like to thank the Eastern Frontier Educational Foundation for making that residency possible, and Steve Dunn for his generosity, encouragement, and friendship.
PART ONE
THE WPA GUIDE TO
SMALLVILLE
Public enemy. Events at the Jewel Theater are recounted.
The baby that fell off a wagon. Science fiction.
Alger in Smallerville. Mr. and Mrs. Kent.
●
1
Our version of the story opens on the last Saturday of May 1935 with the arrival of Sheriff Bill Dutcher at the police station in Smallville, Kansas. A craggy man with steel-gray hair and long sideburns, he’s wearing tan slacks and a barn jacket over a maroon polo shirt. His star is pinned to the pocket. He brought along his pistol belt and holster but leaves that in the trunk with his 12-gauge. Those won’t be necessary. When he got the call an hour ago, Dutcher was off-shift, at home in Lyndon savoring his third highball of the evening and playing canasta with the wife and some neighbors. He could have been easily in a fume, or worse, by the time he motored thirty miles through drizzle and dust blow to this clodhopper town—but no, not at all. He is in fine spirits, especially once he discovers those federal glory hogs out of Topeka haven’t showed up yet. He shakes hands with two deputies that meet him at the door, even clapping one of them on the shoulder. Then he speaks privately with Doug Parker, the local chief of police, both of them turning together to cast brief looks at the farm boy, seventeen years old and hunched low in a varnished chair near the chief’s desk. Judging by the kid’s shiny eyes and heavy breathing and the tense fist that he rubs back and forth on his thigh, any minute he’ll put birdie to his dinner plus whatever Jujubes or Raisinets he had earlier at the picture show. “You might think of giving Sergeant York, there, a wastepaper basket,” says the sheriff, “while I go and see Jiggs.”
“Straight back. You can’t miss him.”
Beyond the lavatory door with its tractor calendar stands a long sawbuck table where Mr. Jiggs Makley, for some years a presence both on wanted posters and in rotogravures, has been laid faceup. A chunk of that face, however, is blown off, and the rest of it, including a cheap theatrical mustache, is covered with blood, not all of it dry. His big eyes are open and staring.
Hands deep in his pockets, idly jiggling coins and keys, the sheriff stands alongside of the table thinking, Poor dead hillbilly son of a bitch, he looks completely flabbergasted. Thinking: Good pair of Florsheims. Hardly been worn. Brown pleated trousers, he thinks, but no belt.
That
figures. Dutcher removes one hand from a pocket and fingers the shirt collar away from Makley’s neck. Essley brand. Size 16. Top, second, and third buttons missing. Plucked off, it looks like. And no cuff links, either. Surprise, surprise. “Chief,” he says realizing that he’s been joined, “tell me again.
What
was it your boy said? The craziest gun?”
“Stupidest. He said Makley must’ve owned the world’s
stupidest
gun.”
“Meaning?”
“That it had to’ve fired backward.”
Dutcher laughs. “I know you told me his name, but—”