Welcome, true believers, to the ninth installment of the Supervillainy Saga. I never thought we would get this far, but fan demand as well as my love of the characters have managed to keep me going. Can we make it to twelve volumes? I think we can!
It’s been a long journey for Gary and company. Starting off as a geek and a fool who just so happened to be blessed with a magic cloak, he’s since evolved into a geek and a fool who now knows actual magic. Well, Dungeons & Dragons magic, which is not copyrighted if it’s 3rd Edition or 3.5. Which doesn’t apply to parody anyway. Not that I’ve looked up these things for any reason.
Ahem.
So where is Gary going from here? Well, when last we left Gary in The Horror of Supervillainy, he’d successfully wrestled the Primal Orbs away from his alternate universe doppelganger and rebooted the universe. Okay, technically, our last book was Tales of Supervillainy: Cindy’s Seven, but that was more Cindy’s story than Gary’s.
Still, Gary thinks he’s managed to finally win big. The universe has been rebooted into a happier, nicer, and all-round friendlier place thanks to his brief assumption of absolute power. Unfortunately, Gary doesn’t remember that this is exactly what his doppelganger wanted to do. While reboots are common in comic book worlds, they never quite succeed as well as the publishers intend. Be careful what you wish for indeed.
The Supervillainy Saga is a world that deals with all the classic archetypes of comic books, but also deals with the out of universe decisions as well. Comic book aging of characters, sliding time scales, and endless amounts of retcons as well as reboots. These things are normally ignored by comic book spin offs because they’re (rightly) considered to be forced by editorial mandate.
However, what would it be like to live in a reality where these things were common? A place where you couldn’t quite rely on reality being as immutable as you thought it was? Somewhere that feelings, ideas, the past, and people could be rewritten on a whim? What if you were a die-hard anarchist like Gary who had broken every one of his (few) rules to make your ideal setting? How would that make you feel?
Gary has managed to establish for himself quite the life. He’s built himself a family, fortune, and gotten himself UNLIMITED POWER as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine would say. However, all of that is something that rests on a precarious perch. Will he be able to keep it or will his constant desire to meddle cost him everything? Especially when confronted with the fact it may or may not even be real? Food for thought.
We also have a special surprise with two bonus stories in the back that I think you’ll enjoy. The first, “Dungeons and Garys” is a nice homage to not only Dungeons & Dragons (as well as explaining Gary’s kobold minions) but also a shout-out to my friend MK Gibson and his Villains Rule series. The second, “Merciless vs. Hitler” is a story that is self-explanatory and ties to the main book. I also threw in what I imagined the characters would listen to, music wise, because why not?
I think this book will be one of my reader’s favorites and it will upend the status quo for the Supervillainy Saga permanently.