On the Shelf: Week 4

I'm still reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and likely will be for awhile considering the novel's length. The chapter I'm currently reading details the two main characters, Joe and Sam, as they attempt to create a superhero character for their first comic book. They run through a list of ideas and struggle to find anything original. 

They began to go through the rolls of the animal kingdom, concentrating naturally on the predators: Catman, Wolfman, the Owl, the Panther, the Black Bear. They considered the primates: the Monkey, Gorillaman, the Gibbon, the Ape, the Mandrill with his multicolored wonder ass that he used to bedazzle opponents.

 "Be serious," Joe chided again.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Look, forget animals. Everybody's going to be thinking of animals. In two months, I'm telling you, by the time our guy hits the stands, there's going to be guys running around dressed like every damn animals in the zoo. Birds. Bugs. Underwater guys. And I'll bet you anything there's going to be five guys who are really strong, and invulnerable, and can fly." 

To be honest, I have very little knowledge of the workings of the comic book world. The only comic book/graphic novel I've ever read is Watchmen. The only super hero movies I've seen are Watchmen (that was an awkward one to explain to my parents), The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises. I liked the Batman movies but evidently not enough to watch the entire trilogy. According to the back of the book, the superhero they eventually come up with is called "The Escapist," which sounds pretty impressive. Guess I'll have to keep reading.