Cover Image: Behind the Mask

Behind the Mask

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Member Reviews

A really interesting, substantial collection of super-hero short stories. Each of the authors takes an atypical look at the lives of their heroes, and offers thought-provoking, amusing, moving stories and more.

Stand-outs for me were by Lavie Tidhar, Aimee Ogden, Carrie Vaughn, and Kelly Link.

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I ended up enjoying this anthology way more than I thought I would. I was expecting some standard superhero stuff but what we actually get is some really raw and human stories that can be very emotional.
Some of my favorites included:

Fool by Keith Frady – about a villain, Dr. Entropy who finally has the means to destroy the world but may be suffering from a crisis of conscious.

Pedestal Seanan McGuire – about a female superhero who moves to a suburb to try and be anonymous so she can have a normal life. A blogger discovers her, posts a pic, and brings a villain to the store where she’s shopping for ice cream. A great story about how those with fame are treated like they are no longer human and don’t deserve to have a life outside of the public one.

Over an Embattled City by Adam R. Shannon – about a man who has the ability to take reality and turn it into fiction, effectively removing those people or events from reality. And a girl who can remember what things were like prior to those things being turned into fiction.

I really enjoyed this anthology for how much more realistic it is, if superheroes and villains actually existed. What happens to your body in the long run after having a superpower for years? Does it deteriorate you mentally? Physically? How do people react to you? Can you ever have a normal life again?

This was way more enjoyable than I was expecting. I would definitely recommend.

ARC received via Netgalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

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I was really looking forward to this anthology, especially because I’d heard so many good things about so many authors in the lineup, but unfortunately, it just ended up being extremely disappointing. Majority of the stories ended up being 2 or 2 and a half stars. Out of all 20 stories in the collection, only 3 were 4 stars or above.

I don’t expect to get along with every writing style in an anthology, it’s almost guaranteed that WON’T happen, but I didn’t like <i>so</i> many of the stories in this collection. Not only that but so many of the stories felt like they were just half of an idea and not a complete idea. I did really like Kate Marshall, Ziggy Schutz, and Adam R. Shannon’s stories and I’d recommend seeing if their stories are available anywhere by other than this collection. I’m grateful I at least got 3 new authors to check out because of this but overall, this was completely lackluster and kind of felt like a waste of my time.

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These are amazing short stories from some of my favorite authors! It was wonderful to read new stories from old favorites!

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Do you want to peel back the masks of superheroes? Well, this volume of short stories lets you do just that. You get the interaction between superheroes, find out that not all heroes are heroic - some are just clueless, and see how a superhero's significant other may see him or her. You have a rescue robot story, a haircut tale, a story where heroes are disappearing because of one comic book writer, so basically a very wide swath of superhero tales to consume. As with any anthology, some are better than others, but which lies within the reader's purview. So take a chance, read, and enjoy!

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"Behind the Mask is a multi-author collection with stories by award-winning authors Kelly Link, Cat Rambo, Carrie Vaughn, Seanan McGuire, Lavie Tidhar, Sarah Pinsker, Keith Rosson, Kate Marshall, Chris Large and others. It is partially a prose nod to the comic world―the bombast, the larger-than-life, the save-the-worlds and the calls-to-adventure. But it’s also a spotlight on the more intimate side of the genre. The hopes and dreams of our cape-clad heroes. The regrets and longings of our cowled villains. That poignant, solitary view of the world that can only be experienced from behind the mask."

Yeah, I too was swayed to get this by the NAMES in this book!

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I wrote mini-reviews for all 20 short stories, so I hope you enjoy!

Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut by Cat Rambo

I love superheroes. I've made that very clear multiple times. So I was very happy when I started reading this story about a team of SUPERHEROINES. Our protagonist, Ms. Liberty, is a cyborg writer whose creators made her to not really feel anything, just to have a woman to have sex with. Pretty disgusting to me. This is her journey on how she discovers herself and her true meaning, and what doea life mean to her. It's amazing how this story is so short, but Rambo managed to create a character that you feel for and relate to.

Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut is diverse af, since all the heroines don't really have genders, but still decide to call themselves women, because they feel like a woman and feel comfortable as a woman. How they are willing to love anyone who loves them for who they are, but not their looks. How men often treat women like if they were objects, ones they can sweep the floor with.

The whole idea of The Unidentified is great. These women create this group because males put them aside, and under them. They want to feel powerful, and want to escape the judgment of men. They don't include men in this group, because the men in their city are all the same and they won't change anytime soon. Trust me girls, I feel the same.

Basically, if you're feeling down or you have a low self-esteem at the moment,  read this. It'll make you realize that you are WORTH it, that no matter what anyone tells you, you are who you are, names, and bodies, and sexualities will NEVER FUCKING MATTER. Be yourself, put others' thoughts behind you, and simply be awesome.


Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5



Destroy the City With Me Tonight by Kat Marshall

The first line really drew me in but compared to Ms. Liberty, it was weak in terms of character development & plot. I didn't connect to the main character, and I would've liked a further explanation of the marks on her skin. I know this isn't a novel, but I was confused, and when I ended reading, I had more questions than answers. I guess I didn't like how everything was put together.

I did like the message sent. Because others don't value you, it doesn't mean you aren't worth anything.  You don't need other people's opinions to know that you are valuable and meaningful to the world. And if someone ignores you or forgets you, they don't deserve your time.


Rating: ⭐⭐



Fool by Keith Frady

There's not really a hero, there is a villain in this story. And he reminds me too much of Gru. Or maybe I'm too obsessed with Despicable Me. He has created a bunch of androids who are yellow & cute. Wait, wrong description. He humanized them so they could be his servants. He wanted them to help him destroy the planet.

It was never explained what were his motives for this particular desire, which is a bit upsetting. But the story does send a very important message, don't blame your problems on others. They're not guilty of what you're going through. Don't get mad at them because your upset or disappointed. Handle the problem and don't take out your anger on others.

Definitely going to be checking out more Keith Frady's work to devour his exquisite writing style.


Rating: ⭐⭐.75



Pedestal by Seanan McGuire

What a unique short story! This was my most anticipated story from the anthology and it did not disappoint. Seanan McGuire is the author of Every Heart a Doorway, and now I want to read it more than I already do. The writing was so amazing and funny, I loved it. It was the first story we saw an actual fighting scene and it was EPIC! And in a grocery store!

Pedestal sends an incredibly important message: don't judge someone when you don't know them. Being so judgemental won't lead you anywhere. Insulting someone without knowing what they've gone through is simply ridiculous. It also shows the struggles of being famous. And I found it very realistic. Celebrities live complicated lives, why do we need to invade their privacy?

I would've liked Alice's powers to be explored much further and I was very confused at what that purple thing was. Other than that, it was a very unique story I would recommend to every superhero fan out there.


Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐



As I Fall Asleep by Aimee Ogden

As I Fall Asleep was very interesting since Cerebrelle's powers very unique. Somehow, she could see every single component and substance in the human body and the atmosphere. The writing was pretty nice and I liked the idea Ogden was going for. But I think it wasn't executed very well. The ending was VERY open and there are a bunch of plot holes waiting to be explained.

I can definitely see this working as a novel, not a short story.


Rating: ⭐⭐.5



Meeting Someone in the 22nd Century or Until the Gears Quit Turning by Jennifer Pullen

This one was cool, because it goes into the lives of a superhero we never see in action. It's about this guy who goes frequently to this bookstore, and he's very attracted to the female cashier. When he finally builds up the courage to ask her out, she reveals she's a cyborg and later that she MAY be a superhero.

We see three stages: dating, marriage, and parenthood. And it's really freaking adorable. Greg and Sandra go through a lot, but this story teaches us  that love is powerful enough to survive anything. True love is true love, no matter the person's faults or oddities. Greg is #Goals because he loved and cared for Sandra even though she was a cyborg. Someone else might have just pushed her away because she was different.

It lacked superhero action and I wanted to see her in costume, but that's just personal taste, I guess.


Rating: ⭐⭐⭐



Inheritance by Michael Milne

Throughout Inheritance, we follow Oliver, whose parents are getting divorced, and if you're a distracted reader, you won't catch on to his powers. I guess it was a story about finding yourself and realizing that things are not always going to be the same.

While reading the other stories in this anthology, I've gotten something nice from most of them. But, in my opinion, this story wasn't structured very well, and didn't really have a beginning or end. Probably my least favorite so far...


Rating: ⭐⭐



Heroes by Lavie Tidhar

Unfortunately, Heroes has beaten Inheritance to my least favorite story from the anthology. I hate History and I don't like historical fiction, from movies, to books, to TV shows, etc, etc, etc. It's always been incredibly boring to me. Maybe that's why I didn't like it. Maybe other people will like it better. But is was SO NOT my cup of tea.

I found it confusing and it changed from year to year several times. And the constant talk about the Nazis, Hitler, and the war, was just, ugh. I hated it. I finished reading and was like: "What the hell did I just read? I didn't get a fucking thing."


Rating: ⭐



Madjack by Nathan Crowder


Such an interesting coming-of-age story about coming to terms with who you are and what's ahead in life. Not only were the characters so nicely fleshed out in no-time, the writing was simple but poetic, and it was very diverse. The main character was of Indian heritage and her and her father were rock stars. The characters featured at the beginning weren't really developed and really didn't have a purpose.

I did find it interesting that the author chose rock & roll, since in most novels talking about fame, the music genre is pop. I wanted to see Madjack in action, and like outer space and the aliens, so I didn't love it because of it. But it was still good, and I would definitely re-read it at some point.


Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.75



Quintessential Justice by Patrick Flanagan

The writing was very funny and clever, but the story itself was boring af. I didn't care for the characters and was very confused the entire time. Lots of words with Q though, and quite some action, but in my opinion, it wasn't executed very well.


Rating: ⭐⭐



The Fall of the Jade Sword by Stephanie Lai

Let's just say, I don't know what I just read. It's a diverse short story with Chinese characters that confused me with its writing and plot. I didn't understand anything, didn't connect to the characters, and the writing style was not my thing.


Rating: ⭐



Origin Story by Carrie Vaughn

Just like the title says, it's the origin story of a twenty-something henchwoman and how she became evil. The writing was very nice. This story was quite short, but I still really connected to the characters. It was interesting to read, the setting was cool, and it just comes to show you that love makes people do crazy things.


Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐



Eggshells by Ziggy Schutz

I wasn't really sure what to think of this one, because of the title. I know, ridiculous. But I quite enjoyed it. I was a little bit confused at parts, like I knew Pen was queer and maybe she didn't want to decide on a certain label, and I don't want to jump into conclusions. I mixed up the characters a little bit, and I wanted to know why the concussion affected Penny so much. It was nice to see the relationship with her brother, and I related.


Rating: ⭐⭐.5



Salt City Blue by Chris Large

Definitely one of the funniest stories of this anthology! Helen's humor had me laughing out loud and the story itself was very odd but unique. It was giving me serious Kryptonian vibes. Except Crimson Reign isn't Skyball's cousin. The writing was witty and extremely hilarious, making this story very entertaining.

I would've loved this as a novel, as it had tons of potential and I really liked all the characters and simply wanted more of Salt City. I still have some questions after finishing it, but I can safely say it is one of the best.


Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5



Birthright by Stuart Suffel

I don't know how to feel. The introduction was promising and I was sure I was in for the coolest futuristic story, but it felt very anticlimactic. The language was confusing, I couldn't connect with the characters or the story and plot. I was left with a lot of questions and I wasn't impacted whatsover.


Rating: ⭐⭐



The Smoke Means It's Working by Sarah Pinsker

This was such a unique short story. It was definitely intriguing and the robot aspect was super cool. It was a bit confusing to understand the bot's parts but nonetheless, a lot of fun. I wanted a bit more of superhero action, but I feel like this would work wonderfully as a novel.


Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.75



Torch Songs by Keith Rosson

Carnivals and circuses have become a recent weakness of mine, so I was instantly pulled into the story. It had very poetic and evocative writing, and the setting was incredibly eerie and mysterious, which I loved. This is some great novel material right here, and I'd pay anything to read a bit more. The ending was a bit disappointing and there was a lot of potential in terms of villainy and storyline. But, it was still fantastic.


Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5



The Beard of Truth by Matt Mikalatos

This was probably one of the funniest short stories from this anthology. Everyone was hilarious and the fact that anyone could get any superpower at any moment was really cool. It seriously got me wishing I lived there, in hopes of getting superspeed.

I got really attached to the story and I really wanted it to be longer. The writing was very witty and fun, so expect me to check more of Mikalatos' work.


Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐



Over an Embattled City by Adam R. Shannon

This had to do with comic books, so I was immediately in. But, there was no sense of purpose to this story. Yeah, it was interesting. But, it was shallow and flat. Anticlimactic to the max. I wanted more out of it, something that wasn't confusion.


Rating: ⭐⭐



Origin Story by Kelly Link

I wanted this anthology to close out with a momentum. The best short story of them all. But I couldn't be more disappointed. There was no plot to this, just a boy and a girl blabbering out and about, and it made no sense. At first, I thought it was some short Wizard of Oz retelling. It was confusing and nothing happened. Or maybe it did and I didn't understand.


Rating: ⭐


All in all, for being my first anthology, it was pretty great. It took me the longest time to read, but what matters is that I'm done and I enjoyed it. As a lover of superheroes, I found a couple of new favorites, and some, I'd rather not think about. If you're a fan of anthologies, give this one a go. And even if you're not the biggest fan of short story collections but adore superheroes, it's worth checking out.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.75

Thank you to Meerkat Press for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review.

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I adore superheroes. They are one of my weaknesses and as soon as I saw this book, I jumped on it. It did not disappoint. The stellar line-up of authors have crafted short stories that all approach superpowers differently, and in often unusual ways. Like the story where gaining superpowers means you end up being forgotten. Or the one where a retired superhero doesn't realized she's retired. A number of the stories showed the human side of superheroes, the stories about those who were in their lives or on the sidelines.

There were a lot of stories that seemed to just end, which was a bit frustrating. I wish those had been expanded upon just a bit so that they felt more complete. But overall, a really enjoyable collection of stories. Well worth the read for every superhero junkie.

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This was an incredibly entertaining collection. I love superheroes, and these stories offered a variety of different perspectives. It introduced me to writers that I wouldn't have otherwise tried before. "Pedestal" and "Salt City Blue" were fantastic standouts, though the stories were all great. It took me a while to get through, but that's not through any fault of the stories themselves. I am simply not as disciplined about reading anthologies straight through as I am a novel.

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The collection is uneven, as per usual with anthologies, but swings a bit too far in the "meh" direction for me. There seems to be a literary subgenre that embraces vague and favors narrators who lack the ability to express themselves clearly; for me this engenders some very mediocre writing as it gives the writer an easy out. Can't figure out how to express a discontent from reality? Literally have your main character/narrator forget their name! It's that easy! This anthology indulges this writing tic far too much - a strong red pen and some pointed words would have benefited everyone involved enormously. All in all, the only story I can recommend is "Miss Liberty Gets a Haircut," which has been wisely placed as the first piece, and the rest are just okay.

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A promising idea but it's let down with confusing or boring stories. I did enjoy a couple of the stories though.

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This anthology is an extremely mixed bunch of stories. I never expect to love all stories in a collection but this one featured some crazy highs and lows for me. When I started reading the first few stories, I was sure this was going to be an anthology I would praise without end and recommend to everyone but after finishing it, I’m not so sure anymore. Some of the stories were absolutely AMAZING, but they made me expect too much of the ones that came after and the anthology lost a little of its original appeal for me, going from diverse and unique to “just” interesting.

THE STORIES

Ms. Liberty gets a Haircut by Cat Rambo
What a way to kick of this story collection! A great one on gender identity that had a rather sad tone but still made me laugh.

Destroy the City With Me Tonight by Kate Marshall
This one was so tragically sad, OMG, my feels.

Fool by Keith Frady
Considering that villains are usually my favorites, I was a little disappointed in this one. Not a bad story at all, quite interesting actually, but something was missing. I just didn’t feel it, even though I loved seeing a villain struggling with being the bad guy.

Pedestal by Seanan McGuire
Seanan McGuire just never disappoints, especially when it comes to short fiction. This is probably my favorite story from all of these because it’s so damn real, like, just replace this superhero with a celebrity/author/… anyone really, and it’s something we see every single day. Harassment and fan entitlement at its finest.

As I Fall Asleep by Aimee Ogden
Another quite sad story about a hero unable to quit. This is the kind of unique content I want to read about heroes.

Meeting Someone in the 22nd Century or Until Gears Quit Turning by Jennifer Pullen
I usually dig stories about cyborgs but this wasn’t really what I expected to find in this anthology and while I liked the overall idea of feeling incomplete regarding your body, I wasn’t overly impressed by the story.

Inheritance by Michael Milne
I love reading stories about what the life of heroes is like behind the scenes and this story features exactly the sad kind of content that I would expect, a story about a hero who is too busy taking care of the rest of the world, so that his family comes only second.

Heroes by Lavie Tidhar
A great story about how everything isn’t just black and white but heroes and their self administered justice just make that decision regarding what’s good and bad. Good idea and message but fell a little flat in execution.

Madjack by Nathan Crowder
Another great story featuring exactly the kind of content I expected to find in this anthology, about the loss of a hero and learning about who he really is.

Quintessential Justice by Patrick Flanagan
This one is definitely one of my favorite stories out of them all, mainly because it was so funny how it makes fun of the stupid ways superheroes “hide” their identities (e,g, different styled hair + glasses).

The Fall of the Jade Sword by Stepahnie Lai
Sadly, this one didn’t impress me at all even though I liked the idea behind it.

Origin Story by Carrie Vaughn
Considering the title, I expected something more amazing from this one because who doesn’t like epic origin stories but sadly this one was just average and didn’t do much for me.

Eggshells by Ziggy Schutz
It’s always the stories that draw your average person as a hero or show that heroes are just average people too that get to me the most and this one about setbacks in life, getting back to “normal” and asking for help was just the greatest.

Salt City Blue by Chris Large
While the idea of this specific story wasn’t bad at all, it just wasn’t for me.

Birthright by Stuart Suffel
This story could be another case of “it’s me, not you” because for most of the story I was just ???. It didn’t really get what the author was trying to tell with this story.

The Smoke Means it’s Working by Sarah Pinsker
Another case of “good idea, but fell flat”. I think the problem with this one, for me, was that it could have done better as a longer story.

Torch Songs by Keith Rosson
Basically the story of a defeated villain and I’m SO HERE FOR THAT KIND OF STORY. (also: circus setting!)

The Beard of Truth by Matt Mikalatos
The title sums up pretty good what this is about which made the whole story quite predictable and took too long to really get interesting for my taste.

Over an Embattled City by Adam R. Shannon
LOVED the idea behind this one. Somewhat Inception-y and about what our fictional heroes mean to us.

Origin Story Kelly Link
This one didn’t work for me at all. Way too much dialogue for my taste,.

OVERALL
Overall, Behind the Mask is a must read if you are into comic books or superheroes and villains in general. It gives you a completely new look into their lives, often critically, and makes you think about how you view your favorite characters as well as real life heroes. This anthology features some great, often diverse, stories that completely blew me away, but sadly also some stories that weren’t for me at all. As I expect from an anthology, the good and the bad evens out, but after a great start, I was somewhat sad that it didn’t leave a better overall impression with me. The stories that I did love are definitely worth getting this book though, they were that good.

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"...the only thing we love more than revering our heroes is destroying them."
- Over an Embattled City by Adam R. Shannon
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I really don't understand how the stories are selected for anthologies like this one... I am continually amazed at how uneven the quality is. I understand that everyone has different tastes, but even given that, I cannot see how one person could have liked all of the stories selected in this (or most) collection. Perhaps editors literally just put the word out about their topic (particularly when it's an unusual and specific one, like this) and go first come, first served... That's pretty much all I can imagine, because the quality of this collection is unbelievably uneven.

The topic is superheroes - but lest you think this is going to be a book abut X-Men or the latest Marvel movie teaser, let me clear something up right from the get-go: these superheroes (and super villains) suck. Or, rather, their lives do. I thought the "behind the mask" idea would be cool - I liked the concept, pointing out that the supers, like fairy tale princesses, were still fundamentally people (well, most of them), which would logically mean that their lives would have highs and lows like everyone else's. But I guess I never really thought about the practical implications of that. They have issues with their secret identities and super powers, with their responsibilities and the consequences of their actions. They are dissatisfied and bored and irritable - they are, in short, utterly human. That should make them more appealing, but what it mostly just made them was annoying. It is, after all, no more enjoyable to listen to whining when it comes from someone with a mask and a cape than it is to listen to it from your neighbor or the clerk at the supermarket...

There were a few truly excellent and wholly original stories (Pedestal by Seanan McGuire, The Beard of Truth by Matt Mikalatos, Over an Embattled City by Adam R. Shannon) and a few more that were solidly good (As I Fall Asleep by Aimee Ogden, Meeting Someone in the 22nd Century or Until the Gears Stop Turning by Jennifer Pullen, Origin Story by Carrie Vaughn). But the vast majority were either boring or eye-roll inducing or just plain ridiculous (e.g., Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut by Cat Rambo - this is the opening story and was utterly nonsensical to me, and Kelly Link's Origin Story, although my issue there may be with her, rather than this particular story - I find her to be a VERY eclectic and uneven author)

I really should learn my lesson with short story collections; with the VERY rare exception, I usually find them altogether too uneven for my taste. Still, there's always at least one standout and I'm a sucker for the promise of that standout...

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I enjoyed this anthology. I didn't find a bad story, but the standouts were the following in no particular preference. :

1) Destroy the City with Me Tonight, by Kate Marshall. The concept of genetically bound heros and villains intrigued me, that they are essentially soul mates.

2) Meeting Someone in the 22nd Century or Until the Gears Quit Turning, by Jennifer Pullen. This was a haunting tale of love and loyalty and what literally defines humanity.

3) Eggshells, by Ziggy Schutz. This was an interesting story...less about superheroes and more about relationships between friends and family and how they evolve over time.

4) Birthright, by Stuart Suffel. This could belong in the Wild Cards universe. I would love to read a novel length story from this morsel.

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Stunning smorgasbord of super stories
These stories are bite-sized and range from light-hearted to heart-breaking. The superhero genre is an old one by now, but these authors each manage to put their own spin on the people behind the masks. Some of them made me uncomfortable with the angsty 'reality' that superheroes would bring, others were a total mind-screw.

My favourites were those that kept the optimism of the genre alive, but through a different lens.
Standouts for me – though others can and will like others – were Madjack by Nathan Crowder (a Bowie tribute), Eggshells by Ziggy Schultz (about asking and needing help), and Salt City Blue by Chris Large (slice of life with sudden superpowers).

Great to dip into or to plough through in a sitting, will almost certainly make you rethink that desire for superpowers

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I have so many positive feelings about Behind the Mask.

When I first glanced at the blurb, this superhero anthology seemed like it'd be entirely MY THING. I mean, I am honestly always talking about how much I love original superhero stories that have nothing to do with the Big Two's stable of overpowered and inconsistently characterized heavy-hitters.

It wound up being like…80-90% MY THING (which is still good).

While Behind the Mask had a couple of stories that missed the mark for me (largely in minor ways), it had a LOT more stories that had the kind of interesting ideas that I look for in superhero stories and plenty of "hits".

While I want to be fair to all of the authors in this anthology because, for the most part they were all innovative or interesting even if some of them weren't my thing, if I were to sit here and write a review for every single story here, we'd be here a while. So I'm going to focus on some of the stories that stood out the most to me and some of the stories that couldn't hold me.

My favorite story in this anthology is Seanan McGuire's "Pedestal" because it is actually everything I've ever wanted from this sort of anthology. Part of that is because I fan-Stitch over Seanan as often as possible, but okay "Pedestal" is a look at an aspect of superheroics that folks tend to overlook: the misogyny that lady-adjacent superheroes would face.

In a world where superheroes are public figures on par with pop stars, entitlement runs rampant among "fans" and shit gets real awful, real fast. This story features a wannabe-paparazzo, a tentacle monster from another dimension, and a superhero that just wants to get her ice-cream in peace. (Also, while the summary calls it light-hearted it's basically about fan entitlement and invasions of privacy so… Your mileage may vary on that.)

Speaking of favorite stories, Stephanie Lai's "The Fall of the Jade Sword" is a very close second for me because it feels like one of those old-time radio plays that I've been obsessed with for the past few years. Seriously, the language that Lai uses is so vivid that I had absolutely NO trouble picturing Mok-Seung as she starts to follow in the Jade Sword's footsteps.

"The Fall of the Jade Sword" has familiar elements that I always find fun in superhero media (i.e., superheroes in training, the sort of secret identity), but it's also unlike most of the work I've read in the genre.
Mok-Seung is an awesome protagonist and I would totally kill for another longer work focused on her adventures working alongside the Jade Sword and learning to adapt together.

I also largely enjoyed the first story in Behind the Mask, Cat Rambo's "Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut" because it sort of serves as a commentary on superheroes, gender, and being who you say you are (as opposed to what/who other people say you are). It was largely a hit for me aside from some dialogue at the start about "porn star superheroes" where I couldn't tell if the characters were criticizing these oversexualized superheroes or the culture that created them. I loved this story because it felt a lot like reading Warren Ellis' work on Stormwatch and The Authority (but with you know… more queer ladies).

I also thought that this was a good story to start the anthology with because of the tone it sets and how, right off the bat, we're shown this absolutely atypical superhero narrative.

"Meeting Someone in the 22nd Century or Until the Gears Quit Turning" legitimately shook me. Author Jennifer Pullen got me to let my guard down with this super sweet rom-com vibe with quaint couple Sandra and Greg. Only to rip my heart out at the halfway point.

Here I am at the halfway point and I'm busy pondering the nature of cyborgs and then WHAM, I get hit right in the feels.

Why?

Because this story deals with miscarriages in a realistic and utterly heart-breaking way. Look, I'm not saying I ugly cried a bit but well… I kind of did.

(That being said, if your triggers include pregnancy and miscarriages, this is a story you might want to skip.)

Honorable mentions for awesomeness go to Carrie Vaughn's "Origin Story", Kate Marshall's "Destroy the City with Me Tonight", and Aimee Ogden's "As I Fall Asleep".

Now I'm not going to linger too long on the stories that I didn't like, but well… there are a few and I am a complainer at heart.

First, Keith Frady's "Fool" was… not my cup of tea.

His villain Dr. Entropy felt like a grimmer, darker Gru from Despicable Me (not an insult, I love those fricking moves) and the whole "tired villain decides to destroy the world rather than conquer it" plot is one that has never appealed to me.

I get that it doesn't end the way you'd expect, and the use of an intuitive android as a hero in the story is novel, but yeah… despite the fact that Frady is a talented writer, his story is just not my thing.

But hey, it might be yours!

Chris Large's "Salt City Blue" wasn't bad, but I honestly could not get why Skyball was so awful about Helen's ~little surprise~ and the tone of the story was a little too VH1 reality television series for me. But if you liked the nonstop drama of Grace Randolph's Supurbia, you might like this story.

Other stories that didn't work for me include Matt Mikalatos's "The Beard of Truth" (which felt a bit like something I'd see on Adult Swim's programming block) and Kelly Link's "Origin Story" (which has so many – too many – Wizard of Oz references for my liking and couldn't get me invested in the characters on top of that).

Meerkat Press absolutely deserves props for Behind the Mask's high percentage of lady writers (I think that when I counted, it was like… at least half the authors on the book). I also genuinely appreciate the perspectives that these authors bring to the table because these aren't stories being told in comics. Many of them look at "the everyday", domesticity, and the relationships that these heroes have to maneuver through.

As with many other anthologies I've read, I have some general comments: Behind the Mask could (and should) have had more on-page queerness and stories centered on characters of color. If there's ever another Behind the Mask anthology collection or another superhero anthology from Meerkat Press, that's something I'm going to be looking for.

And boy do I want there to be another collection like this from Meerkat Press!

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A collection of prose short stories themed, sometimes loosely, around superheroes and their worlds. Contributors such as Kelly Link and Lavie Tidhar were what got my attention more than that, though; if anything, I have the same scepticism of SF and fantasy writers doing superheroes as of litfic writers doing SF and fantasy. There can be the same sense of condescension, the notion that 'I've not been keeping up with this field, but I know better anyway', leading to an awful lot of pale retreads of ideas done to death in the field proper, which nonetheless expect to be applauded for their supposed bold originality. All the more so for the way superhero comics have ramified and dug deeper these past thirty years or so; when Larry Niven wrote 'Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex' in 1969, he was looking at stuff you'd never have seen in a Superman comic of the era; nowadays, any similar idea has probably been the subject at least of a dubious miniseries starring an analogue of the character in question. Fortunately, my fears on this count were largely unfounded; I suspect most if not all of these writers are proper superhero fans, and if some of the story engines aren't exactly original (the all-female superteam; the superhero pop star; the world whose heroes are gradually being retconned out of existence) then the treatments generally justify them all the same. Because ultimately, there are things prose can do better than comics. An issue of people sat around talking, or worse, musing to themselves, without any action to liven it up? There are a handful of artists who can sell that, but as a rule you're not playing to the medium's strengths. Whereas those quiet moments in between the big stories are perfect for prose, and that's what a lot of these pieces are; the vignettes, the marginalia, the calm before or after the storm.

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First let me be straight up and say that short story anthologies aren't always my thing. Their usual unevenness bothers me. I was interested in this anthology because of the A-List of authors involved. It doesn't disappoint but it doesn't enthrall, either. For the most part, the stories are interesting, and some, for example Kate Marshall's "Destroy The City With Me Tonight," and Ziggy Schutz's "Eggshells," have stayed with me days after reading them. All these stories have an undertone of what a pain it is to be a superhero. Whether in Seánan McGuire's "Pedestal," where even going to the grocery store turns into a paparazzi event, complete with social media tagging disaster, to Carrie Vaughn's "Origin Story," where your ex-girlfriend recognizes you during your now-turned-super-villain bank robbery, being super is hard. And I guess that sadness and despair is part of what made the anthology less than enjoyable at times. I read one or two stories a day, and that was fine. That was plenty. Some good craft here. Very little joy.

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I requested this book from NetGalley mainly because I am a fan of Seanan McGuire, but I was pleased to find that the majority of the stories worked well for me.

Among my favorite stories were:
Ms Liberty Gets a Haircut by Cat Rambo, which was a look at a female superhero who was created as a sex object, trying to take control of her life.
Destroy the City With Me Tonight by Kate Marshall, where random people become city guardians when maps of the city appears etched literally on their bones, and everyone who knew them as individuals forget they ever existed.
Pedestal by Seanan McGuire, where a heroine tries to have a private life in an era of internet stalkers. Set in the world of her short story series about a different heroine named Velveteen
As I Fall Asleep by Aimee Ogden speculates about what if an aging superhero develops dementia
The Fall of the Jade Sword by Stephanie Lai is a steampunk story in Australia with an Asian heroine dealing with prejudice and family expectations.
Eggshells by Ziggy Schutz uses superheroes to look at post-concussion syndrome.
The Beard of Truth by Matt Mikalatos made me laugh in his story of a world where people are randomly developing powers, and a young man learns that if he grows a beard, everyone around him is forced to tell the truth.
Over an Embattled City by Adam R Shannon has the interesting idea of a comic book writer who makes superheroes and villains disappear by finding out their origins and writing them into comic book characters.

By the end of the collection, there were only three stories out of the twenty that didn't work for me, and for a multi-author collection, that is an excellent ratio.

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I extremely enjoyed this collection. It was a different side of the "normal" superhero stories. And, I discovered several new to me authors. I am looking forward to tracking down more of their work. Thanks for the twists!

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