I don't know whether to blame the author or the advertising department for the first problem with this book: the fact that it is (possibly) supposed to be a comedy, but isn't actually funny.

It is, in reality, an extremely melancholy tale which, in and of itself, free from the comedy expectation, isn't terrible, but rather just mediocre.

The major problem lies in the fact that most of the book's appeal is in its supposed novelty. It's a quiet, cynical treatment of superheroes and what could be going on behind the iconic figures. To this end most of the characters are obvious analogues for famous comic book characters and the majority of the drama is made up of plays on similarly iconic tropes.

But if you've read any superhero comic books in the last 20 years, none of this is at all new to you given that the deconstruction of the superhero genre has been the bread and butter of the comics industry for about that long. And when the novelty is gone, you're left with barely-realized knock offs of characters you like better tangled up in what reads like someone's giant crossover fanfiction.

Which, I suppose, if you don't read fanfiction wouldn't matter because you wouldn't have seen it all before a million times.