The History of Science Fiction is strewn with heroic failures. Brad Meltzer considers the heroic failure no less heroic than the heroic success. I heard him say so at the San Diego Comic-Con, and this kind of encouragement gained particular resonance floated upon the sea of aspiring creators in the audience. The sometimes adversarial relationship between an artist and his father (although this dynamic may also play out between mothers and daughters) often corresponds with the acrimonious relationship between certain creators and editors in the Golden and Silver Age of comics. Meltzer presaged the dissolution of this potent theme by supporting all aspirants to contribute as ordinary people.

In Meltzer's latest novel, "The Book of Lies," Freud's "family romance" reverberates throughout history from Adam and Cain to the protagonist Calvin Harper and his father, Lloyd. The nexus of this romance pivots on the creation of Superman by Jerry Siegel after his father Mitchell's death in an armed robbery. While the Biblical story underpins the power of myth, playing out in endless analogues through time, the comic book legend becomes humanized in a manner not yet conceived despite 70+ years of retelling.

As I write in "Shooter's Marvelesque,"Teenagers from the Future: Essays on the Legion of Super-Heroes Jim Shooter exemplified a portion of my generations' desire to transition from fan to professional in the creative arts. Few media afforded the opportunity to break in like comics did (and hopefully still does), yet Shooter's story also echoes a key element of Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. This element incorporates wannabes, also-rans and heroic failures as much as it does the irony of loss in the face of ultimate wish-fulfillment.

This element also resolves the family romance in favor of the son versus the patriarchal barriers to freedom and creativity self-imposed by the fantasy of adoption. Meltzer plays with multiple permutations of this fantasy, which should put his novel in good standing with most of the fanboy community. Whether the general audience responds to this element, or the Homeland Security and proto-Nazi occult references, remains to be seen.

Bittersweet, Siegel and Shuster's success also resulted in the oft-told tale of corporate greed and ignominious obscurity these boys experienced until DC Comics and Warner Brothers were shamed into acknowledging them in the late 1970s. Though it would be naïve to believe that modern corporate interests are less ruthless than those of bygone eras, Meltzer steers charitable energy toward helping the homeless as well as contributing to the restoration and maintenance of the dilapidated Siegel family home in Cleveland, Ohio. If nothing else, if Meltzer's tale becomes a kind of patchwork cento and rallying sigil to the lover's of comics, a great deed will have been done.

Personally, I enjoyed the quilting pastiche of "The Book of Lies," although its originality of voice suffered in the preponderance of plot. By honoring the young creators of our arguably most cherished pop cultural icon of salvation, the author seeks to redeem some part of our commercial sensibilities and put his readership back on track to healing the corporate estrangement between robber barons and consumers. Not all of the characters in the novel benefit from the fleshly gravitas Meltzer hopes to achieve; still, the father and son reunion (however standoffishly unconsummated) puts the audience on the road to recovery.

Even if complete reconciliation between Cal and Lloyd Harper remains potentially evanescent, the desire to illuminate this key family issue must at least constitute the greatest of heroic failures.
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