Thomas Anthony DiMaggio

OVERVIEW

Superboy: Slave of the Magic Mirror is a dramatic reimagining of the familiar tale about Superboy's origins and mission on Earth; but it includes fresh reconceptions of many of the key elements of the story, without doing any violence to the integrity of the classic narrative. The book is narrated in the first person by Kevin Patterson, Superboy's best friend, and my own creation -- an extremely intelligent young man with many insights into his extraordinary friend and their complex relationship. These include reflections on subjects as diverse as art, religion, mythology, history, politics, and sexuality -- so that this is a book that can be read just as well by anyone from a high-school student to a retiree. (For the truly hard-core, there is even a Kryptonian-English dictionary included as an appendix!)

The first half of the book chronicles the growth and development of the close friendship between Kevin and Superboy. This process includes Kevin's need, as a predominantly gay bisexual, to come to terms with his strong attraction to the dynamic hero, and Superboy's desire to accommodate his friend's feelings without compromising his own heterosexual nature. Along the way, the two friends bond themselves to one another in an ancient Kryptonian ritual that makes them one another's arak hasel (second self). Other highlights include a tour of a remarkable "star-circus" that Kevin and his late parents built, the story of Krypton's destruction as a result of its domination by an ultra-conservative religious faction, and a wonderful 18th-birthday celebration for Kevin, in which Superboy, among other delights, takes him flying around Chicago and Lake Michigan (with unforeseen consequences that threaten both of their lives, then and later).

The second half of the novel details the frightful consequences of Superboy's abduction by Lex Luthor, after the arch-criminal incapacitates him with Kryptonite (whose effect on the champion is due to factors that are wholly original to this story). Luthor hypnotizes and brainwashes the demigod with the aid of the "Magic Mirror": a crystal device invented in the 18th century by the Comte de Saint-Germain. As Luthor's mindless thrall, Superboy commits a trio of spectacular crimes that make him into a global pariah, while Kevin works frantically to save his adoptive brother, in tandem with Superboy's mother Martha Kent and a physicist associate of his friend's, Dr. Thomas Templeton. Eventually Kevin mounts an incredibly dangerous rescue effort to get Superboy away from Luthor. (And this isn't quite the end of the story...)

With settings that range from the Tower of London, to a Russian mob hideout in the Ural Mountains, to a lavish gala on a yacht in Lake Michigan, to a presidential sanctum inside the White House, Superboy: Slave of the Magic Mirror is a truly epic experience -- one worth revisiting long after a first reading.