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Superheroes kicking zombie butt?

By Staff | Apr 1, 2013

Peter Clines combines two elements that have been begging for a good novel – zombies and superheroes – in “Ex Heroes.”

St. George, Stealth, Gorgon, Zzap and Cerberus are the superheroes attempting to protect a small group of humans in the abandoned sound stages of Los Angeles after the zombie apocalypse. Once they were the super-powered, tights wearing crime fighters who attempted to put down gang members, now they are trying to find food and keep the ravaging hordes at bay.

With the help of former superhero now powerless Regenerator, they have been holding their own. But not without a few casualties. Several of their friends have fallen and become zombies themselves, and when they are found under the control of a former gang member who is angling to be this world’s supervillain, the stakes just got higher.

The danger isn’t just the ex-humans that want to make a meal out of the living, it’s the powerful baddies who want to take advantage of the new world order. And when St. George and his friends uncover the secret about how the plague started in the first place, their world is changed forever.

These “super” heroes are all very human characters they fight, they love, they squabble, they hold grudges and they fail which made them super relatable to the reader. The story is told in present and pre-apocalyptic chapters, which gives the readers background into this new and dangerous world. Like any good zombie story, the zombies aren’t the only or main threat the characters will face, and its man’s inhumanity to man that is center stage.

“Ex Heroes” is the start of a new series by Clines, with “Ex-Patriots” and other books in the series to follow.