OLD SCHOOL EVIL by Brian Cave is the first novel of a series of dark comedy superhero novels. It is a simultaneous homage to Eighties Saturday Morning cartoon, a lamentation about the downsides to aging, and also a goofy coming of age story for a ragtag band of misfits. As a man who reads almost exclusively indie books these days, it’s definitely a labor of love that zigs when a lot of other books zag.
The premise is that the majority of supervillains from the Eighties have been captured and forcibly reparated to a retirement home. For some of them, it is a pleasant enough home that is far nicer than any normal prison. Others find it hellish as they still delude themselves into believing that they could have brought the world to its knees. There’s homages to GI Joe, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and several other famous properties but very little 1:1 correlation. I was actually pleased with the amount of originality from the author while still invoking the kind of things that I remember from my childhood.
The primary characters are Jayce, a genetically created werewolf, who has the horrifying (but typical) origin story of killing his foster parents when his powers manifested. He is introduced to Max Malice, one of those aforementioned supervillains that have been forced into involuntary retirement. Jayce is someone desperate for approval while Max is someone that can’t stand living in a world without robots, dinosaurs, or other peculiar methods of world domination. A bit like the WANTED comic, humanity has had its memories erased of the world where these things were a weekly occurrence.
Jayce soon finds himself recruiting a number of the villains’ children. They’re a decidedly ragged bunch of losers that have been hurt by both the fact that they grew up in crummy circumstances and whatever legacies that their parents imparted on them are usually pretty life-destroying. One of them has a magic gun possessed by an evil ghost from the Wild West. That’s not the kind of thing that really inspires you to become a better person.
Weirdly enough, I would say this book reminds me most of an adult cartoon like Archer or Venture Brothers. It’s utterly ridiculous but that is part of its charm. The pathetic nature of the villains and their egos contrasts to the very real life problems of money, aging, poor relationships with your kids, and the fact the government is so byzantine that even they have no idea why they’re running a retirement home for mad scientists/terrorists.
Is there room for improvement? Perhaps. I think it’s a fun book by itself but I kind of wish he’d gone a little more direct with his EXPYs. Maybe include some more overt correlations like a wizard from a fantasy world or the commander of an international terrorist organization. It’s close enough to function but I would have gone all out.
In conclusion, I really liked Old School Evil. It’s an acquired taste and you have to be willing to go with the absurdities of the whole thing like dog men, dinosaurs, and an excessive love of cartoons that you recognize what Dinosaucers was. People who know Uncle Phil voiced the one true Shredder. Still, if you are in that late thirties, early forties demographic or just enjoy old school evil then you’ll probably enjoy this.
8/10