Hero, a YA novel by Perry Moore

Check it out on Worldcat...

Part I: Bibliographic information

Type: Novel

Title: Hero

Writer: Perry Moore

Copyright Date: 2007

Publisher: Hyperion

ISBN: 9781423101956

Genre/subgenre:  Fantasy/superhero

Interest Age: 13+

Reading Level: Upper Grades (UG 9-12)

Pages: 428

Awards:  Lambda Literary Award, 2008

Part I: Reader’s Annotation, Plot Summary, Critical Evaluation

Reader’s Annotation --   Thom Creed, a star on his high school basketball team, finds that he’s inherited more than talent from his parents -- he’s got superhuman powers. He’s also gay and tried to keep the secret but shortly after it leaks out at school a series of bizarre events unfold that lead to his induction into the world of villains and heroes.

Plot Summary --  Thom lives with his mercurial father who comes to all his basketball games.  The teen plays basketball and is center forward.  Since his mother left, they make due. There’s something unusual about his father and people in the community are either afraid or hostile toward him.  He sits in the upper bleachers and talks to few. The teams arch nemesis -- The Trojans -- are much feared and the games are almost violent.  A huge came ends in brawl after Thom makes a heroic effort to score against the team. Suddenly, Thom develops a medical issue that results in unusual seizures, however.  Also, it’s insinuated that he’s gay outside the gym and this gets back to the coach. This is almost worse than the health considerations as his coach reacts with disdain. The coach approaches him and asks him to drop to the junior squad even though he’s the best player.  Thom is furious but his only reaction is to use a skill he barely knew that he had -- his ability to see the future.  Thom tells the coach he’d might be dead in a year and warns him to see a cardiologist.

Thom goes home and in his depression he turns to online porn -- and indulging his fantasies.  He looks at muscle-bound guys and we are introduced into his interior thoughts of this young man. This ties into his fascination with superheros.  But he’s forbidden to follow superheros due to his father status as former superhero.  It’s an odd twist in the plot but we also begin to piece together the reasons that Thom’s dad is special and not well received.  An unfortunate situation in which Thom thinks he’s been caught looking at not just superheros but gay superheros on the internet!  His dad comes home and suddenly comes asking for the computer. Thom decides to leave home before his dad realizes what he was looking at --  and that his son is gay.  His dad has already made it clear that ‘queer’ is wrong because it’s not natural.  Thom hopes someone is out there who will love him and even considers suicide -- and reminisces about the times before his mom and sister left for reasons we still don’t know.

In his visiting old photos of his parents, Thom finally realizes that his special skills are inherited from his other.  He has already run away on a bus.  But the bus is taken over by a group of villains -- Snake, Snaggletooth and Vamp fight to take over the bus and it’s only when joined by The Man in Black, a superhero, that Thom is able to hold on and able to avoid disaster.  Then the League arrives -- Uberman, The Spectrum and Warrior Woman and Silver Bullet others come to their assistance.  He discovers that his powers relate to healing the injured.  Golden Boy, another young superhero, is introduced and he gives him a shoulder nudge that sends his photos all around.  Then the League realizes that Thom is the son of his father who was with them at one point.  They introduce themselves and he is then invited to try out for the League.  They also congratulate him on his first save and offer to help him understand his powers.  He decides to save back to home to face whatever comes of it.

During the tryout phase for the League, Thom somewhat predictably stands out and saves the day.  It comes as something of a surprise to him.  His healing power hasn’t been practiced much, however.  And Thom has to figure out how to hide his involvement from hIs father.  He tells him that he’s working and playing summer league.  Meanwhile, he’s called to fight a test against the Wrecking Balls, a group of steroid pumped up thugs.  His teammates are a mishmash of skills -- a boy who can cause disease, a old woman who tells the future and a fire starter.  They are read by the demoted Golden Boy.  And, after this first test, they are 200 points behind.  Finally, his dad figures it out and his dad confronts Justice, the Leagues’ leader -- they’re history is not entirely evident but there are unsolved issues.  He also has his first kiss with a man -- a random man.  But he knows inside that he likes someone else secretly -- Goran, the Croatian founder of the literary center where he tutors and with whom he plays one-on-one basketball.

Thom becomes a part of The League on a introductory basis but his dad does not know. He is assigned to an team of rag tag hero-in-training that includes a guy who can give people diseases, a older woman who can see the future, a girl that can burn people and Golden Boy, who is a speedy young fellow who’s been demoted.  They face a big task -- to stop a killer who is targeting superheros.  At first, an elusive superhero named Dark Shadow is suspected.  But Thom knows it’s not him because it’s the same guy he kissed the very night he was out.  This leads to his superhero status being revealed to his father -- and, ultimately, his gayness as the story makes the national press.  Their home is vandalized and Thom feels the pressure of being hated and distrusted due to his differing sexual preference.

The foursome of trainees foible an assignment and are disbanded.  However, they informally get back together to help and save face.  Meanwhile, Ruth, who sees the future, seems to be getting nervous. They are attacked by a strange force and Ruth and Thom are almost killed when they realize she’s wounded -- and he cannot save her.  He attends her funeral and so does his father but his father cannot hug Thomas, which comes as a crushing blow.  Thom continues his own personal effort to solve the crime brings him to following his father to his job at the factory.  There he finds out that his father stepped down as foreman when it was found out that his son was gay.  All there know his father was Major Mike, the fallen superhero.  Then he’s contacted again by his mother whose superpower is invisibility and she says he has more powers than he realizes.

The finale of the novel involves the showdown between old League enemies -- Thom’s father Major Mike and Justice, the alien superhero who is behind the plot to destroy the world.  Not surprisingly Thom comes to his aid as Warrior Woman allies with Justice and together these supervillians attempts to kill them all.  A ring that is poison to Justice is key to stopping him. Goran, his secret crush, arrives as Dark Shadow and takes on Uberman, another ally of Justice.  Thom’s mother also arrives on the scene and makes her self visible as she had fell in love with Justice but he kills her. The Major Mike rises once again with half a hand -- his final act is to grab the ring and attack Justice.  One of his last acts is to tell his son that he’s proud of him and to love as much as possible.

Note:  The author intended to write a sequel but his untimely death in 2006 disrupted this plan.

Critical Evaluation --  This work struck me a bit odd in the beginning.  It’s not that the issue of gayness is not appropriate for young adults or not presented in a creative, positive fashion.  But the blending of the theme of being a closeted teen and a closeted superhero was a lot to put your mind around.  However, the character of Thom Creed, the gay teen superhero, starts to grow on you as the book progresses.  As he narrates his story, we realize that Thom is very observant and reflective, for one.  He considers his parents in realistic and loving light -- his father the stern machismo type who sees the world in black-and-white who has fallen from heroic status. But he’s also a teen. But one that thinks about hunky men not girls.  And, as we accept his humanity, we begin to accept his sexuality as something pretty much normal and very much part of his gifted, athletic person.

The theme of the work becomes more about the boy’s developing sense of right and wrong -- and his struggle to form his own set of values in a confusing world.  It still reads rather bookish and almost a dabbling in fantasy as opposed to a story about what is supposed to have really happened.  You might suggest this could be made into a movie and work pretty well as comic strip interludes might make the whole storyline more fathomable.  Yet if we let our imagination run there are a lot of redeeming qualities in this read -- the parallels to the real life gay experience of having the urge to run away or worse, the breaking of stereotypes about gays that results from having Thom not just a great athlete but also a superhero and the telling of a tale in which the gay character is powerful and respected among his peers rather than picked on or made fun of.

Part III: Author Info

Perry Moore’s website provides this about his career: “Perry Moore is a best-selling author, film producer, screenwriter, and director, best known as the executive producer of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Moore grew up in Virginia Beach, Virginia and attended Norfolk Academy. He majored in English at the University of Virginia, where he was an Echols Scholar, and later served as an intern in the White House for President Bill Clinton before starting his entertainment career in talent and development at MTV and VH1. He then worked as part of the original production team for The Rosie O'Donnell Show. Moore next worked as a creative executive for the late filmmaker Ted Demme and producer Joel Stillerman before joining Walden Media, where he developed and oversaw such film projects as I Am David, the film adaptation of Anne Holm’s acclaimed novel North to Freedom” (Moore, 2013).

In 2011, Moore was found unconscious in his apartment and, at 37, had died.  An article in the New York Times offers this about his life’s work: “But Mr. Moore, who was gay, had a more personal mission: although he was glad that comic books had been introducing gay superheroes for some time, he wanted to see them portrayed in a better light. What particularly disturbed him was the death of Northstar, a member of Marvel Comics’ X-Men, whose announcement in a Marvel comic book that he was gay made headlines in 1992. In 2005 Northstar was killed by a brainwashed Wolverine. Mr. Moore said he felt that the murder of Marvel’s biggest gay hero by one of its most popular characters had sent the wrong message” (Hevessi, 2011).

“Hero” is his first novel.  It was adapted for film but did not make it to production.  He was award the 2008 Lamda Literary Award for this work.

Part IV: Curriculum Ties, Diversity, Booktalk Ideas, Challenge Issues

Curriculum Ties, if any -- This book is part entertainment and partly about the sociological realities that coming of age as a gay teen.  It might be explored in the context of diversity and tolerance should that theme be addressed in a high-school level course.  There is a book discussion guide at http://www.perrymoorestories.com/content/hero.asp?id=rgg

Diversity of Cultures -- Recipient of the Lambda Awards, this work features a gay teen character in a positive light.  It’s one of the few such books and provides another perspective about homosexuality from a teen’s view and aimed at a teen audience.

Booktalking Ideas --  Thom is an aspiring superhero.  What are the qualities that we expect from a hero?  In what way might Thom’s sexuality make this effort challenging?  How does he overcome that challenge?

Challenge Issues --  The issue of teen homosexuality is featured.  The main character is discovering his own sexuality and this includes looking at soft porn on his father computer and masterbating.

Part V: Reasons chosen

I’ve always liked comics -- I still do.  They are perpetually popular with teens because they indulge fantasy and our sense of being powerful at a time in life that can feel very much a sentence in the boring.  The premise of this work seems to be that the story about the League can draw in teens that might otherwise not be interested in reading about a gay teen.  It also challenges stereotypes of gay men being feminine and weak.  Thom is really sort of normal though very athletic and perceptive.  He’s scared and concerned about his future, too.  But when he discovers that he has special powers inherited from his mom his life takes on a purpose -- and he’s driven to make it as a League member.  It is akin to the time in our teen world that we find a purpose to follow for the first time.  So in this way the book is about being a teen than about being a gay teen. That’s refreshing.  Additionally, the idea of a gay superhero is mildly humorous, and the author uses bits of humor to help humanize the experience in a way that’s quite unusual and original.  It’s a pretty daring work and I was pleasantly surprised at how engaging this read is and I found myself wishing this would be optioned as a film as opposed to another dystopian YA work. This is not a YA literary classic but it fills a niche for readers who might find empowerment in the superhero genre and also be thoughtful youth who appreciate and benefit from themes of diversity and tolerance.

Part VI: Citations

Moore, Perry.  (n.d). The author.  Retrieved from http://www.perrymoorestories.com/content/author.asp

Hevesi, D. (2011, Feb. 18) “Perry Moore, author of book about gay superhero, dies at 39”. New York Times.  Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/books/19moore.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print

Hero. (n.d). Wikipedia [website]. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_(novel)