Here are 71 books that The Sidekicks Initiative fans have personally recommended if you like
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When I was eight years old, I walked into a movie theater to see Spider-Man and walked out forever obsessed with superheroes. Specifically, I saw him kiss Mary-Jane with his mask on while hanging upside down and my tastes never changed in 20 years. Now, when not writing, I cosplay from my favorite comics, video games, and anime with my husband, who I met at a comic-con while dressed as Gwenpool (he was Symbiote Spider-Man—see, I told you my tastes never changed).
This book came out on my birthday a few years ago and felt like a present specifically for me, and other superhero fans will feel the same.
This YA sci-fi trilogy features a world divided between those who either love or hate the Renegades, a group of superpowered humans.
If you enjoy the themes of “heroes aren’t always what they seem” present in superhero works like The Boys, then Renegades is a milder version of that, making it a great entry point for superhero fans and an action-packed, thought-provoking read about what is right or wrong.
Secret identities. Extraordinary powers. She wants vengeance. He wants justice.
The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies-humans with extraordinary abilities-who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone . . . except the villains they once overthrew.
Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice-and in Nova. But Nova's allegiance is to a…
I really enjoy superhero fiction, especially superhero fiction that challenges the usual norms of the superhero genre. I’ve always liked reading comics and moving onto superhero novels has only deepened my love of the genre. The list I’ve created is just the tip of the iceberg for superhero fiction and I highly recommend you check out these books for interesting takes on superheroes and villains.
The best time to kill a superhero is before he becomes one.
Scrawny seventeen-year-old Theodore Conley shocks himself and everyone else by tossing three big bullies around like they are wads of paper and Theo is aiming for the trash can.
Now that he has superpowers, suddenly everyone expects Theo to do great things. He doesn’t want to do anything great, however. It’s too much work and too dangerous. Unless it’s safe and involves Theo finally getting a girlfriend, he’s not interested.
Theo gets more danger than he can handle when a supervillain attacks. In self-defense, Theo is forced to…
I really enjoy superhero fiction, especially superhero fiction that challenges the usual norms of the superhero genre. I’ve always liked reading comics and moving onto superhero novels has only deepened my love of the genre. The list I’ve created is just the tip of the iceberg for superhero fiction and I highly recommend you check out these books for interesting takes on superheroes and villains.
The main character finds some power armor and wants to sell it but ends up becoming a supervillain for hire, while trying to fend off the affections of his boss’s daughter.
The author does an excellent job of balancing the action with the comedy. I couldn’t put this book down.
Engineer.Survivor.Supervillain. When a down on his luck engineer ends up coming into possession of a rundown suit of power-armor, he sees an opportunity to make some quick cash by selling it off to the nearest supervillain. Unfortunately for him, what should have been a quick and easy sale to pay off his debts quickly grows into an ongoing series of events that serve only to drag him deeper and deeper into the criminal underbelly of the city he calls home. In no time at all, Erich finds himself fending off Neo-Nazi gang members, crazed capes, and the dangerous affections of…
I really enjoy superhero fiction, especially superhero fiction that challenges the usual norms of the superhero genre. I’ve always liked reading comics and moving onto superhero novels has only deepened my love of the genre. The list I’ve created is just the tip of the iceberg for superhero fiction and I highly recommend you check out these books for interesting takes on superheroes and villains.
The main character is an assassin who hunts down superheroes who’ve gone rogue.
He’s been given an impossible mission to assassinate one of the most powerful superheroes, who’s impervious to just about everything, and also stop a rival assassin from killing the president.
This was a nail-biting adventure that will keep you on your toes, wanting to know what happens next.
From the USA Today bestselling author of Sara's Game, this is SUPER, a unique blend of superhero fiction and crime thriller.
"Impossible to put down until you know the answers. Exciting, thrilling, and full of deception, this is one of my favorite books of the year." - Jason Gurley, bestselling author of Greatfall
"Every hero's journey has a beginning, middle, and end...I am that end."
A world mourning a fallen superhero.
A president targeted for assassination.
A conspiracy that runs deeper than anyone suspects.
Leo Craft is the best at what he does; he assassinates superheroes, but only the ones…
I’m a grown man who reads and writes young adult fantasy books. I believe YA stories are perfect for nearly every audience. Let me tell you why. Our teenage years are filled with growth. As we mature, we forget what such rapid change feels like. We become less empathetic toward youth. And yet, many of our characteristics—positive and negative—develop during these years. I read YA to understand myself. It also helps me be a more understanding father and teacher. That said, I'm very picky. I despise teenage stereotypes. For young men, it is particularly hard to find books that depict empathetic male characters. Here’s a list of books where young men feel genuine.
David Charleston’s character resonated with me. He’s eccentric, passionate, and meticulous, while also being a great friend.
He’s also out for revenge against his father’s killer—A supervillain named Steelheart who has taken over Chicago. David unites with a secret group of people called the Reckoners who are trying to learn each villain's weakness to assassinate them.
David’s obsession with details is relatable, and against the terrifying powers of these supervillains, you're left on the edge of your seat hoping the Reckoner's schemes will be enough.
Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics. But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his wills.
Nobody fights the Epics... nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them.
And David wants in. He wants Steelheart - the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father.…
The human body. The solar system. The science and math discoveries of ancient cultures. The power of taking care of neighbors and making everyone our neighbor. All amazing, all inspiring, so I write stories about them. Stories are what entertain us. Stories are what teach us. Stories can be misused to mislead us. Most importantly, the good stories, the right stories, can prompt us to grow. Expand. Empathize. Heal. I could use some of that. You too. Let’s read.
Rafter, Benny, and Juanita protagonate (yep, that’s a word) in a bizarre amalgamated world that could have been dreamed up by Stan Lee, the Andy Griffith Show writers, and Beverly Cleary. Dreamed up as a joke. Abandoned with a good comeraderific laugh (also a word). Then picked up, dusted off, and polished by Marion Jensen. But that’s not what happened. Jensen created the whole adventurous, hilarious, uplifting, good-buddy superhero story with his own solitary brain. My kids and I have laughed at his story many times.
Perfect for fans of Pixar's The Incredibles, Almost Super is a fresh, funny middle grade adventure about two brothers in a family of superheroes who must find a way to be heroic despite receiving powers that are total duds. Filled with humor, heart, and just the right kind of heroics, Almost Super is a winning story that will satisfy would-be heroes and regular kids alike. Everyone over the age of twelve in the Bailey family gets a superpower. No one knows why, and no one questions it. All the Baileys know is that it's their duty to protect the world…
Hi, my name is CT Phipps, and I am a crazy nerd from Ashland, Ky. I'm married with two dogs and love superheroes. I mean love. I used to wallpaper my bedroom wall with Spider-Man comics in their polybags. I've been a lifelong superhero fan and just love all the melodrama, hilarity, and weird science as well as magic that are the undercurrents of the genre. I've never lost my love of the characters and their stories, so when the MCU first came out, I ended up writing this book as well as its sequels. I’ve also written a bunch of other humorous sci-fi/fantasy books but this is the series closest to my heart.
Sometimes you want your heroes to be serious and sometimes you want them to be wacky.
Andrea Vernon is a series that goes running toward wackiness then sails right past it. The story of a secretary at a private military contractor that specializes in goofy, ridiculous, and terrifying effective superheroes, this is one of the most fun novels I've enjoyed in years.
Andrea is a delightful Lois Lane figure who is stuck being the only normal person in the weirdest office in the world. It reminded me of the old Damage Control comics.
Back by popular demand! The further, fearsome, and funny adventures of Andrea Vernon and the Corporation for UltraHuman Protection - written by Alexander C. Kane and performed by Bahni Turpin, 2018 Audie Award winner for Best Female Narrator.
More than a year after she helped save the world from the Sparnaxian invasion, Andrea Vernon is in a good place. Her boss is giving her greater responsibility and she's getting to travel a lot (although her fill-in is hopeless at making coffee); things could be getting even more serious with her 8' 4” superhero boyfriend, The Big Axe; and she has…
As a mother of two girls, I’ve always loved fostering their interests in multiple subjects and providing them with epic role models. Too often, women’s strength in fantasy and science fiction (my favorite genres) is shown through violence or physical action, whether they can wield a blade or hold their own in a fight. Watching my girls get excited about game design, math, and science always gives me a little thrill, and I love providing them with epic heroines who use their brains as their primary weapon. STEM heroines rock!
I adore superhero fiction, but it is hard to find good versions of it outside of visual mediums like comics and film. This book was one of the first superhero novels I found, and it is a lot of fun.
Penelope wants nothing more than to develop superpowers and be a hero like her parents, but instead, she develops mad scientist powers that lead to utter chaos! I squirmed as the young characters got themselves deeper and deeper into trouble, but I also laughed at this madcap superhero world filled with puns, metal-eating robots, and epic adventure.
Penelope Akk wants to be a superhero. She's got superhero parents. She's got the ultimate mad science power, filling her life with crazy gadgets even she doesn't understand. She has two super-powered best friends. In middle school, the line between good and evil looks clear. In real life, nothing is that clear. All it takes is one hero's sidekick picking a fight, and Penny and her friends are labeled supervillains. In the process, Penny learns a hard lesson about villainy: She's good at it. Criminal masterminds, heroes in power armor, bottles of dragon blood, alien war drones, shapeshifters and ghosts,…
Novels are my medium and my first love, but I’m a huge fan of comic books too. Even though visual arts have never been my strength, I adore how many different things are possible in superhero stories. Sci-fi and epic fantasy and all different kinds of horror coexist in these enormous fictional universes. You’ve got comedic, child-friendly mysteries and pitch-black serial killer thrillers and deep meditations on love and family all going on at once. Comic book tropes and general disregard for genre boundaries definitely inform my writing style, and I love when I discover other novelists who incorporate comic book inspiration in various ways.
Almost Infamouswas the precursor to Pinnacle City. It’s by my partner, Matt Carter, and I’m so, so happy to have gotten to play in this universe, because this book is a gloriously nerdy yet pretty cutting take on a whole lot of corners of superhero comics. It’s about this disgruntled upper middle-class high school boy who decides to become a supervillain, and ends up drafted into Project Kayfabe, a forced league of supervillains controlled by the so-called superheroes to push the public narrative in whatever direction the “heroes” want. Thankfully, Project Kayfabe is made up of all sorts of villains who ended up there for all sorts of reasons, so they’re able to learn from each other, become better people, and come together to foil the heroes’ plot.
Eighteen-year-old Aidan Salt isn't a superhero. With his powerful (and unpredictable) telekinetic abilities he could be one if he wanted to, but he doesn't. He's unambitious, selfish, and cowardly, and he doesn't want to have to deal with all the paperwork required to become a professional superhero. But since the money, fame, and women that come with wearing the cape are appealing, he decides to become the first supervillain the world has seen in more than twenty years: Apex Strike.
However, he soon finds villainy in a world where the heroes have long since defeated all the supervillains. While half…
I’m the author of the humorous YA novels The Supervillain and Me andThe Good for Nothings. I’ve been telling stories since I could talk, including the night I recited an entire Mickey Mouse scratch and sniff book to my mother at bedtime (she’s so proud), and the numerous evenings I subjected my friends and family to another one of my home “movies” set in front of a poorly painted bedsheet backdrop in my basement. I owe my writing career to Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield’s version), who inspired my first book. I spent countless college classes thinking about him instead of paying attention, but it all worked out in the end.
This book feeds my Spider-Man obsession while asking the question, “How do normal folk fare during those cataclysmic superhero battles?” Answer: Not well, but Meg’s gut-busting adventures as a powerless human surrounded by heroes and villains had me laughing from page one. After finding a superhero murdered in a dark, creepy alley (as one does), Meg is dragged kicking and screaming (not literally, but this girl reallydoesn’t want to get involved) into a fight between good and evil. Luckily, she has an indestructible umbrella, a radioactive rat, and some snarky friends at her disposal. She’s going to need all the help she can get. Want a story that reads like your favorite Marvel movie? Then run out right now and buy a copy. Right. Now.
Featured in Writer's Digest, Kirkus Reviews, Hypable, and MuggleNet.
"A spunky and jubilant love letter to superhero fans." -Kirkus Reviews
Power. Courage. Invincibility. The marks of a true hero.
Meg Sawyer has none of these things.
Meg has never stopped a moving bus with her bare hands, been bitten by a radioactive insect, or done anything moderately resembling saving the world. She doesn't have to. She's a background citizen, a nobody, one of the swarms of faceless civilians of Lunar City--where genetically enhanced superhumans straight out of the comics have thwarted evil for years.
