What if a hero forgot his own legend?
Buddy Jackson is a washed-up boxer who can't hold a job, drinks too much, and depends on the kindness of his sister Maggie. He has started having strange, vivid dreams through the eyes of someone else. He loses yet another job when the government forces his employer to close. The same day, an apparent natural disaster destroys his home. Then things start to get weird.
On his way to see a John Doe he took to the hospital, Buddy ends up in a secret underground fortress -- his own secret fortress from when he was the super Buddy Hero. He has no memory of any of this -- the destruction wrought by hero/villain battles led to a government program to wipe and rewrite memories. A few powerful individuals avoided the Redaction and have been preparing for the day when Buddy's powers would be needed again. It's not clear the people he's working with actually have his -- or anyone's -- best interests at heart. He doesn't have his own memories to go by, so he has to trust what he's being told, even though he suspects strings are being pulled that have little to do with him. (Very much like the experience of a reader -- do you trust the narrator or author to give you the straight scoop? What might they keep from you?) Is Buddy a hero? His old nemesis Damon Memphis doesn't think so, and Buddy begins to question his past actions, too. But when Damon comes for him, he won't stop with Buddy, so Buddy has to fight. In the process, he learns who his friends are and finds a way to fight without destroying the entire city.
I like how this is an origin story without being an origin story. Buddy already has his powers (and his team) but he has to relearn how to use them as a more mature, less reckless man than he used to be. It's also an action comedy with an arch, bantering tone. The heroes don't take themselves (or the chaos they create) too seriously. Buddy is an appealing, well-meaning protagonist. He just wants to go home, make sure his sister is all right, live his dead-end, undramatic life. For most of the book, he doesn't know what's going on, so he and the reader find out together. At the end, he still doesn't have all the answers, leaving things open for a sequel.
The overly wordy banter can be very funny in dialogue, as the heroes swap jests during a battle (although it is not always 100% clear who is speaking; more dialogue attributions or action connected to dialogue would have been helpful in places.) Buddy's old sidekick Kid Zero has a particularly overblown, pretentious way of speaking. In narrative, that arch wordiness is often at odds with the action side of the equation. The cluttered syntax and passive voice tend to get in the way of the action. I was tempted at times to get out a red pen (not so useful with an ebook) but the characters and premise were appealing enough to keep me reading. I look forward to the next book, Rise of the Fat Mogul.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.