Superhero: A Novel

by Tim Blake Nelson

“A uniquely nuanced and engaging perspective on the oddness of Hollywood...Superhero goes inside baseball in all the best unbiased, at times ridiculous, and wonderfully, uncomfortably accurate. It begs to be read because it is so damned good.” —Amanda Seyfried

A-list actor Peter Compton and producing partner Marci Levy exist in the rarefied air of Hollywood’s elite. Their status as a married power couple is unmatched, their presence in any room transformative and god-like. But as their private jet lands in Atlanta to begin production on a tentpole superhero movie, even their privileged position will come under threat by the massive pressures of such an  undertaking. 

Compton, a self-educated recovering addict, sees the role of Sparta comics superhero Major Machina as the opportunity to transcend his already stratospheric platform. As director Joel Slavkin, Oscar-winning DP Javier Benavidez, and a crew of hundreds arrive in Atlanta to begin shooting, it doesn’t take long for the production to be embroiled in the tension and egos that drive the film. But when video of Peter’s disastrous on-set behavior goes viral, Peter and Marci’s partnership will be challenged as it never has before. As the stakes grow ever higher, it may just take a superhero to save them. 

With his signature wit and razor sharp dialog, Tim Blake Nelson invites the reader to walk alongside him as he enters the closely-guarded world of industrial strength cinema.

Genres: Fiction, Media Tie In

412 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 2, 2025

Reviews

[Sherry Chiger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let's get what I disliked about "Superhero" out of the way. The most galling is the insufferable main character, Peter. He wasn't a love-to-hate character; I suspect we're actually supposed to have some respect and admiration toward him. Certainly the characters who encircle him, even while sharing how rude, egocentric, and annoying he is, enthuse about his intelligence, his magnetism, his talent—none of which was apparent to me. The tendency of most of the characters to break into soliloquys littered with multisyllabic words annoyed me as well. Then near the end the story veers off into a musing about the ethics of AI that brought the proceedings to a halt.

But I kept reading for the insider look at how a big-budget movie gets made and for the assorted secondary characters, each of whom is much more interesting and three-dimensional than Peter. If you want a novel that shows how the entertainment sausage is made and have a high tolerance for obnoxious protagonists, "Superhero" might be for you.

Thank you, Unnamed Press and NetGalley, for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Justin Soderberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superhero by Tim Blake Nelson is a witty, biting, and surprisingly emotional peek behind the Hollywood curtain of filmmaking these days. Although, Nelson himself refrains from calling it satire, the novel instead becomes a richer, part dark comedy, part elegy, about ambition, ego, and what happens when art collide with commerce today.

A-list actor Peter Compton and producing partner Marci Levy exist in the rarefied air of Hollywood’s elite. Their status as a married power couple is unmatched, their presence in any room transformative and god-like. But as their private jet lands in Atlanta to begin production on a tentpole superhero movie, even their privileged position will come under threat by the massive pressures of such an undertaking.

Compton, a self-educated recovering addict, sees the role of Sparta comics superhero Major Machina as the opportunity to transcend his already stratospheric platform. As director Joel Slavkin, Oscar-winning DP Javier Benavidez, and a crew of hundreds arrive in Atlanta to begin shooting, it doesn’t take long for the production to be embroiled in the tension and egos that drive the film. But when video of Peter’s disastrous on-set behavior goes viral, Peter and Marci’s partnership will be challenged as it never has before. As the stakes grow ever higher, it may just take a superhero to save them.

This was my first introduction to Tim Blake Nelson behind the typewriter, as I am used to seeing the actor on screen in major Marvel motion pictures. You may know Nelson as Samuel Sterns in The Incredible Hulk (2008) and Captain America: Brave New World (2025) or may as Delmar O'Donnell in O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Wade Tillman / Looking Glass on the Watchman TV Series (2019). However, Nelson is a talent author in his own right.

With his history in the film industry, Nelson writes with the authority of someone who has been there. The descriptions of each section of the book feels authentic and specific. The characters, especially Peter Compton and Marci Levy, are flawed and endlessly followable as they both chase relevance and redemption. Nelson features a bit of humor, but also a bit of misery, showing that the author clearly loves making movies even as he discusses the absurdity of the industry that makes them.

While at times I felt the pacing wained a bit, and a few of the transitions between satire and drama felt abrupt, the book's overall feel always pulled it back together. Beneath the gossip and meltdowns is a sincere beating heart, one that understands the costs of creating something meaningful in a business that focuses a lot on the numbers of an opening weekend release.

Superhero by Tim Blake Nelson is as much for film buffs, especially those fans of comic book movies, as it is for those who have wrestled with compromise, creativity, or even the need to matter. The novel is a funny and unexpectedly moving book which proves that Tim Blake Nelson has as much to say on the pages of a story as he does on the big screen.

Superhero hits bookstores everywhere on December 2, 2025 from Unnamed Press. Be sure to check out Tim Blake Nelson on the Capes and Tights Podcast for Episode 255.

NOTE: We received an advance copy of Superhero from the publisher. Opinions are our own.

[ManOfLaBook.com · Rating 4 out of 5]

For more reviews and bookish posts visit: https://www.ManOfLaBook.com

Superhero by Tim Blake Nelson is a dark humor novel about the trials and tribulations of making a superhero movie while navigating Hollywood’s cinema machine where millions of dollars and many careers are at stake. Mr. Nelson is a character actor whose face will be familiar to any cinephile.

Power couple Peter Compton, A-list actor and recovering addict, and Marci Levi, wife and producing partner are about to make the next huge superhero movie, Major Machina. They are in for making millions and having their star rise, as well as elevating Sparta’s cinema glazy to another level.

Production, however, is quickly becoming a disaster. Peter has no faith in the director, the cinematographer is an artist, and his ego clashes with Peter’s and the whole set is tense. Once Peter’s meltdown goes viral, the video and the response threaten the movie, it’s investors and Peter and Marci’s marriage.

This is a novel written with talent, self-confidence, and authority of an insider. In an industry where big money and big egos collide with artistic talent things are simply bound to clash at some point.

Superhero by Tim Blake Nelson is a dark comedy of how a movie of such scale even comes to fruition. The author does not minimize the role of the hundreds (thousands?) of people it takes to bring such a feature film extravaganza to your local movie theatre.

Each one of the characters gets their own history and identity, which explains their motivation and the way they view the production. We view the work through the artists’ eyes, as well as through the eyes of business and the decisions, as well as compromised each has to make. While the compromises are painful, the reader certainly understands why, and the circumstances which they were made under.

I thought the stories of ego and ambition reflect everything I heard, read, and saw when it comes to the entertainment industry in general, and the movie industry specifically. The flawed characters bring those points to the forefront of the story.

The novel, I thought, was a bit too wordy in some places, while I appreciated the author’s great talent, a rant going on for several pages, intellectual or not, just grinded the pacing to a halt. I very much enjoyed the offshoots, side stories, and nuanced character histories.

This is an entertaining, clever, and engaging book. I felt like a fly on the wall of entertainment getting an engaging perspective from all sides of the moviemaking industry.

[Ammon · Rating 4 out of 5]

My fellow Gen X-ers and Millennials will likely recognize character actor Tim Blake Nelson from films like O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Holes, or his turn as Samuel Sterns (the Leader) in The Incredible Hulk and Captain America: Brave New World. In Superhero, he swaps the screen for the page with a darkly funny, insider look at what it takes to make a massive superhero movie when millions of dollars, fragile egos, and multiple careers are on the line.

Peter Compton, the A-list star at the center of the story, reads like a pastiche of Robert Downey Jr., Christian Bale, and Ryan Reynolds: charismatic, volatile, self-mythologizing, and barely holding it together. Around him orbits a whole ecosystem of Hollywood power players including his producer-wife, director, etc. Nelson uses the fictional Sparta Cinematic Universe to explore how billion-dollar empires and mega-projects get justified in the name of making “art,” and to mount a defense of big-budget movies as real creative work rather than mere cash grabs.

The novel also dips into a host of contemporary issues: addiction and recovery, power dynamics on set, nepotism, MeToo-era accountability, the fentanyl crisis, and the perils of celebrity culture. Superhero even touches lightly on the ethics of using AI in filmmaking, though those questions feel more like interesting surface scratches than a deep dive. At times, the book can feel like inside baseball. The closer you are to (or obsessed with) the movie industry, the more its details and in-jokes will likely resonate. I still found plenty to appreciate, especially in the way Nelson maps his fictional characters onto recognizable real-world types.

On audio, narrator Zach Villa delivers a solid but ultimately forgettable performance. He never distracts from the story, but he doesn’t quite elevate it either.

📖 Text: 🦸🦸🦸🦸
🎙️ Audio Experience: 🦸🦸🦸
⭐️ Overall: 🦸🦸🦸.5

Disclaimer: I received a free advanced reader copy (ARC) of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. This review reflects my personal and independent opinion.

[EVAN · Rating 4 out of 5]

In “Superhero,” Tim Blake Nelson tells the story of the production of Major Machina, a superhero movie of the MCU variety (here called the Sparta Comics Galaxy) from pre-production through its premiere.

The putative center of the novel is its star, Peter Compton, a recovering addict who went from stardom to imprisonment to stardom again (a la Robert Downey, Jr). At the outset, Compton is presented as a self-centered autodidact taking over all facets of the movie from its director Joel Slavkin (painted initially as a neurotic, resentful of his star as well as his former partner Jordan Levinson, an auteur director), its DP Javier Benavidez and its producers, including his wife/producing partner/handler Marci. As the book (and the movie) progress, we see the characters become more well-rounded and we recognize how their neuroses both drive and hinder them.

However, the book is also a surreptitious feminist statement. The male characters are all presented as flawed, self-centered and needy, who get the accolades, while the women do the unheralded work that gets everything done (Joel, as director, leans on his wife, a powerful attorney; Peter on Marci; and Javier on his sister, a renowned documentarian), who never get the spotlight. Eventually, the book centers Marci, a voice of power and reason among the men, who are either feckless and incapable of making decisions or cynics who want her to provide them cover for choices they’d rather not make.

At times, the book, like movie production in general, gets a little slow but ultimately it’s well worth it.

Thanks to Unnamed Press and Net Galley for an advanced reader copy, for which this honest review was given.

[Katy Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captivating behind-the-scenes blockbuster movie saga.

I was surprised to see the author's name, an actor I have always enjoyed, but settled to this quickly, finding him a very capable and verbose writer. This is his world. And this is Marvel by another name.

Intriguing from start to finish, it takes us through the entire journey of a new superhero movie, here in the Sparta Comic Galaxy, from inception and casting/preparation to filming and the premiere.

Including the perspectives of the lead actor, himself a former drug addict and prisoner, the director, producers, cinematographers, their personal histories show us how they came to Major Machina and how they will ultimately interact on the set.

It's compelling, it really is. So many flawed personalities, so much ego and passion and hard work. There's philosophy and deep thought and a lot of considering what movies and this sort really mean. And when tragedy strikes, implications for the future of film-making which are clearly worrisome for the characters and our writer are also forefront.

This felt overlong at times, but was never less than a good read. In itself, the material is ripe for its own filmed version.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

[Kim Saye · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised to find a book by Tim Blake Nelson, who is one of my favorite actors. This book was a great behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to make a movie. I admit that based on the cover I thought it was going to be more of a suspense or mystery novel, but that is not the case. The book is really a character study of actors, producers, and directors and how they work together and navigate people with difficult personalities. I didn’t really like the main actor character but I don’t really think I was supposed to. I did feel for him and his struggles with addiction. The author is an expert on making movies and that really shows; there were so many details that really immersed me in the scenes. Living in the Atlanta metro, it was also really fun to picture the events happening down the street from me. I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys movie making and character studies. One thing that readers may want to know is that the novel is written from the point of view of multiple characters and not in perfect chronological order (there are some overlaps in the scenes). Additionally, readers who are sensitive to scenes regarding drug addiction may want to skip this one, as addiction struggles are frequently discussed and portrayed. However, for people who are not bothered by those things, it’s a really good character study of the personal price that can be paid when making movies. I definitely want to read more by the author!

[Char Grell · Rating 1 out of 5]

ARC - made it about 15% through the book and couldn’t continue. Sorry to be the Debbie downer on the first review of an unpublished book. I’m sure this will hit with other folks - just not for me.

[Sammy D · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t love this one, but I didn’t totally hate it either.

This book took me a while to get through. Peter’s character made me want to throw it across the room more than once. I put it down several times and almost convinced myself not to pick it back up. He’s chaotic, messy, and incredibly hard to root for. Even if that was the point, it didn’t make the experience any less exhausting.

That said, I’m glad I finished it. The behind-the-scenes look at big movie production in Hollywood was genuinely interesting. The power plays and manipulation between characters felt uncomfortable but very real, which I think was part of the point.

I was lucky enough to listen to the audiobook, and the narration really brought the story to life. It definitely helped me stick with it.

Overall, this isn’t one I’d recommend to just anyone. If someone was really interested in complicated characters or the inner workings of Hollywood, maybe. Otherwise, it’s a tough sell for me.

[Martha van Zyl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Superhero is a sharp, witty, and surprisingly intimate look at the machinery of modern blockbuster filmmaking, and the fragile egos that power it. Tim Blake Nelson pulls back the curtain on Hollywood with biting humour and razor-sharp dialogue, creating a story that feels both insider-authentic and deeply human.
Peter Compton is a fascinating protagonist: an A-list actor with everything to lose and something to prove. His ambition to elevate the role of comic-book hero Major Machina into something transcendent is both admirable and self-destructive. As the pressures of production mount and tensions flare among cast and crew, Nelson expertly captures the high-stakes chaos of big-budget cinema.
The dynamic between Peter and his producing partner and wife, Marci Levy, gives the novel emotional depth. Their relationship, tested by viral scandal and professional strain, anchors the spectacle in something real and relatable. The exploration of fame, identity, addiction, and reinvention adds layers beneath the glossy Hollywood surface.
Smart, funny, and incisive, Superhero is as much about vulnerability as it is about power. It’s a compelling behind-the-scenes drama that reminds us even the most “god-like” figures are human, and sometimes the greatest heroics happen off-screen.

[Martin Maenza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unnamed Press provided an early galley for review.

Nelson has a long career (over 35 years) in TV and film, including a couple super-hero flicks. So, this story for his second novel is written from a place he knows. He has spent a lot of time around a Hollywood set and all the various people who work there. No doubt, he knows from whence he draws his inspiration and references.

The challenge, for me, is that this novel is very dialogue heavy. Pages will go on with back and forth between two characters (often with no reminding dialogue tags or character actions to help remind us who is who). In one scene several page scene, one character describes to another the inner workings of a film camera. While this certainly works for a script where what the characters are saying often carries the action, it loses me when I am reading it in a book. I need lots of descriptions (setting, body language, etc.) to break up the talky-talky. Otherwise, I start to zone out. That happened several times in the first quarter of the book alone.

Still, I stuck with the book for two reasons: 1) to see how things played out for these flawed characters and 2) for the thinly-veiled commentary on Marvel Studios. Nelson covers the ground in both of these areas, along with quite a bit of inside references to the whole film making business. I have to admit that the story took some turns I was not expecting in the final act.

In the end, I feel this one will do well with the right audience.