Apprentice Superhero: Colin Cowsbotham. Tech nerd. Virgin. Superhero.

by Martin Deakin

Every hero starts somewhere. Colin was hiding in his bedroom.

Bleakwinter Farm was once a proud working-class estate. Now it’s a wasteland of crime, corruption, and fear — and Colin’s life is as small and grey as the streets around him. But when a mysterious stranger slips an envelope under his door, everything changes.

Drawn into a hidden war between gangsters and something far older, Colin finds himself apprenticed to a man who can do things that are simply impossible — and what’s more, Merl expects Colin will learn to fight back against the wickedness consuming his world. But how can a boy who’s never won a fight, never kissed a girl, and barely believes in himself become a hero?

At times both funny and dark, heart-warming and human, Apprentice Superhero is a story about courage overcoming cowardice, the ordinary given the chance to become extraordinary.

You will find yourself rooting for Colin to stop running and hiding, and to take a leap into the unknown and risk his life being transformed.

278 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 17, 2025

Reviews

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts off really slow and confusing, full of idiomatic British and cultural assumptions. (That's not a bad thing, just confusing because it's not noted as a British story.) Picks up later, but becomes less believable.