'Bird' blends a flawed hero and a perfect superhero in a novel way

It didn't take long after the character's creation by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, in the 1930s, an event that also marks the birth of the concept of the superhero, for Superman to become arguably the most powerful of all American myths. One needn't ever have read a Superman comic book, seen a Superman movie, or watched the 1950s Superman TV series to know and understand the character. He is part of our culture, part of our language, an easy allusion in literature, movies, and songs.

Superman is both too much and too little for the real world. He's also just that for Steve, the narrator of Steven Seagle's new semi-autobiographical novel with graphics, "It's a Bird . . ." Steve, a comic-book writer, is offered what would seem a dream job for anyone in his profession: scripting Superman comics. Only he's not so sure he likes the idea or wants the job. Steve has never cared for Superman. He can't get his head around the character's superhuman perfection, and he's certain there's nothing interesting left to say about such a figure.

Steve is also struggling with his own very human imperfection. Because of his father's disappearance and an aunt's illness, he's forced to deal with the fact that Huntington's disease, a rare, incurable, always fatal genetic disorder, runs in his family.

"It's a Bird . . ." presents Steve's problems with his family history and its effects on his psychological health, his career, and his relationship with his girlfriend alongside a meditation on Superman's place in the real world.

Through the narrative, Seagle shifts between his protagonist's personal crisis, childhood memories overshadowed by the fear and shame that his family felt about Huntington's, recollections of his earliest experiences with Superman comics, and his attempts to assess his job offer and resolve his ambivalence about it.