Top Ten Tuesday: Books Every Superhero Fan Should Read

A weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

When I was thinking about what I wanted to do for this topic there really was only one thing that came to mind. Superheroes. Yesterday I reviewed some comics I had read recently so it seems like my mind is stuck on superheroes but even so, some of my favorite reads are about or have a superhero-esque tone. It's always great exploration of good and evil plus really great world building.

Super Literal Books About Superheroes

1.) The Reckoners Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson
(Goodreads / Amazon / My Review)
This book reads like an action movie but Sanderson plays with the superhero tropes and the idea of good and evil. I mean this is a series where powered people are the ones who create problems.

2.) Vicious by V.E. Schwab
(Goodreads / Amazon / My Review)
Schwab did a similar thing by playing with tropes and exploring good and evil. What I liked especially is her origin story and how she created these powered people.

3.) Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
(Goodreads / Amazon / My Review)

This is obviously the most literal book on this list as it's a graphic novel. But it's another one that plays with the idea of what it means to be a hero and whether you can do bad things for the right reasons and still be bad.

4.) Powerless by Tera Lynn Childs and Tracey Deebs
(Goodreads / Amazon / My Review)

Just like a lot of these books about superheroes, Powerless looks at good and evil. It's one of those books that makes you question who exactly the villains are and it does it with a really cool magical system.

5.) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
(Goodreads / Amazon / My Review)
This may be the least literal book in the literal list. But it's about the Golden Age of comic books and the main character creates characters based on his life and experiences so it's really interesting.

Books With Magical Systems That Feel Like Super Powers

6.) The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
(Goodreads / Amazon / My Review)

This book reminds me so much of X-Men in the best possible way. It's about people who have psionic powers and they are mistreated ans mistrusted by society but they still use their powers for good.

7.) The Young Elites by Marie Lu
(Goodreads / Amazon / My Review)

This book is also very X-Men. Take everything that I said about The Darkest Minds but change the last word to evil. Plus this book is essential a villain origin story so it's like all the above books that explore the idea of good and evil.

8.) Sekret by Lindsay Smith
(Goodreads / Amazon / My Review)

This book is also reminds me a bit of X-Men. I hate the comparison game but this is X-Men meets Alias. It's about spies in Soviet Russia who use their psychic powers on missions and has a pretty thrilling plot.

9.) The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo
(Goodreads / Amazon / My Review)

I didn't really think about Grisha powers as super powers but it definitely has that vibe. Elemental magic can be like that sometimes but that's totally cool. But there's a lot of exploration of good and evil and tons of action

10.) Truthwitch by Susan Dennard
(Goodreads / Amazon / My Review)

Truthwitch is similar to the Grisha trilogy in that it's basically elemental magic but there are more to the powers than that, especially the powers of the two main characters. Plus this book is super action packed. 

Honorable Mentions:

11.) Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
(Goodreads / Amazon / My Review)

So I didn't want to overload this list with Sanderson books but fans of superheroes should absolutely check this one out. The power system is superpower-esque, there is a ton of action, but more importantly it plays with the hero tropes.

12.) A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
(Goodreads / Amazon / My Review)

I also didn't want to load up this list with Schwab books. ADSOM isn't obviously a book similar to superhero stories but it does explore good and evil and as the series develops and you see more magic it feels similar to a lot of the other systems on this list.

What books would you recommend for fans of superheroes? Have you read any of these books? What did you think? Leave me a comment with your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING!