Inspired The Hulk, The Terminator, Superman, and Doc Savage!

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	• Gladiator Philip Wylie Blackmask.com, 2004 - 148 pages average customer review:based on 13 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Super Reader

A book that is an inspiration for much of superhero fiction in whatever form, as a professor sets out to improve upon nature via genetic experimentation, and makes his own son superhuman.

Despite all these abilities the boy has problems fitting in, especially with keeping his abilities secret and still be able to exercise them. This is particularly a problem in the rush of blood on the football field.

A modern Hercules literally struck down by a thunderbolt from Jove. The amusing part is seeing all the frat boys called 'birds'. Otherwise, a very modest superman, he was. Unsurprisingly, the text in a 50 year old paperback is a little on the dodgy faded side. Never, ever make a super cat.

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This book is really wonderful...

Excellent book. It's not written like science fiction at all, more like a work of "mainstream" fiction... and it was very moving to me.

I think it was well ahead of its time for more than one reason.

1) The superman concept.

2) The smooth incorporation of the science fiction into a regular world, where it's played entirely straight (rather than for camp) reminds me a whole lot of the TV shows that are on TV the last few years. I think HEROES, SMALLVILLE, many shows incorporate this style today.

I got teary eyed reading parts. I think it's excellently written and plotted.

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Well worth reading

Summerhill U.S.A. (Penguin educational special)

Philip Wylie's work continues to be relevant. "Gladiator" is one of the few books which dealt with the issue of the very gifted among us. I know it was the inspiration for Superman, but it is so much more. How we treat the brightest and best is at least as important (an probably more so) thank how we treat "those less fortunate." A bit depressing, but important. Read it.

Inspired The Hulk, The Terminator, Superman, and Doc Savage!

A dark work of prescient genius! Philip Wylie, THE most socially astute author of the Twentieth Century, co-founder and Editor of The New Yorker magazine, created in his protagonist Hugo Danner (often mis-spelled in the pages of the book as BANNER, which no doubt, and not-so-subliminally influenced the creators of The Hulk's alter-ego Dr. Banner in Marvel Comics' series and the movies derived therefrom; royalties owed, anyone?) the original 'Super-man' as the result of his scientist father's in-vitro meddlings. Hugo's life is a tale of brooding angst and social subterfuge, as he must dwell amongst the lesser mortals and hide his abilities from their jealousy and ignorant, dirt-farmer mentalities. Searching for a way to fulfill himself, Danner examines and acts upon various unsatisfactory self-initiated programs of personal growth (and destruction), but only at the end - when it is emotionally too late for him to change and see his true potential through to its logical apex and conclusion, does he even come close to the ideal he represents for all of us. The scenes in which Danner stands atop the trenches of the armies he has single-handedly (and covertly) defeated, clothes blown off by the shrapnel, and covered in the blood and gore of his enemies, is reminiscent of The Terminator movies. The deus-ex-machina ending is more of a lesson for the reader to ponder upon than the world-changeing alternative would - and could - have been. A brilliant work, re-issued by BlackMask online (purveyors of expired copyrights? If so: Kudos in regards to your perceptive choice of subject materials). A word of advice on the Publishers' choice of company icon: FOSI may sue you! LOL!

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A fan boy MUST-READ

I've pondered whether I would've found this book so affecting if I had read it at the time of first publication. It's unfortunate that I can't consider it on its own merits-- it is inextricably connected to the Superman mythology in my mind. Which means it's connected to the way Americans see America and her place in the world. Our culture is entwined with a nearly 70-year-old comic book character.

In a way, Superman embodies the spirit (however well or ill-founded) of American intervention for good. (Which is ALL tied up with Puritanism and Jeffersonian philanthropy... but this is a book review, so I'll get back to it-- sorry.) Superman is our sometimes delusional view of ourselves as the continual liberators of the oppressed-- always doing right, and never making a wrong decision.

The question is... if you had enough power, couldn't you solve everything? Wouldn't you? According to Siegel and Schuster, you could and would.

But Philip Wylie was a grown man, not a teenager drawing comic books. Superman doesn't show up here, except as a passing impulse of the protagonist. In fact, "Gladiator" reads like a modern deconstruction of Superman. It's amazing.

Any person raised in the comic-book culture would find this book very interesting. It's all here: bouncing bullets, a fortress of solitude, leaping over buildings... and alienation.

"Gladiator" feels like the missing piece you never knew about, and when it falls into place, it's almost...haunting.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

With Burrough's Mars series, Wylie's Hugo Danner is generally credited as the ancestor of both Clark Kent and Clark Savage, Jr. Danner, the product of a strength serum given to his mother during pregnancy, is able to lift 4,000 pounds, leap 40 feet in the air, and so forth. Unlike Superman and Doc Savage, however, Danner is never happy with his skills, hating the isolation and at times using his strength for monetary gain. Also, you can't imagine Doc Savage spending his summer after freshman year the way Danner did.

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