Collection
Publication
New York : HarperCollins, 2020.
Description
Anna does boring things for terrible people because even criminals need office help and she needs a job. As a temp, she's just a cog in the machine. But when she finally gets a promising assignment, everything goes very wrong, and an encounter with the so-called 'hero' leaves her badly injured. So, of course, then she gets laid off. With no money and no mobility, with only her anger and internet research acumen, she discovers her suffering at the hands of a hero is far from unique. When people start listening to the story that her data tells, she realizes she might not be as powerless as she thinks. Because the key to everything is data: knowing how to collate it, how to manipulate it, and how to weaponize it.
Language
Original language
English
Media reviews
Walschots (Doom) gleefully blurs the line between heroes and villains in this hilarious peek behind the scenes of supervillains’ lairs.... Walschots playfully pokes at both office politics and comic book absurdity while offering gripping action and gut-wrenching body horror. The inventive
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premise, accessible heroine, and biting wit will have readers eager for more from this talented author. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member VictoriaGD
Supercollided
With the popularity of superheroes, comes a branch genre of anti-superhero stories. Focusing on the destructive cost of superheroes, Natalie Zina Walschots delves into the lives of the part-time employees of villains nicknamed the Hench. Anna Tromedlov is looking for a full-time job,
With the popularity of superheroes, comes a branch genre of anti-superhero stories. Focusing on the destructive cost of superheroes, Natalie Zina Walschots delves into the lives of the part-time employees of villains nicknamed the Hench. Anna Tromedlov is looking for a full-time job,
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and is willing to do all the boring evil work she can to pay the bills. Anna and her friends are not exactly villain material, as the evilest thing they do is make fun of people on Tinder. Unfortunately, when living in a world of superheroes there is collateral damage. When Anna has an unfortunate run in with the superhero Supercollider, almost destroying her life, she becomes obsessed with counting the cost. For her own brand of revenge, and for all the other Hench who are considered expendable. So, a brief warning to those who get queasy with mentions of vomiting, blood, and serious medical injuries. Anna is refreshingly normal and relatable. It is great that she is not especially fantastic from the beginning, but instead works hard to find herself in a crazy world. I also appreciate that she is not overly jaded after her traumatic experiences, just evilly determined. Natalie Zina Walschots sets up a satisfying plot, and highlights a lot of behind the scenes problems of living in a super-powered world. This is a great book for fans of revenge narratives, and anti-heroes. #mycollision Show Less
LibraryThing member jmoncton
Most super hero stories are told from the point of view of either the super hero or the villain. No one ever pays attention to the sidekick or the hordes of henchmen who, in the final scene of the movie, vanish with the flick of a super hero's wrist. Anna is one of those henchmen. She works for
This was a fun and clever twist to the typical 'Warrior Meets Villain' story. Lots of excitement and gruesome humor.
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various villains and finds her gigs through -- you guessed it -- a temp agency for henchmen. It is the gig economy after all. But Anna is a hench with the mind of an tax auditor, so when Anna is injured after an unfortunate gig, she starts to calculate what is the cost to society when problems are solved by Superheroes? This was a fun and clever twist to the typical 'Warrior Meets Villain' story. Lots of excitement and gruesome humor.
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LibraryThing member grandpahobo
A really good book. The story moves with a force that at times sweeps you along and at other times hits you like a brick wall. What I really liked is the way it pokes fun at many aspects of the comic book genre that way too many people take very seriously.
LibraryThing member breic
Kind of a fun story. Very lightweight. I wanted more growth from the main character. She does grow, but in such a cliched comic-book way as to feel meaningless.
LibraryThing member dcoward
Loved this! Anna works a low level job for villians, in a world filled with superheroes. After she is badly injured as collateral damage when a superhero comes after her employer, she starts to chart the damage that superheroes cause. Anna is a great character, and I loved the casual diversity in
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this book. Show Less
LibraryThing member spinsterrevival
Minus the body horror (which now I think I get what that is), I loved everything about this novel. Anna’s journey was the most perfect combination of rage and spreadsheets, which I think a lot of women can feel. I’m not sure if there is more to come, but if so I will be there.
LibraryThing member KateHonig
Snarky, mostly evil, accountant bent on revenge.
Anna is a mid-level temp Hench who is seriously injured by a "hero" trying to take down her current boss. During her recovery she uses math and spreadsheets to begin the process of taking down the "heroes" of the world. In the process she comes into
Anna is a mid-level temp Hench who is seriously injured by a "hero" trying to take down her current boss. During her recovery she uses math and spreadsheets to begin the process of taking down the "heroes" of the world. In the process she comes into
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her own and becomes more powerful then she could have imagined. Show Less
LibraryThing member Jammies
It's not as easy to write a 5-star review as it is to write a 1-star, but here's my attempt. I never got into comics as a kid, chose talking with a friend over watching Iron Man, and have never felt deprived by not seeing a single MCU movie. Nevertheless, through pop culture osmosis, I have a fair
Ms. Walschots knows the tropes well, and she turns them upside-down and inside-out in this phenomenal book. The characters are engaging, the world-building is believable, the spreadsheets are adorable, and the set pieces are brilliant.
The book feels like a love letter to all the fans who are so often disappointed or infuriated by storylines and characters which ignore, misrepresent, diminish, and/or fridge them. Thank you, Ms. Walschots!
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general knowledge of the superhero tropes.Ms. Walschots knows the tropes well, and she turns them upside-down and inside-out in this phenomenal book. The characters are engaging, the world-building is believable, the spreadsheets are adorable, and the set pieces are brilliant.
The book feels like a love letter to all the fans who are so often disappointed or infuriated by storylines and characters which ignore, misrepresent, diminish, and/or fridge them. Thank you, Ms. Walschots!
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LibraryThing member bibliovermis
I have no idea why fantasy representations of bureaucracy hit a real sweet spot for me but I love them, okay? Give me a novel where people with superpowers have spreadsheet making montages, and there's no way I'm not going to throw some stars at it. It's my jam!
I normally prefer my fantasy
I normally prefer my fantasy
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bureaucracy to be mixed with comedy, but this one mixed it with "a righteous send up of elements of society categorized as good vs. evil" and that also really worked. Show Less
LibraryThing member terran
My second thought on reading this is that I want to see a Coen Brothers movie based on it.
LibraryThing member rivkat
A temp for bad guys has her leg crushed by a superhero during a kidnapping (her bad guy is holding the mayor’s son hostage and about to get him to cut off his own finger via mind control), and decides to total up the damage caused by superheroes. Then she starts working with a supervillain who
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wants to destroy the hero who caused her injury. It was interesting, especially in light of the current debate over whether cops do more harm than good, but not entirely successful; I found the claim that the heroes created the villains and were therefore responsible for their evil as well to be facile. Lots of body horror. Show Less
LibraryThing member villemezbrown
A feminist take on The Boys wherein a lowly super-villain hench(man) goes from paycheck-to-paycheck data-entry drone to a fervid believer that superheroes cause more harm than good. It's a slow burn built around a terrific protagonist who employs the ultimate power of the Microsoft Office suite of
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products in her efforts to help a Dr. Doom-type villain take down a Superman-type hero. The ending is a real page-turner that demands a sequel. Show Less
LibraryThing member lilibrarian
Anna, a low-level hench, realizes that superheroes cause so much damage that they may be doing more harm than good. Proving it, and getting revenge on the hero who injured her, becomes her life goal.
LibraryThing member LynnB
I read this because it is a Canada Reads finalist for 2021. Not my thing. I found it difficult to identify with characters who have super-powers or are human/machine mashups.
LibraryThing member mikedowd
the end was a little bit of a letdown. i expect a book 2 to come along
LibraryThing member AliceaP
I was working on a list of books to read after finishing WandaVision and this book popped up as a possible option....
The reader follows Anna who is a temp hench (low level grunt worker for villains) working for a mid-level villain called the Electric Eel as a data analyst. When she becomes
I really enjoyed this book (excepting the last 30 odd pages which I'll get to in a moment) because it was fast-paced, full of action, and had a storyline that felt believable because of its mundane look at accounting/data analysis. (As a former accountant, I totally vibed with that aspect.) Anna's journey to get revenge is focused and obsessive but the way that she sets about it made sense (and devastating results). What I didn't love so much was the way that the story wrapped up. It was over-the-top and suddenly it felt like the world which had been rooted in reality (as much as it can with superpowers and the like) was turned on its head. It also got extremely and graphically violent to the point it felt ridiculously overdone and campy. I had really expected and hoped for a fully fleshed out ending that wrapped things up in a satisfying way...but I don't feel like that's what I got. (The last few pages in particular annoyed me with their almost rushed quality and ambiguity.) I haven't looked at other people's reviews yet to see if I'm alone in my opinion but I feel cheated by that ending. :-/
The reader follows Anna who is a temp hench (low level grunt worker for villains) working for a mid-level villain called the Electric Eel as a data analyst. When she becomes
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collateral damage at the hands of a the superhero Super-Collider, Anna begins a deep dive into the consequences of coming into contact with the so-called 'good guys'. What she discovers changes the course of her life as she aligns herself with a supervillain who believes that the key to coming out on top is to 'unmask' the heroes and show the world that they've placed their trust on the wrong side.I really enjoyed this book (excepting the last 30 odd pages which I'll get to in a moment) because it was fast-paced, full of action, and had a storyline that felt believable because of its mundane look at accounting/data analysis. (As a former accountant, I totally vibed with that aspect.) Anna's journey to get revenge is focused and obsessive but the way that she sets about it made sense (and devastating results). What I didn't love so much was the way that the story wrapped up. It was over-the-top and suddenly it felt like the world which had been rooted in reality (as much as it can with superpowers and the like) was turned on its head. It also got extremely and graphically violent to the point it felt ridiculously overdone and campy. I had really expected and hoped for a fully fleshed out ending that wrapped things up in a satisfying way...but I don't feel like that's what I got. (The last few pages in particular annoyed me with their almost rushed quality and ambiguity.) I haven't looked at other people's reviews yet to see if I'm alone in my opinion but I feel cheated by that ending. :-/
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LibraryThing member RandyMetcalfe
Anna is a temp. Actually she’s a minor minion of ne’erdowells, a hench, in other words, working short-term contracts. It’s not great work but it pays the bills. Sometimes. Anna’s life and work changes when she takes a data entry contract with the Electric Eel. He’s really more of a
This is a fun read. It’s rather like a children’s animated film novelization, with larger than life heroes and zeroes. It’s full of gags, spit takes, and snarky one liners. And despite the comic book violence, it’s basically very PG. It has an interesting premise but not a thoroughly thought through consideration of either its own premise or the metaphysics that makes a world with heroes possible. Anna’s gift for casuistry is disguised as a near-scientific calculus of collateral damage. Of course it’s nonsense, but, in the context of the novel, at least it’s fun nonsense.
Structurally things happen rather repetitively here, even the gags. So it can feel like a longer novel than maybe it really is as we wait for the literal punch line. A bit of fun, but not so much as to warrant passing on to others.
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wish-I-was-really-bad guy. But his ineptitude inadvertently puts Anna in harms way. Or more precisely, in invincible superhero Supercollider’s way. As she is brushed aside by the “hero” her leg shatters and so does the rest of her life. Fortunately, once she is on the mend, she finds new employment with a villain who knows better how to put her unique talents to work, Leviathan. It can only be a matter of time before an ultimate showdown is on its way.This is a fun read. It’s rather like a children’s animated film novelization, with larger than life heroes and zeroes. It’s full of gags, spit takes, and snarky one liners. And despite the comic book violence, it’s basically very PG. It has an interesting premise but not a thoroughly thought through consideration of either its own premise or the metaphysics that makes a world with heroes possible. Anna’s gift for casuistry is disguised as a near-scientific calculus of collateral damage. Of course it’s nonsense, but, in the context of the novel, at least it’s fun nonsense.
Structurally things happen rather repetitively here, even the gags. So it can feel like a longer novel than maybe it really is as we wait for the literal punch line. A bit of fun, but not so much as to warrant passing on to others.
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LibraryThing member humouress
{Stand alone? Urban fantasy, superheroes, contemporary} (2020)
What if superheroing were run like a business and so, therefore, would supervillaining also be. And, to help them in their dastardly deeds, what if supervillains and other calibres of villains, employed people - known as henches
“Anna Tromedlov,” I croaked.
“Am I speaking with . . . the Palindrome?”
(Her surname is always being mangled and, yes, her dating life fails to launch. Don’t expect romance here - though she fancies a few people - but there are some good friendships.)
Initially she survives from temp job to job analysing data and working remotely but when she takes her first step to working in the office of a minor villain, she ends up being caught in the crossfire, so to speak, when a team of superheroes (including Supercollider, the most famous hero) foils one of his schemes. While recuperating, she idly starts calculating the cost of the damage of that incident which she then extends to other superhero rescues and starts a blog which brings her to the attention of Leviathan, The supervillain, who offers her a permanent job. Then she can really bring her talents to bear against superheroes.
I must say, the incidental damage that occurs in superhero films always makes me wince, imagining what that kind of destruction would cause and cost in a normal person's life.
A budding restaurateur whose business was physically demolished by an errant eye laser. A makeup artist blinded by psionics. A parade of mortified flesh: burned, crushed, frozen, liquified. Buildings people saved years or decades to afford reduced to rubble by a hero blundering through. The endless reams of psychological damage. A litany of heroes leaving trauma blossoming in their wake.
Walschots expands that idea to henches - people who may be on the bad guys' team but are only there to earn a living and who are considered expendable by the villains they work for and by the heroes who disregard them as collateral damage.
'My point is just, if we're willing to tolerate that, who is going to care about a temp worker's spiral fracture?'
Or a photographer's spinal injury. I let that unspoken sentence hang. The journalist's experience had been similar to mine; Supercollider had learned so much of his manner and affect and approach from his old hero. Proton was vaguely apologetic, but once he was satisfied that the young photographer he had catastrophically injured wasn't a threat (with no aspirations to villainy), the hero forgot about McKinnon entirely.
She also casts a pejorative eye at the bureaucracy, in her world (where everyone is tested in school for superpowers and heroes, villains, sidekicks and henches may be cybernetically enhanced), that creates and supports superheroes.
Supercollider had a great deal in common with a diamond: aesthetically tacky; value artificially ascribed by corporate greed; cultural significance vastly overinflated; and incredibly hard to damage.
(um - she really doesn't like Supercollider, who caused her lifelong injuries)
Granted this story is told from the point of support staff to villains, so you do have to suspend your moral judgment (I assume you have one?); having done which, there are some very amusing moments. (The one that startled me into laughing out loud is too spoilerish to quote here, unfortunately.) I did find some moments a little bit ... squicky, especially towards the end (so a quarter star off for overenthusiastic vindictiveness. Even if it is 'for the greater good').
Walschots pokes fun at several superhero tropes such as superhero/ villain speeches
'Have you ever met him, Quantum?'
She looked utterly startled. 'Of course! We've fought -'
'No. Like when you were not trying to kill each other. Has he ever actually exchanged words with you.' She opened her mouth to speak. 'Delivering a monologue in the third person does not count, nor do general threats.'
'Oh. No.' She pressed her lips together and frowned, furrowing her brow and trying to think. 'We've never - no. I don't think so.'
or Quantum Entanglement, the Maori superhero Anna admires the most (or, even, at all) having to relocate to the USA from New Zealand. Because all superheroes live and work in the USA.
I did like the way ladies are portrayed and one, especially 'whom he'd kept under his thumb for the better part of twelve years', really finds her feet.
Despite the story being about supervillains/ superheroes, I can't see it appealing to kids given that it centres around working in an office, running spreadsheets and, to some extent, office culture. And (my parent-mode is going down still fighting) there is a lot of casual swearing.
This was an unusual idea (for me, anyway), grippingly told. This felt like this told Anna's story and is complete in itself ... but I do wonder which of her options she's going to choose to explore next. There was a really good idea mentioned near the end and I'd be interested in that story.
4.75 stars
just noting some quotes, before my Overdrive book expires:
She raised a perfect, threaded eyebrow. The Meat eating the sandwich unconsciously let his arm waver, and a tomato slid out from between the bread and hit the floor. Shirtless grabbed a tea towel and tried to hide his naked chest behind it.
I cleared my throat. It seemed to snap them out of their shock enough to hustle out, Shirtless still demurely trying to hide behind the tiny square of cotton towel.
What if superheroing were run like a business and so, therefore, would supervillaining also be. And, to help them in their dastardly deeds, what if supervillains and other calibres of villains, employed people - known as henches
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(supplying brain power) or Meat (likewise for brawn) in their companies? Our heroine ... er ... villainess, Anna, is one such hench.“Anna Tromedlov,” I croaked.
“Am I speaking with . . . the Palindrome?”
(Her surname is always being mangled and, yes, her dating life fails to launch. Don’t expect romance here - though she fancies a few people - but there are some good friendships.)
Initially she survives from temp job to job analysing data and working remotely but when she takes her first step to working in the office of a minor villain, she ends up being caught in the crossfire, so to speak, when a team of superheroes (including Supercollider, the most famous hero) foils one of his schemes. While recuperating, she idly starts calculating the cost of the damage of that incident which she then extends to other superhero rescues and starts a blog which brings her to the attention of Leviathan, The supervillain, who offers her a permanent job. Then she can really bring her talents to bear against superheroes.
I must say, the incidental damage that occurs in superhero films always makes me wince, imagining what that kind of destruction would cause and cost in a normal person's life.
A budding restaurateur whose business was physically demolished by an errant eye laser. A makeup artist blinded by psionics. A parade of mortified flesh: burned, crushed, frozen, liquified. Buildings people saved years or decades to afford reduced to rubble by a hero blundering through. The endless reams of psychological damage. A litany of heroes leaving trauma blossoming in their wake.
Walschots expands that idea to henches - people who may be on the bad guys' team but are only there to earn a living and who are considered expendable by the villains they work for and by the heroes who disregard them as collateral damage.
'My point is just, if we're willing to tolerate that, who is going to care about a temp worker's spiral fracture?'
Or a photographer's spinal injury. I let that unspoken sentence hang. The journalist's experience had been similar to mine; Supercollider had learned so much of his manner and affect and approach from his old hero. Proton was vaguely apologetic, but once he was satisfied that the young photographer he had catastrophically injured wasn't a threat (with no aspirations to villainy), the hero forgot about McKinnon entirely.
She also casts a pejorative eye at the bureaucracy, in her world (where everyone is tested in school for superpowers and heroes, villains, sidekicks and henches may be cybernetically enhanced), that creates and supports superheroes.
Supercollider had a great deal in common with a diamond: aesthetically tacky; value artificially ascribed by corporate greed; cultural significance vastly overinflated; and incredibly hard to damage.
(um - she really doesn't like Supercollider, who caused her lifelong injuries)
Granted this story is told from the point of support staff to villains, so you do have to suspend your moral judgment (I assume you have one?); having done which, there are some very amusing moments. (The one that startled me into laughing out loud is too spoilerish to quote here, unfortunately.) I did find some moments a little bit ... squicky, especially towards the end (so a quarter star off for overenthusiastic vindictiveness. Even if it is 'for the greater good').
Walschots pokes fun at several superhero tropes such as superhero/ villain speeches
'Have you ever met him, Quantum?'
She looked utterly startled. 'Of course! We've fought -'
'No. Like when you were not trying to kill each other. Has he ever actually exchanged words with you.' She opened her mouth to speak. 'Delivering a monologue in the third person does not count, nor do general threats.'
'Oh. No.' She pressed her lips together and frowned, furrowing her brow and trying to think. 'We've never - no. I don't think so.'
or Quantum Entanglement, the Maori superhero Anna admires the most (or, even, at all) having to relocate to the USA from New Zealand. Because all superheroes live and work in the USA.
I did like the way ladies are portrayed and one, especially 'whom he'd kept under his thumb for the better part of twelve years', really finds her feet.
Despite the story being about supervillains/ superheroes, I can't see it appealing to kids given that it centres around working in an office, running spreadsheets and, to some extent, office culture. And (my parent-mode is going down still fighting) there is a lot of casual swearing.
This was an unusual idea (for me, anyway), grippingly told. This felt like this told Anna's story and is complete in itself ... but I do wonder which of her options she's going to choose to explore next. There was a really good idea mentioned near the end and I'd be interested in that story.
4.75 stars
just noting some quotes, before my Overdrive book expires:
She raised a perfect, threaded eyebrow. The Meat eating the sandwich unconsciously let his arm waver, and a tomato slid out from between the bread and hit the floor. Shirtless grabbed a tea towel and tried to hide his naked chest behind it.
I cleared my throat. It seemed to snap them out of their shock enough to hustle out, Shirtless still demurely trying to hide behind the tiny square of cotton towel.
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LibraryThing member miken32
As other reviewers have mentioned, this is a fun book and treats it’s subject lightly a lot of the time. But it’s also a very interesting look at trauma and how its aftereffects can shape a person’s life going forward. Anna’s injuries, which will follow her for the rest of her life, are the
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driving motivation for her actions throughout the latter two thirds of the book, and it’s very sad to see what they driver her to. Show Less
LibraryThing member Shrike58
While some folks have applied the description "fun" to this debut novel, that Walschot has commented on how "too much evil and misery takes place in the name of heroism," should tell you that there is some serious satire in play here. So, instead of a hero's journey, one has the twisted path of how
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our protagonist, a woman who has drifted into the "gig" economy providing administrative support to assorted mid-tier villains, becomes a catalyst to a plot to take down the dominant superhero team, mostly by using the tools of data analysis and social media warfare, to spectacular affect. I'm not going to say much more than that, except to also second that Walschot has a knack of body horror that will be a deterrent some readers to picking up this book, but I thought that this was a great deconstruction of superhero tropes under modern conditions. I'll be very interested in seeing what Walschot does with this setting in the future (she is trying to pull together a follow-up). Show Less
LibraryThing member LibraryCin
2.5 stars
Anna works for a temp agency that finds people to work for villains. She doesn’t particularly like “field work”; she prefers to work at a desk, instead. When she decides to branch out and do some field work, instead, she ends up injured and on crutches for months. During this time,
Ok, I’m not much for superhero stories, anyway. I had hoped to like this one more, but I think it just wasn’t my “thing”. There were parts that were interesting, but mostly I just wasn’t all that interested. I also didn’t quite agree with her hypothesis – yes, there is some collateral damage to innocents, but much of it is to the “bad guys”, anyway. The guys who are intentionally trying to do bad things to innocents! The author’s note at the end was interesting, though.
Anna works for a temp agency that finds people to work for villains. She doesn’t particularly like “field work”; she prefers to work at a desk, instead. When she decides to branch out and do some field work, instead, she ends up injured and on crutches for months. During this time,
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she does research and some calculations to figure out that heroes actually do more collateral damage (she figured out the math!) than it’s worth. So, she decides, when she can work again, she will find a way to bring down those heroes. Ok, I’m not much for superhero stories, anyway. I had hoped to like this one more, but I think it just wasn’t my “thing”. There were parts that were interesting, but mostly I just wasn’t all that interested. I also didn’t quite agree with her hypothesis – yes, there is some collateral damage to innocents, but much of it is to the “bad guys”, anyway. The guys who are intentionally trying to do bad things to innocents! The author’s note at the end was interesting, though.
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LibraryThing member JJbooklvr
What a fun book! It plays with superhero tropes in new ways as we see the story through the eyes of a hench, who does temp work for villains. Her particular specialty is working with spreadsheets. And as crazy as that sounds it works perfectly here. This was a case too where the narrator did a
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great job of bringing out the personality of the main character. The book has a B movie vibe with tons of action and humor that keeps the pace moving along at a good clip. Highly recommended if this sounds at all interesting to anyone. Show Less
LibraryThing member fionaanne
Conceptually, this is genius. But, as the author acknowledges in the acknowledgements, she's not so good with feelings and this is reflected in the book. It doesn't distract plot-wise since there's so much to be entertained by, but I felt the characters lacked emotional depth.
Highly recommended and
Highly recommended and
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I eagerly await Walschots next literary foray. Show Less
LibraryThing member andreas.wpv
Ah clear "meh" from me for Hench. Great start, funny, entertaining, fast paced, and a very different setting for superheros.
It started to slow down halfway, the reversed roles seemed to reverse to right themselves (villains being heroes turning kind of bad again), and after an interesting showdown
It started to slow down halfway, the reversed roles seemed to reverse to right themselves (villains being heroes turning kind of bad again), and after an interesting showdown
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an unenthusiastic ending. Show Less
LibraryThing member booklove2
Anna is a hench (or henchman) to the mysterious villain Leviathan, after many years being hired by a temp agency for villains. When things go awry, Anna begins to calculate the toll that even the heroes take on everyone -- the lives and years lost, like the aftermath of a natural disaster. Much
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like what the Avengers are faced with... the civilian deaths their battles have caused (but only, you know, after a number of these films have piled up and they must question the consequences of their own actions). But the heroes in 'Hench' don't seem to notice what they do. There are some plot holes however, like what about the tally of damage that the villains specifically do, you know, since villains are actually intentionally trying to cause chaos? Anna isn't doing the villain math. I must say, the "hero" here is terrifying, much like the "hero" Homelander from 'The Boys' is terrifying. They'd be best buds. I would have also loved to see more backstory to really any of these characters -- most of them tend to exist only in the office. Read this if you like the shows 'Legion', 'The Boys', Alan Moore's 'Watchmen' or for a comedy spin 'Powerless' featuring two of my favorite humans: Ron Funches and Danny Pudi. These shows (and graphic novels) catch the spirit of 'Hench'. But none of these things are specifically from the viewpoint of a HENCHMAN. I'm comparing this book to things that aren't books, because as far as my brainpan is aware of things, there aren't other books like this yet. (To be honest, it is easier for me to keep up with shows than read ALL the books... or graphic novels.) This book is zippy and fun despite all the villainy, the perfect distraction for these times and you can't deny that the perspective of a villain's hench is a new one. If a sequel is written (and there might be), I'm there. If 'Hench' becomes a show or movie, I'm there. I'm very glad I found this one. Show Less