Heroes and Villains

In his new novel, The Destroyer, Graham P Clarke brings the worlds of Marvel and DC comics to England and describes a scenario that would have any of our familiar superheroes quaking in their tights - only

Why should the Americans have the monopoly on superheroes? Well, according to Graham P Clarke’s new novel, The Destroyer, they don’t. Indeed, superheroes can be as much at home on the streets of Newcastle as on the streets of New York.

The Destroyer recounts the tale of three college students from Newcastle - Greg (who is half alien), Steven and Amy who discover that they have super-powers. On the other side of Europe, in Romania, prize-winning scientist Adrian Domescu has lost his girlfriend and family, gunned down by gangsters. In order to bring them back to life he has to somehow source the powers of the Geordie superheroes. In doing so, he would destroy the world, but his obsession is such that nothing will stop him, not even the thought of committing the most atrocious, evil acts in order to attain his ends. This results in the three friends having to do battle with a host of ruthless adversaries, from the Ku Klux Klan, to Henry VIII, to Samurai warriors to a Nazi contingent. Then, when they think that their ordeal is over, the mad scientist takes another tack and takes control of Greg in order to torment his friends with a cast of demon animals. The fight against evil becomes relentless.

The Destroyer is full-on fantasy adventure in the truest, logic-defying sense of the word: language is fluid in response the amorphous nature of events as they occur and structure is provided by the narrative itself. The novel includes gripping episodes of grotesque proportions and moments of dry humour. But, more than that, it is a deeply moral story about good and evil, about self-esteem and how there are greater powers than those of superheroes, and how bullying and the abuse of power are wrong.

In his first novel Graham P Clarke is sending out a clear message about the simple values of right and wrong, of self-belief and of common decency.