Enemies and Allies sets forth a comic book thriller set in the early 1950s, creating a weird time frame with both Batman and Superman just a couple of years into their superhero gigs (even though both origins are one or two decades earlier, respectively). They're both still figuring out how to make their own lives work when they both stumble upon a plot involving Lex Luthor, a rogue Communist general, Area 51, unbelievably advanced technology, and, they each believe, the other vigilante. This makes them enemies. Until they, inevitably, become allies.

This is a cool setup. And I wanted it to work. There are some nice mid-century touches. The novel format should allow us a bit deeper into each man's head than a comic usually does. I liked the chance to play amateur psychologist with these guys.

But the writing gets in the way, and so does the plot. There are huge sections where the author seems to have forgotten the old writing chestnut: show, don't tell. He explains everything. Sometimes before something happens. Sometimes without giving a plausible chain of events. Things just happen. This managed to ruin any chance I had of enjoying the formulaic plot, which seemed borrowed from any number of sources, including Watchmen.

With interesting storytelling, I could have easily lost myself in the hackneyed plot and allowed it to unfold. Instead, I found myself almost screaming, just tell the story, and then skipping over whole sections where I was pretty sure I knew what was going on (especially the pointless Lois Lane and Jimmy Olson side plots). Anderson must be a better writer than this, otherwise they wouldn't keep letting him into major franchises like Dune, Star Wars, and Star Trek. But I almost felt like he was writing down a couple of grade levels, down to the level of someone's idea of today's early adolescents. But the book is not marketed that way and was not worthy of the knowledgeable, educated comic fans, both teen and adult, who are the book's real target audience. ( )

I loved the 1950s setting. ( )

Enemies and Allies by Kevin J. Anderson is an interesting alternate history look, not only for Batman and Superman’s first meeting but also a new look at the USA of the 1950s, complete with the Cold War and banging shoes at the UN by a certain Russian (nope, not Khrushchev!).

Anderson wrote Last Days of Krypton and then wrote E&A right afterwards, but E&A cannot really be considered a sequel. It stands on its own.

I was impressed how he portrayed Batman as a brooding man who is prepared for anything and makes no assumptions. The “Dark Knight” aspect of Batman was not introduced until the 1980s or so, so to see this in the 1950s was surprising. (Comics history note: the 1950s Batman was fighting alien invaders and wearing rainbow colors with his sidekick Robin. No Robin in this alternate!).

Superman has a few run-ins with Lois Lane as he tries to figure out the lovelorn column for the Daily Planet. Even with all his powers (he thinks), he cannot solve these troubling relationship problems. This part of the story is trying to humanize Clark Kent but it comes off as a page filler. Not a lot of character development here. Not even when we meet Ma Kent and Superman tells his mom his troubles – could have left this on the editing floor, Kevin!

The crux of the story centers around Lex Luthor, a corporate magnate who has Wayne Enterprises’ directors in his pocket and collects all sorts of stolen data for his defense contracts.

A kryptonite meteor is being mined by the Russians. It is interesting that this story shows Superman as new to Kryptonite and he weakens at the close proximity to the stuff. Will Batman use it as well?

Neither Batman nor Superman trust each other but they help each other anyway with a common enemy afoot. Tossing nuclear missiles is the least of Superman’s worries!

Bottom Line:

Unfair criticism of Anderson by some reviews as far as character development is concerned but heck, it reads as a comic book and isn’t that the point?

Mixing real corporate espionage with two iconic characters and then creating an alternate history with Luthor’s megalomania and secret Russian spies makes for some fun reading. It’s fast and fun, but probably only good enough to read once.
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Very much enjoyed this one. I thought the way the characters were "inserted" into the 1950's was interesting and well done; the plot was very realistic for the setting and the character's involvement in the events made plenty of sense to me. Overall, a fun read! ( )

Great fun. Perfect genre fiction. Light and entertaining reading. Superman is okay. (But batman is awesome!) ( )