Book picks similar to
Big In Japan by Casey Glanders


urban-fantasy
superheroes
japan
superhero-trolling

Super


Karen Diem - 2016
    As a result, the second-to-last thing she expected was to wake from a spontaneous coma, quarantined, and with super powers she has to hide from everyone, including her family. Now Zita must master her new abilities while dodging kidnappers, evading government inquiries, and finding her missing brother. The only thing weirder would have been if the blind date had gone well. Super is the first in the Arca superhero urban fantasy series, and as a movie, would be rated "R" for immoderate language, lame sexual innuendo, comic book violence, and sheer length (approximately 110,500 words).

Training in Necessity


J. Clevenger - 2015
    However, they each have two things in common, super powers and their recent admittance to the Citadel program. As members of the Citadel’s newest class of recruits, they will be taught to utilize their powers, and their bodies, to their utter limits. The Citadel’s mission is simple. Halt the world’s slow slide into ruin. They each have a part to play, but will it be enough?

Legacy


Jon Davis - 2012
    About to graduate high school, he has all of life to look forward to with college, parties, and girls.But a giant asteroid changes all that when it threatens to destroy all life on Earth. In only days, Vaughn, his family, and his friends are forced to confront the fact that everything ends. And nothing human can change it.Until the Avatar rises.For humanity, the world is saved when a young hero, Alex Shaw, literally flies into space, to smash the asteroid, Yama, apart. He is given the name, Avatar.But for Vaughn, it is the start of a completely new age. For Alex did not just stop an asteroid. In some strange way, humanity changes, and some, including Vaughn are empowered.Vaughn is soon caught up in the legacy that Alex leaves behind; a legacy that will lead Vaughn Hagen to become either a hero, or a victim to villainous dreams of power. Power that threatens to corrupt even his oldest friends.And ultimately, Vaughn must choose between home and friends in the new Age of Power.

Team Omega


Christopher G. Nuttall - 2015
     Superhumans! They fly through the skies like gods; superhumans, men and women who have gained extraordinary powers. Some are celebrities, some rule entire countries, some just try to lead normal lives … and some are criminals. Jackson McDonald, USMC, fought and killed a superhuman who threatened to tear Camp Pendleton apart. His reward is to be invited to join Team Omega, an elite black-ops military unit tasked with dealing with rogue superhumans. But one superhuman has plans. He will save the world, even if it doesn’t want to be saved… And no matter who tries to stop him.

They Tell Me I'm The Bad Guy


R.D. Harless - 2011
    Home. Work. Home. Drink. Smoke. Work. Home. It's a routine that's kept Donnie Guillory a free man ten years after one of the most shocking acts of Post-Human devastation the world had ever seen. Control, caution and a factory time clock run his life, his fireproof suit long ago moth-balled along with hazy drunken memories of tearing up Europe. But someone with abilities like his can't stay forgotten forever, and when he's dragged back into the murky life of manipulation and violence he's come to hate, he'll have the powers on both sides of the law shaking the earth to put him under their thumb. But if there's one thing Donnie's misspent youth taught him, it was that few problems can't be solved with cigarettes, felonies and a well-placed inferno.New Revised Edition uploaded 10/20/2012

The Villain's Sidekick


Stephen T. Brophy - 2013
    The job goes south in a hurry, and his supervillainous employer, Dr. Eye, is none-too-thrilled about it. But those complications are nothing compared to an unexpected custody visit from his six-year-old daughter, the kind of kid who thinks her deadbeat dad hung the moon, not tried to blow it up.

West Pacific Supers: Rising Tide


K.M. Johnson-Weider - 2011
    Would the superheroes change the world or would the world change the superheroes? It's 2013 and West Pacific Supers is the professional superhero team for the city of West Pacific in northern California. It's hard to know what's more dangerous for the members of West Pacific Supers: the supervillains out to destroy the city or the superazzi determined to uncover all of their dirty secrets. If juggling heroics and public relations weren't hard enough, the 2013 Season begins with a shocking death. Now new team members must be recruited to counter two major threats: a scientist with an insane plan that threatens California and an enemy from within West Pacific Supers itself. The team will succeed only after taming their massive egos and getting help from unlikely sources. Unfortunately, just like winning fame and fortune, beating the bad guys always comes at a heavy price.

In Hero Years... I'm Dead


Michael A. Stackpole - 2010
    I'm Dead is New York Times bestselling author Michael A. Stackpole's first Digital-Original novel.Twenty years ago someone stole him away from Capital City. Having been released from captivity he returns to find everything changed. The great heroes of his day, men who could move planets or tear apart criminal syndicates, have all retired. A new breed of hero has sprung up to deal with a perplexingly new brand of villain. It's a world that makes no sense, and a world which, if he persists in playing the hero, will surely see him dead.In Hero Years... I'm Dead mixes action, dark humor, satire and strong characters into a thrilling page-turner. It's superheroes facing challenges both in costume and out, battling a cunning enemy bent on destroying all they have worked so hard to preserve.The Deluxe Edition of In Hero Years... I'm Dead includes a long essay about the story's genesis and the author's process in writing it. It's full of insights about the labors of producing a novel and is a rare chance to look behind the scenes at how a book comes together.

The Astounding Antagonists


Rafael Chandler - 2014
    Agon, a megalomaniacal inventor with an arsenal of lethal gadgets. Motley, a wisecracking jewel thief with nothing left to lose. Chillpill, a cryogenic drug lord who just wants a normal life. Baelphegor, a demonic psychopath with an ugly score to settle. They're the most dangerous supervillains on Earth, and they're about to pull off the perfect crime. There's just one catch: if they succeed, they might accidentally save the world. From the skyscrapers of Apex City to the gates of Hell itself, the Antagonists are pursued by violent superheroes and billionaire vigilantes. But as loyalties are tested and old hatreds are rekindled, the line between friend and foe begins to blur...

The Lady in Chains (How to Survive Camping Book 2)


Bonnie Quinn - 2020
    

Subject 12 (Guild Files, Volume 1)


S.W. Douglas - 2010
    Unfortunately his ex-boss has other plans and drives him from hiding in a violent confrontation. In an attempt to get his bearings again, he seeks out his ex-girlfriend and finds himself getting drawn deeper and deeper into conflict with himself, his former employer, and the very 'heroes' he'd disdained for so long.

Playing for Keeps


Mur Lafferty - 2008
    The First Wave heroes are jerks, but they have the best gifts: flight, super strength, telepathy, genius, fire. The Third Wavers are stuck with the leftovers: the ability to instantly make someone sober, the power to smell the past, the grace to carry a tray and never drop its contents, the power to produce high-powered excrement blasts, absolute control...over elevators. Bar owner Keepsie Branson is a Third Waver with a power that prevents anything in her possession from being stolen. Keepsie and her friends just aren't powerful enough to make a difference. at least that's what they've always been told. But when the villain Doodad slips Keepsie a mysterious metal sphere, the Third Wavers become caught in the middle of a battle between the egotistical heroes and the manipulative villains. As Seventh City begins to melt down, it's hard to tell the good guys from the bad, and even harder to tell who may become the true heroes.

Unsung Villains (Valentine & Hart Book 2)


Missy Meyer - 2015
    A few months ago she was in a dead-end job, was hopelessly single, and she played video games just to inject a little bit of excitement into her life. That all changed the day she met Nathan Hart—not just a great romantic match, but also someone offering Sarah a job that included all the adventure she could possibly want.Of course, the fact that Nate’s job offer was with the infamous supervillain Doctor Oracle added to the thrill.Now a full-fledged member of Doctor Oracle’s team, Sarah’s added tons of new skills to her arsenal: from lock picking to hot-wiring a car to flying an airplane, she’s learned things over the last few months that would put her old résumé to shame. But now it’s time for her to step up and tackle the final hurdle to becoming a true equal in Oracle’s team: leading her own mission.Determined to do her best no matter what, Sarah will take on all the plotting and scheming for a job that gets more complicated at every turn, assisted by an unexpected new ally from the superhero side of the fence, Oracle’s team of skilled professionals, and a boyfriend whose constant threats to buy an engagement ring just might be serious. And somehow, that last part is the thing that makes her the most nervous.

The Point Man


Steve Englehart - 1981
    Now he’s a disc jockey, at one with the music and his faithful audience . . . until the day when he is swept into a battle invisible to all but the participants.For nearly five centuries, Cornelius Agrippa has fought against an evil that has threatened to corrupt and destroy everything good and untainted in the world. Now, Max has joined the battle. It wasn't his idea to fight a demonic entity that can become anything it wants: an undying monster or the most desirable woman in the world. Max has been chosen by fate to fight those who would use magick to destroy freedom and wreak havoc on an unsuspecting world. Along with Agrippa and Valerie Drake, a beautiful, talented singer, Max is the only hope of the free world.

GOON SQUAD 2014 Summer Special


Jonathan L. Howard - 2014
    The Goon Squad 2014 Summer Special contains an introduction to the Squad, and four short stories: "Red Wolf, Red Wolf, Does Whatever a Red Wolf Can," "Changes," "No-No Dojo," and "Tale of Terror." Join Puppet Girl, the Revenant, Red Wolf, and Talos as they protect the fairly innocent, are sharply critical about modern newspapers, talk to a door in Salford, and recount the day the city nearly blew up.