Becoming Superman

I’ve known Joe since high school, since 1971, and he gives me bit parts in a few of the dark chapters here, neither as a good guy nor a villain, but as a witness. Allow me to offer one more small witness: You might be inclined to receive the details of Joe’s personal story as exaggerations, dramatic hyperbole, especially coming as they do from the pen of a science fiction writer of his stature, his towering creativity. Please resist that inclination.

In the few episodes with which I’m personally familiar Joe does the opposite. He soft-pedals. He lets the villains off easy and accepts more than his actual share of responsibility for catastrophe. He would have been amply justified if he’d come down much, much harder on the people who hurt him. One of them was my late father and I was there for the story.

I can only assume Joe does the same in the rest of the book. If he says his father was a bastard, then his father was more than likely a far worse bastard even that Joe lets on. If Joe praises his high school teachers, then you can be assured they were very, very good teachers. One more witness: They were indeed great teachers. I studied under both of them for three years and taught alongside them in later years.

My father was a monster. As a fan whos seen J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) at a number of appearances, Id heard those words and imagined the worst father Id ever known or heard of. I couldnt have been more wrong. He was far worse than that.

Year by year, step by step, JMS describes every conscious decision he made, even while extremely young, that would form him into the man he wanted to be, not what seemed destined by family and society. Leavened with snark and humor, the book is gripping and avoids the unrelenting grimness that it might otherwise have had.

While the family secrets and the odds against JMS success are a major thread, never think that thats what the book is about. The real story is about the man, his decisions, his determination and willingness to face fears and do the right thing. Whether youre a fan of his work or never heard of him before, this is a book well worth your time.

Before “Becoming Superman” if you wanted to experience the mind of JMS in one document it was

The Babylon 5 Encyclopedia (Hand-Signed by J. Michael Straczynski)

which takes 5,000 entries to detail just one of Straczynski’s universes.

“Becoming Superman” is about his personal universe and just as important because this is the story that fans don’t know anything about. That said, being familiar with Straczynski’s work is helpful (you know way more than you realize) but not a prerequisite. He’s a storyteller. And in this book he’s telling *his* story. The content is horrifying and inspirational and the writing is just as exceptional as you’d expect.

I’ve been a B5 fan from the author’s earliest posts about the show on Usenet, and that led me to JMS the rest of his work. I’d been looking forward to this book for months, ever since he announced it on his Twitter feed. He warned everyone that his childhood had been very difficult, and hinted at some of the problems, but that doesn’t begin to do them justice.

As it turns out, JMS has a gift for understatement. Let this be the mother of all trigger warnings by saying you need to make it through the first 27% of the book (according to my Kindle reader) before the most unrelenting, abject horror I’ve ever encountered lets up enough for you to believe that he’ll even survive, much less go on to become successful. His mother was severely damaged both physically and emotionally, but his father was a monster who is hopefully roasting in hell for all eternity. Growing up in that family was a nightmare so horrible that if this had been a novel instead of real life, I can imagine Stephen King repeatedly saying, “dude, enough, you need to tone it down.” It’s frankly a miracle that JMS not only lived through it, but was intact enough to find a way to go on.

He did make it, though, and the story is amazing. His battles with animation companies, Hollywood executives, and more demonstrate how he was willing on multiple occasions to walk away rather than compromise his integrity. His ability to sacrifice everything in order to write his way out of any difficulties is inspiring, and his successes give you hope that eventually the good guys do win. The best part, though, may be the extraordinary act of courage necessary to write this book at all, given the strict code of secrecy that surrounded his family, which all too many of us can identify with.

It’s a brilliant book. You just have to get through that first 27% to know it.

I had just read a quite dark book and thought “Ahh, now for something lighter”. How wrong could I have been when I first started turning those pages. JMS’s upbringing is nothing short of harrowing. I had tears at various points, I admit… both at the sad moments but also the brighter moments like the tale involving a pipe.

This book is the definition of autobiography. It is very much JMS himself front and centre, interwoven with his career. Being a master storyteller he manages to weave the two sides into a narrative that makes perfect sense and you can’t have one without the other.

Being greedy I would have liked more, particularly around B5. More about the cast and production, but I need to remind myself this is not a B5 behind the scenes book it’s an autobiography.

I daresay that the book could be picked up by anyone, someone who hadn’t even seen his work, as the story stands so strongly in its own right with a narrative that spans countries over various decades.

I am avoiding any detail as I feel readers need to go in with a clean mind and let the story unfold for themselves. But this is a tale of sadness, happiness, perseverance and one ultimately of hope. I cannot recommend it enough.

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member