I rarely listen to fiction. I prefer to read the story - if I listen to it, I am hearing the voice and the understanding and emotion of the reader and my understanding might be different. But Escape Pod is publishing some original fiction so now and then I check for new stories and if a name, author or extract interests me, I do not really have a choice, do I?

Origin Story is obviously a superhero story. The part printed on the Escape Pod page and the name of the story make it more than clear. In the aftermath of the successful films based on comics lately, these stories seem to be showing up more often than you can find a mushroom after rain...  So this was not so unexpected but something in the few published lines sounded different so I gave it a try. And never regretted doing it.

Origin Story is a love letter to the comics genre. The premise is not that original, nor is the history. What makes this story different is not what it says but how it says it and what it does not say.

The story is told with the voice of the brother of a superhero who is doing an interview. Whom with will come clear towards the end of the story. And for most of the story, we hear how the Aerialist (which is the name of the hero) had become a superhero. And every single line in this story, every action reflects what had happened in the story of most of the superheroes - from the Golden Age, through the Silver Age and all the way to today's reincarnations. From the superheroes that were relying only on what they had through all the gadgets to the ones that change their physical appearances so they can be what they want to be. Almost anything that had been said was getting in my mind a comics or a hero or an episode from one of the long running titles. The Multiverse, the parallel worlds, superheroes stuck in some other times and places, changes in the continuity that makes some people non-existent and at the same time being there - if you had been keeping an eye on the comics of DC or Marvel, all these are triggering memories. The story of a whole industry in a story of a single person. The final twist came as a surprise - thinking about it I should have expected it - this is where the story of comics went so it was normal the story to get there.

I am not sure if this story will work that well for someone that is not a comics fan. I cannot ignore what I know or to stop all the associations that come from it. I really liked it. It was like meeting again all the superheroes I had ever read about, reminding me of things I had long forgotten. A little magic to get you back in time.

The story can be heard here

PS: And after listening to the story, wait to hear also the song at the end (or fast forward to it). It's really a nice piece of music.