Holy Multi-Hyphenates! Perry Moore's HERO Now in Paperback

Forget It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Superman! Try He writes! He surfs! He exec produces! Meet Perry Moore. The man who got Narnia to the big screen wrote his first book to redress the lack of gay superheroes in YA fiction. Hero is the story of high school basketball player Thom Creed who keeps his sexuality and his emerging supernatural abilities a secret from his father, himself a disgraced former caped crusader. As a secret apprentice to a league of heroes, Thom saves lives and battles villains. As a teenager, he's benched by a hostile coach and his first anonymous hookup stops with a kiss. Circumstances demand he come out publicly but more trouble awaits. No longer in the league, he starts his own group of would-be heroes and overcomes additional struggles on his way to an affirming ending. (Perry Moore plans a sequel.)

School Library Journal said, "...once the action picks up, Hero becomes a real page-turner that is worth the wait." Stan Lee raved, "Wow! This totally original, can’t-put-it-down page turner is more than a terrific read, it’s an unforgettable experience—not to be missed!" 

A movie of Hero is said to be in the works. Moore's next novel is about triplets who are werewolves. His extreme disappointment with Wolverine being a lunchbox role model even though he slaughtered Northstar, Marvel's token gay superhero, is just one compelling reason to read this interview. Another reason:

I have always been enthralled with comic books and superheroes, and I've always believed there should be a gay superhero. Not as a joke, not as a supporting character, not as a victim, not as a token, but as a real front-and-center hero. I've always been surprised by how few gay heroes there are in comic books, and I decided I would write the definitive coming-of-age story of the world's first gay teen superhero. I was very surprised by the low number of gay characters in comic books. Every other barrier has been broken in comics: race, gender, class, physical challenges. But gay characters remain few and far between. Too few and far between to be killed off so regularly, without bringing attention to some rather ugly publishing trends.