A superpower anthology published by the Pen and Cape Society. As is typical of anthologies the thirteen short stores within had some unevenness of skill, but most of the writers have been doing this long enough the starting point is pretty high. Each of the story is from one of their superhero universes, and I didn't enjoy all the universes equally. Many of the stories end with the typical "stay tuned for next week", like a comic book serial magazine, but not all. I preferred the stories which were complete in and of themselves.

My favorite, of course, is "Omega Night" by Marion Harmon. I have been enjoying his Wearing the Cape series and picked up this anthology based on his work. As he also sells this story as a stand-alone, I wrote my full review of the story under that book.

"Bedtime Story" (by Scott Bachmann) was cute while also having a good moral, as any good bedtime story should.
"Two Hearts" (by Frank Byrns) sad and had virtually none of the normal superhero activity. More of a character study of humanity.
"Thawed" (by Jim Zoetewey) - did not like, just couldn't figure out what was happening with the story - definitely does not stand-alone without knowledge of that particular superhero universe.
"First Date" (by Cheyanne Young) annoyed me as a woman. Police entrapment is not really hero activity.
"Archenemy" on the other hand, may have me following up in Ian Healy's superhero universe.

I found "A Hero by Any Other Name" anthology by Silence in the Library edgier, with more unique stories. But if you want to get an overview, a taster of superhero novels and comics available on the web today, this is a great book to expose you to a bunch of new authors. ... Off to look ups Mr. Healy's stuff.

Picked up while free on Kindle to push the second anthology of the series The Good Fight 2: Villains.

Some of the other reviewers seemed to be irritated by the fact that these were merely shorts rather than full-sized novellas. It’s nice that it gives the reader a taste of each author. Admittedly I had reorganized my kindle by page count, so I knew how long the entire anthology was before I started and had been expecting everything to be relatively short. In all, I’d probably give this a 3, but some of the stories were a lot of fun, but overall this didn’t sell me in picking up The Good Fight 2: Villains.

Bedtime Story by Scott Bachman (I got bored quickly and skimmed it. Just a lot of action without really making the characters stand out any)

Two Hearts by Frank Byrns (I liked this one, but it did seem too drama-drama without much actually setting it as a superhero story. I did like the idea of partnered superheroes like Firestorm and how they’d have to deal with what happens when one moves on. But the story felt like either the end of a longer story or the beginning of a longer story, so I searched but couldn’t find anything by the author that connected to it).

Omega Night by Marion G. Harmon (Skipped it. I had read it already and didn’t need a repeat read. It reads like the fighter battle at the end of the original Star Wars movie-which I thought was rather boring in the movie itself. Not to mention there are even quotes from the movie to further drill home the resemblance between the two).

Zephyr Phase Zero by Warren Hately (Got irritated by it and ended up skipping over most of it. Sexist and negative language through the entire thing and I really didn’t care about the action since I didn’t like the hero who was a total pig. Not to mention that the story is about him trying to apprehend a super-rapist, distasteful subject).

Out of Mind by Drew Hayes (I liked the hero who’s stuck with the power of no one remembering him. The beginning and the ending were wonderful, how it really makes the reader feel for him not being able to have a life outside of the superhero biz, and some of the moments of him sneaking into the seedy building and not having people remember who he is once they look away. But the action was long, drawn out, and I ended up skimming most of it.)

Archenemy by Ian Thomas Healy (This one was entertaining. Speedster Mustang Sally recently arrived in New York City has to contend with another speedster who practically throws mud in her eye and challenges her to a duel. Endless action sequences, but it did keep the attention.)

Hunting Rabbits by Hydrargentium (I liked this one. Creative with the superhero powers, not that I haven’t seen heroes who can clone themselves before, but the reactions of others around him were fun).

The Fire of the Fly by Michael Ivan Lowell (This one was fun. It reminded me of the Batman vs Superman movie this summer with the moral question of if a person with that much power should be allowed to live after having a hand in far too much destruction in a major city. The girl in this one had a cult and a god-complex, along with being a teenager with questionable judgement.)

Firedrake: A Frosty Reception by T. Mike McCurley (I was bored with this from page 1. It read like an episode of yet another investigative crime show. I totally skipped over it).

Who is … the Whitecoat? By Landon Porter (Loved it! After reading it, I went so far as to try to track down the author and see if he had written any other installments of Whitecoat, which he had, so I’m definitely continuing my reading. After giving her a key to his apartment, the hero’s girlfriend catches him and he has to explain off why the superhero is there at her boyfriend’s apartment. What I liked most about this was the author’s hilarious sense of humor.)

Rocco by R.J. Ross (Fun introduction to the world of Capes High. The juvenile delinquent trying to be a hero was wonderfully amusing as bad things kept happening to him, and his subsequent attempts to get out of trouble).

First Date by Cheyenne Young (Honestly, this made me ashamed to consider myself female. Talk about a shallow heroine who uses her breasts as her main asset to mesmerize guys and obsesses on her shoes, clothes, guys, and friends (in that order). Made me go so far as to remove her other books from my Wish List.)

Thawed by Jim Zoetewey (Interesting, but then it totally lost me when the voices came in. It was interesting going from the point of view of the romance interest of the hero.)

Overall, this was an awesome sampling of short stories by many great authors in the Superhero genre.
This being a short story collection, there were a couple I didn’t enjoy as much which garnered the 4 out of 5 rating instead of the full 5. But that is more of a personal preference I think, as all were well written and left me wanting to either find out more about the author or the world the superhero was in.
My favorites: Omega Night by Marion G Harmon and Out of Mind by Drew Hayes.
Warning: Some of the stories contain cuss words (including the f bomb), so might not be appropriate for all audiences.

First be aware this is a collection of short stories by different authors. I found two I was not familiar with that I liked enough to buy a book they wrote - so this book being 'free' paid for itself. (I hope, anyway). The two writers that I particularly liked was Drew Hayes and Frank Byrnes, being already familiar with Marion G. Harmon, whom I also highly recommend. I will likely buy books by the others - but admit I found these stories the most appealing. You may find others more so, and the ones I liked the most are not even on your list - but if you like 'hero fiction' I am sure you will find some stories in this you like, and will likely find new writers whose work you would enjoy.

This is a collection of short stories, some are wonderfully written, some are barely average, none are bad. One story that I found particularly engrossing is "Out of Mind", by Drew Hayes. I will definitely be looking into more of this writer's work in the future. In terms of good, old-fashioned comic book superheroism, the finest tale in this collection is "Firedrake: A Frosty Reception", by T. Mike McCurley. A short, but interesting bit of experimental fiction is the opening tale, "Bedtime Story", by Scott Bachmann which features a retired superhero mother trying to entertain her children with a bedside story without going into too much gory detail.