So I’ve been re-reading John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids, a jolly young adult novel about religious fanaticism, ethnic cleansing, and race war in a post-apocalyptic, and remembering how compelling and yet how disturbing the book is. And then I was reminded that its topics of mutants and species war and the idea that according to nature, it is time for normal humans to die-out and be replaced by telepathic mutants really reminded me that Chrysalids has to be the favourite book of everyone’s favourite evil mutant, Magneto, the mad mutant master of magnetism. That got me thinking in my normal geek fashion: what’s the favourite book of various comic book heroes and villains.
Magneto: As mentioned before, he’d be drawn to the species war of John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids.
Professor X: he’d be more interested in T. H. White’s pacifism-cloaked-in-heroism of The Once and Future King, and would see a lot of himself in Merlyn, White’s pacifistic teacher of heroes.
Superman: As the comics tell us, he adores To Kill A Mockingbird.
Batman:Naturally, it would be the first appearance of his favourite hero: The Curse of Capistrano, better known as the Mark of Zorro
Dick Grayson: Likewise, Dick enjoys the most iconic version of his own favourite hero, as told in Howard Pyle’s The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood.
Captain America: He’s always been a sucker for far-out fantasy, especially when it has a strong message, and loves J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
Mad Hatter: Why, Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, of course.
Riddler: He favours the puzzles of Carroll’s Alice Through the Looking Glass.
Animal Man: He enjoys the compassion and strong animal rights message of Peter Dickinson’s Eva.