THE USE OF POWER

Aliens select a man of decency and courage to receive a magical suit in order to combat the murderous mayhem afflicting our world.

Sumner’s fantasy opens to a familiar scenario–the United States is at war in Iraq and Afghanistan; the president has been seated with the help of the Supreme Court; the vice president and cabinet are forces of darkness; and the supreme commander is itching to bomb Iran back to its prenuclear condition. Our hero is Damon Hawker, who has a choirboy clarity about right and wrong, a rather alarming disregard for personal safety, a low batting average when it comes to the opposite sex and no truck for the abuse of power and authority. Sumner slowly but surely drapes a mantle of nobility upon Damon’s shoulders and just as surely terminates his chaste, fleeting relations with women, where his humility truly becomes a fault. In an abrupt turn of events, Damon is contacted by intergalactic aliens who give him a special suit–bulletproof, cloaked with invisibility, sensory-enhancing, high-speed and anti-gravitational–and ask that he use it to bring peace to the planet. That he does, thwarting terrorists here and kidnappers there, in Africa and the Middle East, coming to the aid of disaster victims and ensuring that the United States starts to embrace the principles of its Constitution. Elements of this story are fun to the point of being camp–Damon lecturing a suicide bomber on the finer points of the Koran, for example–and he is a likable, minorly flawed character. But the tale lacks dramatic propulsion. There is little suspense since Damon’s suit allows him to do anything he chooses, without an Achilles’ heel to introduce vulnerability and doubt. And although the twist regarding the First Lady’s provides some nice irony near the conclusion, it comes out of nowhere to tidy things up and prevents Damon from having to make a compelling decision.

This superhero is a bit too super.