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The Marvel Universe: Origin Stories
The Marvel Stories
The new novel by Bruce Wagner
The new novel by Bruce Wagner
- GenresFiction
353 pages, Paperback
Published October 13, 2020
About the author
Bruce Wagner
42 books124 followersBruce Wagner is the author of The Chrysanthemum Palace (a PEN Faulkner fiction award finalist); Still Holding; I'll Let You Go (a PEN USA fiction award finalist); I'm Losing You; and Force Majeure. He lives in Los Angeles.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
December 3, 2021
ZERO-HOPER
If you get a thrill watching bad things happen to people, and then seeing how the bad things deepen, giving way to further bad things—then a surprise hole in the basement is broken through and you see characters fall into even worse fortunes that you didn’t even think about, and you can’t look away from what’s there, The Marvel Universe: Origin Stories and many other Bruce Wagner novels are for you.
The tale of how this un-PC novel came to be published on Wagner’s website brucewagner.la and put into the public domain has been recounted elsewhere on the web, including on his Wikipedia site, in YouTube interviews, and podcasts such as The Unspeakable Podcast, and will not be rehashed here.
The novel is a sort of tripartite anthology of linked stories regarding people both rich and poor in LA all dealing with the triple-Mammon (or is it Moloch?) of celebrity, wealth and drugs in our time. Wagner is well-known for tackling these subjects, but what he does with each novel is somehow make it fresh with further Dickensian complications and, crucially, up-to-the-millisecond cultural reference points; in this case we are dwelling in the current, ferocious cultural backwash of a country that has drunk deep from the blockbuster movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe alluded to in the title.
The first section recounts a love story between “Fat Joan” Gamma, an obese inheritrix of a fortune after her family is wiped out by a murderer, and Ali Nell, a mega-celebrity actress who has been diagnosed with ALS. Ali spends time avoiding contemplating her eventual fate as a “locked-in” husk by sedulously tending to her Instagram account, which we are treated to generous chunks of with sick, punny hashtags like #ALSnellThatEndsNell and #whynottakeALSofme. Celebrity cameos, which Wagner often deploys in his novels, multiply like a colony of hornets as the two women find their way through their lovers’ paradise in LA, which, as you might guess if you know Wagner’s prior fiction, is not a case of “all’s well that ends well.”
The second section details a set of con artists trying to rip off an auto magnate from Cleveland using sex and a cleverly-deployed Elon Musk-lookalike. The point-woman of the con is mother to a disturbed young girl unable to separate reality from fantasy, who thinks she is living in the MCU and that her father behind bars is Wolverine. This section was pitch-black Hollywood crime fiction peppered with outrageous, laugh-out-loud comedy, while managing to also be heartbreaking and punishingly sad.
The third and final section is about Garry Gabe Vicker, a famous and successful show runner of the Chuck Lorre ilk who finds himself in the path of the #MeToo juggernaut as he is accused of sexual harassment. His fate is entwined with that of Adele Cobain, a raunchy stand-up comedienne trying to make it big. Adele jokes that “I named myself that because after I lose a bunch of weight, I can do what I’ve wanted to since I was a kid: blow my brains out.” The contortions of celebrities trapped in the crosshairs of cancel culture artillery makes for some of the most trenchant and poisonous reading in the novel. The hidden linkages between Garry and Adele and her family are revealed in awful ways; coincidental interconnections between individuals a la Charles Dickens abound in the sprawling LA of Wagner’s dark imagination, and for me these linkages only occasionally strained credulity to the detriment of the novel.
Somewhere there exists a chart showing the exact distance between Bret Easton Ellis and Bruce Wagner. The distance is not especially far but crosses some crucial gradient: Wagner is more ornate, maximalist, and informed by the 19th century than Ellis is.
Wagner gets under my skin more than Ellis does. I’m not bothered by Ellis’s violence and affectless anomie. Ellis wrote about another planet of stupendous wealth and fame and another species of human. Wagner is writing about the same people, same area code. But Wagner’s bad vibes hit closer to home, perhaps because the inner lives of his characters, what they share with the hapless reader (who will never be in this stratosphere of fame), are encoded in a way that Ellis at least so far has never be capable of.
One wealthy real estate man and philanthropist privately scorns the naive efforts of those in his tax bracket to raise money fighting diseases like ALS which are “zero-hopers,” and hope is hard to find in a Bruce Wagner creation. Much is made in press about Wagner that he is trying to describe both the despair of current days—in America and specifically Hollywood—and the transcendence hiding between the blocks of despair like persistent vegetable life seeking the light. Wagner often invokes Buddhist teachings which stress impermanence and difficult extractions from the world of material being and suffering. Death, disease, greed, and perversion are ever present but somewhere there is meaning for the reader who is graciously given a panoramic view over all the wreckage and vanity. It might be found, oddly and obliquely, in the laughter and lapidary linguistic playfulness that Wagner injects into the stories. But like all things, the laughter and play are as temporary as the mandala.
If you get a thrill watching bad things happen to people, and then seeing how the bad things deepen, giving way to further bad things—then a surprise hole in the basement is broken through and you see characters fall into even worse fortunes that you didn’t even think about, and you can’t look away from what’s there, The Marvel Universe: Origin Stories and many other Bruce Wagner novels are for you.
The tale of how this un-PC novel came to be published on Wagner’s website brucewagner.la and put into the public domain has been recounted elsewhere on the web, including on his Wikipedia site, in YouTube interviews, and podcasts such as The Unspeakable Podcast, and will not be rehashed here.
The novel is a sort of tripartite anthology of linked stories regarding people both rich and poor in LA all dealing with the triple-Mammon (or is it Moloch?) of celebrity, wealth and drugs in our time. Wagner is well-known for tackling these subjects, but what he does with each novel is somehow make it fresh with further Dickensian complications and, crucially, up-to-the-millisecond cultural reference points; in this case we are dwelling in the current, ferocious cultural backwash of a country that has drunk deep from the blockbuster movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe alluded to in the title.
The first section recounts a love story between “Fat Joan” Gamma, an obese inheritrix of a fortune after her family is wiped out by a murderer, and Ali Nell, a mega-celebrity actress who has been diagnosed with ALS. Ali spends time avoiding contemplating her eventual fate as a “locked-in” husk by sedulously tending to her Instagram account, which we are treated to generous chunks of with sick, punny hashtags like #ALSnellThatEndsNell and #whynottakeALSofme. Celebrity cameos, which Wagner often deploys in his novels, multiply like a colony of hornets as the two women find their way through their lovers’ paradise in LA, which, as you might guess if you know Wagner’s prior fiction, is not a case of “all’s well that ends well.”
The second section details a set of con artists trying to rip off an auto magnate from Cleveland using sex and a cleverly-deployed Elon Musk-lookalike. The point-woman of the con is mother to a disturbed young girl unable to separate reality from fantasy, who thinks she is living in the MCU and that her father behind bars is Wolverine. This section was pitch-black Hollywood crime fiction peppered with outrageous, laugh-out-loud comedy, while managing to also be heartbreaking and punishingly sad.
The third and final section is about Garry Gabe Vicker, a famous and successful show runner of the Chuck Lorre ilk who finds himself in the path of the #MeToo juggernaut as he is accused of sexual harassment. His fate is entwined with that of Adele Cobain, a raunchy stand-up comedienne trying to make it big. Adele jokes that “I named myself that because after I lose a bunch of weight, I can do what I’ve wanted to since I was a kid: blow my brains out.” The contortions of celebrities trapped in the crosshairs of cancel culture artillery makes for some of the most trenchant and poisonous reading in the novel. The hidden linkages between Garry and Adele and her family are revealed in awful ways; coincidental interconnections between individuals a la Charles Dickens abound in the sprawling LA of Wagner’s dark imagination, and for me these linkages only occasionally strained credulity to the detriment of the novel.
Somewhere there exists a chart showing the exact distance between Bret Easton Ellis and Bruce Wagner. The distance is not especially far but crosses some crucial gradient: Wagner is more ornate, maximalist, and informed by the 19th century than Ellis is.
Wagner gets under my skin more than Ellis does. I’m not bothered by Ellis’s violence and affectless anomie. Ellis wrote about another planet of stupendous wealth and fame and another species of human. Wagner is writing about the same people, same area code. But Wagner’s bad vibes hit closer to home, perhaps because the inner lives of his characters, what they share with the hapless reader (who will never be in this stratosphere of fame), are encoded in a way that Ellis at least so far has never be capable of.
One wealthy real estate man and philanthropist privately scorns the naive efforts of those in his tax bracket to raise money fighting diseases like ALS which are “zero-hopers,” and hope is hard to find in a Bruce Wagner creation. Much is made in press about Wagner that he is trying to describe both the despair of current days—in America and specifically Hollywood—and the transcendence hiding between the blocks of despair like persistent vegetable life seeking the light. Wagner often invokes Buddhist teachings which stress impermanence and difficult extractions from the world of material being and suffering. Death, disease, greed, and perversion are ever present but somewhere there is meaning for the reader who is graciously given a panoramic view over all the wreckage and vanity. It might be found, oddly and obliquely, in the laughter and lapidary linguistic playfulness that Wagner injects into the stories. But like all things, the laughter and play are as temporary as the mandala.
October 19, 2020
The pathos, the punnery, the unspeakable violence, the unspeakable emotional violence, the tenderness, the pop culture references coming faster and furiouser, the capacious narrative structure that is like finding an Altman ensemble inside a strand of DNA—where would we be without that every-few-years Bruce Wagner novel? This is the generous cathedral-like work of fiction we need in tough times.
September 19, 2021
Wagner's prose, more than most's, is a consistent joy to read! I zipped through this one once I got into it. More like three novellas than a novel, which kept it fresh though, the changeover of characters and different plotlines. As other readers have remarked of his writing, it feels like a direct transcript of what's happening now. Covid even makes an appearance at the end, which made me double check when he'd actually written this thing!
The Marvel Universe is our modern-day hero's journey. There's something more profound-feeling about the Campbellian echo throughout civilisations, and across time, than Robert Downey Jr playing Robert Downey Jr. Obviously. But, isn't the desire to experience the hero's journey motivated by the same impulse now as it was thousands of years ago? Were they, in the past, really any better than us, or could they just not work computers like we do now?
I ask this all as someone who can't fucking stand superhero films. I call them red vs purple or blue vs yellow. Depends which beam is coming out of the hero's/villain's hand in the trailer. The bit where they go "Ahhhh!" and fire lightning at one another. I go, "Ah I see it's orange vs yellow this summer. Guess they haven't done that one yet." Yet I know some people who have little more to live for than the next Marvel film. People that I love. So of course I have immense respect for the Marvel machine, I just don't personally want to see any of it xD
Wagner as always has fun with superficial culture but refreshingly takes breaks from satire to abstain from judgment here and there. Behind the distorted lenses of some of these characters is a genuine heart—its language just happens to be kinda broken and surface level. Too many "amazings" and "forgivenesses" and "breathe" and "you got this" and "warrior woman"—but its not like the person can be dismissed out of hand because of how they express themselves; the language perhaps falters to express some genuine wholesome reaction. Wagner himself makes another appearance as his greedy, double-crossing alter ego Bud Wiggins, who is this time obsessed with scratch cards. That to me is why these novels work. They say, "This is all kinda bullshit. But who isn't kinda bullshit?"
Wagner even draws on his interest in Buddhism to show how there was a somewhat horrifying absurdity in the notion of reincarnation, perhaps no less absurd than contemporary celebrity culture, those whose path to God is the religion of the Netflix deal. That strikes me as a wise point about the culture that isn't often made: there was always nonsense in it.
I've started making films, and often joke with my actors that I'd love to direct Spiderman 15 with them in the title roles. Talking about why it's important to see Uncle Ben die again would be my best acting job imaginable!
Who wouldn't print money if they could? I, like Wagner, don't blame anyone who does.
The Marvel Universe is our modern-day hero's journey. There's something more profound-feeling about the Campbellian echo throughout civilisations, and across time, than Robert Downey Jr playing Robert Downey Jr. Obviously. But, isn't the desire to experience the hero's journey motivated by the same impulse now as it was thousands of years ago? Were they, in the past, really any better than us, or could they just not work computers like we do now?
I ask this all as someone who can't fucking stand superhero films. I call them red vs purple or blue vs yellow. Depends which beam is coming out of the hero's/villain's hand in the trailer. The bit where they go "Ahhhh!" and fire lightning at one another. I go, "Ah I see it's orange vs yellow this summer. Guess they haven't done that one yet." Yet I know some people who have little more to live for than the next Marvel film. People that I love. So of course I have immense respect for the Marvel machine, I just don't personally want to see any of it xD
Wagner as always has fun with superficial culture but refreshingly takes breaks from satire to abstain from judgment here and there. Behind the distorted lenses of some of these characters is a genuine heart—its language just happens to be kinda broken and surface level. Too many "amazings" and "forgivenesses" and "breathe" and "you got this" and "warrior woman"—but its not like the person can be dismissed out of hand because of how they express themselves; the language perhaps falters to express some genuine wholesome reaction. Wagner himself makes another appearance as his greedy, double-crossing alter ego Bud Wiggins, who is this time obsessed with scratch cards. That to me is why these novels work. They say, "This is all kinda bullshit. But who isn't kinda bullshit?"
Wagner even draws on his interest in Buddhism to show how there was a somewhat horrifying absurdity in the notion of reincarnation, perhaps no less absurd than contemporary celebrity culture, those whose path to God is the religion of the Netflix deal. That strikes me as a wise point about the culture that isn't often made: there was always nonsense in it.
I've started making films, and often joke with my actors that I'd love to direct Spiderman 15 with them in the title roles. Talking about why it's important to see Uncle Ben die again would be my best acting job imaginable!
Who wouldn't print money if they could? I, like Wagner, don't blame anyone who does.
June 28, 2021
A book of the world we now reside in yet somehow foreign and otherworldly. It knocked me out.
April 12, 2023
4.1 i like books about LA because theyre mean about LA
Read
February 17, 2021A wild, psychedelic healing journey of a novel! Spread the word, the author has released it for free on his website -
https://www.brucewagner.la/
In the midst of our culture of celebrity worship and addiction to the cult of Marvel/Disney, we follow an ensemble of eccentrics and not-so-eccentrics as they find transcendence in various ways and show that underneath the craziness and suffering we truly are a part of a marvel universe (in the truest sense of the word). For anyone who appreciates Kim Kardashian cameos in their literature :).
https://www.brucewagner.la/
In the midst of our culture of celebrity worship and addiction to the cult of Marvel/Disney, we follow an ensemble of eccentrics and not-so-eccentrics as they find transcendence in various ways and show that underneath the craziness and suffering we truly are a part of a marvel universe (in the truest sense of the word). For anyone who appreciates Kim Kardashian cameos in their literature :).
November 5, 2020
Beautiful shimmering flows, will seep into your dreams.
November 12, 2020
Been a while since I’ve been so gripped by a book and just wanted to keep reading.
July 25, 2023
Messy, indulgent satire of current Hollywood and its attendant vices and stripes(obsession with celebrity, success, influencer culture, crime, addiction, facades, excess, etc.). The novel refreshingly embraces bad taste and its three disparate(but ultimately converging) narrative threads unfold with a bull-in-a-chinashop chaos. Ultimately though, it's kneecapped by its ambition and audacity. The story doesn't quite earn the urgency and power it seems to be feinting toward as it begins to conclude. The endlessly loud, acerbic tone while occasionally amusing and funny, is just not consistent. And Wagner's attempts to capture the language of our hypermodern, always online moment occasionally feels somewhat out of his depth(shades of "How do you do, fellow kids?").
Light to decent 6/10
Light to decent 6/10
April 3, 2023
Started interesting but the writing got annoying real quick. It’s partly a satire of modern culture, but modern culture is aggravating, and Wagner leans into it hard. It wears you down. I think the moral of the Altman/PTA-like multiple storylines is that in the end, real human connection is all that matters. It’s not totally baked and still needed obvious editing. This combined with the difficult lengths you have to go to even read makes it a not-so-fun read. I’d be interested in some of Wagner’s other work though, at least to see how it compares.
November 28, 2021
It felt immense at times but it's loads of fun and full of Wagner's usual mix of smarts, cool contemporary cultural riffs, sex, drugs and Hollywood obsessions. There's a point late in the book when almost everyone crosses paths of influence in a way I was in no way expecting or craving - it was so impressive. Loved it and I'll continue reading everything of his.
September 13, 2021
Bruce Wagner is the most savage, most honest, most insane chronicler of Hollywood's nether regions. If you loved his novel DEAD STARS or his screenplay MAPS TO THE STARS, drop what you're doing and pick this one up.
January 7, 2023
Damn this shit ruled. Incredible to me how a 68 year old man can write such relevant social media discourse. Man is an absolute legend.
May 27, 2024
Like Day of the Locust in cocaine and acid. Amazing character work. The interconnectedness of the stories add a whole other dimension to it.
December 27, 2022
Three intertwining storylines with characters tied in to varying degrees to Hollywood and showbiz: Actors, producers, con artists, predators--all trying to make life work. The name dropping and the cameos come hard and fast. The stories zip along with a touch of magic realism (or maybe just psychology, I don't know). I'm pretty sure I missed a lot of what Wagner was getting at, but it ultimately seems to be we all live in the MCU to some degree whether we like it or not. We each are the heroes in our own stories; villains are not black and white, but then they never were. We can rationalize ourselves right out of the villain role without too much trouble. The pandemic makes a guest appearance.
June 28, 2024
Reading this i kept getting the feeling “i almost cannot believe this even exists” it feels wizardic
So bizarre, modern, twisted, fantastical
Filled with synchronicities & hauntings
Some beautiful writing and one of the craziest stories ive ever read
How is bruce wagner 70-something and how is he real
So bizarre, modern, twisted, fantastical
Filled with synchronicities & hauntings
Some beautiful writing and one of the craziest stories ive ever read
How is bruce wagner 70-something and how is he real
February 4, 2022
I think this book is a masterpiece.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews