A Supervillainous Simp

In Sam Kahn’s essay, “My Incredible Writing Discipline,” written in part to introduce the serial publication of his novel Henchman on Substack, he describes his book as “a comic novel, on the extraterritorial and interplanetary adventures of Banx Mulvaney as he follows the long winding road to supervillainy.” I do not like that description. I would not normally download such a novel to my e-book reader—even free—but I took a chance on Henchman because Kahn impresses me as the type of person literature needs if it’s going to recuperate vitality and remain robust.