Straczynski could have easily followed in the footsteps of his family. Perhaps the most important takeaway from Becoming Superman is its theme about personal choice. But Straczynski not only faces his family’s dark history, he shows his lifelong determination not to let it shape the person he’s become. Most people would run away from such a past, bury it, and try to pretend it didn’t happen. That Straczynski tells this story at all is impressive. Suffice to say that what he went through would leave most people either in prison or so strung out by substance abuse that they’d be unrecognizable as human beings. I don’t want to spoil the book for you by getting into the details. What makes Becoming Superman so compelling is his honesty about his family and the horrendous upbringing he endured. As interesting at the behind-the-scenes look at his professional life is, it’s not the compelling part of his autobiography. His other television and film credits are numerous and he is also a highly respected comic book writer.

Straczynski is perhaps best known as the creator and primary writer on the 1990s Sci-Fi TV series Babylon 5. If you want to read about overcoming adversity, this is the book for you. Michael Straczynski is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever read. I’m loathe to push my opinion on others and make it a general rule not to write reviews.īut, as with so many rules, this one is about to be broken. A critic may hate a book that I adore, or vice versa. Reviews are, after all, one person’s opinion and nothing more. I’ve never had a lot of use for them, and not just because I’ve gotten some bad ones.

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