Tom Blake, a teen plagued by loneliness and self-doubt, is a Peter Parker (AKA Spiderman) type who discovers his inner superhero in Ottawa author Tom Henighan’s second YA novel Mercury Man. Henighan’s sci-fi fantasy is an entertaining amalgam of comic book adventure and paranoid high-tech thriller.

As the novel opens, it’s summertime, but the living isn’t easy in Tom’s decaying hometown. The economic magic wand being wielded by Fabricon, a secretive computer corporation, has residents clamouring for jobs there, including Tom’s friends, who urge him to come work at Fabricon alongside them. He resists, put off by the marketing phrases they spout as if they’ve been indoctrinated. Instead, he hangs out with his feisty grandfather, perusing his Mercury Man comic book collection. On a whim, he searches out the local creator’s former home near Fabricon’s headquarters. Catching his friends being herded in, he sneaks in and witnesses them being brainwashed by the resident evil scientist Dr. Tarn, who’s scheming to build a monster computer out of their DNA brain tissue.

The brainwashing plot strand, potentially a rich lode of suspense and satire, is left underdeveloped, partly because the teen characters are a generic blur of anachronistic types. While Tom and the adult characters are etched with emotional vividness, the story focuses too much on the adults for a YA novel. Consequently, Tom appears more a pawn than an active, adventurous protagonist. Huge chunks of the plot are handed out in expository dialogues between Dr. Tarn and the mysterious Paul Daniel, who enlists Tom’s aid in thwarting the corporation. The overly tidy happy ending lessens the ominous power of the premise. Every superhero knows that any victory is only temporary, that evil still lingers in the shadows gathering strength for the next showdown