Xavier Thaxton is the arts editor of a great metropolitan newspaper, and is a man whose aesthetic values are of only the highest caliber.  But after an accidental dip in a radioactive swimming hole, Xavier finds his life changing as he is forced, step by step, despite all he can do, to assume the mantle and manner of a comic book superhero, and to be a living icon of the pop culture he has spent his life detesting.
[From the flyleaf of the Tor edition]

Dedication:
For George Zebrowski, this tardy experiment in literary synergism

Subtitled:
A Comedy