Reese Roberts is an old drunk that is bound to a wheelchair with little to live for. In fact, as far as he is concerned, he has nothing to live for and the world would be a better place without him. But it wasn't always that way. Reese used to prowl the streets of Iron City and do what needed to be done to protect the city and clean up the streets. As the vigilante known as The Roach, Reese was fearless and he preyed upon the gangs and criminals that dared to try to make Iron City their home. He was really making a difference until that fateful night when a bullet found a seam in his protective armor and left him paralyzed from the waist down. That was five years ago and The Roach was never heard from again, fading into legend as the streets of Iron City fell back into the hands of the corrupt. It's all too much for Reese to bear and the day has come to put an end to his suffering.
But once a hero always a hero and before he can take his own life Reese hears a scream. He can't resist getting involved so he rolls his wheelchair onto the scene just in time to find a young boy being bullied by a couple of other teenagers. Reese isn't about to let that happen, so he intervenes and promptly winds up bloodied and beaten along with the other boy. To top it off the police eventually arrive at his house along with the parents of one of the bullies who claim that he attacked their kid and they want Reese arrested. Such is his life now and things only get worse when reports start to surface in the newspaper that The Roach is back. Multiple sightings have been reported, along with some related murders, and Reese now has a mystery on his hands.
Mortal comic book heroes have always felt more down to earth than those with super powers and Iron City makes for a great backdrop to tell this story. Kudos to Rhett C. Bruno for writing a standalone anti-hero story and doing it right. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for something a little bit different in the "super hero" (I use that term loosely here) genre.
The audiobook version is narrated by R. C. Bray and there is no better voice in the business for a gritty story like this, so listening just makes it that much better.