Ex-Heroes Books in Order

The Ex-Heroes books start with one of Peter Clines's simplest and best high concepts. What if superheroes were real, and then the zombie apocalypse happened anyway? Los Angeles becomes the testing ground for that idea. Costumed heroes who once fought crime and showed off in public now spend their days defending a shrinking pocket of humanity from endless waves of the dead.

At the center of the series is the Mount, a fortified studio lot where survivors are trying to build something like a town. St. George is the big symbol of hope, but he is never doing it alone. Heroes like Stealth, Zzzap, Cerberus, and Captain Freedom matter because each one brings a different power, personality, and limit. The books never forget the civilians behind those walls, either. Food, medicine, safety, and trust are often just as important as the next big fight.

That balance is what gives the series its shape. Yes, there are superpowers, costume names, and some gleefully gruesome undead action. But the ongoing tension is about community. Can the heroes keep people alive without becoming tyrants? Can they hold on to rules, decency, and a future when the world rewards brute force? Every new threat puts pressure on those questions.

The danger is not only the ex-humans. Rival power centers, broken alliances, and superpowered enemies keep making the world messier. Ex-Communication shows what happens when the Mount starts feeling like a real settlement instead of a bunker. Ex-Purgatory takes an unusual detour through George Bailey, an ordinary handyman whose dreams may connect him to the ruined superhero world. And Ex-Isle pushes the survivors toward a floating island community that looks promising until it does not.

It is grim, but not joyless.

Clines writes these books with obvious love for comic-book logic, zombie horror, and big summer-movie momentum. There is banter. There are desperate last stands. There are people in impossible outfits making impossible choices because nobody else can. At the same time, the series has more heart than the premise might suggest. The best moments are often about loyalty, exhaustion, sacrifice, and the stubborn insistence that a city full of ruins can still protect something worth saving. If you want the full arc, read them in order from Ex-Heroes through Ex-Isle.