Batman/Superman Enemies and Allies Kevin J. Anderson

[Mr Light]

My GF brought this book home from the library today so I guess I'll be reading it even though I have no idea what it is! I enjoy reading the comic book novelizations but not the 'original' novels. I've been reading Knightfall and before that No Man's Land. While the format is lacking since there aren't any pretty colored pictures, you certainly get the most bang for your buck story wise!

[Mistral]

Greg Cox wrote:

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That's always the challenge, but you can try to compensate by emphasizing the other senses, the ones that comic books can't convey. What does it feel like to flame on? Can Superman feel that breeze against his face? What does Darkseid's voice sound like? What does Gotham City smell like? Does heat-vision burn when it hits you?

Prose also gives you the opportunity to try to get into the characters' heads more. In theory, at least.

I thought Kingdom Come handled that well.

[Captaindemotion]

Marc wrote:

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Though they needed to have a different actor from Batman - he sounded pretty much the same as Batman as he did for Bruce Wayne.

I was just referring to the novel.

[Admiral_Young]

Kingdom Come is my favourite comic book novelization...Elliot S. Maggins does a wonderful job of capturing the detail of the graphic novel and makes you feel like you're inside that universe. I'm also fond of Greg Cox's 52 and Infinite Crisis adaptions (not just saying that because he posts here I've stated it before to him, Greg any plans for a Final Crisis book?) and yes the Death of Superman and Knightfall books were good.

Last Days of Krypton was disapointing...I was hyped to read this book and was let down. Everything was just so different than what I was expecting, not to mention it was poorly written. The best book from Anderson that I've read since I've been aware of him was last year's Paul of Dune book with Brian Herbert (affectionately nicknamed Pinky and the Brain by many on this board over the years). I wouldn't reccomend it.

[Greg Cox]

Admiral_Young wrote:

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Greg any plans for a Final Crisis book?) .

Funny you should ask. I've already written the novelizations for both COUNTDOWN and FINAL CRISIS. COUNTDOWN comes out in July (just in time for Shore Leave!). I don't think FINAL CRISIS has been scheduled yet.

Thanks for asking!

[Admiral_Young]

Oh wow...that's great news Greg! Maybe you can make Final Crisis less confusing in novel format lol.

[sidious618]

Writing Final Crisis in novel format had to have been a bitch.

As far as books go I really, really enjoyed No Man's Land. I thought it was quite spectacular. I met Greg Rucka once and he agreed that it was one of his better books.

[Greg Cox]

sidious618 wrote:

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Writing Final Crisis in novel format had to have been a bitch.

As far as books go I really, really enjoyed No Man's Land. I thought it was quite spectacular. I met Greg Rucka once and he agreed that it was one of his better books.

Greg Rucka was very helpful when I was writing "52." He let me pick his brain for about an hour regarding the Batwoman subplot . . . .

As for FINAL CRISIS . . . as usual, I had to simplify and streamline the plot a bit to adapt it to book form. But talk about a fun bunch of characters to play with: Frankenstein, evil Mary Marvel, Darkseid, the Green Lantern Corps . . . .

[Admiral_Young]

I'm more than a half way through the book and it's surprising how well written and entertaining it's been so far. This is easily my favourite work of his and I hope there is sequel or solo outings on either Batman or Superman. I'll be picking up the paperback when it comes out. I'll have a full review when I'm done.

[Snaploud]

sidious618 wrote:

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Writing Final Crisis in novel format had to have been a bitch.

Yeah, that doesn't seem like the easiest of novelization projects...I've got to give Greg major props for taking on that kind of project.

[Admiral_Young]

Greg did a great job on Infinite Crisis and 52...loved the Batwoman focus.

[Mr Light]

I'm 3/4 through the "Enemies and Allies" book and I really don't care for it. The only thing going for it is the "Batman and Superman in McCarthy Era" schtick. Aside from that it's very slow and not very interesting. They don't even meet until 120 pages into the book. There's no proper villain just Luthor. Why are non-comic book adapations of Superman so obsessed with a bald guy with no powers? There hasn't been one proper action scene yet in the book, which is surprising since KJA's Star Wars books were also so crazy and action packed.

[Norrin Radd]

RandyS wrote:

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I don't know, I though that Roger Stern's 1993 novel adaption of the death of Superman was better than the comic version.

And the audio book version.

AND the 2007 animated movie version.

In short, I liked the novel better than any other adaption of that particular story.

Of course, that's just one example.

I remember my parents buying that one for me. I read it in one night. I consumed it like a McDonald's Happy Meal. Awesome book and yes, better than the comic. Much better.

[Norrin Radd]

Greg Cox wrote:

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Greg Rucka was very helpful when I was writing "52." He let me pick his brain for about an hour regarding the Batwoman subplot . . . .

As for FINAL CRISIS . . . as usual, I had to simplify and streamline the plot a bit to adapt it to book form. But talk about a fun bunch of characters to play with: Frankenstein, evil Mary Marvel, Darkseid, the Green Lantern Corps . . . .

Greg, don't know if you can answer this, but do you know of any nuTrek books on the horizon (other than the movie adaptation)?

[Greg Cox]

Norrin Radd wrote:

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Greg, don't know if you can answer this, but do you know of any nuTrek books on the horizon (other than the movie adaptation)?

I don't know any more than you do, I'm afraid. I'm sure this will be a big topic of discussion at Shore Leave in July.