Spider-man books
- Thread starter garoo1980
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I just finished The Jewels Of Cytorrak by Dean Wesley Smith yesterday. It was a vast improvement over the Generation X novel, even though there were references in Jewels to X. Although, one thing that wasn't quite clear to me was what exactly Cytorrak or the 'bands of Cytorrak' are. I've heard of the Juggernaut's power coming from the ruby of Cytorrak in the past, but I've never heard of what Cytorrak is (although in this novel Dean Wesley Smith seemed to indicate that Cytorrak is like Dormammu).
It was also a joy to see Gambit get a really big role in the book, especially since in recent years, aside from a few episodes of X-Men Evolution-/I], Wolverine and the X-Men, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Gambit has been sort of relegated to a "Guest" character, while he was one of the stand out characters (along with Wolverine and flying Rogue) in the 1990's X-Men TV show.
Anyway, The Jewels Of Cytorrak I would rate at a 9.1/10.
It was also a joy to see Gambit get a really big role in the book, especially since in recent years, aside from a few episodes of X-Men Evolution-/I], Wolverine and the X-Men, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Gambit has been sort of relegated to a "Guest" character, while he was one of the stand out characters (along with Wolverine and flying Rogue) in the 1990's X-Men TV show.
Anyway, The Jewels Of Cytorrak I would rate at a 9.1/10.
Pretty much; he's a demon god, and the one that holds his ruby becomes his avatar. Cain Marko just uses it to become invulnerable and unstoppable, but Cyttorak himself can do pretty much whatever he wants. (And looking at Wikipedia, I guess others have used the ruby towards more creative ends than Marko, so it can apparently do more than just the Juggernaut suite.)
The Jewels of Cytorrak
I guess that's why there wasn't a lot explanation as to who or what Cytorrak was in the novel. In light of what's been said about Byron Preiss, mentioning a demon god in a novel would've been a no-no.
I guess that's why there wasn't a lot explanation as to who or what Cytorrak was in the novel. In light of what's been said about Byron Preiss, mentioning a demon god in a novel would've been a no-no.
The "Crimson Bands of Cyttorak" were a staple of the original DOCTOR STRANGE comics, along with the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth, the Flames of Faltine, the Eternal Vishanti, the dread Dormammu . . . most of which were just "mystical" names Stan Lee coined up, often without any real idea what they meant ....
So "Cyttorak" was basically imported into THE X-MEN from DOCTOR STRANGE.
Did Strange ever appear in any of those Byron Preiss novels? Not that I can remember.
I think there was an appearance of Doctor Strange in one of the short-stories in The Spectacular Spider-Man Anthology.
He appeared in Peter David's The Incredible Hulk: What Savage Beast. I'm pretty sure that's the only time he showed up, but I wouldn't swear to it under oath.....
I haven't read What Savage Beast yet. But I do have Empire's End up next, so maybe he'll appear in a future book or another anthology that I haven't read yet..
This thread makes for some interesting reading. Makes me wish the Pocket Star Marvel range had kept on going.
Hey Greg, I'd love to hear any stories you have about your Iron Man novels...
Hey Greg, I'd love to hear any stories you have about your Iron Man novels...
There have been several new original novel mixed in with the prose adaptations Marvel's been doing lately.
Rocket Raccoon and Groot: Steal the Galaxy
Avengers: Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Ant-Man: Natural Enemy
Rogue Touch
The She-Hulk Diaries
And the not yet released Deadpool: Paws and Black Widow: Forever Red
Rocket Raccoon and Groot: Steal the Galaxy
Avengers: Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Ant-Man: Natural Enemy
Rogue Touch
The She-Hulk Diaries
And the not yet released Deadpool: Paws and Black Widow: Forever Red
Rogue Touch, The She-Hulk Diaries, Forever Red, the Iron Man: Extremis novelization, the New Avengers: Breakout novelization, and the Astonish X-Men: Gifted novelization are all available as e-books. I'm not sure why it's such a random selection, but I really hope they release more e-book editions, because it's my primary reading method these days.
Since reading "Empire's End", which I found to be alright (and wasn't an epilogue to the "Mutant Empire" trilogy), but it was getting pretty ridiculous at the end, and I was wishing the Enterprise with Kirk and Scotty would come in and finish the job, I've read "Law Of The Jungle", which was better than Empire, but not as interesting to me, since I never really enjoyed the Savage Land episodes of the 92 X-Men series, but I like how the author left Bishop at the mansion, and then you basically never heard from him again, or from Xavier, Cyclops, Grey, Rogue or Gambit. So it was basically a novel where you had Storm leading a team with Wolverine, Beast, Psyloche and a few other New Mutants to the savage land.
I have also tried reading "Prisoner X" by Ann Nocenti, but I found her style of writing was really forcing me out of the story. Nocenti wrote the story in the third person present tense (I.e. 'Jean says' instead of 'Jean said') instead of the third person past tense. So I've jumped ahead to "Valley Of The Lizard" by former Trek author John Vornholt, a Spider-man story that, so far, I'm not sure if the cover write-up is even close to being right on.
I have also tried reading "Prisoner X" by Ann Nocenti, but I found her style of writing was really forcing me out of the story. Nocenti wrote the story in the third person present tense (I.e. 'Jean says' instead of 'Jean said') instead of the third person past tense. So I've jumped ahead to "Valley Of The Lizard" by former Trek author John Vornholt, a Spider-man story that, so far, I'm not sure if the cover write-up is even close to being right on.
In case anyone is interested, Graphic Audio has done full cast audio drama adaptations of Gifted, Extremis, Breakout, Civil War, Death of Captain America, a couple of the Spider-Man novels, Days of Future Past, Secret Wars and a lot of others.
They haven't done What Savage Beast yet, but I hope they do. It's a really excellent book.
They haven't done What Savage Beast yet, but I hope they do. It's a really excellent book.
On the DC side of things, Graphic Audio also did the same for my various DC comics novelizations: Infinite Crisis, 52, Countdown, and Final Crisis.
Was anyone able to get through "Prisoner X"?
Yes! I have all of those too, I just didn't bring it up since we were in a Marvel discussion. I really enjoyed all of those too. You did a great job of balancing such an enormous cast! It's pretty neat to listen to them one after the other over a few weeks and let it all flow as one epic story.
Thanks! And, yes, it was a challenge to juggle all those characters. You should have seen some of the descriptions in the original scripts:
"Suddenly, the Teen Titans, the Justice Society of America, and the Doom Patrol come rushing onto the scene, accompanied by Detective Chimp . . . "
Count yourself lucky you didn't have to draw that!
Easier to draw maybe, then describe in prose!
At least if you're introducing those characters for the first time.
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