Spider-man books
- Thread starter garoo1980
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Yup. There was no way we were going to keep up with the comics (and that wasn't always desirable, especially with stuff like the Spider-clone and Heroes Reborn), but I thought it was important for the novels to all be consistent with one another. I think it added to the texture.
And we didn't overdo it, either. The only things that were really significantly serialized were the various trilogies, and those only internally. But if you read, for example, What Savage Beast, the first Doom's Day book, Abominations, and my short story "Playing it SAFE," there's a through-line there for the Hulk if you read all of them.
Yeah, that sounds about right.
Same deal with the later Marvel novels from Pocket Books. You couldn't tie them in too closely with the most recent comic book storylines because the novels would be out of date by the time the finished book hit the shelves. You basically just tried to present a "timeless" version of the characters that was more or less up to date.
For example: At the point where I was writing my FF novel for Pocket Books, Sue and Johnny had switched powers in the comics. I assumed (correctly) that this was just a temporary plot twist and that everything would be back to normal by the time my book came out, so I gave Sue and Johnny their traditional powers. Which turned out to be the right call!
I also acknowledged that Reed and Sue had two kids by that point, but I quickly shuffled the kids offstage to avoid confusing any readers who might have only seen the movies . . . .
I covered this earlier in the thread, but at least three of the four Spider-Man novels Pocket did -- mine, Keith's, and Jim Butcher's -- were all consistent with the then-ongoing J. Michael Straczynski run on The Amazing Spider-Man, but all set at a point where things were at a comfortable status quo and before the big changes that set in shortly before our books were commissioned, like Spidey joining the Avengers and getting organic webbing like in the movies (a plot point that even the comics never followed up on after establishing it). Although every one of us chose the period right after Mary Jane had decided to begin working in the theater. And we all did so independently of one another.
SOmone should really snatch up the license to put out more books. Pending that, I'd be up for some Agents of Shield novels.
There have been some new novels in the last several years.
Marvel has novelizations of the Civil War, Astonishing X-Men: Gifted, New Avengers: Breakout, Iron Man: Extremis, X-Men: Days of Future Past and the Death of Captain America comic book arcs. They will also be releasing their first original novel, Rocket Racoon & Groot: Stealing the Universe written by Guardians of the Galaxy comic co-writer Dan Abnet in July.
Hyperion has also published a couple of novels with Marvel super-heroines that appear to be geared at a female audience, The She-Hulk Diaries and Rogue Touch.
Marvel has novelizations of the Civil War, Astonishing X-Men: Gifted, New Avengers: Breakout, Iron Man: Extremis, X-Men: Days of Future Past and the Death of Captain America comic book arcs. They will also be releasing their first original novel, Rocket Racoon & Groot: Stealing the Universe written by Guardians of the Galaxy comic co-writer Dan Abnet in July.
Hyperion has also published a couple of novels with Marvel super-heroines that appear to be geared at a female audience, The She-Hulk Diaries and Rogue Touch.
Jim Butcher wrote a Spider-Man novel? I need to find this. If Harry Dresden's anything to go by, his Spider-Man's snark-meter must have been turned up to 11.
It's called The Darkest Hours, and yeah, your assessment's pretty much on the mark. Note, though, that it's a direct sequel to J. Michael Straczynski's debut arc on The Amazing Spider-Man, so it helps if you've read that comics story, though it's not essential.
I believe those are all actual prose novels, sometimes based on the comic-book storylines of the same name. The links take you to the Amazon listings for the prose versions.
I haven't read it, though I'm a little familiar with JMS' run on Spidey. Thanks for the heads-up.It's called The Darkest Hours, and yeah, your assessment's pretty much on the mark. Note, though, that it's a direct sequel to J. Michael Straczynski's debut arc on The Amazing Spider-Man, so it helps if you've read that comics story, though it's not essential.Jim Butcher wrote a Spider-Man novel? I need to find this. If Harry Dresden's anything to go by, his Spider-Man's snark-meter must have been turned up to 11.
Yeah, everything I listed up to Stealing the Universe, is a prose novelization of a comic book story arc, the other three are original novels. The one I find most intriguing is AXM: Gifted, it's written by Peter David and is based on a Joss Whendon story arc. That is one hell of a combination.
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Yeah, at the risk of being shamelessly self-promotional, it's not uncommon to publish novelizations of story lines that originally appeared in the comics: DC has done it with The Death of Superman, Knightfall, No Man's Land, and my own novelizations of Infinite Crisis, 52, Countdown, and Final Crisis . . . .
I want to see more original novelizations though of Marvel/DC. Someone should really acquire the license. And as I said before, Agents of Shield would make for a great book series.
Like I said before, Rocket Raccoon & Groot: Steal the Universe, is an original story. If it is successful, I wouldn't be at all surprised if we see more.
While they aren't still in print, the old DC and Marvel novels are sill available through third party sellers on sites like Amazon.
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