Recently, I have been very interested in reading prose books based on Marvel comics. Other than wikipedia's list, (which I'm not sure is accurate and doesn't give background on most of the novels) there isn't really a comprehensive list of the best books that there is from Marvel over all time. That said, I am starting in the 1980s, which had a tiny amount of books published (1 according to the wiki), so we can see the clean slate and what came from it.
By Ellis Weiner
One of the only Marvel novels published in the eighties also happens to be the only one starring Howard the Duck. It's a novelization of the movie, I haven't read it, but I've seen online that it is actually very self-aware and pretty good.
There weren't many Marvel novels in the 80's, according to wikipedia, Howard was the only one. But, whatever the case for the prior decade, the 1990's is a whole different story. Here is just a small taste of some of the best of what marvel published somewhat later into the decade. Keep in mind, they published many more books around this time and most were the type of book that would never be published in a hardback copy.
By Peter David
I haven't read this book yet, either but I've also seen on the net that this is one of the most popular and best of the 90's Marvel Prose. This was actually printed in hardcover. It's one of many Hulk books, but apparently it's quite good.
Daredevil: Predator's Smile- 1996
By Christopher Golden
From Chris Golden, still a popular author on the Marvel prose scene and not the last book of his on the list. Predator's Smile goes over Daredevil when an arsonist tries to commit crime on his turf and what goes down through that. The book looks really good and I want to read it.
Generation X- 1997
By Elliot S Maggin and Scott Lobdell
This story follows Emma Frost and the Generation X, team spin-off from the X-Men. And was co-written by former superman comics writer, Elliot S Maggin. Who also wrote the novelization of Kingdom Come for DC.
Incredible Hulk: Abominations- 1997
By Jason Henderson
This book is not directly a sequel to What Savage Beast, but is the other most popular Hulk book, despite the unoriginal title. I haven't read this but it is by one of the co-authors for the X-Men Time's Arrow series, so I'm interested.
By Tom Defalco and Multiple Authors
This trilogy was published all in 1998 in back to back months. And we finally get to something I have read, because I have read the first book in the series. And I really loved it. The novel was captivating, surprisingly scientific, and really showed the X-Men, including odd members like Cable, working together well. Spider-Man included.
2000's
By Judith O'Brien
This was a series of two books set in the ultimate comics universe following Mary Jane and how she views Spider-Man/ Peter Parker. They are quite popular books.
Fantastic Four series- 2006-?
By multiple authors
One of the most popular series, widely published in many books.
Ultimates series- 2007-?
By multiple authors
One of the most popular series, widely published in many books.
(Cop-out.)
After the 90's and 2000's, Marvel decided to make a large series of prose novels, novelizing some of their popular comic series, often when relevant to the MCU. Here is a short list of some of them:
Captain America: Dark Designs
Ant-Man: Natural Enemy
Thanos: Death Sentence
Doctor Strange: Fate of Dreams
Civil War
Death of Captain America
New Avengers: Breakout
Daredevil: Man Without Fear
Gotg: Rocket & Groot Steal the Galaxy
Avengers: Everybody Wants to Rule the World
During the series of comic-based novels, Marvel started aiming more of their prose books at middle grade and young adult audiences. With easier books and different superheroes. Marvel is still publishing these, here is just some.
YA Initiative
Rogue Touch- 2013She-Hulk Diaries- 2013
Black Widow series- 2015-
By Margaret Stohl
This is a popular series of books about Black Widow. It's been nominated for some awards and I am pretty interested in reading these.
Rocket & Groot series- 2016-
By Tom Angelberger
I have actually read the first in this series of books and it is pretty good, while still short and for younger readers. I do want to read the next.
Iron Man: The GauntletBy Eoin Colfer
I have read this too, and it is a good book following Tony Stark against the mandarin. I won't spoil too much else, but I would recommend this and Eoin Colfer's other works.
Squirrel Girl series- 2017-
Miles Morales: Spider-man- 2017
Black Panther series- 2018
Loki- 2019 upcoming, spring
By Mackenzi Lee
This is Part one of a three book deal of historical-fiction teen prose novels about marvel anti-heroes (I know it sounds odd.) It will center on Loki and have him as pansexual, since that is already established in the canon. This sounds very interesting and I would like to speculate that the other protagonists might be Gambit, Deadpool, Namor, or Elektra. Although, Gambit would be best.
Captain Marvel- 2020 upcoming
This decade, like the 1980s has a bit of a shortage of original-non-teen novels. But there are some, I'll discuss here.
Iron Man: Virus- 2010
Alexander C Irvine
This was the one of the first Iron Man books written and published after the release of the movie. And, really I feel that it is just an attempt to capitalize on the film's success. It also uses the Extremis storyline, but then that was adapted into a book, so there's not much new here.
Deadpool: Paws- 2015
This is the only book starring Deadpool and one of the only books published directly through Marvel. And although I haven't read it, I will say that it looks very good and I want to read it. The Jaws parody aspect could make for good comedy throughout.
By Christopher Golden
This book is from the same author of Dardevil Predator's Smile and was made because of the Runaways TV series on hulu. Although this is an original novel, I've read the comics so I kind of get the material and if it's like the comic it should be pretty good.
By Barry Lyga
Although not the first book to feature Thanos it was going to be the first novel set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that is until it was discovered that it was misreporting that led that to be believed. Nonetheless, I am still excited to read this because it will still draw inspiration from Infinity War and the MCU.
Thank you for reading, I hope that this list might be a resource for someone wanting to read these books, and if not it's was a resource for me. I will try to read at least most of these books by this time next year. That's pretty much it, so stay connected.
Sources:
http://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/howard-the-duck/257522/weird-things-we-learned-from-the-howard-the-duck-novel
Star Trek/ X-Men Novel Review:
https://io9.gizmodo.com/5873156/the-star-trek-x-men-crossover-that-no-one-remembers
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_novels_based_on_comics
https://news.marvel.com/comics/25383/marvel_press_unleashes_new_novels_set_for_2016/
https://www.themarysue.com/marvel-ya-novel-loki-genderfluid-pan/
X-men/ spider-man time's arrow book 1: the past
Very well written. Maybe you should try reading some nonfiction or other things to expand your horizons.
ReplyDeleteWhat would you recommend for me?
Delete