Title: Fantastic Four
Author: Peter David (Based on Screenplay by Mark Frost, Simon Kinberg, and Michael France, who were inspired by Marvel)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Movie Novelization, some romance
Summery: Reed Richards, Victor Von Doom, Ben Grimm, and the Storm siblings go up in space to hold experiments with a cosmic cloud. Things don’t go as planed, and the crew is hit by the cloud instead of being protected by the stations shielding. Suddenly Reed can stretch his arms further then natural, Susan can be invisible, Johnny can turn into fire, and Ben has transformed into a man made out of rock. Victor seems unharmed, but slowly he is transforming into a metal alloy, which turns to to be a bad combination with his mood.
Yeah, bad summery. You can probably get the gist if you watch a cartoon, or read the comic. I tend to stick to the film when it comes to Marvel stuff. And I should probably mention that there are slight spoilers here if you are a Fantastic Four newbie.
I have read Peter David novels in the past. He wrote one of my favorite Star Trek novels, Imzadi. That was slightly different then this, as Imazdi was based within that universe while Fantastic Four is based directly on a script. I bought this after watching the movie so I already had the characters set in my head as the actors. I liked it the first time through. I decided to re-read it for this year’s bookit 50, and liked it again.
There was one issue I had with this book this time through. Since the second movie hadn’t been out before I read the first movie’s novelization it didn’t phase me the first time, and I don’t think I even realized it till this time reading it. The novel has a Frankie Raye, which if you have seen the second film you know she’s a character in that film. One quite different then the one in this novelization. Although this does give me ideas for a fanfic where they ARE the same person (I doubt they are. I just think it was a matter of Peter David doing his homework and the writers of movie II not taking his novelization into account when they wrote it. Movie trumps book in this case)
Like with Willow, this book had some scenes that never made it to film or were cut during the final edit (and there are a few in the deleted scenes on the DVD). Some scenes were completely different. Like the scene where Reed and Susan talk about their relationship? Happens in a different location then in the movie.
I enjoyed it. Its a good novelization.
Rating: 4/5
Bookit # (2/50) of (1/52)
Sokorra Lewis 