If it’s wrong to be as excited about the prospect of Stuart Moore’s prose version of Civil War as I am, then I don’t want to be right. Prose adaptations of comics have long fascinated me, if only for their seeming lack of reason to exist (Are there really that many people out there thinking “I wish I could read Kingdom Come, but I far prefer my Superman stories to be in prose as I cannot stand comic books”?). I’ve long been tempted by Greg Cox’ Final Crisis adaptation (He also wrote prose versions of Infinite Crisis, 52 and Countdown to Final Crisis), if only to see just how he manages to build something resembling a coherent prose narrative out of a series that seemed as much an attempt to break traditional comic narrative storytelling as anything else, for example, and I’ll happily admit to believing that Greg Rucka’s Batman: No Man’s Land is far, far more enjoyable to me than the never-ending comic book version of the story.
I could be wrong – And, if I am, I have no doubt that you’ll let me know in the comments – but Civil War might be the first time that a Marvel storyline has been adapted into prose, as far as I can remember. There have been plenty of Marvel superhero prose releases before (Who can forget Star Trek: The Next Generation/X-Men: Planet X?), but they were all original storylines, I think. Moving the “real” Marvel U storylines into prose is a smart idea, though, making today’s comic continuity more easily accessible for newcomers (“Read the prose book” is much easier for newcomers looking to catch up on their backstory than “Read the several hardcover collections, or maybe the twenty-odd paperback collections, some of which are out of print,” after all) while also franchising the characters into a whole new medium for movie fans looking for more from the Avengers characters. Moore revealed on Twitter that he’s also going to be editing future prose adaptations for Marvel, so I hope the line is a success. I really like Moore, and hope this is a hit for him.
December 20th, 2011 at 12:28 pm
While I haven’t read the Cox Final Crisis, I did listen to the audio play adaptation produced by Graphic Audio(yes, and audio adaptation of a novel based on a series of comics), and it’s very good. It shaves a lot of the detail and nuance out (all of Superman Beyond for one thing), but it presents a straightforward narrative that works very well, and presents the events of issue 7 in chronological order. While I understand this goes against most of Morrison’s intent, it makes for a fun ride. Graphic Audio has done adaptations of all the Cox novels, and just completed a two part adaptation of the Rucka No Man’s Land novel, and they’re all a lot of fun and worth a look.
December 20th, 2011 at 2:53 pm
As a kid and comics fan in the late 70s, I loved the Marvel Novels series featuring Spider-Man, Hulk, the FF, the Avengers (there was another Avengers novel featuring Kang that I regrettably could never my hands on…). All original stories.
Looking back, the quality was pretty middling, though there were some very vivid moments in the Avengers, FF and Spider-Man stories. I still remember a line about Iron Man’s repulsors hitting Ultron “like twin tornados”, and a description of a funny/tender moment involving the Vision breaking down the pollution content of a beautiful sunset for the Scarlet Witch.
Hopefully, they’ll take advantage of the novel form to go beyond the comic itself, provide more back story, build out characters a little more…rather than simply following the story plot beat by plot beat. There’s a real opportunity with Civil War to weave in the main story with the Pulse storyline, etc.
December 20th, 2011 at 8:38 pm
I agree with both matt and ken. and would add that there is an audio version of kingdom come that wasn’t graphic audio, but was quite well done as well.
and ken, i’m actually holding in my hands marvel novel series #9 the marvel superheroes featuring the hulk, the avengers, the x-men and daredevil, edited by len wein and marv wolfman, cover by cockrum. featuring stories by shooter, wein and jo duffy. and mns #10, the avengers in the man who stole tomorrow by david michelinie, cover also by cockrum. this was the the kang one and it was pretty good as i recall.
December 20th, 2011 at 9:25 pm
I think that Marc Cerasini’s “Wolverine: Weapon X” novel from around 2005 was the last prose adaptation from Marvel. By and large, I have really enjoyed prose adventures of my favorite Marvel and DC heroes. I really enjoyed No Man’s Land, Knightfall, and The Life and Death of Superman as well as Marjorie Liu’s X-Men novel from a few years back.
December 21st, 2011 at 10:21 am
Not an adaptation–it was an original story–but I’ll just leave this here…
http://www.amazon.com/X-Men-Engine-Trilogy-Steven-Roman/dp/0743497740/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324485932&sr=1-3
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:56 pm
I’ve read the 52 and Countdown ones and I have to say they were pretty good. Sure they remove some plot points like the Steel vs. Luthor and the Lost in Space arc, but the final fight with giant space moth Mr. Mind had some scenes I would have loved to have seen in the original comic version.
And Countdown actually made sense, ended pretty much the same way, but it made sense.
Though I’ve personally never liked Civil War, this dooes have me tempted to pick up and read.