Review: Iron Man - a novelization by Peter David
Recently I decided to indulge my Iron Man mania by buying a novelization of the first movie. The novelization is written by Peter David, based on the screenplay by Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway. What follows is a relatively spoiler-free review.
I picked up the book without any great expectations - my main motivation was a hope that reading the book will improve my vocabulary relating to the technology present in the Iron Man world (one word: fanfics!).
I must admit I was very pleasantly surprised. The novelization is written quite well: the story flows nicely, the characterizations are excellent and I find myself returning to some favourite passages over and over again. The author switches between the use of the past tense (for the general storytelling) and the present tense (for things seen from Tony's point of view and his private thoughts). I'm not a big fan of a tense switching, but it worked very well in this case. The author uses cursive for the passages written in the present tense, so there's no risk getting lost in the action.
But why read the book if you can watch the movie? The answer is simple: in contrast to Favreau, David was not limited by the maximum running time and therefore the novel is longer, more detailed and offers much more insight into the characters' motivation and personality, as well as boasts some interesting scenes with characters that weren't granted enough screen time in the movie. Not to mention all the nods to the comic book fans - like subtle hints towards the relationship between the Ten Rings organization and Mandarin. A lot of scenes which seemed to be driven by "the Rule of Cool" in the movie suddenly started making a lot more sense to me after reading the novel.
An example? The infamous "I am Iron Man" scene, as well as "The suit and I are one" line from the second trailer initially seemed to me (and to many fans, if the fan reviews I've read are any indication) to be a direct result of Tony's attention-craving and his narcissistic personality. In the book, on the other hand, the identity reveal scene is very tightly tied to the previous press conference and the fact that Tony is very much tired of lying, deceit and "the system of no accountability", as well as concerned with the fact that by hiding Iron Man's identity people might start fearing him ("And the greatest fear of all: fear of the unknown"). (While I doubt that any of the Marvel movies will deal with the Civil War and The Superheroes Registration Act from the recent comics, I could definitely see this Tony supporting the SHRA.)
Many other factors of Tony's personality are more strongly highlighted as well: his powerful charisma that causes people to be drawn to him like a moth to a flame, his infinitely superior intelect, the fact that he seems to feel closer affinity to machines than to humans, the dysfunctionality of his relationships with other people, etc..
Not only Tony, but all the other characters are a little more fleshed out and we get to know their backstory. We learn how Pepper and Happy got their jobs and their nicknames, there's a bit more insight in the Rhodey-Tony friendship, Jarvis is a bit more complex character as well. The antagonists (Obadiah and Raza) are more fleshed out as well and infinitely more creepy than in the movie.
There are many small details that were either not explained or slightly changed in the movie (Why Tony chose to come back home through the no-fly zone? How Obadiah managed to paralyze Tony withhout Jarvis interfering? Why Tony so easily decided to blow up the Arc Reactor powering his factory? I really wish that some of these tidbits could have been included in the movie (although, realistically speaking, it would probably be impossible).
All in all, I really recommend this book to all fans of Iron Man the movie. Peter David did a great job with this novelization. I wish he could have written the second one as well (although I will not speak ill of the Irvine's adaptation as I haven't read it yet! I'm still waiting for the novel to arrive from the UK. :) I will post a review as soon as I've read it.
ETA: Having read Irvine's novel, I must say that it's excellent as well. My review can be found here: http://okami-oujou.livejournal.com/4538.html