The Trades - Book Review: Spider-Man 3 (Movie Novelization)

Home · Reviews · Interviews · Contests · Blog · Forums · Follow Us On Twitter

CONTESTS

DVD Giveaway - Good Hair Ends Feb 14, 2010
Chris Rock visits beauty salons and hairstying battles, scientific laboratories and Indian temples to explore the way hairstyles impact the black community.

Blu-Ray Giveaway - Cabin Fever Unrated Director's Cut Ends Feb 14, 2010
Eli Roth's feature film directorial and acting debut finally makes its Blu-ray debut in a never-before-seen Director's Cut.

Valentine's Day CD Giveaway - Al Jarreau, "Love Songs" Ends Feb 14, 2010
A heart-melting crooner and master of the ballad -- the perfect Valentine's Day soundtrack. Enter our contest for your chance to win!

CD Giveaway - Rebecca Rippy, "Telling Stories" Ends Feb 14, 2010
This North Carolina based Americana singer/songwriter has assembled a collection of what she considers to be her most personal material to date. Enter our contest for your chance to hear Rebecca Rippy Telling Stories!

ARTICLE

Book Review: Spider-Man 3 (Movie Novelization)
by R.J. Carter
Published: April 18, 2007

	Print this article
	E-mail this article
	More articles by this author

Publication Date: March 27, 2007
Publisher: Pocket Star
Author:
· Peter David
Related Sites:
· Enter to Win Our "Spider-Man 3" Poster
· CinemaSpider: Spider-Man 3

Grade: A-

The action gets ramped up with not one, not two, but (count them) three villains in this summer's Spider-Man 3. Peter David has penned the adaptation of the script, an adaptation which has debuted well in advance of the film itself. As with all movie novelizations, the extent of actual spoilerization is questionable, however one would reasonably assume that the bulk of the story will parallel the on-screen action.

By now fans already know that our Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man will be up against the New Goblin (not the Green Goblin), an identity assumed by Peter Parker's vengeance-driven friend, Harry Osborne, who seems to have inherited his daddy's insanity. However, after their first very early encounter, Harry is left with a head injury bad enough to literally knock some sense into him -- or at least some amnesia -- for the better part of the plot. He's forgotten the Goblin and, even better, he's forgotten that he knows Peter Parker's dual identity.

The main villain is Flint Marko, an escaped con driven by the need to accumulate enough money to fund research for a cure for his little girl, Penny. But while he's on the lam, he gets spotted by police officers who give pursuit. The chase leads through the woods, and Marko climbs a fence, landing himself on the grounds of a research facility where scientists are preparing a dangerous experiment involving the disassembly of molecular bonds. In the grand tradition of comic book accidents that have worked for everyone from Bruce Banner to Jon Osterman, Marko finds himself at the wrong place at precisely the right time.

     Like any human being, Marko was a carbon-based life form. But that was about to change, as the glowing silicon atoms of the sand slammed into Marko's carbon atoms, knocking them out of their orbit and taking their place in his molecular structure.
     It was not an isolated occurrence. The inorganic atoms of silicon dioxide -- sand -- penetrated Flint Marko's entire body. None of his physical makeup was spared, and he staggered under the barrage. The heaviness in the air that impaired his breathing increased until his lungs felt as if they were full of sand. Now he couldn't breathe at all. He put a hand to his chest as the sand whirled around him, peppering every molecule of his body like a dust devil.
     He twisted in place to see if the mechanical arms were slowing, if there was any way out of this. He watched in disbelief as his hand started to transform into sand.

The New Goblin and the Sandman appear fairly early on in this story. But the really big bad -- Venom -- appears only near the very end.

Sorta.

Naturally, Sony couldn't follow the Secret Wars origin of Venom, as that would have entailed way too much backstory and far too many licensed characters. So in this telling, the oozing alien symbiote appears near the beginning of things, falling to earth in a meteorite. (Shades of Steve McQueen! Someone remind the old man not to poke it with a stick!) Beginning as little more than a tar-like blob, it attaches itself to the bottom of Peter's shoe and sits in his closet for over half of the book. Meanwhile, Peter's mood has been growing darker, his ego getting a tad too big -- and all on his own, without any alien influences. When he finally learns of Marko's connection with Uncle Ben's death, he's in just the right frame of mind for the symbiote to sweep up over him and become the black Spider-Man costume, making Peter stronger and far more aggressive in his civilian and superheroic life.

Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson's relationship is further explored in this tale, with the sad fact that it's mostly on the outs: Peter simply doesn't have time to be there for her, and MJ is depressed because the critics have panned her out of a job on stage. And when big-headed Spidey actually puts in an appearance at ceremony held in his honor, he pulls a stunt that really sends MJ over the edge.

     Spider-Man lowered himself so that he was upside down and facing Gwen. Face-to-face, Gwen put her arms around him and posed for the battery of cameras that flashed away.
     Under his mask, Peter was grinning like a lunatic. Suddenly, to the sound of wolf whistles and cries of "Kiss him!" Gwen gave him a kiss on his masked cheek.
     With his ego swelled almost to bursting by the unparalleled adulation of the crowd, Peter proceeded to sieze the moment full-on.
     "Go ahead, lay one on me," Peter told her.
     Gwen looked started, but not in a bad way. "Really?"
     "They'll love it."
     She leaned in toward him and pulled down his mask so that it cleared his mouth. Then she kissed him with a startling ferocity that peter wouldn't have expected from the normally sedate Gwen Stacy.

Yes, you read that right: Gwen Stacy -- the Ghost of Love Interests From Comic Books Past -- has found her way into the movie mythos. But she's not Peter's -- or even Spidey's -- girlfriend in this story (although they do share a date when Peter and the black suit go into full-blown jerk mode.) She's actually the love interest of a new character: Eddie Brock. To be more precise, she's his interest, and he's very much not hers. She went on a date with Brock (who happens to be Pete's competitor for a full-time position at The Daily Bugle), and it meant a whole lot more to the disturbingly obsessive Brock than it ever meant to Gwen.

The city's celebration isn't Gwen's first meeting with the web-headed wallcrawler. Just days before, Spider-Man saves her from a falling building where she was doing a modeling shoot with some of the author's inserted conceits -- longtime friend Wendy Goldstein, and David's Sachs & Violens creations, J.J. Sachs and Ernie Schultz. It's for this reason (and not because she's the police chief's daughter) that the city selected her to be on hand to present Spidey the key to the city.

If David's adaptation is close to the finished product we'll see in just a few weeks (and to be fair, producers have been known to change things long after the novelization has been drafted, edited, and printed), we ought to be in for a very fun, very character driven adventure. The final battle will be one for the ages -- but in the sad tradition of movies about super-heroes, you can be pretty sure that at least one of the bad guys isn't going to be in any shape to show up in a sequel. Meanwhile, the only downside to the writing comes in the form of the prologue and epilogue, where the internalized thoughts of Peter Parker seem a bit heavy-handed and very un-Parker-like. But for the most part, author David has pegged the character of Peter Parker perfectly (as well he should, having written a number of the webslinger's adventures in comics already.)