Avengers: Infinity Prose Novel by James A. Moore is an adaption of the graphic novel by Jonathan Hickman. James A.
Moore has the unenviable job of trying to compress several years of storytelling
it to a novel.
This novel is a war story set in the Marvel
Universe starring two sets of heroes facing multiple alien threats to the
earth. This is a very complicated Marvel novel that includes a lot more than
what the book blurb online says. It is hard to explain without spoilers, so
I will attempt to keep the plot explanation as simplistic and spoiler free as
possible.
Captain America, Hulk, Thor, and
others are in space facing down an alien race known as the builders who seek to
wipeout most life in the galaxy. At the same time, Iron Man, Black Panther,
Reed Richards, Namor, Black Bolt, Doctor Strange, and others must defend the Earth
from a separate invasion by Thanos and his Black Order. The second group of
heroes is referred to as the Illuminati which was a secret team of heroes that
operated from the shadows to protect the Earth without telling other members of
the teams they were on. They have done and will do things that they knew the
more “good” heroes would never approve of in terms of morality and principals.
‘The perspective of who is telling
the story changes throughout the novel. The novel also switches back and forth
between the two primary storylines. This book includes over 40 forty important
characters making it virtually impossible to list all the perspectives this
novel takes place from. Suffice it to say, there is a lot going on and things
are very complicated throughout the read.
The author does a good job of adapting
the graphic novel, but in the process creates some plot holes that could have
been fixed with an author’s note in multiple places. Jonathan Hickman used a
lot of original terms and new characters and that issue is not addressed by
James A. Moore. As part of the process, it would have been helpful if he had
added a glossary of terms, a character list, and brief explanations of them and
other things that are unique to the base work. For example, while most Marvel
fans have a good idea of Thor and Hulk, many folks will not know who Hyperion
is or the backstory.
One also must understand that the
base material was coming out at the same time as other writers for Marvel. That
meant that the original baseline story in the graphic novels was impacted by
those works and that angle is totally ignored here in the prose adaptation. For
example, if you go on Goodreads, you will see multiple people complaining about
Spider-Man disappearing one third of the way through the novel. These readers are
wondering what happened to Spider-Man and are left hanging by James A. Moore.
The answer is that during this time
period, in another series, Spider-Man was killed, and his identity was assumed
by a Super Villain who was later fired by the Avengers once they realized he
was a villain. They did not realize that their friend and teammate had been
killed and replaced and did not realize his villainy for quite some time. Instead
of briefly explaining this in an author’s note, Mr. Moore choose to just adapt
the comic book, so he is suddenly gone about a third of the way through with no
explanation or reasoning at all. Just gone. This is not the only issue.
For example, there are references to a
schism which is not explained at all. This was the X-Men Civil War that split
the team into two camps. One led by Cyclops and the other by Wolverine. You may
have seen the movie version which was a bit different than what was in the
books. Either way, in this case, the author brings it up repeatedly and never
once explains it so that readers have any reference to what is happening. There
are other various plot holes, random scenes that are included here and make
little to no sense unless one has read the graphic novels as I have in recent
years. There are also other random part of things included here that make zero sense
to include here as they don’t really fit these two storylines unless there are
plans in the work to adapt the next series of graphic novels to build a sequel to
this adaptation.
The author brings it up multiple
times without explaining. There are various plot holes created by the way the
book was adapted and these are just two of the minor ones. There are a couple
scenes in the book that do not make a lot of sense if one has not read the
graphic novel and there are parts I would of cut since they are really not part
of this book and are instead set up for a sequel. Unless they are planning to
adapt the sequels.
On the positive side of things, Avengers:
Infinity Prose Novel by James A. Moore has a ton of action, humor, and
drama. It is a great space epic where the heroes are in one of the toughest
fights of their lives. The book does a great job of adapting several of the truly
amazing iconic moments from the comic series. The author does a good job of
keeping the characters consistent from the graphic novel to the book. By
writing the book to include what certain characters are thinking during the
novel, the author offers a new perspective on multiple scenes. Such as scenes
where Bruce Banner is trying to lead a team of scientists while watching his
fellow Avengers in danger. Or when Bruce Banner desperately tries to keep the
inner Hulk under control while trying to solve multiple global disasters at the
beginning of the book.
Even with the flaws noted above, Avengers:
Infinity Prose Novel by James A. Moore is a good book and will work for
most folks, so it is recommended.
My reading copy was purchased from
Amazon in eBook format. With the book on order and the Dallas Library System shuttered,
I went ahead and purchased the eBook so that I could read it now.
Scott A. Tipple ©2020
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