crystal_deornellas's review
It wasn't a bad book, just moved kind of slowly for my liking.
tschmitty's review
3.0
It was interesting to see how the final film changed from the draft of the screenplay used for this novelization. Rather watch RDJ as Iron Man any day but fun little read.
captwinghead's review
5.0
This was a 4 star book until the third act.
It's much, much better than the film.
As I confessed earlier, I have a soft spot for the Iron Man 2 film. It's the first film that really made it clear that Tony and Rhodey weren't just colleagues/coworkers tied together by obligation - IM2 made it clear that they're friends. Tony and Rhodey refer to each other as best friends more than once in this book, as well. Iron Man 2 is why Tony and Rhodey are my favorite and (in my opinion) the best developed friendship in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. These novels do such a great job at conveying why Tony needs Rhodey and why Rhodey needs Tony.
Anyway, this plot closely follows the film but it adds some much needed character depth to Ivan Vanko. A big problem with the film is that Ivan Vanko is incredibly forgettable. Partly because Mickey Rourke did such a shite job but also because the film didn't bother to delve into who Whiplash is. Imagine my surprise when I read an Iron Man comic with him and it takes me forever to make the connection between that character and the one in this film. This book explains more about why Ivan comes after Tony and it explains that his father died from Palladium poisoning and that's how Ivan knows Tony's dying. That last bit may have been in the film but if it was, it didn't stick out to me. Ivan wants to make up for what was "stolen" from his father and that closely parallels Tony's desire to live up to his father's legacy. (I don't want to talk about both of these novels and their penchant for making Tony so loyal to his father's memory. Howard Stark was an abusive, drunken asshole and Tony deserved so much better. I wish the writers had researched that more before writing these.)
Anyway, Ivan is portrayed as much more of a calculated, engineering genius and he's kind of a badass. He's a much more formidable foe as this book emphasizes that he's been through just about everything. Several stints in Russian gulags, sensory deprivation, torture. He's survived all of that and it makes him much more threatening to Tony. This is a character that, if played by a much better actor, could have really transformed the film and made Whiplash more memorable. As it stands, Obadiah Stane is the only memorable villain in the Iron Man films.
It's worth noting that the Phase One films were separate from Disney and this book reflects that as well. It's more risque than the last. There are swear words, a little more chauvinistic behavior that I could've done without. It's also more violent.
I don't know if this was the plan but Justin Hammer works with the Ten Rings to get Vanko out of prison. So it seems like they were trying to build to the Mandarin. Makes me wonder if they would've actually followed the Mandarin plot in Iron Man 3, had the rights not been sold to Disney.
Anyway, Natasha is a little more fleshed out in this book. That was nice to see. There was even a subplot in which Happy's feelings were hurt by her taking him down in the boxing ring and they settle that later. Which brings me to Pepper.
She was a negative in this book. I love Pepper Potts. I have stuck up for her when people give her crap for being a "movie girlfriend" but this book characterized her as the jealous love interest and it was awful. She was unnecessarily rude and nasty to Natasha (playing Natalie of course) and I did not like that. It wasn't like her and I'm glad the movie didn't do that. Also, I'm glad the film changed the line Tony throws to her in the boxing scene because this film skipped straight to blatant sexual harassment.
Anyway, the heart of what made me love this book was Tony and Rhodey's relationship. Here, the tensions between them start because Tony feels threatened by Rhodey working with Justin Hammer. They have a lovers' tiff in the plane because Tony is mad Rhodey was brought to the Senate Hearing without telling him. Tony even says, "I can't believe you took him to Monaco. Monaco is our place."
This book was filled with Tony making suggestive comments to Rhodey and implying that Hammer was Rhodey's boyfriend now. He implies that Rhodey has moved on and Hammer is now "filling his vacuum", invites him to a threesome and later implies that he's "catty" because he needs a boyfriend. I don't want to read too much into it but its worth noting that Rhodey has never been shown dating anyone so Rhodey is an MCU character that could be gay. Anyway, this was all because Tony was jealous and upset about Rhodey not being his guy anymore and that's part of why I love their friendship.
Them bickering when Rhodey was forced to attack Tony was hilarious.
This book ends rather abruptly. It's a little jarring to be honest.
Anyway, I recommend this if you like the films because I genuinely think there's enough added material to make this worth it. If you can find a copy that is. It's kinda hard to find.
It's much, much better than the film.
As I confessed earlier, I have a soft spot for the Iron Man 2 film. It's the first film that really made it clear that Tony and Rhodey weren't just colleagues/coworkers tied together by obligation - IM2 made it clear that they're friends. Tony and Rhodey refer to each other as best friends more than once in this book, as well. Iron Man 2 is why Tony and Rhodey are my favorite and (in my opinion) the best developed friendship in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. These novels do such a great job at conveying why Tony needs Rhodey and why Rhodey needs Tony.
Anyway, this plot closely follows the film but it adds some much needed character depth to Ivan Vanko. A big problem with the film is that Ivan Vanko is incredibly forgettable. Partly because Mickey Rourke did such a shite job but also because the film didn't bother to delve into who Whiplash is. Imagine my surprise when I read an Iron Man comic with him and it takes me forever to make the connection between that character and the one in this film. This book explains more about why Ivan comes after Tony and it explains that his father died from Palladium poisoning and that's how Ivan knows Tony's dying. That last bit may have been in the film but if it was, it didn't stick out to me. Ivan wants to make up for what was "stolen" from his father and that closely parallels Tony's desire to live up to his father's legacy. (I don't want to talk about both of these novels and their penchant for making Tony so loyal to his father's memory. Howard Stark was an abusive, drunken asshole and Tony deserved so much better. I wish the writers had researched that more before writing these.)
Anyway, Ivan is portrayed as much more of a calculated, engineering genius and he's kind of a badass. He's a much more formidable foe as this book emphasizes that he's been through just about everything. Several stints in Russian gulags, sensory deprivation, torture. He's survived all of that and it makes him much more threatening to Tony. This is a character that, if played by a much better actor, could have really transformed the film and made Whiplash more memorable. As it stands, Obadiah Stane is the only memorable villain in the Iron Man films.
It's worth noting that the Phase One films were separate from Disney and this book reflects that as well. It's more risque than the last. There are swear words, a little more chauvinistic behavior that I could've done without. It's also more violent.
I don't know if this was the plan but Justin Hammer works with the Ten Rings to get Vanko out of prison. So it seems like they were trying to build to the Mandarin. Makes me wonder if they would've actually followed the Mandarin plot in Iron Man 3, had the rights not been sold to Disney.
Anyway, Natasha is a little more fleshed out in this book. That was nice to see. There was even a subplot in which Happy's feelings were hurt by her taking him down in the boxing ring and they settle that later. Which brings me to Pepper.
She was a negative in this book. I love Pepper Potts. I have stuck up for her when people give her crap for being a "movie girlfriend" but this book characterized her as the jealous love interest and it was awful. She was unnecessarily rude and nasty to Natasha (playing Natalie of course) and I did not like that. It wasn't like her and I'm glad the movie didn't do that. Also, I'm glad the film changed the line Tony throws to her in the boxing scene because this film skipped straight to blatant sexual harassment.
Anyway, the heart of what made me love this book was Tony and Rhodey's relationship. Here, the tensions between them start because Tony feels threatened by Rhodey working with Justin Hammer. They have a lovers' tiff in the plane because Tony is mad Rhodey was brought to the Senate Hearing without telling him. Tony even says, "I can't believe you took him to Monaco. Monaco is our place."
This book was filled with Tony making suggestive comments to Rhodey and implying that Hammer was Rhodey's boyfriend now. He implies that Rhodey has moved on and Hammer is now "filling his vacuum", invites him to a threesome and later implies that he's "catty" because he needs a boyfriend. I don't want to read too much into it but its worth noting that Rhodey has never been shown dating anyone so Rhodey is an MCU character that could be gay. Anyway, this was all because Tony was jealous and upset about Rhodey not being his guy anymore and that's part of why I love their friendship.
Them bickering when Rhodey was forced to attack Tony was hilarious.
This book ends rather abruptly. It's a little jarring to be honest.
Anyway, I recommend this if you like the films because I genuinely think there's enough added material to make this worth it. If you can find a copy that is. It's kinda hard to find.
shellyzev's review
3.0
This book was all right but the book was completely undescriptive. The author provided no imagery or details to the scene. The author assumed that you know what everything looked like so unless you watched the movie, this book was horrible.
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