Tag: Marvel Cinematic Universe

SATURDAY SMORGASBORD: Books from Marvel Publishing

SATURDAY SMORGASBORD: Books from Marvel Publishing

Posted on by Jaymie

Last month we looked at books from DC Comics and DC Publishing. This month I want to do the same for Marvel. I don’t get the same feel from the Marvel collection as I do from DC. Surprisingly, I prefer DC’s books to Marvel’s, which is the opposite of how I feel about their movies. Let’s take a look at what Marvel has for us in the world of publishing (not including graphic novel collections of comic books).

Board Books/Picture Books

Marvel Alpha Block is an alphabet board book with die cut pages. As the Marvel movies have exploded in popularity, Marvel has published a number of picture books, including Little Golden Books for most of the main characters. Baby Groot makes a great character for picture books. I especially loved Spider-Man Swings Through Europe which debuted this summer as the latest Spider-Man movie was released. (Rating: ♥♥♥♥ ) There are also inspirational books and collections that show multiple characters and tells readers about them.

Leveled Readers and Early Chapter Books

Most of the Marvel movies have released along side leveled readers for kids. There’s usually a “Meet the Team” title that introduces the characters as well as some that include adventures based on the movies. There have also been some early chapter books like these from the Super Hero Adventures line. I couldn’t find any recent releases in these categories.

Middle Grade Novels

Marvel usually publishes a “Junior Novel” for all of the movies (like the one for Thor Ragnarok pictured above – I couldn’t find one for Spider-Man Far From Home). These usually mirror the beginnings of the movies, but stop before giving the whole movie plot away. They have also published novelizations of the movies. You can now get the whole “First Ten Years” collection in a box set. Otherwise, their middle grade books play close to the movies but usually more by filling-in-backstory or with a sideways shift.

In Black Panther: Young Prince, we get a childhood story for T’Challa. (♥♥♥♥) In the Cosmic Quest duology, the Collector and the Grand Master square off in a bit of sibling rivalry as they also retell the stories of the Infinity Stones. Peter and Ned’s Ultimate Travel Journal is styled like a pass-around journal for the characters from Spider-Man Far from Home. The Pirate Angel, the Talking Tree, and Captain Rabbit stars Thor, Groot and Rocket as they head to Nidavellir in Endgame, and Groot reads Rocket’s journal about a previous adventure. Marvel released two Unbeatable Squirrel Girl books in 2017 and 2018. You can read my review of Squirrel Meets World here. (♥♥♥♥♥) Starforce on the Rise tells the story of Captain Marvel when she was fighting with the Kree in Starforce before her adventures in the 2019 movie.

 

Teen and Young Adult Novels

While DC has been actively cultivating their Teen/YA market, Marvel hasn’t done as well there. There were two books in the Black Widow series (published in 2015 and 2016). I enjoyed the first one, Forever Red (♥♥♥♥), but didn’t read the second. Higher, Further, Faster tells the story of Carol Danvers before she ever meets the Kree. (♥♥♥♥½) The Gauntlet is an Iron Man story from 2016 for the middle grade/middle school crowd that seems to stand in a timeline outside the MCU. (♥♥♥½) Loki: Where Mischief Lies just released this fall. You can read my full review here. (♥♥♥½). Jason Reynolds gave us a Miles Morales story before the animated Into the Spiderverse released last year to critical acclaim. You can read my review here. (♥♥♥♥) Thanos: Titan Consumed is an original novel telling the origin story of Thanos.

Adult Novels and Other Books

Marvel has done a far better job than DC on novels for adults. They have a line of novelizations of some of their top comic/graphic novel story lines that are a lot of fun for prose readers. Avengers: Everybody Wants to Rule the World is a novel about many Marvel characters but doesn’t tie specifically into the MCU or a specific comic book series. Avengers: Infinty is a Thanos story, but separate from the one in the MCU.  Captain Marvel: Liberation Run is an original Marvel story starring Captain Marvel. Civil War is a novelization of the comic series as is Planet Hulk. You can read my Planet Hulk review here. (♥♥♥♥♥) Spider-Man Hostile Takeover is actually a prequel to the Spider-Man PS4 game. Thanos: Death Sentence is an original Marvel novel. X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga is a novelization of the comics storyline. Marvel also does a fantastic job with their Art of books for each movie in the MCU.

Coming Soon from Marvel

While DC has been shouting from the rooftops about their publishing plans for kids and teens for the next year, Marvel has a much quieter list. These are the ones I was able to find. Black Widow gets to star in a Little Golden Book. (January 2020) Captain Marvel will star in a Flerken story for middle grade readers. (March 2020) Shuri will kick off an upper middle grade series (May 2020). The as-yet untitled Unstoppable Wasp book for teens (staring Nadia Van Dyne from the Unstoppable Wasp comic series) will release in May as well. And I found reference to a book called Orientation which will be the first in an illustrated middle grade series called Avengers Assembly, which is currently scheduled to release in August of 2020.

REVIEW: Loki: Where Mischief Lies by Mackenzi Lee

REVIEW: Loki: Where Mischief Lies by Mackenzi Lee

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Marvel Press in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary

Loki knows he doesn’t fit in in Asgard. He might be a prince, but Asgardians are warriors, not sorcerers.

Odin has a royal sorceress, Karnilla, Queen of Norns. Even though she is training an apprentice, Amora, she is officially the only magic-wielder for Odin’s court. Even Odin’s wife, Frigga, mostly kept her magic small and to herself.

In Amora, Loki found a peer. They did magic together and understood each other. (And he thought she had the most magnificent high heeled boots!) But an act of magic – desperation on Loki’s part – left a magical artifact destroyed and Amora banished to Midgard where her magic would dry up completely. And Loki was left in Asgard, without the one friend who understood him and with Odin’s constant disapproval, living in Thor’s everpresent shadow.

Years later, after a disastrous diplomatic mission, Loki himself is sent to Midgard. It’s supposed to be an important task for Odin, but Loki knows when he is being dumped somewhere. Something magical, though, is going on on Midgard, a place where there should be no magic. People are dying. This is Loki’s chance to redeem himself by helping some allies look into these deaths in 19th century London.

Review

I wanted to love this. I love the MCU version of Loki played by Tom Hiddleston. And there are some great moments early in the book where I could “hear” that Loki. It’s mostly in the interplay with Thor. But that’s lost in the second part of the book when those characters aren’t together.

Fans were promised a Loki from the comics in terms of sexuality. And it’s here. This Loki is genderfluid (although that’s mostly stated in a single line in the book). He also kisses both a male character and a female character in the book. This sexuality piece, though, wasn’t a huge part of the story, so it felt “there” rather than integrated. Readers who have strong feelings about this aspect of the character’s history will have a better take on this than me. For me, it felt tacked on, but with no emotional weight or punch.

I think antiheroes must be hard to write. A character like Loki is beloved, but he isn’t the hero. And as a young man here, part of Loki WANTS to be the hero. He wants to earn real praise from Odin. He wants the choice of successor to at least demand some thought and debate. This could have been a much stronger exploration of identity; I would have loved that. But it never went as far in that direction as I wanted.

I wanted to get to the end of the book and believe it couldn’t have worked out any other way – that Loki HAD to give in to his darker side and become the villain. But I didn’t feel the story here was compelling on that piece. There’s more “I’m a trickster, I guess I have to just lean all the way in” than circumstances that drive him there. There’s a bit of the Odin situation that didn’t leave Loki some of the options he wants, but he lets that eliminate everything else, too. I was disappointed by this. If this piece had been stronger, I would have liked the book a lot more.

The story was solid. I had plenty of questions so I kept turning pages, waiting for it all to become clear. And it did. It was more violent and gruesome in parts than I generally prefer. But none of the story grabbed me emotionally. I wasn’t in suspense or connected to any character other than Loki for the Earth-bound portions of the book. It was fine but it wasn’t fantastic. I wanted fantastic.

Fans of the character should check this out for themselves and see what they think. And readers who enjoy historical fiction might enjoy that angle on the story as well. (Violence; some language; some horror features – zombies; LGBTQ+)

Rating: ♥♥♥