Book adaptations of movies usually are fairly mediocre. Generally based on an earlier version of the script than what shows up on the screen, authors aren’t encouraged to do anything new or interesting beyond what’s provided. The result usually feels rewarmed, missing some of the last-moment elements tossed in by the director and actors, and unable to take advantage of the strengths of the written medium vs the video medium.
Peter David’s adaptation of Iron Man suffers from these weaknesses, but a combination of a good writing style (love to see him take on the character in the comics) and a character-oriented script (it’s really a movie about Tony Stark, not about Iron Man), it’s a pleasantly entertaining volume to breeze through.
Iron Man by Peter David (2008)
| Overall |  | Story | |
| Re-Readability |  | Characters | |
Story: The book recaps the movie pretty well (sans the final “did you stay through the credits?” denouement), relating Tony Stark’s fall and rise again as Iron Man. David has commented that the script he worked from was pretty much what was shot, and it’s true. There are a few extra bits that ended up in the movie (mostly visuals and quips), and some exposition and expansion of a few scenes (e.g., what Pepper and Rhodey were doing while Tony was captive, added scenes with SHIELD), along with a few explanations and logistics (how characters get from location X to Y), etc. That’s nice, but not essential.
Characters: Same as above. David lets us learn a bit more about the characters (through benefit of being in their heads), rounding things out. It’s not required for enjoying the movie, though, and it doesn’t add a huge amount to what’s already there on screen.
Re-Readability: Really, having read it once, I’ll satisfy myself watching the DVD (once it’s released). Despite being written by one of my favorite authors, it’s not that entertaining on its own (in contrast), though it’s not a bad book in and of itself.
Overall: I feel like I’ve been a bit harsh here, and that’s probably not fair. The fact is, i enjoyed the movie a lot. The book simply isn’t as good as the movie, almost inevitably given the material and the restrictions an adaptor has to follow. Though there are some nice additional bits of internal perspective that are worth reading, fans of the movie needn’t feel obliged to rush right out and get the book for fear of missing essential plotty stuff — but if they do, they won’t be appalled at what they find, either.
If you’ve never seen the movie — you’re better off seeing the movie than the book (IMO). On the other hand, if you’re at loose ends and if your only choice of something to read is this book — well, it’s actually not a bad read in and of itself. You could certainly do worse.
(The book is based on the screenplay by Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway. Yikes!)