Is this a veiled attempt at inserting your opinions on the MCU? Quite possibly…
Is this easier than writing a bunch of separate book reviews? Kinda…
Do you know that Nick Hornby did this kind of thing way more successfully than you’ll ever be able to? Well, yeah, but…
So, yes, being the cute little corporate shill that I am, I read the big book on the MCU to coincide with our family holiday to Disney Land Paris and yes, it was fascinating. In many ways, MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzalez and Gavin Edwards is a book about shonky business decisions as we lead in with how Marvel almost went under and were left with a frugal toy manufacturer as their owner, but the other option was a guy who would strip them for parts. As well as that there is all the licensing and film rights deals, which basically culminated in Disney shelling out billions to buy Fox rather than negotiate to get some of the most valuable Marvel properties back into the MCU.
The books shines a spotlight on those other than Kevin Feige who have kept the great MCU heli-carrier in the sky for the past 15 years. I loved reading about Sarah Halley Finn and the casting process and the way in which people who have auditioned for roles in the past have been thought of for roles within different parts of the MCU and have managed to make the parts their own such as Chris Pratt and Karen Gillan. She is one of a good few names that are prominent in the MCU story, but are little more than names you’ve seen again and again in various title sequences.
For me, the quality of product from the MCU has always varied, but I think in the post-Endgame era and the gaping maw of opinions on the internet that Marvel are being scrutinised more than ever as people thirst for the kind of pay off or huge crossover event that Marvel has shown itself capable of pulling off. Through Phase 4 we have had some tremendous films and moments in the likes of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and most notably for me, Moon Knight and that’s without mentioning WandaVision and that Agatha earworm. Secret Invasion was an abject disaster (Carver references aside, nudge, nudge) and veered away from some of the more fantastical elements of what has made Phase 4 a lot of fun. If you compare Phase 4 to Phase 1, then it makes sense why there are variances in the quality of the work. Or I’m just a total MCU fanboy…?
The latest collection of original stories available from Amazon came from some of the most popular horror writers currently in the game as Joe Hill, Josh Malerman, Grady Hendrix, Paul Tremblay and Jason Mott helped me peak too early for Halloween. Grady Hendrix and Paul Tremblay’s tales were read in September such was my hype for these. Hendrix’s tale is so simple in the way it brings the horror to us with Ankle Snatcher about a boy grown into a man afraid to get out of bed in the dark lest he be grabbed round the ankle and devoured. Paul Tremblay’s In Bloom (he’s the one who writes all them human horrors…..) is altogether more ambiguous and goes for the creeping chill up the spine with plant life becoming something much more menacing than normal.
Josh Malerman’s premise for It Waits in the Woods is excellent, but the tale didn’t quite hit the mark for me as a local legend is blamed for the disappearance of a girl and her sister ventures into the woods in search of the fabled upturned bridge of the legend. Joe Hill manages to put a new spin on infant horror with this kind of, sorta Rosemary’s Baby goes upstate tale. Jason Mott isn’t a well versed horror writer per se, but he writes the most shocking of the collection in Best of Luck as his seemingly straightforward tale of rich man, poor man takes a turn for the truly unexpected.
Tom Leins, Andrew Davie and Megan Abbott inhabit very different spaces within the crime genre, but both are go to authors for me. Abbott’s You Will Know Me follows the mother of a highly touted gymnast on the verge of qualifying for a shot at the US Olympic gymnastics team, but with mere weeks until the qualifier the death of the Head Coach’s niece’s boyfriend throws things into disarray as the coach tries to help her prove her innocence in the death. It’s kind of like Dare Me, but from the perspective of an adult looking in. Kate has little to no idea what is actually going on with her daughter and head booster for the club husband as she runs around trying to keep her son amused and shuttles her daughter between school and practices and the plot slowly unravels around her discovering revelations about both of them. Slab Rats is the latest instalment of Leins Paignton Noir starring private investigator/enforcer Joe Rey. This is a straight ahead rock ‘em, sock ‘em revenge mission for Rey as he teams with a local ex-pro surfer/ex-con to hunt down a mutual ex who has run off with pack of drugs. Andrew Davie’s The Pale Horse collects his series of eponymous tales revolving around a rogue assassin al a Bourne, which were previously published over at Bristol Noir. They are similarly straight ahead tales as the hunters become the hunted.
Everybody has a vague notion of the story of The Beatles and that had weirdly left me with never having actually read a book about them. I remember The Beatles Anthology documentary from the 90s and that seems to be where my curiosity about the story of The Beatles stopped. Enter Craig Brown and his acclaimed book One Two Three Four which forms the story of the band from assorted effluvia floating around the band itself with chapters relating to defining parties, memorabilia and how they were just disgusting boys really during their time in Hamburg. There are 150 chapters detailing the early days to the end of the band written with verve and humour before taking a turn to the touching. Brown has fun in discussing multiple versions of certain events touted in various biographies to detail how some truths surrounding the band could never really be known and paints an even more damning portrait of Yoko Ono than I’ve seen before. He doesn’t take it easy on the band either citing their faults and foibles. One of my favourite chapters has to be their discovery of weed through a certain Bob Dylan.
David Swinson’s Frank Marr books are one of my favourite recent series in crime fiction and Swinson and his protagonist return, kinda. In Sweet Thing, Swinson tells the story of Detective Alexander Blum investigating the murder of a drug dealer with a stash of photos of naked women including one with the dealer and Blum’s old CI from his days as a Narcotics Detective. As things transpire Blum finds himself working alongside Marr to try and solve the murders and get some drug charges along the way in order for their suspects to be reasonably held in jail. In a lot of ways, it is a pretty conventional tale with a few twists and wonderful ending that saves the book somewhat from being a bit of a meh.
Next month we enter the zeitgeist as I give my views on the Matthew Perry memoir and we will find out if I ever manage to pick up Cormac McCarthy’s The Passenger again after deeming it too heavy both literally and figuratively to take on holiday, but subsequently haven’t touched it since. Those and plenty more to come in Where I’m Reading From.
Scott Cumming - Writer 