X-Men: Shadows of the Past

Marvel BP Books Prose Novels

by Michael Jan Friedman

When Professor Xavier, the mentor of the X-Men, uncovers evidence of a planned secret alien invasion of Earth, he enlists the X-Men in a desperate race against time to find key pieces of technology to build a weapon powerful enough to stop the attacking forces. Reprint.

Genres: Science Fiction, Marvel, X Men, Superheroes, Comics, Fiction, Fantasy

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Michael Jan Friedman is an author of more than seventy books of fiction and nonfiction, half of which are in the Star Trek universe. Eleven of his titles have appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list. Friedman has also written for network and cable television and radio, and scripted nearly 200 comic books, including his original DC superhero series, the Darkstars.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the early-in-the-movies-era prose X-novels, featuring pretty much the classic line-up. There's an invasion afoot, and Charles directs teams to X-otic locations to investigate and oppose. The narrative tends to drag a bit at times, but it's an okay adventure. Each chapter has a nice Jose Ladronn illustration, and the book has a very cool Steranko cover. 'nuff said? Excelsior!

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is not good I got the hardcover at a rummage sale for $2 and I feel like I overpaid. I normally enjoy novels based on super heroes but this one was just bad. It seemed that the author was paid by the word given how overly verbose he is. ("The X-Men resurrected the metal slab that separated the facility from the rest of the world" = they closed the door. Just say they closed the door.) He also repeated concepts so very much, like the aspects of Lucifer's plan and Beast's appearance. Either that or he had no faith in the reader's intelligence, in which case why bother using all those flowery SAT vocab words throughout the book?

The plot also hinges on a mentally disabled man, which the writer refers to with the "r" word far too often. Yeah, I know it was written in 2000 but I still feel like we had villified that word by that time. And he used it A LOT. Like, an uncomfortable amount of times, unnecessarily too when just saying "Jeffery" would have sufficed.

There are many other good super hero novels out there, don't waste your time with this one.

[Andy Crane · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing was awful, but I found myself wanting to know what happened to the X-Men. This could have easily been condensed to a two-part special for the X-Men t.v. show that aired in the 90's.

[Anthony Whitlow · Rating 1 out of 5]

The amount of times the word "retarded" is used in this book is astounding....

[Raymond Schwetz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the time spent with the original 5 X Men! A quick fun read.

[Jason Prodoehl · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite quote: "How little a handicap means when one's spirit refuses to be vanquished."

[Wayland Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not one of the better superhero novels I've read. The plot didn't grab me. I don't like the ones that hinge on "Oh, we introduce this minor thing about a character who's an old friend you've never heard of before." Also, the research wasn't that good (Professor X has TK? Since when?). The book featured Prof. X and the original five X-Men, and I didn't feel he had a great grasp on any of them.

It was also just oddly written. If you cut the word "mutant" from the book, I think it would be 10% shorter. None of the characters quite seemed right. It's weird to have the Beast ruminating about his past with no mention whatever of his time with the Avengers. Archangel is in his blue phase, but no mention of Apocolypse who caused it. There's a few things like that.

I just can't say I really recommend the book hugely. It wasn't a bad read, but it just wasn't that good.

[Daniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have generally enjoyed reading novel versions of comic book heroes, and I have generally enjoyed works by Friedman, but this book just falls flat. The 300+ pages feel padded with ...what? Not much of anything. This could have been a decent 24 page comic, but as a novel it just has nothing to hold anyone's interest.

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this novel because the author has put out some great stuff before. Like others have noted, the story feels stretched/padded. I think it could have easily been 1/3 shorter than it was. It's not a bad book, just something I would probably only recommend for hardcore X-fans like me; even then it is a tough sell.

[C. William · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn't bad but I've read fan fiction just as good.

[Andi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I actually didn't finish this...I had like 15 pages left & I just really didn't care anymore LOL