Just picked up my copy during lunch at Books A Million. I'll post my impressions afterwards. There will be spoilers in this thread, in theory depending on how close the novelization is to the final film.
With Norton making daily script revisions, it's hard to say, but by and large most of this will be accurate.
And for the record, I read the "First Draft" script that circulated earlier, and I liked Ang Lee's version as well. I'll point out any differences I notice, but admittedly it's been a while since I read said script so apologies for anything I miss
Sorry for the poor scans, but here's the first two pages of the novel for confirmation.
I did this last time for TRANSFORMERS as seen in this thread (if anyone wants proof of my credibility):
http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=274019
SPOILER FREE REACTION:
Very positive. Bruce and Betty's relationship is actually felt this time around. The plot doesn't slow down much. Some intelligent lines and interactions between characters, not as comic booky sounding if that makes sense. All characters are fleshed out (for the most part) and stand alone on their own.. in other words, they're not carbon copies of one another and interchangable. Some unique motivations and reactions from complex characters. Ending seemed a little quick, but I'd imagine it's hard to summarize the final battle. Transformers had a similar novelization dilemma.
SPOILERS FOR THE NOVEL BEGIN BELOW
END CAMEO
UPDATE
Finished
With Norton making daily script revisions, it's hard to say, but by and large most of this will be accurate.
And for the record, I read the "First Draft" script that circulated earlier, and I liked Ang Lee's version as well. I'll point out any differences I notice, but admittedly it's been a while since I read said script so apologies for anything I miss
Sorry for the poor scans, but here's the first two pages of the novel for confirmation.
I did this last time for TRANSFORMERS as seen in this thread (if anyone wants proof of my credibility):
http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=274019
SPOILER FREE REACTION:
Very positive. Bruce and Betty's relationship is actually felt this time around. The plot doesn't slow down much. Some intelligent lines and interactions between characters, not as comic booky sounding if that makes sense. All characters are fleshed out (for the most part) and stand alone on their own.. in other words, they're not carbon copies of one another and interchangable. Some unique motivations and reactions from complex characters. Ending seemed a little quick, but I'd imagine it's hard to summarize the final battle. Transformers had a similar novelization dilemma.
SPOILERS FOR THE NOVEL BEGIN BELOW
310 pages.
The novel opens in the Artic, with Bruce remembering his mother reading Frankenstein to him at a young age. A trucker gives him a lift (presumably a nod to co-writer Dan Slott, referred to as "Dan or Don or something like that.") Banner's been having these "fits" more and more, and has decided to end it all in the Arctic, out of a sense of drama. Also, so no one can find the corpse and dissect it.
He could only afford one bullet, and he struggles to control his arm as the bullet fires. The Hulk opens his hand to reveal the bullet. He smashes the ground and it breaks off and slips into the ocean. The Hulk ends up walking across the bottom of the ocean.
HULK portions are in bold and larger print.
Here's an example of what it's like when the novel refers to Hulk stuff.
It's painful, noisy, etc when Banner is the Hulk. You see why he's so irritated and has trouble concentrating/focusing. It's very much like the script describes which should be great to see on screen.
--
Three years later.
Banner is in Brazil. He has a dog named Rick.
He works at a factory bottling a drink called Amazona. He uses the name David.
A drop of Banner's blood accidentally gets into one of the bottles. Later, two brothers Jimmy and Timmy are arguing over this soda. "I hope you choke on it!" and he starts convulsing. Kathleen Spar reports this to General Ross .
--
Armand Martel (Hulkbuster), Samuel Laroquette, Craig Saunders are part of the team that Blonsky is assigned to.
The woman from the trailer who says "It's a snatch and grab operation" is Major Sparr.
Ross was Blonsky's CO in Vietnam. Green Berets.
--
Lots of flashbacks intermixed with scenes. So far it seems that they were testing a gamma gun and Betty was injured during testing. It seems he Hulked out during an explosion or something as Ross is firing a gun at him.
--
Raid on Banner's apartment goes wrong. Banner was prepared and is on the run. Banner evades them, but eventually comes face to face with Ross which is too much. His pulse is racing and he panics when he sees his pulse monitor on the rise. He bolts directly into a bully from the factory and a fight ensues.
The team shoots one of the bullies with a tranq dart and Banner loses it finally. Rad levels spike. The team is confused. Ross didn't prepare them for this. Some bullies try to flee, but the Hulk grabs one of them from the shadows as seen in the trailer.
Sparr and team fire, but bullets have no effect. Neither does a grenade.
Blonsky empties a clip into the Hulk after the team is knocked aside. That's when he sees the Hulk holding a forklift and tosses it at him.
--
Blonsky is annoyed that he wasn't properly prepared. His team is decimated. He doesn't take authority well. He demands answers from Ross.
Ross explains that the Biotech/Supersoldier program was shut down after WWII. He stole some of the serum for a "rainy day" situation.
Blonsky starts his Super Soldier treatment.
--
Banner loses his laptop. Army is scouring it for clues.
Bruce decides he has to do something and decides it's time to meet Mr. Blue face to face but needs cash.
Bruce meets up with his old boss, Stanley who owns a pizza parlor. He does some part time work to get some cash. Likely Ferrigno cameo as security guard. Bruce borrows a grad student's computer to try and locate Betty. Student's name is Amadeus Cho (in theory)
He sees Betty on campus, and is about to talk to her when he spots her with Samson. She's also talking to a redhead named Marlo (PAD reference likely?)
Bruce returns to the pizza parlor.
Meanwhile, Betty shows up and Bruce walks in and it feels like one of those tv show meetings with Jack McGee. Bruce bolts and Betty chases after him. Betty explains she has to find him to Samson and he agrees. She never opened up about her past with him and he's curious and wants to help.
Bruce starts hitchhiking and spots Betty looking for him in the rain, and feels guilty about not explaining his departure to her. She takes him in and they have a good heart to heart.
Samson, the third wheel sleeps on the couch and Bruce can't sleep, so they end up talking. Bruce confesses that something happened in their past but doesn't wanna talk about it. Samson thinks he abused her or something.
Betty agrees to drop Bruce off at the bus station and give him some cash. Samson sabotaged her car (battery is dead).
--
Flashback:
Betty, Bruce, etc were working on a program to help soldiers on the field with radiation immunity or some such. Bruce was overconfident and tested it upon himself. Lab accident resulting in Betty in a coma and Ross and Bruce fighting. Ross wants it as a weapon, Bruce refuses.
--
At campus, Bruce spots a sniper and tells Betty to go. Army moves in. Betty gets hurt by a soldier as Bruce is trapped in the overpass.
He takes off his shirt to try and keep from breathing the gas, but when Betty gets hurt he loses it.
Blonsky gets all the bones in his body shattered practically.
Sonic weapons are brought out which keep the Hulk at bay for a while. Buildings are starting to crumble from the assault. Hulk smashes two plates of metal together to counter one of the sonic weapons which gives him an opening to smash it. Army calls in air support. Betty gets loose and Ross and the army don't see her. Ross orders an all out assault and only Hulk and Samson see Betty.
Hulk escapes with Betty. Samson tells Ross he now knows why Betty never talked about him.
--
Hulk rescues Betty from the military attack on campus. They're in a cave. She's passed out. He's watching her, wary and cautious. She awakes. It thunders outside and he jumps a bit, and rages at the storm. He goes outside and throws a boulder at the sky to make the noise stop. He returns and his wounds start healing. She strokes his arm which soothes him. Eventually, he rests on his side, stretches like a normal person, sighs and drifts off to sleep slightly snoring.
--
Betty cuts Bruce's hair. They resolve to go on the run, selling her mom's locket. Bruce swallowed a datacard with research and pukes it up. He needs this to work on a cure with Mr. Blue. He had nowhere else to put it.
Bruce and Betty are stuck in traffic. Army roadblock is ahead. Stan Lee guest appearance as boat operator that helps them bypass the roadblock.
They go to Mr. Blue's office.
--
Blonsky gets another treatment and starts healing, getting even stronger.
Overhears Ross' view of him as a weapon. Something to keep in reserve in case the Hulk shows up. He wants to be the first line of attack. He's becoming more aggressive.
--
Transformation scene excerpt from when Sterns tries to cure Bruce.
--
The military has a lead on Banner. They analyze Bruce's laptop. Concentrating on Mr. Blue and cellular biology, they find a video online of Sterns who changed a student's skin blue in a demonstration.
--
Sterns reveals he's been experimenting on cloned material from Bruce's samples he's been sending over the years. Sterns is an anarchist and plays loose with ethics with his experiments. Bruce is horrified.
--
Military closes in. Sterns says all three of them can get the Nobel prize. Distracted, they're caught unaware when Bruce is hit with a tranq dart and Blonsky moves in. He smashes Betty 5 feet in the air.
He's ordered to stand down.
Bruce is taken into custody and shackled.
Blonsky goes nuts and takes out Sterns' guards and demands Sterns assistance in boosting him more with Bruce's blood. He's addicted to the power.
--
Reports of a ten foot monster on the loose surface from the campus. There's confusion since Bruce is in custody.
Sterns is passed out in the corner with a gash on his forehead. Some of Bruce's blood pours into the wound.
Sparr wakes and says that Sterns is dead.
--
Military tries to get a camera feed on this new Hulk sighting. They confirm it's not Sterns or Banner and conclude it's Blonsky.
They discuss bringing in the sonic weapons again, but decline since it was destroying buildings on campus.
Bruce volunteers. Says he can't control it, but he can try to aim it (Hulk) at Blonsky.
He says to take him up high. He'll jump because he knows the Hulk won't let him commit suicide. He confesses he tried to kill himself to Betty because he thought he hurt her.
--
Fight ensues.
Abomination goes after Betty's chopper. It gets swatted down. Betty's in danger of being caught in a fire explosion. Hulk uses his brain and "vacuum/thunderclaps" the flames out.
People
"Which one's the Hulk?"
Ross
"The one who's winning. The one who's here to save your asses!"
Fight goes back and forth until Abomination gets his leg caught in a fissure he created by hitting the ground (and the Hulk dodged) He tries to choke Hulk with a chain, but Hulk gets the upper hand and returns the favor.
--
Hulk subdues Abomination without killing him, after Betty pleads with him.
Crowd is cheering HULK! HULK! HULK!
The novel opens in the Artic, with Bruce remembering his mother reading Frankenstein to him at a young age. A trucker gives him a lift (presumably a nod to co-writer Dan Slott, referred to as "Dan or Don or something like that.") Banner's been having these "fits" more and more, and has decided to end it all in the Arctic, out of a sense of drama. Also, so no one can find the corpse and dissect it.
He could only afford one bullet, and he struggles to control his arm as the bullet fires. The Hulk opens his hand to reveal the bullet. He smashes the ground and it breaks off and slips into the ocean. The Hulk ends up walking across the bottom of the ocean.
HULK portions are in bold and larger print.
Here's an example of what it's like when the novel refers to Hulk stuff.
It's painful, noisy, etc when Banner is the Hulk. You see why he's so irritated and has trouble concentrating/focusing. It's very much like the script describes which should be great to see on screen.
--
Three years later.
Banner is in Brazil. He has a dog named Rick.
He works at a factory bottling a drink called Amazona. He uses the name David.
A drop of Banner's blood accidentally gets into one of the bottles. Later, two brothers Jimmy and Timmy are arguing over this soda. "I hope you choke on it!" and he starts convulsing. Kathleen Spar reports this to General Ross .
--
Armand Martel (Hulkbuster), Samuel Laroquette, Craig Saunders are part of the team that Blonsky is assigned to.
The woman from the trailer who says "It's a snatch and grab operation" is Major Sparr.
Ross was Blonsky's CO in Vietnam. Green Berets.
--
Lots of flashbacks intermixed with scenes. So far it seems that they were testing a gamma gun and Betty was injured during testing. It seems he Hulked out during an explosion or something as Ross is firing a gun at him.
--
Raid on Banner's apartment goes wrong. Banner was prepared and is on the run. Banner evades them, but eventually comes face to face with Ross which is too much. His pulse is racing and he panics when he sees his pulse monitor on the rise. He bolts directly into a bully from the factory and a fight ensues.
The team shoots one of the bullies with a tranq dart and Banner loses it finally. Rad levels spike. The team is confused. Ross didn't prepare them for this. Some bullies try to flee, but the Hulk grabs one of them from the shadows as seen in the trailer.
Sparr and team fire, but bullets have no effect. Neither does a grenade.
Blonsky empties a clip into the Hulk after the team is knocked aside. That's when he sees the Hulk holding a forklift and tosses it at him.
--
Blonsky is annoyed that he wasn't properly prepared. His team is decimated. He doesn't take authority well. He demands answers from Ross.
Ross explains that the Biotech/Supersoldier program was shut down after WWII. He stole some of the serum for a "rainy day" situation.
Blonsky starts his Super Soldier treatment.
--
Banner loses his laptop. Army is scouring it for clues.
Bruce decides he has to do something and decides it's time to meet Mr. Blue face to face but needs cash.
Bruce meets up with his old boss, Stanley who owns a pizza parlor. He does some part time work to get some cash. Likely Ferrigno cameo as security guard. Bruce borrows a grad student's computer to try and locate Betty. Student's name is Amadeus Cho (in theory)
He sees Betty on campus, and is about to talk to her when he spots her with Samson. She's also talking to a redhead named Marlo (PAD reference likely?)
Bruce returns to the pizza parlor.
Meanwhile, Betty shows up and Bruce walks in and it feels like one of those tv show meetings with Jack McGee. Bruce bolts and Betty chases after him. Betty explains she has to find him to Samson and he agrees. She never opened up about her past with him and he's curious and wants to help.
Bruce starts hitchhiking and spots Betty looking for him in the rain, and feels guilty about not explaining his departure to her. She takes him in and they have a good heart to heart.
Samson, the third wheel sleeps on the couch and Bruce can't sleep, so they end up talking. Bruce confesses that something happened in their past but doesn't wanna talk about it. Samson thinks he abused her or something.
Betty agrees to drop Bruce off at the bus station and give him some cash. Samson sabotaged her car (battery is dead).
--
Flashback:
Betty, Bruce, etc were working on a program to help soldiers on the field with radiation immunity or some such. Bruce was overconfident and tested it upon himself. Lab accident resulting in Betty in a coma and Ross and Bruce fighting. Ross wants it as a weapon, Bruce refuses.
--
At campus, Bruce spots a sniper and tells Betty to go. Army moves in. Betty gets hurt by a soldier as Bruce is trapped in the overpass.
He takes off his shirt to try and keep from breathing the gas, but when Betty gets hurt he loses it.
Blonsky gets all the bones in his body shattered practically.
Sonic weapons are brought out which keep the Hulk at bay for a while. Buildings are starting to crumble from the assault. Hulk smashes two plates of metal together to counter one of the sonic weapons which gives him an opening to smash it. Army calls in air support. Betty gets loose and Ross and the army don't see her. Ross orders an all out assault and only Hulk and Samson see Betty.
Hulk escapes with Betty. Samson tells Ross he now knows why Betty never talked about him.
--
Hulk rescues Betty from the military attack on campus. They're in a cave. She's passed out. He's watching her, wary and cautious. She awakes. It thunders outside and he jumps a bit, and rages at the storm. He goes outside and throws a boulder at the sky to make the noise stop. He returns and his wounds start healing. She strokes his arm which soothes him. Eventually, he rests on his side, stretches like a normal person, sighs and drifts off to sleep slightly snoring.
--
Betty cuts Bruce's hair. They resolve to go on the run, selling her mom's locket. Bruce swallowed a datacard with research and pukes it up. He needs this to work on a cure with Mr. Blue. He had nowhere else to put it.
Bruce and Betty are stuck in traffic. Army roadblock is ahead. Stan Lee guest appearance as boat operator that helps them bypass the roadblock.
They go to Mr. Blue's office.
--
Blonsky gets another treatment and starts healing, getting even stronger.
Overhears Ross' view of him as a weapon. Something to keep in reserve in case the Hulk shows up. He wants to be the first line of attack. He's becoming more aggressive.
--
Transformation scene excerpt from when Sterns tries to cure Bruce.
--
The military has a lead on Banner. They analyze Bruce's laptop. Concentrating on Mr. Blue and cellular biology, they find a video online of Sterns who changed a student's skin blue in a demonstration.
--
Sterns reveals he's been experimenting on cloned material from Bruce's samples he's been sending over the years. Sterns is an anarchist and plays loose with ethics with his experiments. Bruce is horrified.
--
Military closes in. Sterns says all three of them can get the Nobel prize. Distracted, they're caught unaware when Bruce is hit with a tranq dart and Blonsky moves in. He smashes Betty 5 feet in the air.
He's ordered to stand down.
Bruce is taken into custody and shackled.
Blonsky goes nuts and takes out Sterns' guards and demands Sterns assistance in boosting him more with Bruce's blood. He's addicted to the power.
--
Reports of a ten foot monster on the loose surface from the campus. There's confusion since Bruce is in custody.
Sterns is passed out in the corner with a gash on his forehead. Some of Bruce's blood pours into the wound.
Sparr wakes and says that Sterns is dead.
--
Military tries to get a camera feed on this new Hulk sighting. They confirm it's not Sterns or Banner and conclude it's Blonsky.
They discuss bringing in the sonic weapons again, but decline since it was destroying buildings on campus.
Bruce volunteers. Says he can't control it, but he can try to aim it (Hulk) at Blonsky.
He says to take him up high. He'll jump because he knows the Hulk won't let him commit suicide. He confesses he tried to kill himself to Betty because he thought he hurt her.
--
Fight ensues.
Abomination goes after Betty's chopper. It gets swatted down. Betty's in danger of being caught in a fire explosion. Hulk uses his brain and "vacuum/thunderclaps" the flames out.
People
"Which one's the Hulk?"
Ross
"The one who's winning. The one who's here to save your asses!"
Fight goes back and forth until Abomination gets his leg caught in a fissure he created by hitting the ground (and the Hulk dodged) He tries to choke Hulk with a chain, but Hulk gets the upper hand and returns the favor.
--
Hulk subdues Abomination without killing him, after Betty pleads with him.
Crowd is cheering HULK! HULK! HULK!
END CAMEO
Stark apparently showed up post battle with containment shackles he developed "just in case" and had taken the Abomination to be housed in a containment center named THE VAULT.
"Trust me .. the way things have been going lately, you're going to have more use for this facility than you could possibly believe."
Ross is drinking because he knows he's going to have to go before Congress to answer for the fight in NY.
"Trust me .. the way things have been going lately, you're going to have more use for this facility than you could possibly believe."
Ross is drinking because he knows he's going to have to go before Congress to answer for the fight in NY.
UPDATE
Finished
t:.
