Spider-Man:
Valley of the Lizard
By
John Vornholt
All the
marvel Spider-novels can't be winners. And this one is easily the
weakest link in the chain. This novel took me 2 months to finish
reading. It was one of those novels that you keep on your
nightstand, meaning to finish but never get around to it. The
story never engrosses you, but you have such a vested interest in
it that you feel cheated if you don't finish the story.
The story involved Kurt Conners, aka the Lizard, loosing control
of his evil persona and taking a trip to Mexico to find the
"valley of the lizard." He hopes there he can find a
cure. Meanwhile some flying reptiles by the name of the "chupacabras"
are terrifying New York residents by stealing precious artwork.
These flying reptiles are all led by a mysterious woman named
Miranda.
The book then has Spidey flying down to Mexico to rescue Curt
Conners and saving the world from being overrun with more reptile
villians that are really hard to spell! Ok problems I had with
the novel.
Boring is the word which best sums up this novel. Half the book
is taken up with Peter Parker reading Curt Conners' diary. I
always have problems when an author spends that much time in the
past tense. Seondly, Spider-Man was out of his element. Fighting
lizards in the Mexico amazon is not Spidey's motiff. Send in Ka-Zar
if you like that type of thing. Spidey is a urban hero located in
New York City. Nuff Said. Thirdly the writer cheated. At one
pointSpidey is badly injured and near death and the main villian
gives Spidey some "magic formula" that makes him all
better so he can fight the Lizard. Very cheap out for the author
in my opinon. But then again we are talking about a guy that can
walk walls , so one must allow some leeway.
I'm giving this book one and a half out of four. Unless your
really starving for a novel to read, avoid this one.