Darkman

An excellent horror/adventure novel by vastly talented (and underappreciated) author, Randall Boyll. We open up with the brilliant Dr. Peyton Westlakes's struggle to produce artificial skin for burn victims. Then Peyton becomes a victim himself, brutally assaulted by sadistic criminals, his face, hands and identity forever burned away. What follows is his struggle to rebuild his lab, his life...and to take revenge on the evil men who stole his world away from him. With the aid of his artificial skin masks, he can become anyone for 99 minutes, but soon learns he has become nobody at all. And like a strange and twisted Batman in bandages, he plans on delving out his own form of justice. You've seen the movie, now read the book. This is excellent writing and plotting. By turns funny and cruel and poignant, dark, gothic, sad and infinitely ironic, Darkman is a novel that's easily devoured and not soon forgotten. Don't damn the book because of the funky angle shots used by the Raimis for the making of the film. Take this book on its own terms. The other books in the series are similarily worth your time, but never quite live up to the emotional depth of the original Darkman.