With the month of October coming to its end, that only means one thing. It's the time when the worlds of the rational and supernatural come together. When ghosts, demons, and monsters roam the world of man. It's the time of horror. It's the time of Halloween.
This week, I wanted to do something a little different from the usual: An adaptation. Yes, an adaptation. Particularly, an adaptation of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The novel had been adapted in other media lots of times beforehand, most notably the Universal movie. The character has also been brought into the comic book pages as well. Dell Comics and DC Comics also have their own versions of the titular monster, but we're focusing on Marvel's version.
Before this comic debuted, Frankenstein's Monster had graced the pages of Marvel's comics beforehand. Back when it was called Atlas Comics, Stan Lee and Joe Maneely created a short story about him in Menace #7 (September 1953). Roy Thomas and Don Heck chronicled an adventure of the X-Men fighting a robotic version of the Monster in The X-Men #40 (January 1968). Stan Lee and John Buscema showed the monster in a flashback cameo in The Silver Surfer #7 (August 1969).
In the 1970s, Marvel was cranking out black-and-white magazines that focused on monsters and horror stories, so it made sense that the Frankenstein's Monster would make his way to the Marvel Universe as well. Let's take a look at his debut in The Monster of Frankenstein #1!
The cover is a Mike Ploog piece. It's awesome! It depicts the titular monster reaching out towards Victor Frankenstein from his slab, and a horrified Victor realizing the creature is alive. It's a just a really cool cover. That's all I can say about it, really. Ploog's signature on one of the beakers amuses me, though. When you do mad science, trust Ploog brand beakers! I think the corner box is trying to allude to Universal's take on the monster. Universal's version of the monster is iconic, but also protected by copyright, which is why Marvel's version looks so different.
"Mary Shelley's Frankenstein"
Writer: Gary Friedrich (adapted from a story by Mary Shelley)
Penciler: Mike Ploog
Inker: Mike Ploog
Colorist: Unknown
Letterer: John Costanza
Editor: Roy Thomas
Editor-in-Chief: Roy Thomas
Writer: Gary Friedrich (adapted from a story by Mary Shelley)
Penciler: Mike Ploog
Inker: Mike Ploog
Colorist: Unknown
Letterer: John Costanza
Editor: Roy Thomas
Editor-in-Chief: Roy Thomas
The story begins in the Arctic in January 1898. We focus on a cargo vessel with a special passenger: One Robert Walton IV. A hundred years earlier, his great-grandfather (Robert Walton Classic) went on a mission across the Arctic himself. Walton finds what he is looking for: Frankenstein's Monster frozen in ice.
A storm is coming, so the crew get to work cutting the ice around the monster so they can bring him on board the ship. The crew is worried about this, and it affects their morale negatively. Walton hopes a good night's sleep will help. The crew's Indigenous man, Canute, keeps watch. The comic refers to him as an "Eskimo", implying that he's Inuit or Yupik. However, from what I understand, the term is seen among those groups as rather offensive.
Yeah. During his watch, the ice cracks, causing an ice break.
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| "Get out the beer!" |
The Indigenous man's warning isn't enough to save the crew, as many of them get crushed by the ice. The crew blames the frozen monster, screaming that it's cursed. Canute tries to stop the men but gets brained for his trouble. Walton shoots one of the attacking men, saying that any man who harms Canute is dead. The mutiny quelled for now, the crew bring the frozen Monster to the ship.
A cabin boy brings some grog to Walton, and he asks what the frozen figure is. Walton explains that his great-grandfather encountered the creature...and its creator Victor Frankenstein a century earlier. This is his story...
Victor Frankenstein came from a wealthy family, and his tale started when he went off to university in Geneva.
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| Yeah, nothing bad is going to happen to anyone here... |
While in school, Frankenstein proved himself to be a brilliant youth and a hard worker, to the point of exhaustion.
The thing was, Frankenstein was a very impatient man, driven by immense curiosity. He was eager to learn the secrets of the human body. Eager to the point of obsession. By his third year in university, he grew so obsessed with conquering death that he stole corpses and body parts from hanging sites and graves. He would take the bodies and parts to his lab, where he worked feverishly on a very special project.
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| Inventing plastic surgery was a maddening process... |
He prepares one final injection for his creation, and it seemingly fails. His creture fails to even twitch, much less move. Disappointed but not disencouraged, Frankenstein returns to his notes when the creature...moves.
The creature LIVES! But something strange happens. It turns towards Frankenstein, hatred in its eyes. Hatred for him.
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| "ME WANNA ROCK! (ROCK!)" |
A horrified Frankenstein locks himself in his bedroom, and falls asleep, his feverish pace finally taking a toll on him. He wakes up to find the Monster had busted his way into his room and seems to be trying to communicate with him. A terrified Frankenstein first tries to channel his inner pro wrestler and hit his creation with a chair. It doesn't work.
He then tries to make the creature back off with the burning candles in a candelabra, but the Monster grabs it and easily twists and crushes the metal holder like it was made of nothing. The Monster is seemingly superhuman in its durability and strength. Frankenstein flees his house into the dark and rainy night. I imagine there was a raging thunderstorm that night.
He is found by his friend Clerval and taken to his hotel room. The creator spends the next few weeks in a feverish state, hovering between life and death. He does manage to recover. When he's feeling better, Frankenstein learns that his younger brother William has been murdered. And his father's ward, Justine Moritz is the prime suspect.
On the way to his home, Frankenstein fears that the monster may have been the actual culprit. After all, he hasn't seen the creature in weeks. He learns that the reason why Justine is suspected is because she was holding William's pendant when he was murdered. Victor suggests that Justine was set up, but that was dismissed at her trial.
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| Frankenstein is watching you plot. |
Frankenstein is convinced the Monster is behind William's death. He intends to prove that Justine is innocent without revealing the Monster's existence. He visits Justine in her cell (she'd due to be hanged the next day), but she's accepted her fate, and he realizes telling the world about the Monster would label him as a madman. The heartsick Victor watches Justine's hanging, then goes high up into the snowy mountains. He makes camp in a cave, where he gets a visit from...a friend...
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| "WHY DID YOU MAKE ME DO IT?!" |
Turns out in the weeks since they last met, the Monster has mastered the art of speech. Victor attacks the Monster with some fire and tries to get his gun. One bullet between the eyes should end this madness. He fires, but only grazes the Monster's shoulder. The angered Monster grabs Victor. The doctor pleads to let him explain, but the Monster is in no mood to hear explanations. The Monster intends to kill his creator, but first, he's in the mood to tell a tale...
And that's where it ends. Walton needs to find the adequate words to explain the tale the Monster weaved. But that will have to wait. One of the crew comes in with a report: They're sailing again, but the big storm is almost right on top of them. The storm hits, and it batters the ship hard. One of the crewmen, driven mad with fear, holds the cabin boy hostage, screaming that bringing the frozen Monster on board has cursed the ship and caused this whole thing.
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| "I want my unicorn, Cap'n!" |
The ship's mast collapses on top of Walton, and the ship spins out of control. Down below, the ship's being cajoled around beings the frozen Monster closer to a wood-burning stove...and it's starting to thaw him out...
I can't really make any comparisons to the original book, as I have never read it. As such, my judgement will come from the comic on its own merits. I admit, I did enjoy it. I don't think it would be considered scary by today's standards, but since the book was originally published in 1818...yeah. But the horror of this story is not in blood and gore, in my opinion. To me, the true horror of the story of Victor Frankenstein is what his obsession made him do. Victor Frankenstein was consumed by his obsession with breaking Death's hold on humanity. And in an ironic twist, it made him create something that would cause death everywhere it went.
Mike Ploog does some great art for the issue. His take on the Monster does emphasize the monster. It brings a lot of needed moodiness to the story.
As was typical of Marvel publications at the time, Frankenstein's Monster would become part of the Marvel Universe. Yes, in the Marvel Universe, Frankenstein's Monster is very much real. The book exists in-universe, too. How? Well, Dr. Strange #37 (January 1992) established that Mary Shelley met Victor's brother Ernst on a trip to Switzerland. He would tell her the tale of Victor's creation of the Monster, which inspired her to write the book. The Monster would go on to battle Dracula and Werewolf by Night, as well as become a member of an incarnation of the Howling Commandoes.
Victor Frankenstein himself would leave a legacy that affects the Marvel Universe to the present day. While he never had children himself, Ernst did. His brother Ernst's great-great-grandson Basil created a version of the Monster for the Nazis in Invaders #31 (August 1978). In All-New Invaders #12 (January 2015), it would be revealed that the World War I-era superteam the Freedom's Five encountered a woman named Ursula Frankenstein. Her relationship to Basil is unknown.
Arguably, Vincent's most famous relative in the Marvel Universe is his great-granddaughter Baroness Victoria Frankenstein. First appearing in Frankenstein's Monster #18 (September 1975), Victoria is practically immortal thanks to a special formula created by Victor. She does have the family knack for messing around with the dead, but she also has been shown to have a desire to amend for her family's past sins. She's encountered Spider-Man (Peter Parker), the Hulk (Bruce Banner), and Wolverine (James Howlett/Logan).
And then there is Maximillian Frankenstein. Born Maximillian Von Katzenelnbogen, he debuted in X-Men: Schism (July 2011). A sociopathic child with the Frankensteinian predisposition towards mad science, his relationship to Victoria or any other pre-established member of the Frankenstein family has never been truly explored as far as I know. Although I can imagine Victoria not being too fond of him.
Victor Frankenstein himself would return to life in Creatures on the Loose #12 (July 1971) thanks to his brain being accidentally placed in the body of another monster. He would then transfer his brain into the body of another unknown descendant, only to meet his end once again at the hands of the Prince of Orphans when he tried to transfer his mind into the body of Iron Fist (Orson Randall) in Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death #1 (April 2008).
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