Thursday, October 21, 2010

Marvel's Frankenstein Monster






In the 1970s Marvel Comics expanded their line to include several horror characters. Tomb of Dracula, Werewolf By Night, Son of Satan, Ghost Rider were all good sellers (for a while) and at some point it must have seemed natural to add Mary Shelley's creature to the mix. I've just started a read of the entire run of these books and I'm happy to say that so far they are great. Marvel's version of the story is a combination of the original novel and the classic Universal movie tale. I love that the look they adopted for the character is the Karloff outfit from SON OF FRANKENSTEIN with the furry vest- I've always liked that look. Picking up years after the monster has been lost in the arctic wastes his body is found and chipped out of the ice to be returned to civilization. Of course, bad weather and a mutinous ship's crew conspire to make this much more difficult than it needs to be and soon enough the monster is awake and walking again. I'm enjoying these so far as a great alternative version of the monster but I'm surprised at how often Marvel tried to place the poor creature in its super hero continuity. Indeed, I think the first of these tales I ever read was my childhood best friend's copy of his appearance in Iron Man. Good times!

 

3 comments:

Brian Lindsey said...

The Monster says, "Comic book... GOOD!"

Kal said...

My favorite 70s monster comic was 'The Living Mummy' which I would so like to read again. I have many of the issues. But I liked all of these. They did a really good job on them.

Rod Barnett said...

Yes! Comic book very good!
And I'd love to read the entire Living Mummy run myself. I wonder if they have reprinted them as part of the Essential Marvel Horror vol. 2? They weren't in the first volume.