Secret Origins Of The Most Famous Character In The World: Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #0 Review
I haven’t really paid much attention to Frankenstein: Agent Of S.H.A.D.E. since its first issue, which, if I recall correctly, we felt only merited a summarizing in our first podcast as “a mildly entertaining yet inferior Hellboy knockoff.” However, given the combination of a new zero issue – meaning a one-and-done – and the news from San Diego Comic-Con that the title would be taking part in Jeff Lemire’s and Scott Snyder’s Rotworld crossover, it seemed like a good time to jump back in, re-familiarize myself with the character, and see if things have become any different.
However, based on my initial impressions of the first issue of the book, I’m issuing myself a challenge, here: I want to try to get through this entire review commenting on the book on its own merits, without mentioning Hellboy or B.R.P.D. even once.
Flips to page with panel of Frankenstein battling a giant Nazi spider…
Ooookay. Strap in; this might be a bumpier ride than I originally thought.
Frankenstein: Agent Of S.H.A.D.E. #0 is a recounting of the origin of Frankenstein’s Monster, which is an interesting tack to take for a comic book starring a character who has existed in popular culture in books, movies, television, radio, other comic books, children-made stop-motion animated movies, telegraph and occasionally even random patterns of burned toast. After the monster escapes Frankenstein’s Castle, he flees to the jungle (because the Arctic is so 19th Century, and these days it’s less scary knowing the Palins are able to survive and procreate there), chased by Dr. Frankenstein and his hired team of cybernetic mercenaries (because we all know that, back in 1823, you couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting a brigand with a bionic arm). There, Frankenstein (the monster) confronts Frankenstein (the doctor – stick with me here) before finally accepting recruitment into S.H.A.D.E.
If it sounds like I’m making some fun of this comic book, well, it’s because I really kind of am, particularly the choice to recount Frankenstein’s origin when it is amongst the most well-known genre origins in the English language. And writer Matt Kindt doesn’t add a lot to that origin story; sure, he eschews the Shelley-written “galvanism” in favor of an equally gimmicky yet meaner-sounding “soul grinder,” but otherwise there’s nothing new in this sequence. But then again, why would there be? It’s the origin of fucking Frankenstein, for God’s sake; what’re you gonna add to it? I mean, unless you’re Grant Morrison, who would probably make Frankenstein the result of the shared hallucination of three acidheads buttfucking in an abattoir, but that’s because he has a lot of mescaline and no editorial supervision. I can only imagine that the decision to rewrite the origin of Frankenstein’s Monster happened at the editorial level:
“Matt, we’d like you to use Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #0 to write the origin of Frankenstein’s Monster. You know, just in case the readers don’t know it.”
“…are you fucking kidding me?”
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