But so awesome is Frankenstein's Monster that he can't be contained by one comic.
In fact, he's so awesome, he can't even be contained by one comics company and, so, just as, in the 1970s, DC gave us his adventures, Marvel did likewise.
But how did the Marvel version compare to the DC one? And who was best?
It's the present day and the creature's hanging around with a former gang member called Ralph Caccone and a private detective called Eric Prawn, the latter of which, we're told, sees himself as the new Sherlock Holmes.
Sadly for the trio, things are not currently elementary, because a man called Cardinal's just appeared with his henchman Zandor, looking to abduct the comic's star.
Clearly, he's a monster with a conscience because he decides to go along with Cardinal's demands and he and Ralph are taken to a secret lab where it's revealed an organisation called ICON wants to create an army of resuscitated corpses.
The only problem is that the corpses ICON reanimates are almost totally mindless. Therefore, the organisation needs the secret of Frankie's intelligence and, to get that, it's going to have to remove his brain.
Needless to say, it doesn't get that revenge and our hero gives it the good smacking it's asking for.
And that's it. The lab's been trashed, the bad guys have fled, the man-pig mutant-thing's been disposed of in the river and everything's done and dusted.
Except it's not.
Because that's when Prawn points his gun at the creature and Ralph and informs them they're going to Switzerland with him, whether they like it or not.
The truth is I can't properly compare Marvel's version of the monster to DC's because I've only read two tales featuring DC's version and, in each of those two tales, it felt like a different character from the other one. In Phantom Stranger #26's team-up, it was a primal force, driven by lust for vengeance, while, in Phantom Stranger #28's back-up strip, it was a pathetic wretch, blundering around feebly, only wanting to be left alone.
What is obvious is this tale has a far more contemporary and sci-fi feel than either of those DC stories, with the central character being a far more enigmatic creature.
It's also a much more inert creature, only acting when put in a position where it has no choice. The version in the Phantom Stranger crossover was a far more driven character. It was also, therefore, a much more dangerous one. You get the feeling that if you threatened to kill Ralph to get its cooperation, it'd just kill Ralph for you and save you the trouble. On the other hand, the version in Phantom Stranger #28 would have fallen into helpless despair and anguish.
So, I'm going to have to declare Marvel's version to be far less interesting and compelling than the Phantom Stranger #26 version but far more impressive than the Phantom Stranger #28 version.
Overall, with its secret organisations, schemes and plotting, this feels very like the Werewolf by Night and Man-Wolf stories Marvel were doing at the time, where other characters drove the story along, while the central character was basically just being present as bigger stories were being acted out around it. Obviously, as those strips were also produced by Marvel, that shouldn't be a surprise.
It's not what could be called an outstanding issue, feeling very much like a prelude to more significant events but it's perfectly readable and Val Mayerik's art does its job, with noticeable similarities to the work of Neal Adams, in places. As Mayerik's art's never struck me as being at all Adamsesque elsewhere, I can only put it down to Klaus Janson's inks.
It's a, clearly, ancient tale about a stage magician who, when he's fired because the audience has a tendency to boo his act, decides to get even with his former manager by setting his shadow on him.
Like all vengeance-driven magicians in such tales, this one's a total wally and quickly becomes the architect of his own downfall.
It's a somewhat insubstantial tale and is clearly only there because the main strip's come in short. It will not, I suspect, live long in the memory of anyone who reads it.
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PS. Happy 50th Mooniversary to everyone.
Sadly, I would have been in bed when the big event happened, as it was the early hours of the morning, UK time but I do remember Mrs Aiden, our primary school teacher, getting us to make a lunar lander from grocery boxes and I remember us cutting photos out of newspapers and magazines, as a project.
I also recall that strange mixed feeling of excitement that people were walking on another world and disappointment that there were no aliens there, when they got there. To be honest, I do feel they could have made an effort to plant a fake alien on the moon, just to give us something to get excited about.
I thought I'd seen it live on the TV at junior school and was shocked years later when I found out that it had happened early in the morning. Maybe our village school had some sort of video recording equipment back in 1969, although this is hard to believe. And, although I think it was the Apollo 11 landing we saw, I don't remember thinking this was the first moon mission. And this was definitely pre Apollo 13, so maybe it was Apollo 12 that we saw? Who knows?
Anyway, here are the three most shocking things about the Apollo missions:
1. That there was an Apollo mission every six months or so. This seems ridiculously frequent. If NASA restarted moon missions, you'd expect them to send up a rocket once every two or three years and having ridiculously painful governance committees to wade through between missions.
2. That the walls of the lunar module were really thin. So thin that they could be punctured by someone carelessly dropping a screwdriver.
3. (I should really have worked this out myself but) that once the service module had escaped the moon's gravitational pull (about 1/3rd of the way home) they turned off the engines and let the Earth's gravitational pull bring them home. Which sounds fine when you set it up on the coffee table with a football, a tennis ball and a Lego spaceship. But then you realise that what this really means is that they turned off the engines and fell back to Earth, which is a terrifying thought.
I can recommend Carrying The Fire by Michael Collins if anyone wants to learn more about the Apollo missions.
Grant Morrison dug up D.C.'s Frankenstein Monster some years back, hosed him down and sent him into battle with the Sheeda (evil time-travelling fairy folk from the distant future) and Nebula Man.
I'm gonna repeat that, because it bears repeating and I've got free time.
"The Sheeda and the Nebula Man!!!"
This incarnation of Frankie carried around a broadsword and quoted Milton, and was not adverse to eviscerating anybody who got in his way.
That Morrison, I tell ya. Either a genius or a madman.
M.P.
This sounds quite different to the couple of earlier issues I read Steve, when it was called Monster of Frankenstein, and done as a period piece (not that it was especially well researched or historically accurate).
Mike Ploog's artwork was pretty good - unusually for the colour comics he wasn't lumbered with a dodgy inker - but otherwise they were so-so.
I wonder how the monster ended up in the (then) present day - maybe it was something to do with Kang's Legion of the Living?
Not being up on DC's monster I can't really say how they compare, but fwiw I prefer Ken Reid's Frankie Stein to Marvel's version.
-sean
PS Well done to the Americans, on going from rebels capturing airports to landing on the moon in a little under two hundred years.
Apparently over in the US the current administration is planning to send astronauts back (so to speak), and on to Mars. Its amazing they didn't go there too fifty years ago, what with the moon being part of Mars...
-sean
Trump wants to go to Mars, and I think he oughtta.
M.P.
MP, I have a feeling the monster was in the habit of quoting Milton in the original novel as well, though it's a long time since I read it, so I could be wrong.
Sean, I'm assuming he was trapped in ice, then thawed out and revived a hundred years later; mostly because that'd tie in with the climax of the novel. I wonder if he was anywhere near Captain America during his enfreezement.
Dangermash, there was coverage of the moonlanding and the strolling around on the moon, on BBC1, all that morning, so that may be what you saw on the school TV.
Sean and MP, when I was a kid, you got picture cards inside boxes of tea. You were meant to collect them and stick them in themed books you could get from the supermarket. One of those books was called The Race into Space and one of its cards claimed people would be sent to Mars in the 1980s. It was a major letdown for me when it turned out that card was wrong.
Steve, I don't think you're wrong about a connection between Paradise Lost and Mary Shelley's novel.
I confess, the connection never occurred to me before, but it's obvious now. As it was to Grant Morrison, apparently.
Fun fact: even though I hold a college degree in history, I didn't read Frankenstein till years later, when I was in jail for getting in a fight when I was drunk.
It was in a pile of paperbacks they had lying around.
Talk about monsters. How's that for irony.
M.P.
They really should bring back those collectible PG Tips cards. We managed to collect the whole set of dinosaurs, which came out a little bit after the Race Into Space series. Only others I can remember are the Saga Of Ships (way before my day but something that was always mentioned in the album for the current series) and (maybe next after dinosaurs?) footballing skills, where each card had a cartoon picture of Kevin Keegan, Mike Channon or Gerry Francis demonstrating whichever skill it was.
And you're probably right about the BBC reshowing the moon landing later that day. The teacher pretended it was live, though, and he didn’t tell us this was the first moon landing.
Greetings.
Here in Gary, Indiana, we would not have watched the Apollo stuff in school in July 1969 since we were on the usual 12-week summer break from mid-June to mid-Sept.
But I do recall watching the landing of a subsequent Apollo mission b/c TVs were brought in to the classrooms. (Strictly Black and White TVs, though, for any President Bonespur fans concerned about wasting tax $ on kids!)
And, of course, us kids in school had to make scrapbooks for the subsequent Apollo mission. I recall my old man being rather chaffed to come home one evening and finding I'd carved up the evening edition of the Gary Post Tribune for the scrap book, LOL!
I was only 3 when Apollo 11 landed on the moon so I have no memory of it :(
Yesterday, Vice-President Pence said the next man or woman on the moon would be AMERICAN but China will probably be next to the Moon or Mars, won't they?
Dangermash, the other PG Tips/Brooke Bond cards I remember were The Sea, Our Other World, one about the history of the car, one about famous explorers and another about the history of aviation. Sadly, I never saw hide nor hair of those football cards.
Colin, I'm not convinced we'll see anyone go to Mars in our lifetime but who can know?
As Charlie, my elementary school also rolled in b&w tvs to each classroom which was a big deal back then. Such a monumental event, especially for a kid hyped on science fiction. As I've mentioned before, NASA had quite a few promotional give-a-ways. We all got a lunar-landing model kit, vinyl '45 rpm of the "One step for Man.." speech, press kit of photos, etc. Wish I still had that stuff.
No Tang promos, though. Man, that stuff was awful. Lol!
Marvel's Frankenstein Monster was a semi-favorite of mine, mostly during the period era. While being a supreme monster kid, I was kind of bugged when Frankie couldn't talk. We already had Man-Thing, Werewolf By Night & Simon Garth as "silent" monsters, why add another one?
Speaking of Frankenstein, don't think I've forgotten the big Bernie Wrightson 3D hologram card giveaway I've promised.
As soon as I can, I'll dig into my storage unit. Last week at work I kinda had my own Frankenstein moment. I got hit in the head by a robotic-arm saw blade, with a couple pints of me sprayed all over the shop. Cut a slice in my skull and concussion, with a good size blotch of blood on my brain. I showered the shop, ambulance and hospital with more blood than all the Hammer films combined! Lol!
Like Charlie and KD, I recall watching the space shots on a wheeled-in tv at school. Indeed, one of my earliest such memories is from Kindergarten (!) when they set up a black/white tv in a hallway and had all us little tykes sit on the floor to watch coverage of Project Gemini.
As for Apollo 11, I was among the group of kids seated on the floor in my uncle's basement that night watching with excitement. They darkened the room so we could see the blurry pictures on the tv better.
KD- I actually liked Tang, but was more fond of Space Food Sticks (anyone remember those). Especially the peanut butter flavor. I would have loved those tea cards, as it was I had a model Saturn V and a View-Master pack of the Apollo 11 mission (photos of the mission in 3D, no less!).
Regarding Frankie- to this day I've not read a comic story of his, either Marvel or DC, with the exception of his appearance in Avengers (thanks to Kang)...
Oh, and KD- hope you're doing ok! Remember to duck next time...
Redartz, thanks, oh my brother. Was just a little off my game at the time.
Viewmaster ruled on so many levels in the 60's to early 70's
KD, good grief! I hope you're on the mend now.
The League of the Un-Living was the best part of the Celestial Madonna Avengers storyline. Being a big fan of the original Human Torch, it was fun to have a few panels where he tried to have a communication with Frankie. I thought it was priceless.
Thanks, Steve, oh my brother.
Might take a bit of time, but I believe my normally nasty self is starting to resurface, lol.
Lucky it only got you in the head and not somewhere it could have caused serious damage Kd (;
Steve, it didn't occur to me Frankenstein's monster might have done a Captain America to get from the olden days to the 70s as he made an appearance in everyone's favourite superteam comic the Invaders.
But I looked it up, and that was apparently a nazi clone of Frankenstein's monster (sounds like the kind of idea that backs up my theory Grunt Morrison is the Roy Thomas of the twentyfirst century).
Btw, you were right about the monster quoting Milton in Mary Shelley's original book. I suppose that would be thematic, with Frankenstein being the "modern Prometheus" and Satan another rebel challenging a deity.
-sean
Thanks for the back-handed well-wish, Sean, oh my brother. Never would've expected anything less.
Man, I know I had that issue of Invaders featuring Frankenstein. Virtually can't remember the story at all. If I dimly recollect correctly, he may have been a little on the overpowered side.
Frankenstein made an appearance in the original X-Men, but I believe he was a robot.
Hope you're OK now KD. If you've lost anything and want to grow it back, don't be tempted to try extracting a serum from experimental lizards.
Thanks, DM, oh my brother.
Hmm. The Doc Connors' rehabilitation program might be more interesting than what my doctors have me on right now.
I could be "Lizardumpster", lol.
KD.... going Van Gogh on us, huh?
Just kidding (but you know that)! Wish you an early and successful recovery!
Hey - are you good on reading materials e.g., comic stuff? Let us know if you could use a care package... I'm ready, willing, and able!
Ole Frankie...
I suspect Millie the Model outsold him 10:1 but I can't find sales data for this time period, LOL.
I also suspect his most successful incarnation on the screen is Abbott and Costello meet Dracula, the Werewolf, and Frankenstein. Though the movie is quite funny and worth viewing 75 years on, it does have a truly disturbing moment when Frankie is all afire and burns through the pier. I mean, it was really out of context for the rest of the movie, funny as it was. My kids and I were shocked. Shocked! We felt bad for the dude.
Killdumpster,
I've found that with head injuries, as long as the head is still attached, you have a fighting chance.
The odds go down after that.
M.P.
MP-
At least I'd save money on haircuts, though.
Charlie-
Don't go out of your way, but if you're getting rid of stuff I'll read anything.
KD - No sweat buddy! I'm not "purging" comics just figuring if you needed something to occupy yourself while you recover. You can always let me know through the back channel!
UK Dudes - Congrats on you new PM Bo Jo! Anyone who can tell Trump to "go pound sand" (when he was mayor of London) had at least one virtuous moment in their life. (You probably have no idea how many Americans now believe, thanks to Trump and Fox News, that there are "no go" zones in London and Paris where the Moslems have total control. Good God, if only America was as violent and Paris and London! In the next 10 years, over 1,000,000 Americans will be shot.)
To be fair to your fellow Americans Charlie, quite a few Brits also believe us metropolitan elitists living under Sharia law have to watch out for kids trying stab us whenever we go out of the front door.
A look online suggests the US press is bringing up Johnson's old comments about Trump, but you can't pay any attention to what he says...
-sean
LOL... I am surrounded by bumpkins as well Sean. They live in lily-white, christian neighborhoods and are scared to death of "the other." Meanwhile, all of us living under Sharia law in Chicago (and London and Paris) seem to be just fine.
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