Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. (SPOILERS)

[The Baron]

Issue #1:

Another one of the books I had elected ahead of time to follow. We start with a town in the Great Northwest being overrun by unconvincing monsters. We then cut to the Ant Farm, which is a flying golf ball that contains S.H.A.D.E.* headquarters thanks to technology provided by Ray Palmer, who we don't know if he's the Atom in this timeline or not, but seems to serve as their scientific advisor. Frankie checks in and finds that Father Time has regenerated, and is now a little girl in a sērafuku, which kind of freaks Frankie out a little bit. We then learn that Frankie's wife was sent into Monster Town and vanished, so Frankie and his new field team are sent to investigate. The new field team is called the Creature Commandos and includes Vincent Velcoro, a vampire type that I dimly remember form the old Creature Commandos, Warren Griffith, a werewolf type that I dimly remember from the old Creature Commandos, Dr. Nina Mazursky, a Creaturess from the Black Lagoon and Khalis, a mummy. Anyhow, our heroes go to Monster Town, and fight a whole bunch of monsters, and then find a basement full of mundanes who don't seem too happy about being rescued by a bunch of monster and what will our heroes do now?

 

I actually quite liked this. I liked the old Creature Commandos back in the day, and this seems like an interesting re-invention of them. I gotta say. I'm not too wild about the art - it's not bad, I just happen not to like this style. That said, it's not enouigh to put me off buying the book. Probably my favoirte of the new books I picked up today.

 

*Stands for "Super Human Advanced Defense Executive"

[Rich Lane]

The golf ball HQ was my least favorite part of the status quo set up.  It only took me about thirty seconds to come up with five different ways it could taken out, and I beggars belief that a super-secret group wouldn't think of those as well.  

 

I guess tesseracts are passé. 

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

I liked this a lot more than the first issue of the Flashpoint miniseries -- it's one of my favorites for the week. Liked the HQ, liked Ray's involvement, liked Father Time's reincarnation, and am certainly curious about Khalis -- though as someone wrapped in bandages, a medic is a perfect job!

[Luke Blanchard]

Khalis was the name of the mummy in 1st Issue Special #9 (the Pasko/Simonson Dr. Fate issue). It surely derives from Kharis, the name of the mummy in the Universal mummy film series (starting with The Mummy's Hand).

[Rich Lane]

The mummy medics were used in Generation Lost, too.

Rob Staeger said:

I liked this a lot more than the first issue of the Flashpoint miniseries -- it's one of my favorites for the week. Liked the HQ, liked Ray's involvement, liked Father Time's reincarnation, and am certainly curious about Khalis -- though as someone wrapped in bandages, a medic is a perfect job!

[Cavaliere (moderator emeritus)]

I'm glad there's an audience for this but I thought it was terrible. There was nothing about it I enjoyed. Plots, dialogue, characters, art, color, even lettering...I hated it all.

 

Rich, I'm certainly with you on the HQ. I'm already used to Hank Pym's Infinite Avengers Mansion and the "Big House" prison. Having Ray Palmer do it now is a major "been there, done that."

 

Oh, and those artificial lifeforms manning the place? They rebel in 5...4...3...

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Ah, never read GL, Rich. 

 

And Cav, I'd be very disappointed if those things *didn't* rebel. But I think their built in countdown clock is a nice wrinkle.

[Figserello]

Normally I'm all for the little guys revolting against the man, but for these fellas it hardly seems worth it. 

 

"We've thrown off the yoke of slavery!  FREE AT LAST!  Now for one heck of an afternoon...."

 

Am I the only one here who got this book because I liked Frankie's mini in Seven Soldiers?

 

I was slightly disappointed when I realised that it was a team book, as the adventures of Frankie solo were such good fun.

 

I can see why Lemire went in this direction as Frankie's solo personal arc was kind of completed at the end of Seven Soldiers.  In theory, it's questionable how much of the Seven Soldiers continuity remains in place, but I suspect quite a lot.  The other 'team book' that I bought this week - Demon Knights - had a different member of Morrison's Seven Soldiers that seems to be his version.  (The Shining Knight)

 

These DC editorial-types have brass necks when it comes to hyping their comics.  Eddie Berganza says at the back of the book that they were all so proud of the Flashpoint Frankenstein 3-parter, even though it was undeniably rubbish, knocked out to cash in on those of us genuinely looking forward to a proper Frankie series!  I can see this series has much more thought put into the characters and personal dynamics, but I'm still surprised I bought this issue after the Flashpoint snooze-fest.  Right now I feel Doug Mahnke was wasted as cover artist on the Flashpoint comics, when he should have been doing some for the proper series.

 

I know it's not playing by the rules of the game to mention stuff that was recently produced instead of talking about what has just come out, or that the hype machine expects us to be anticipating.  But that's just the way I roll.  :-)

 

I only read the Frankie Flashpoint mini and the spoilers on the net for the rest of that series, but the way it played with the alternative history is a real headache, even for someone like me, used to nonsensical comicbook logic.  How can the exact same team of Creature Commandoes be created in the 1930s in one history by a mad scientist type and the same group, containing the same people, be created by completely different circumstances 7 decades later in an alternative history?  IT MAKES NO SENSE!

 

This is the same kind of quibble that the Baron has about 'Karen Starr' turning up as an Earthwoman in another book. 

[Don Collett]

I really, really want to like this.  I loved Frankie's Seven Soldiers mini, and the high concept of "world's most famous monster as covert agent" is just the kind of over the top thing I liked.  But this first issue was just "meh" for me.  I will stick around for the next issue to see if it gets better...and I hope it does.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Frankenstein’s monster is a character I’m generally interested in, and I have single slot in my “monster” box for all of his appearances at Marvel, DC and sundry other publishers, and like to pretend they’re all somehow part of the same character’s continuity. But for some reason, I gave this new series a pass. I’ll probably change my mind later and pay through the nose for the backissues, though. I’ve got to be going through a “Frankenstein phase” to put me in the mood (and right now I’m in a “POTA phase”).

[Jason Marconnet (Pint sized mod)]

I picked it up on a whim but haven't read it yet. I'm not familiar with the characters but thought it looked cool.

[Jason Marconnet (Pint sized mod)]

I read it this morning. I'm not familiar with the charachter but liked I said before it looked cool. Like Don, I really wanted to like it.

 

I like the concept of Frank as a James Bond type with his "M" (Father time) and his "Q" (Ray Palmer). I get the idea I think I'd like Frank as a character. He seems pretty tough and kinda crotchity. Even the initial arc of monsters attacking a town isn't bad.

 

However, I wasn't digging the art. Even for a book about monsters, the art style seemed to scrachty. I was hoping it would look more like the art on the cover which I think captures the superspy monsters better than what's on the inside. Also, the white on black dialogue from the computer was hard to read, for me at least. Also the creature commandoes seem mostly one-deminisional with the exception of the mummy. But the Werewolf and the Vampire need to go, imo. The fish lady may be ok, but we'll see.

 

So I may give this another issue to see where it goes. It's a neat concept I'd like to follow a bit more. This issue didn't hook me like I had hoped.

[Henry R. Kujawa]

Wait a minute! You mean this isn't a joke???