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"

[Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man]

I liked it. I liked the writing and I loved the art. Ponticelli was the perfect choice for this book. I didn't really care for the Flashpoint version of this series, but now unencumbered by that event, these characters are fast and loose in the DCU.

 

The only thing I find annoying is that Father Time is a little girl.

[The Baron]

Issue #2:

Our heroes continue fighting monsters and discover that they're actually the vanguard of invading aliens from another dimension. The team fights their way through to the aliens' dimension, only to find Lady Frankenstein surrounded by an army of monsters and what will our heroes do now?

For me, the interesting part of this was the back-story we got on fish-woman Nina Mazursky, who apparently turned herself, Griffith and Velcoro into monsters.

 

I'm enjoying the story, but gosh, I'm still not wild about the art. It's a little too "unfocused" for me.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

You know, I flipped through issue 1 & 2 yesterday and was turned off by the art.

[Jason Marconnet (Pint sized mod)]

I read it this morning. I liked it better than the first issue. The story is interesting. I'm in the same boat as the rest of you, I don't care for the art. While the majority of the characters are actually interesting, I don't care for the Vampire and the Werewolf at all. This issue was more fun though so I think I'm in it for a while.

[The Baron]

Issue #3:

Frankenstein and company battle hordes of alien monsters and Khalis unleashes his ACROSS Mummy Spiral Crisis Wave Motion Gun Attack, wiping out the hordes of monsters. This wakes up the monster's mother who Frank defeats by allowing her to eat him then tearing her insides out from the inside out.  Frank appears to have damned near Hulk-level endurance here.  Our heroes deduce that there are two other monsters they have to fight in order to free the Princess from Bowser or whatever the hell it is they're trying to do, so they split up into teams to do so.  Meanwhile back on Earth, Sailor Time is informed that a familair metahuman has re-emerged in Vietnam and also SHADE's psychics are receiving a cry for help from a planet, although I'm a little sketchy as to whether they mean Earth or Monster Planet, and what willl happen next?

 

Still enjoying the story, still wish they'd find a new artist.

[Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man]

Ouch! I LOVE Ponticelli's artwork! And I think it's perfect for a book like this. His work alone brought me to this title...which I wasn't going to follow at first because I wasn't a fan of Jeff Lemire's super-hero work on Superboy.

The Baron said:

Still enjoying the story, still wish they'd find a new artist.

[The Baron]

Issue #4:

Our heroes triumph over the various assorted monsters, with the help of assorted War Wheels and GI Robots - someone besides me remembers those "Weird War" comics fondly, obviously, and there's even an "X-Men" reference, of sorts.  Still enjoying this book quite a bit.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I'll be buying next issue (for the OMAC crossover).

[The Baron]

Oh, that's right - must remember to look at the OMAC book.

[The Baron]

Issue #5:

As Jeff noted above, this was a crossover with the O.M.A.C. book - I read both issues. Essentially they're the same story told from two different points of view - first O.M.A.C.'s, the Frankenstein's. I haven't been following the O.M.A.C. book  - just as well since apparently it just got cancelled - but the issue I saw didn't entrance me all that much. Basically, Father Time sends Frankenstein to bring in O.M.A.C.  as a favor for Checkmate, the two have the Standard Inconclusive Super-Hero Fight, and it all turns out to have been part of maneuvers on the parts of both Father Time and Brother Eye to get intel on each other. Of more interest to me was the bit at the end of the Frankenstein book where Dr. Creature from the Black Lagoon tells Frank that she may be able to track the D.N.A. of his various bits - possible future plot developments, maybe.  The next issue promo looks promising, too - "Frankenstein vs. the Original Creature Commandos", whatever is meant by that....

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I had planed to buy this one, but after having read OMAC's side of the story, I didn't feel I really needed anything else. That's not to say I might not pick up a tpb collection at some point in the future; I'm still interested in various and sundry comic book incarnations of Frankenstein's monster.

 

Where did you hear OMAC has been cancelled? I'm sorry to hear that if it turns out ot be true.

 

EDIT: Oh, never mind. (It was in the very next thread I read.) Well, darn.

[The Baron]

Issue #6:

We open with Dr. Creature showing Ray Palmer how the Flesh humanids are made and then we must stop to say "All hail the great prophet Cavaliere!" as one of the humanids gains sentience and manages to sneak awayand recruit some buddies and release something.

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

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Meanwhile, Frank and the boys are in Vietnam, tracking down Red  Dr. Manhattan Col. Quantum, a guy Frank knew back when he was in country. Back in Golfball City, Dr. Creature and Lady Frank discover that the original "Creature Commandos" have gotten loose, and what will our heroines do now?  (These don't seem to be  the original Bronze Age Creature Commandos, but are rather the failed results of earlier S.H.A.D.E. experiments.)

 

Overall, I'm still enjoying this book quite a bit.  Good to see a little backstory for Frank - it occurs to me that he could maybe turn up in All-Star Western if they wanted to go that way.  Be nice if they could develop Griffith and Velcoro beyond just "two gys who squabble all the time", though.