MARVEL'S MONSTER MASH

MARVEL'S BRONZE AGE STRUGGLE WITH
THE FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER

PART TWO
Marvel's 1973 - 1975 The Monster of Frankenstein

The revision of the code opened up many new possibilities, and only five months after launching a non-CCA-approved issue of Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel's best-selling comic title again made an important contribution to the horror genre when issue #101 (October 1971) featured the debut of Morbius the Living Vampire - and the first instance and example of what would become Marvel's principal Bronze Age approach to the horror genre: applying the superhero concept and letting loose, so to say, superheroes from the crypt. The guiding principles were fairly simple and had mostly been tested previously. The real novelty was, as often, the approach of combining these different threads into one formula - something which Marvel was still virtually unbeatable at even ten years after the inception of the Fantastic Four.

The central idea was to create a character which would feature as the central figure of a continuing saga of individual episodes. As a result, the focus would shift in comparison to most popular culture storytelling, making the source of horror (e.g. Dracula) the main character of the plot and the subject of a continuous storyline. This was very different to what had been presented in colour comic books before, which had focussed on standalone stories of a couple of pages length. Marvel already knew from Dr Doom in Astonishing Tales (which premiered in August 1970) that turning the "bad guy" into the main character of a comic book - its "anti-hero" so to speak - worked and was accepted by the readers. The first "superhero from the crypt" was the classic Werewolf, who made his debut as Werewolf by Night in Marvel Spotlight #2 (one of Marvel's tryout magazines) in February 1972, followed by Dracula in April 1972 with Tomb of Dracula #1.

"I [Roy Thomas] wanted to adapt the novel in the first few issues, and then go on from there."
(Cooke, 2001)

Assigned writer Gary Friedrich and artist Mike Ploog thus started The Monster of Frankenstein with a four-issue adaptation of Mary Shelley's original novel amongst much ado from the House of Idea's editorial board:

"We've just got to clue you in to our own brand new creature-feature, the comic-mag we call THE MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN! With the unparalleled success of WEREWOLF BY NIGHT and THE TOMB OF DRACULA, it was impossible that we'd be able to resist the clarion call to add the most famous gargoyle of all to the mighty Marvel roster. And we've done it with a vengeance, people! First off, we got our Werewolf wonder-boy MIKE PLOOG to pencil - and monster-fan first class GARY FRIEDRICH to script. Next, we decided to do things up brown by being more faithful to Mary Shelley's original masterpiece of suspense than virtually any of the media have ever done before! Pick up a copy and see what we mean, okay? THE MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN - lumbering toward your friendly neighborhood newsstand right now!" (Marvel Comics January 1973 Bullpen Bulletin)

A fairly ingenious framework to present the basic corpus of Shelley's novel, the adaptation was - as had been announced in Marvel's advertising - indeed faithful to the original literary work and, in actual fact, did far better than most other adaptations by featuring almost all of the story's elements and characters and even including the narrative framework of the original novel which provides various different viewpoints of the monster's story.

The changes and additions introduced by Friedrich are few and far between and generally insignificant. At the end of the novel, Shelley leads the reader to believe that the monster will voluntarily perish in the ice of the Arctic:

"But soon," he cried, with sad and solemn enthusiasm, "I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be extinct (...) ." He sprung from the cabin-window, as he said this, upon the ice-raft which lay close to the vessel. He was soon borne away by the waves, and lost in darkness and distance." (Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Walton in continuation [final page of final chapter])

It is only at this point that Friedrich introduced a substantial deviation from the novel in his adaptation, although this is, of course, a logical one. Marvel did not intend to end The Monster of Frankenstein here, and therefore, the monster had to survive after Frankenstein's death in the Arctic.

Friedrich weaved his continuation of the plot neatly into the end of his adaptation of Shelley's novel in The Monster of Frankenstein #4 by showing how the monster survives and finds a surprising joy in life after joining a tribe of outcasts characterized by their small physical appearance. The monster is accepted by the tribe and lives among them until they are attacked by a group of human warriors and all wiped out without mercy save Frankenstein's creation who, as a final gesture after the massacre, drags the tribe's dying chieftain to the ancient burial grounds when a rock slide sends the monster plunging into the icy waters of the Arctic sea. At this point, Friedrich reaffirms the plot device introduced in the opening pages of the first issue, namely suspended animation of the monster for a lengthy period of time if frozen in ice (which in itself was, of course, nothing new - Stan Lee himself revived Captain America after years of "frozen suspended animation" in Avengers #4 in March 1964). Now, as Robert Walton IV lies dying, he tells the Monster that there is one last descendant of his creator Victor Frankenstein living in Ingolstadt, and the Monster sets out on a raft to find him.

With regard to the visual rendition, Stan Lee took no chances and selected a proposal from several sketches submitted to him by assigned artist Mike Ploog via Roy Thomas (and reproduced in the 2004 Marvel Essentials Monster of Frankenstein) which didn't copy the Universal imagery too closely but remained well within the range of the Karloff mould.

Monster of Frankenstein #5
(September 1973)

In order to establish the narrative frame for his rendering of Shelley's novel, Friedrich had advanced the monster in time to the year 1898. Whatever the logic behind that move (Gary Friedrich admits not remembering much about his work on The Monster of Frankenstein (N.N., 2008)) this time frame certainly provided an excellent period backdrop for the tale of the monster's origin, but otherwise the end of the 19th century was an uncharted map in terms of the Marvel Universe.

In an attempt to fill this void, Friedrich sent the monster back out into the world in search of the last surviving descendant of Frankenstein. On his way, in The Monster of Frankenstein #5, the monster saves a young woman from being burned at the mast of a ship set afire by villagers who accuse her of being possessed by a demon.

Grateful and caring towards the monster at first, the girl soon vanishes and as Frankenstein's creation searches for her the monster is attacked by a werewolf which - when killed by the monster after a ferocious fight - transforms into the girl.

"Beginning this go-round, [Monsters Unleashed #2] spotlights a senses-staggering new serial starring THE MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN, picking up where our ever-fabulous color comic leaves off!" (Marvel Comics August 1973 Bullpen Bulletin)

The fact that Marvel labelled its newly launched line of black and white magazines as featuring "mature content" in comparison to its colour comic books did little to clear up the situation for readers of The Monster of Frankenstein who were being sent a very mixed message through that editorial statement in August 1973 - after all, where exactly was the colour comic book they had now been reading for four issues (and which had so far consisted of an adaptation of Shelley's novel) "leaving off"?

Splashpage by John Buscema from Monsters Unleashed #2 (September 1973)

From a Scandinavian fjord in issue #5 the monster had now advanced to Ingolstadt in search of the last of the Frankensteins in The Frankenstein Monster #6. The town was, of course, where Victor had studied and where all the gruesome events had their beginnings. Although this brought them geographically close to the original again, Friedrich and Ploog (who also wrote the plot) began to stray as they tried to define a concept for the monster's story beyond the novel. The idea of combining the monster with antagonists which could have come straight from a black & white "B" horror movie - a mad local police chief (initially mistaken for the "last Frankenstein") assembling his own army of zombie-like slaves by exposing prisoners to a giant "mind sucking" spider within the walls of the almost derelict Castle Frankenstein - resulted in a surprisingly entertaining story for one issue but made it difficult to see where exactly the title was intended to be heading. As a first consequence of this approach and the growing amount of editorial wavering with regard to timeframes, Mike Ploog resigned as artist:

"They wanted to bring Frankenstein up to the 20th century, and have him battle in the streets of New York with Spider-Man, and I just couldn't do that. (...) That's when I left Frankenstein." (Cooke, 2001)

Monster of Frankenstein #6
(October 1973)

Buscema's visual rendition of the monster followed the pattern set out in the black & white Monsters Unleashed stories. Based on Ploog's design, the monster's appearance was inched a bit closer to the Karloff look but retained the original traits injected by Ploog. Buscema's style was somewhat less "heavy" than Ploog's (who had mostly also inked his pencilling himself) and largely received favourable comments from the readership. The problem for Buscema and Marvel, however, was the fact that the other main character of the story arc - Dracula - had already found his definitive master in artist Gene Colan.

Frankenstein Monster #7 (November 1973)

Frankenstein Monster #8 (January 1974)

Frankenstein Monster #9 (March 1974)

In this respect, Tomb of Dracula and Frankenstein Monster went off in completely different directions: Whereas Dracula had experienced a rather difficult start with three writers for the first six issues and only found its overall plot stability once Marv Wolfman took over with Tomb of Dracula #7, the Frankenstein Monster had seen a fortissimo launch and successful start but then found itself dipping even though the book remained in the hands of one and the same writer for its first eleven issues.

To make comparisons - and matters - even worse, Frankenstein Monster #7 ended a three issue trial run of monthly publication in November 1973 during which the title, again quite unlike Marvel's prime horror titles Tomb of Dracula and Werewolf by Night, had obviously not shown the required market potential.

These opposite developments had their reasons, and they were cruelly highlighted by the Dracula story arc in Frankenstein Monster. Whereas the readers of Tomb of Dracula not only had the horror character adversary but also a regular cast of individuals fighting him and adding identification potential together with a continuity framework, the Frankenstein Monster was in a complete flux.

The settings and backdrops kept changing issue after issue - from the Arctic to Germany and then Transylvania - and plot continuity was reduced even further by having all characters other than the monster itself come and go almost issue by issue. Even Dracula was more or less just parading by - the monster is misguided by an old gypsy to revive him but kills Dracula again shortly after he has turned a girl the monster befriended into a vampire. It is quite significant in this respect that Gary Friedrich, asked in an interview what it was like to write a tale combining two iconic horror characters, replied:

"It was certainly fun. I don't remember those issues as well as I remember the first four." (N.N., 2008)

The title had lost the momentum of its initial four issues. In addition, Friedrich and the editorial board now started to make unfortunate decisions, such as depriving the monster of its ability to speak, which was explained as the result of a fight with a vampire in Frankenstein Monster #9 and the damage afflicted to the monster's vocal chords by the vampire's fangs. Apart from the fact - perhaps not known to Marvel's staff in charge - that turning the Monster into a basically mute being in Son of Frankenstein in 1939 cost Universal their main attraction as Boris Karloff quit the role thereafter because he felt that such a degraded monster left little room for development and would turn it into an "oafish prop" (Jones, 1995), Marvel's editorial handling now also came across as increasingly confusing. In reply to a worried reader's letter printed in Frankenstein Monster #10 (May 1974), the editorial staff answered:

"The rumours you may have heard concerning our depriving the Monster of his vocal powers were unfounded. It's true we had considered this possibility, but we chose to incorporate it into our present-day Monster series in MONSTERS UNLEASHED rather than the FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER color comic." (Letters Page, The Frankenstein Monster #10, May 1974)

However, by the time this statement was printed, few readers could have failed to notice that the monster had already lost its ability to speak in the previous issue. An otherwise trivial snippet of editorial output thus turned into a communication revealing what seemed like a more or less complete lack of certitude as to what the editorial and artistic staff wanted to do with this character and his colour comic book.

But even with the use of such a rather simplistic deus ex machina - most convenient but completely improbable - Friedrich just added to the general plot's inconsistencies: Whilst Vincent Frankenstein adresses the monster with a courteous greeting and an offer for help on the final page of issue #9, the subsequent splash page of Frankenstein Monster #10 (May 1974) shows that very same man calling to the monster in a very threatening and hostile way. Friedrich had managed to present the reader with two completely conflicting personalities for one character on two consecutive pages, albeit with two months having passed in between. In many ways, this was symptomatic: the authorship seemed unable to make its mind up about things, and the editorial team appeared to be hoping that nobody would remember what had gone on in the previous issue.

Over the next two issues, Friedrich would have Vincent Frankenstein and his hunchback servant Ivan - both characters constantly hovering between agressiveness and empathy - transport the monster to London by ship and then on to Frankenstein's laboratory. Eventually, Ivan comes to understand Vincent Frankenstein's deceitful plan to insert the monster's brain into a new, more human body and the hunchback's brain into the body of the monster.

The ensuing fight results in Frankenstein killing Ivan and wounding the monster with a gun, but in his wife's room, Vincent himself is shot - by the household maid who has seen his wife die before her eyes and feels that she might have survived had Frankenstein attended to her instead of his laboratory. As the monster leaves behind the dead body of Vincent Frankenstein with the only regret of having been unable to kill him personally, it is revealed that Frankenstein's wife gave birth to a son named Basil - the "last Frankenstein" - just before her death and that the maid vowes to take on the baby as her own and prevent the world from ever knowing his real family background.

The introduction of a "last of the Frankensteins" who will yet need to be discovered by the monster and maybe others in future issues to come was a clever twist of introducing new interest, but apart from this, Frankenstein Monster #10 and #11 brought no substantial improvement to the book's generally confused situation as the inconsistencies in the plot became even more glaring. After calling at a dock in London, Vincent Frankenstein has his packaged cargo - the Monster - drawn by horse to his city dwellings, which are unmistakeably portrayed in Frankenstein Monster #10 as a large Victorian house with an underground laboratory. But when the Monster surfaces again from the lab towards the end of Frankenstein Monster #11, the Victorian mansion has miraculously been transformed into a castle.

Monster of Frankenstein #10
(May 1974)

Monster of Frankenstein #11
(July 1974)

The Monster by Bob Brown, displaying a very strong Karloff resemblance

John Buscema had already quit drawing the black & white monster stories and did so also for the colour book after issue #10 in May 1974. Veteran artist Bob Brown, who had drawn just about every conceivable comic character in his long career, was brought in to replace Buscema, although this would prove to be a one-issue shot only. Brown brought yet another different graphic style to the title, with a visual rendition of the monster which was the closest to Universal's Karloff mould so far.

Unfortunately for him, he had been assigned to The Frankenstein Monster at one of the worst moments possible. After having adapted Mary Shelley's novel so well, Friedrich had not only moved away from her portrayal of the Monster by setting it up as a dumb, non-speaking brute, but had also injected far too much instability and inconsistency to make the title a real success. Now, after 18 months and 11 issues, his time on the book was up.

Moench took up where Friedrich had left off, both in terms of plot and inconsistency, as the opening splash page of Frankenstein Monster #12 shows the wounded Monster (shot in the arm by Vincent Frankenstein in issue #11) now stumbling away from an imposing "Castle Frankenstein" (which had been a Victorian mansion in issue #10 and then a minor castle in issue #11) into a deserted and wild landscape (which had been the streets of London in issue #10).

Given the inconsistencies of the previous few issues, Moench is, however, hardly to blame for setting up his plot in a way which best suited his intentions, i.e. transfering the Monster to the present day by reverting to the proven method of a landslide on a snowy mountainside causing the Monster's plunge into icy waters and the subsequent freezing in an ice block - after all, there simply are no icebergs in the river Thames.

Monster of Frankenstein #12
(September 1974)

End panel of page 16 from Monster of Frankenstein #12

Monster of Frankenstein #12 provides a recap of events from Monsters Unleashed #2 and #4

Mc Dowell later on secures possession of the monster and transfers it to his laboratory but is killed by the Monster, which now walks the streets of New York City.

Moench handled the transfer of the Monster to modern times in a no-fuss way which worked well in comparison to the preceding unstable storytelling.

The result was an instant sense of improvement in terms of the general plot logic, giving Marvel the fresh and promising new start the book had needed so desperately - including some very atmospheric artwork by Val Mayerik.

"As you know by now, writer Doug Moench has made the move we've been wavering about for months now. It only remains to be seen whether or not we did good or bad by the change in time periods. The basic problem we found with the Monster back in the 1880's was this: readers simply couldn't relate to it the way they can to our contemporary TOMB OF DRACULA and WEREWOLF BY NIGHT magazines. It made the Monster too distant, too remote; despite the fact that it made for some unusual settings and some interesting character possibilities, we finally had to admit to ourselves that it wasn't working the way we wanted it to. So we've made the change. We've brought the series into the present." (Letters Page, The Frankenstein Monster #12, September 1974)

The letters page had originally been called Monster's Mailbox before being renamed Let's be Frank! as of issue #11, and the new heading seemed highly appropriate as the editorial staff openly communicated their loss of direction over the past issues to the readers (although these could hardly have failed to notice the "wavering" in any case). But above all, the transfer of Frankenstein's creation to the present is an almost singular example to illustrate just how stringent the logic generated by the Marvel Universe had become by the mid-1970s: the constant interaction of Marvel characters in the form of team-ups, crossovers and guest appearances had virtually turned that common stage into a conditio sine qua non for Marvel characters. Whilst one could still, in theory, imagine a Marvel character in its "own world", the case of the Frankenstein Monster clearly illustrated that it would not work - because Marvel comic books and characters were built upon a fundamental system of interactivity. As a consequence, even the most far-fetched horror titles and characters would receive their share of genre crossovers and even mainstream superhero appearances during the second half of the 1970s.

"Now that Frankie is in a modern setting, it's highly possible he could encounter the Werewolf... or the Living Mummy... or Man-Thing... or even Dracula again! In that sense, the move opens up all sorts of intriguing storylines." (Letters Page, The Frankenstein Monster #12, September 1974)

The 30-page story "The Frankenstein Monster meets the Werewolf by Night" started out on a promising road when the Monster overhears a Caucasian youth complaining to his Afro-American friend about being discriminated on the account of his long hair. This triggers a discussion on the topic which ends in the conclusion that although one of them could in theory cut his hair whilst the other can not change the colour of his skin, none of them would like to do either, because it is part of their personality and they would like people to simply accept them the way they are.

The position of Marvel Comics on social awareness was always a very strong one, and the message was conveyed regularly to readers, although not always as outspoken as the famous statement on this topic made by Stan Lee in 1970:

"Let's lay it right on the line. Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today. But, unlike a team of costumed supervillains, they can't be halted with a punch in the snoot, or a zap from a ray gun. The only way to destroy them is to expose them - to reveal them for the insidious evils they really are. The bigot is an unreasoning hater - one who hates blindly, fanatically, indiscriminately. If his hang-up is black men, he hates ALL black men. If a redhead once offended him, he hates ALL redheads. If some foreigner beat him to a job, he's down on ALL foreigners. He hates people he's never seen - people he's never known - with equal intensity - with equal venom. Now, we're not trying to say it's unreasonable for one human being to bug another. But, although anyone has the right to dislike another individual, it's totally irrational, patently insane to condemn an entire race - to despise an entire nation - to vilify an entire religion. Sooner or later, we must learn to judge each other on our own merits. Sooner or later, if man is ever to be worthy of his destiny, we must fill our hearts with tolerance. For then, and only then, will we be truly worthy of the concept that man was created in the image of God - a God who calls us ALL - his children." (Marvel Comics, Stan's Soapbox, December 1970)

Unfortunately, the question was not pursued further and the remainder of the story - and with it the first contact of the Monster with the Marvel Universe of 1974 - was, to say the least, sobering. Following the frustrating experience with the two youngsters discussing prejudice and tolerance, the Monster hears of the leader of an obscure occult sect (the Brotherhood of Ba'al) who claims that he is capable of performing "the transfer of souls". The Monster decides to find out if this could provide him with a new body and stowes away on a train bound for LA, gets mixed up with the sect and is attacked by the Werewolf by Night.

When the Monster realises that the Werewolf is there because the sect has abducted his sister as a human sacrifice for their cult, the two jointly smash the Brotherhood's place to pieces. When a fire starts, only the Monster, Werewolf and his sister manage to esacpe alive. The Monster, once again disillusioned, wanders off alone.

The story - which lost speed and content quality after each page - was helped in no way by exceptionally unbalanced artwork by Don Perlin (who was the regular Werewolf penciller since Werewolf by Night #17).

Giant-Size Werewolf by Night #2 (August 1974)

Monster of Frankenstein #13 (November 1974)

Propelling the Monster into the present time was, of course, only the beginning of the work which lay in store for Doug Moench. Now, alongside the new era, the plot needed a new reasoning if the storyline was to have a meaningful direction which generated depth and interest. In that respect, the intermezzo in LA featured in Giant-Size Werewolf by Night #2 clearly was of no help at all. Based on his own initial experience with the scripting of Werewolf by Night and possibly looking sideways to Marv Wolfman's plotting in Tomb of Dracula (there seems to be no first hand statements by Moench on the subject of his work on Frankenstein Monster), Moench took steps to finally set up a vital ingredient those comic books had which The Frankenstein Monster lacked: a regular supporting cast.

The first member of this important group of role characters, introduced in Frankenstein Monster #13, is Ralph Caccone.

Moench - in a very slick and clever way - thus reinforced another natural law of the Marvel Universe for those who missed the very first issues of The Monster of Frankenstein: the real-life literary source of any character adapted into Marveldom is not negated but, therefore, must be not a work of fiction but an account of factual events.

Monster of Frankenstein #13 reaffirms the status of literary works in the Marvel Universe

Monster of Frankenstein #14 (January 1975)

The way Shelley had seen Frankenstein as "the modern Prometheus", Moench now very logically portrayed geneticist Steven Caccone as "a modern Frankenstein". And just like Frankenstein, Caccone faces the blunt end of his experiments in the form of the "Jigsaw Monster", which is inadvertently created when Caccone's wife tries to sabotage her husband's studies in order to have him refocus on her.

Killing both of Ralph's parents, the abominal creature had the dubious distinction of being called a different name almost any time it was mentioned: "Clone Creature", "Jigsaw Nightmare", "Night Creature" - the choice was as varied as the creature's different animal components (of which a boar and lizard seemed to dominate). Arriving at the Caccone home, Ralph and the Monster face the Jigsaw Monster, which runs from the scene after a struggle with Frankenstein's creation.

There was clearly nothing original about I.C.O.N., but it added some unexpected story interest with shades of Nick Fury and James Bond, and the speed of the plot picked up enormously. Nevertheless, the title was still struggling to gain a true sense of atmosphere and still lacked visual continuity as Val Mayerik's artwork was assigned to a different inker every issue. On the plot level, Ralph Caccone and the Monster are eventually captured after some urban jungle chases by I.C.O.N. in Monster of Frankenstein # 15 (March 1975) and held prisoners in the organization's lab in New York City.

I.C.O.N. is introduced (Monster of Frankenstein #15, March 1975)

Avengers #131 (January 1975)

Avengers #132 (February 1975)

What sounds slightly irky in plain text synopsis made for an entertainingly far-fetched piece of Avengers lore in comic book reality. Although set in a highly unusual context of the Monster's continuity, it had now also established its Bronze Age presence outside its proper genre in the field of superheroes, not the least with two appearances on the cover of the Avengers.

One question which still remained open, however, was the locale. Having explored the urban location of New York City in his Monsters Unleashed scripts, Doug Moench must have reached the conclusion that the potential was limited. Somehow, the Frankenstein Monster did not fit in very well with the major stage for Marvel's characters - perhaps because it is so very much tied to a background of quintessentially European atmosphere.

The Monster is homeward bound to Switzerland (Monster of Frankenstein #16, May 1975)

With I.C.O.N.'s main laboratories on fire and the organisation's plans thus thwarted for the moment, Frankenstein Monster #16 sets out with private eye Prawn instructing the Monster and Caccone at gunpoint that he is going to follow through with his client's orders and take the Monster back.

The destination of the private jet plane they board can therefore only be - Switzerland.

"Devil-May-Care Doug anticipated the flow of opinion (to restore at least some form of simple speech to the Monster) by several weeks, and suggested the idea to Live-It-Up Len Wein, who gave it a "thumbs up" response." (Letters Page, The Frankenstein Monster #16, May 1975)

Veronica Frankenstein, who reveals herself as being completely unlike her male ancestors which the Monster had met so far, offers to perform surgery on the monster's larynx and thus restore its ability to speak. However, right in the middle of that surgical operation, I.C.O.N. appears on the scene in full force and deploys a number of their remaining "undead warriors" who assault the castle.

Doug Moench filled Monster of Frankenstein #16 right up to the brim with action and plot interest, and it is easily the fastest paced issue of the entire series. The change of scenery in the form of the Swiss Alps and the Frankenstein fortress as a backdrop adds atmosphere and a sense of authenticity, Veronica Frankenstein is a fresh character and not the run-of-the-mill Frankenstein so overused in previous issues, the attack of I.C.O.N. provides the by now regulars Prawn and Caccone with real tasks to tackle, the "Berserker" is a far more believable antagonist than previous agressors which crossed the Monster's way, and on top of all this, the whole underlying dilemma of the Frankenstein story is once again unravelled, only that this time it includes the Monster again, which through its regained ability to speak returns to the focal point of the story.

Moench had finally managed to take the title back to its roots, to a plot which reflected on the story from a perspective very close to Mary Shelley's, whilst at the same time adding new elements from the modern setting which actually worked and provided increased plot value and story interest.

Returning to these roots immediately sent Frankenstein Monster rocketing to a higher league within Marvel's line of comic book titles.

"Universal films" imagery by Val Mayerik (Frankenstein Monster #16)

Nevertheless, it is fair to assume that if Moench's effort on the plot level had been complemented by artwork from an A list Marvel artist, someone like Gene Colan, at this point, Frankenstein Monster would most probably have sold much better. Incidentally, Colan would have been interested in the book but it was never offered to him by Marvel's editors (Field, 2001). Essentially, Colan would have been interested in the atmosphere the title could offer.

On the metastory level of character development, Moench instantly took advantage of the newly regained ability of the Monster to speak (which was even heralded in a blur on the cover of Frankenstein Monster #17 - "Because you demanded it -- the Monster speaks!") and depicted the Monster's thoughts as centering quintessentially on the question of its identity:

"Monster... why... am I called... Monster? I... do not feel... as Monster... feel... only pain... because you treat me... as Monster... but if I am not... what you say... then I am... nothing?" [Frankenstein Monster #17, p.1]

These opening lines on the splash page immediately redefined the Monster. It was no longer the lumbering, mindless heap of flesh whose sole driving force is to wreak bloodshed and revenge upon the descendants of its creator, but rather an essentially human being faced with terror and fear, both inside and outside its hideous body shell. And before it can come to terms with anything, the Monster, like all human beings, needs to know and understand its roots - its identity.

Monster of Frankenstein #17
(July 1975)

An intriguing aspect, this question had been raised before in the letters pages of Frankenstein Monster, but surprisingly Moench closed the lid on this almost immediately after he opened the subject by having Veronica Frankenstein inform Caccone, Prawn and the Monster that all of Victor Frankenstein's notes have been lost over time. The Monster leaves the trio behind as it seeks "help, not pity", and sets out into the solitude and silence of the snow covered Swiss Alps.

Frankenstein Monster #17 wraps up with the Berserker finding and fighting the Monster, but the struggle is brought to an abrupt halt when the Monster ripps off one of the android's arms and, feeling a surge of sympathy for his "injured" opponent, seizes to lash out at the Berserker and voices concern about the damage he has inflicted. This outpouring of empathy by the Monster and simple key words like "pain" and "life" cause the Berserker's programming to crash, and the android too becomes peaceful and begins to gain self control over his actions. The end result is two bewildered behemoths, uncertain about their future just as they are uncertain about their place in this world, walking off together into the wilderness of the foothills of the Swiss Alps.

The last panel on the last page of Frankenstein Monster #17 carries the caption "FIN", and in many ways, this was fitting, even though this issue would eventually not become the final one. But the book did end there for Moench, who brought his plot and storyline to a point which culminated in a last scene which equalled many Hollywood closing takes in the tradition of "Casablanca".

"Doug is leaving - not because he isn't full of new ideas, new directions, untried approaches for handling this strip... but rather because he's carrying a scripting load that would make Hercules himself think twice about slipping a disc. Therefore, in the Devil-May-Care One's place as arbiter of the Frankenstein Monster's destiny, will be Beautific Bill Mantlo, best known for the monthly Sons of the Tiger strip in our 75c DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU magazine. He's all primed to take you through the twisting pathways that lie ahead for the unfortunate creation of Dr. Frankenstein, in this his first color comics assignment." (Letters Page, The Frankenstein Monster #17, July 1975)

"I would write any character quickly and, while my plotting was weak, everyone liked my dialogue (...) but I seemed to get passed over for a regular title (...) I was given other titles (Frankenstein, Morbius) but they were mags that were near cancellation anyway, and failed even before I could get started." (N.N., 1979)

Monster of Frankenstein #18
(September 1975)

"Mantlo was a good, hard working writer but he was the guy who would write the book that no one else wanted to write." [NOTE 1]

Mantlo tied up the remaining threads of the I.C.O.N. subplot by having Veronica Frankenstein, Prawn and Caccone realize that Schmidt is the traitor and put an end not just to Schmidt but also "Cardinal" and "Indigo" as Caccone blows up the waiting I.C.O.N. helicopter.

These matters settled (and a good part of the supporting cast built up by Moench over several issues discarded for good in a few panels), Mantlo focusses entirely on the Monster and the Berserker who have by now reached the foothills. Making their way through a forest, the two artificial lifeforms - one biological, the other android - are increasingly becoming an odd couple of "friends".

Mantlo had set up the storyline in a fairly straight procession to reach this cliffhanger revelation, but as this would be the final issue of Frankenstein Monster, many explanations for the events described in those last pages would only become available at a later point in time.

Most importantly this concerned the disfigured dwarfs, the "Children of the Damned" - which would later be portrayed as the results of failed experiments conducted by Basil and Ludwig von Frankenstein (all of a sudden the family name had gained the aristocratic prefix "von"), locked away in the castle's dungeons and later discovered by Victoria Frankenstein.

At this point, however, readers were, quite simply, left with a story dangling in mid-air.

The last three panels of Marvel's Monster of Frankenstein - there was to be no "next issue" (Monster of Frankenstein #18, September 1975)

Most importantly, and virtually with one stroke, Mantlo reversed Moench's attempt to go back more closely to Mary Shelley's portrayal of the Monster and instead presented a brute with lots of physical but barely no intellectual assets - clearly, his Monster owed more to the Hulk (which Mantlo would go on to script in 1980) than to Shelley's novel. But once again, the editorial staff gave every reason to suspect that nobody was really reading what was being edited.

"By now (...) you will have seen that there are changes being made in old Dr. Frankenstein's creation, changes that we feel will better reflect Ms. Shelley's conception of a creature damned both by his creator and the rest of the world." (Letters Page, The Frankenstein Monster #18, September 1975)

The amount of change introduced in Frankenstein Monster #18 not just to the central character but also to the "stage" on which it acted serves as another indication of the nothing short of hopeless market position the title was in by mid-1975. After Mantlo got rid of the Berserker halfway through the issue, every indication of the current time period seemed to evaporate into thin air as the attire of the "Children of the Damned", the ancient castle, and "Baroness von Frankenstein" looked and felt like 19th century props more than anything else. And on top of this, Mantlo (who would go on to produce a refreshingly imaginative run on Iron Man) also reverted to the uninspiring and already overused plot template of reducing the storyline focus to setting up the Monster with - yet another - descendant of Victor Frankenstein.

All of this was in stark contrast to the comments published on the letters page of Monster of Frankenstein #18, which lamented the previous decline of the title but praised the upward turn Moench had produced with issue #16. And yet again, the editorial reply completely ignored the fact that by the time these praises were published, the title had gone off in a completely different direction which effectively made the favourable comments redundant.

"Believe us, gang, Bill [Mantlo] and Val [Mayerik] are only too AWARE that you folks out there are watching them, and we have it on the best authority that they're gonna work like the Monster HIMSELF was on their tails to get this book back up there in the Top Ten where it belongs. Peace, effendis!" (Letters Page, The Frankenstein Monster #18, September 1975)

These were, no doubt, slick words in the best of Marvel's tradition, but as they were completely out of touch with reality, they effectively became meaningless. Once again, the book was drawn into a wildly spinning downward spiral - but more importantly, this was also true for Marvel and the entire comic book industry.

In addition to all the problems Marvel had as a comic book publisher, the horror genre itself was undergoing fundamental changes as mainstream Hollywood began focussing on disaster movies and thrillers such as Spielberg's 1975 box office hit Jaws, whilst independent filmmakers came up with disturbingly explicit and gorey "splatter" movies such as the 1974 Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the hit movie Halloween (1978). Also on the rise was the occult horror film, following up on the box office success of The Exorcist in 1973, which prompted major studios to release movies with big name stars and high production values, such as de Palma’s Carrie in 1976 (based on a book by Stephen King) and Hollywood legend Gregory Peck in The Omen that same year. The classic "gothic" horror theme, in contrast, was over and out - but almost all of Marvel's horror titles clearly represented this, the more "old-fashioned" school of the genre (see THOUGHT BALLON #7).

After 32 months and 18 issues, it was the end of the road for The Frankenstein Monster, and the title became the first high-profile victim - by name and popular culture status - of the 1975 horror genre cancellation wave when there was no issue #19 to follow up on Frankenstein Monster #18 (September 1975). Only one month later, the Monster would be followed by Man-Thing and the Mummy - another classic horror character. The times were changing, and fairly soon there would be a time for laser swords and death stars in a future which took place in outer space, not vampires and other ghostly appearances rooted in the earthly reality of the present. The same market which had demanded horror comic books a few years back would be yearning for science fiction, and according to Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief at the time, Marvel would come to owe its survival to the flagship of the newly arising genre:

"We had been losing money for several years (...) Actually a lot of credit should go to Roy Thomas, who - kicking and screaming - had dragged Marvel into doing Star Wars. If we hadn't done Star Wars (...) we would have gone out of business. Star Wars single-handedly saved Marvel... and that kept us alive." (Thomas, 2000)

Marvel's range of horror characters and comic book titles played a very substantial and important role in the diversification the House of Ideas underwent as it progressed from the 1960's Silver Age to the 1970's Bronze Age period, but it was not an overall Bronze Age period phenomenon - it virtually exploded onto the Marvel comic book scene in 1972/73, peaked in 1973/74, was just as swiftly reduced in output quantity by 1975/76, and only played a very minor part in Marvel's total output of comic book titles for the remaining years of the 1970s.

Given this background, one could therefore easily come to the conclusion that the cancellation of Frankenstein Monster was due to unfavourable circumstances. But this reasoning can only explain the sudden cancellation of the book, which took place without announcement of any kind and right in the midst of the storyline (usually, Marvel tried to wrap up things in such cases). The reasons for the cancellation itself, however, are to be found within the pages of the Frankenstein Monster.

Other publishers before had experienced great difficulties in transfering the Frankenstein Monster to comic book format, but despite the fact that the House of Ideas had produced the longest running stand-alone comic book Frankenstein title by far, the conclusion at the end of Frankenstein Monster #18 had to be that Marvel had run the theme more or less straight into the ground. After a widely applauded adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel, Marvel's initial choice to set up the title in a timeframe which was completely removed from the mainstream Marvel Universe was an approach which, despite its innovative potential, did not pay off and eventually even backfired as the average reader's expectations - nurtured by the overall logic of the Marvel Universe - weren't met and the creative team quickly found itself tangled up in stereotype storyboard settings. Reader feedback often seemed to be almost split in half on certain issues (such as the timeframe), which led the editorial team to adapt a policy of handling the title almost in search of "popular approval". The result, not surprisingly, was a high overall sense of instability, which was not helped by the fact that over a period of 32 months and the publication of 18 issues, a total of 3 writers, 4 pencillers and 10 inkers were put to work on Frankenstein Monster. Instead of a title with a clear sense of direction (which it had briefly acquired under the pen of Doug Moench), Marvel produced its own Monster Mash. And when the end of the series finally came about, it became evident that whilst Marvel was able to make the most out of Dracula as a classic horror figure in Tomb of Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster simply failed to leave a lasting mark.

Following sporadic releases since 1966, the line of German language Marvel comic books was completely relaunched in January 1974 as publisher Williams Verlag in Hamburg set up an entire line of titles which were also distributed in neighbouring Switzerland and Austria and included two horror titles, "Die Gruft von Graf Dracula" (Tomb of Dracula) and "Das Monster von Frankenstein" (Frankenstein Monster). The latter provided readers with the most up to date Marvel material (the superhero titles all featured classic Silver Age stories) but soon caused problems as all German language titles were published either monthly or fortnightly. Given the fact that Frankenstein Monster was published bi-monthly in the US, it soon became clear that the German title would catch up on the original material all too soon. In an attempt to slow this down, Williams Verlag started to split the original material in half and spread it out over two issues, beginning with Das Monster von Frankenstein #12 in December 1974 which featured the first 9 pages of Frankenstein Monster #12 (September 1974). This solved the problem for a brief period of time (although readers of Das Monster von Frankenstein were just as unhappy about Atlas period reprint material as US readers were on other occasions) until the original title was cancelled in September 1975. At that point in time, Williams Verlag published Das Monster von Frankenstein #21 (featuring the second half of Frankenstein Monster #16) and thus now only had enough original material for four issues left if split in two.

Monster von Frankenstein #26 (September 1975)

The plot opens with Spider-Man getting in the way of two bankrobbers but being taken out by a blast out of nowhere before he can arrest the wrongdoers. When Spidey regains consciousness, he utters to himself "I couldn't have been unconscious for more than a minute - I should be on a dirty New York street". Alas, he is not, and instead finds himself strapped to what looks like an operating table in a dungeon-like surrounding. Stranger still, right next to him, the friendly webslinger sees the Frankenstein Monster, caught up in the very same predicament. An ensuing brief conversation is interrupted by the maior domus, who introduces himself as Baron Ludwig von Shtupf, although he tells his two prisoners that "you may call me the Monster Maker".

Marvel Team-Up #36
(August 1975)

This brief synopsis of the storyline set-up is enough to illustrate just how whacky - and sometimes outright cheesy - the general plot of Marvel Team-Up #36-37 was.

They are told that Von Shtupf is planning to "create an army of monsters ... sub-humans who can stand extremes of climate... who have super-normal powers. In a word, he wants to combine your abilities into a monster supreme!" Not a very original plot idea by any standards, there is at least some humour creeping in when the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent tells the two protagonists that "This operation will require stealth. You're too much on the obvious side." The action returns to the castle of Von Shtupf where the trio (Spidey and the Monster joined the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent anyway) discover that the madman has "engaged another specimen in the same manner I captured you" (although the exact means to achieve this "teleportation" are not explained) - which turns out to be the Man-Wolf.

Invincible Iron Man #101
(August 1977)

Having thus basically linked up the storyline with the last issue of Frankenstein Monster, Mantlo then introduces Bram Velsing (the name obviosuly owes much to Stoker's Abraham van Helsing from the novel Dracula, but the characters have nothing else in common), who worked as a scientist for Dr Doom before attempting to gain more power himself.

When Doom discovered Velsing's attempts at treason, he permanently grafted a skull-like cybernetic helmet to Velsing's head and then left behind the now-mutilated Velsing in the Swiss Alps to die.

Discovered and then nursed back to health by Victoria Frankenstein, Velsing eventually gained a variety of weapons (including a flying mutant horse) - and now calling himself Dreadknight, he then attempted to force more resources from Victoria Frankenstein in order to take revenge on Doom.

Mantlo had, effectively, put the Frankenstein Monster to rest and closed the book for good, as the final Bronze Age appearance highlighted two aspects which Marvel had unfortunately bestowed on the Monster more than once: a flip-flop in timeframe and a creature which turns out not to be the actual Monster created by Victor Frankenstein.

By way of the inherent logic of this title the storyline took place in a timeframe defined as the period of World War II, as the Invaders were made up of the "original" Captain America, Human Torch and Sub-Mariner (with occasional help from other WW II herores such as the Union Jack). Thus, Marvel presented yet another period appearance by the Frankenstein Monster - before, that is, it turns out to be a different creation, just as in X-Men #40 (January 1968) and Silver Surfer #7 (August 1969).

In Invaders #31, Basil Frankenstein - the son born in 1898 and briefly introduced in Frankenstein Monster #11 prior to the Monster's transfer to the current timeframe - has become a Nazi scientist who follows in his ancestors' footsteps. Together with his Japanese assistant Dr. Kitagowa he has moved to his ancestral castle in Switzerland (which, by the way, remained neutral throughout WW II) in order to continue his mission of creating an army of artificial Nazi soldiers.

As the Allies learn of his plans, the Invaders are sent to investigate. Soon thereafter a fight with (Basil) Frankenstein's Monster ensues, during which the creature is knocked into a wall of electrical equipment.

Invaders #31
(August 1978)

After this, it would take Marvel 22 years to bring back Mary Shelley's creation - in Spider-Man Unlimited vol. I #21, August 1998. The Monster has since appeared several times, but although always rooted within the Marvel continuity of the character, these appearances are always anecdotal - just like the Monster's own Bronze Age title.

POSTSCRIPT

COMIC ZONE RADIO (2006) "Michael Ploog Interview", comiczoneradio.com, no longer available

COOKE Jon B. (1998) "The Man called Ploog - Bronco-busting to Eisner to Frankenstein", Comic Book Artist #2, Two Morrows Publishing

COOKE Jon B. (2001) "Son of Stan: Roy's Years of Horror", Comic Book Artist # 13, Two Morrows Publishing

DANIELS Les (1991) Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics, Harry N. Abrams Inc.

FIELD Tom (2001) "The Colan Mystique", Comic Book Artist #13, Two Morrows Publishing

JONES Stephen (1995) The Frankenstein Scrapbook: The Complete Movie Guide to the World's most famous Monster, Carol Publishing Group

LEE Stan & THOMAS Roy (1998) "Stan the Man & Roy the Boy: A conversation between Stan Lee and Roy Thomas", Comic Book Artist #2, Two Morrows Publishing

N. N. (1979) "Bill Mantlo and the Micronauts", BEM #24 (July 1979)

N. N. (2008) "Gary Friedrich talks Frankenstein", www.comicmonsters.com, no longer avilable

NYBERG Amy Kiste (1998) Seal of Approval: History of the Comics Code, University Press of Mississippi

THOMAS Michael (2000) "Jim Shooter Interview", comicbookresources.com, archived at archive.org

[1] This quote, for which the direct source could not be found, is attributed to "an interview with Mark Gruenwald that ran in Comics Mainstream about ten years ago" on comicon.com (no longer available)

[2] Amongst these sources are an addendum by Mike Feldman in Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe: The Frankenstein Monster, as well as Roberto Guedes (2005) "A Mumia de Julio Shimamoto e R. F. Lucchetti" at bigorna.net. Covers are featured at the Marvel Fandom Database (marvel.fandom.com).