Boom! Studios 2017
Created & Written by Victor LaValle
Illustrated by Dietrich Smith
Coloured by Joana Lafuente
Lettered by Jim Campbell
On a dreary November night in 1792, Victor Frankenstein used Natural—and Unnatural—Science to reanimate the dead. Victor eventually died, but the Monster never did.
It hid away in Antarctica and thought itself free of humanity. But the world isn’t done with the Monster, and one descendant of the Frankenstein bloodline yet lives…
This is one of those issues that makes the reader ask a question, what’s scarier the person who made the monster or the monster itself? Also by definition what is a monster? What drives a person to such lengths as to create a being like Dr. Baker has with her son Akai? Well the driving factor is grief but after that what part of you snaps and says this may not be natural but i’m going to do it anyway?
I have to say the way that Victor fleshes out these characters is pretty remarkable. I mean we see a mother’s love, grief and resignation of what is to come here. We also see her use her ancestry to say i’m just the latest in a long line to do it and for the very same reasons. Only what became of Victor’s monster is something she’ll find out shortly. Not that I think she has any clue that it was real or survived to this day. The hubris involved to think we are so much more advanced or smarter than those that came before us never ceases to astonish me.
As good as the story is the interior artwork really makes the writing pop. Dietrich does an amazing job showing us Dr. Baker’s face and her expressions and it does wonders to really make what she’s done, saying and what her captors are experiencing come to life. It’s eerie how well he’s brought this woman and her resignation of what she’s done to life. The use of page layouts through angles and perspectives is extremely well done. The utilisation of backgrounds could be better but they are used nicely. Plus seeing Akai and the Monster well it’s great use of anatomy and creativity.
I love that we’re seeing that actions have reactions and that they have been expected. The more we learn about the Lab the more I want to know about it. Who is this nasty woman who’s in chargbe and why has she been searching for immortality or at least ways to extend one’s lifespan? So many questions that could be revisited depending on how the last three issues of this one play out. Of course regardless there will always be the research notes to go from so who knows what Victor plans are for this franchise after this.
I appreciate the fact that we’re seeing the descendant of Frankenstein and his Monster in ways that keep the legend alive and distorted so that no one is ever truly sure what was real and what was made up. Interpretation is always going to be subjective and seeing it here really is among the myriad of reasons why this is so gosh darn successful for right now. Victor combines the new and old here beautifully to capture the essence of the original and update it for a new generation.