REVIEW: Frankenstein Underground #3

Writer:Â Mike Mignola
Artist:Â Ben Stenbeck
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: 05/27/2015

By now, regular readers, will no doubt know of my love of most things Mignola, who is creating a strong little horror-verse for Dark Horse comics.

Frankenstein is finally brought to his captors and despite a very Obi-Wan Kenobi like warning to run, he finally comes face to face with his captors, the Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra, who seem to be in a bit of a quandary about what to do with him. Â This isn’t the first time the Brotherhood have featured in Mignola-verse and goes some way to show that the artist Â turned writer has a definite plan in place. I have to say, I am a tad bored of Frankenstein’s on going self-pity. Hopefully, part of the remit of the book will be to give him some sort of quest rather than stumble from hatred to hatred. I understand that Mignola may be channelling Mary Shelley’s classic, but I get it. No one likes Frankenstein!

The art is again supplied by Ben Stenbbeck who again is on full homage mode. It’s atmospheric, it’s emotive and with the help of the sublime Dave Stewart, helps convey the subtle style of horror from the classic movies. My only complaint is the homage element. If you want a book to look like Mignola, why not ask Mignola to draw it?

The overall story is moving long well, not being a huge horror fan I missed the clue as to where the voice, that seeks to aid Frankenstein, comes from. Â On second reading, it becomes quite apparent as a standard part of the genre. But in a book of this quality, I don’t mind so much. With this being issue three, you would expect that all the pieces are in place for the finale. Looking at the series as a whole, there does seem a lot of exposition in each issue. I just hope that all this exposition doesn’t lead to a quick two page fight to close the series. Especially as with each piece of exposition, more questions are asked with less and lessÂ answers revealed.

I have faith in the storytelling abilities of Mike Mignola. The other books under his stewardship are pretty much spot on and he is no stranger to the mini series format. It could be he is, whilst completing this arc, he is laying foundations for further works featuring Frankenstein. If so, the pay off at the end of this arc needs to be worthwhile.

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Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network