Kevin Rossi
I’ve loved comic books and monster movies since I was a kid. Trips to the library usually ended with me taking out a VHS of a Universal Monster movie or some type of comic. As long as I can remember, I’ve been a fan of X-Men and Frankenstein. I hit the jackpot when I read The X-Men #40, where the X-Men are tasked with taking down the monster! Frankenstein is such an interesting figure in media. We are past the point of correcting people by saying, “well actually it’s Frankenstein’s monster.” If you say, Frankenstein, everyone knows what you mean. It’s rare when a character transcends mediums and becomes some sort of pulp figure. The X-Men #40 is a great example of this. The issue is written by Roy Thomas, with art by Don Heck, inked by George Tuska, and lettered by Artie Simek.
By the 1960s, Boris Karloff’s version of the monster, first appearing in 1931’s Frankenstein, was a household figure due to frequent film showings at theaters and on television. You most likely picture this version when you think of Frankenstein. It was only a matter of time before some form of this character ended up in a Marvel book. Frankenstein’s first appearance is technically in 1953 in Menace #7 from Atlas Comics, which would later become Marvel Comics, but 1968’s X-Men appearance feels more definitive. I love the ridiculousness of it. It has all of the hammed-up corniness of a 1960s X-Men book packed with Frankenstein. This Frankenstein is much closer the Karloff’s version than others, and the issue acknowledges this. Professor Xavier tells his young team that this is not the movie monster or even the one from Mary Shelley’s original novel from 1818. At one point, Beast even asks the monster why it can’t be the silent type like Boris Karloff.
This seems pretty meta for 1968, and it gets weirder. The team learns that this monster is actually an android created by a scientist of an alien race (who also might be a mutant?). The android was dropped off on Earth 150 years earlier but something went wrong and its programming malfunctioned. With the android loose on Earth, stories began to form about a monster in the wild, which inspired Mary Shelley to write her original novel. Frankenstein in The X-Men #40 works as some type of strange ouroboros and continuously references how it was influenced by its predecessors and influenced them. It is Frankensteins all the way down.
Since then, Marvel has had some form of Frankenstein appearing here and there, most notably in 1973, The Monster of Frankenstein, which loosely adapted the original novel. He also made appearances in Avengers, Tomb of Dracula, and I’m sure many others. That being said, the appearance in The X-Men #40 takes the cake for me. It is just so weird and meta and makes me appreciate the ability Frankenstein has as a character to transcend even one comic company.
