Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #10 – Review

By: Matt Kindt (story), Alberto Ponticelli (pencils), Wayne Faucher (inks), Jose Villarrubia (colors)

The Story: Poetry’s all well and good, but will it fend off human-sized insect assassins?

The Review: If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Baskin Robbins (and mark my words, there’s a lot more than one), it’s that even with a revolving door of 31-plus-or-minus flavors of ice-cream, people still gravitate toward the classics: chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla.  In other words, some things just have more popular appeal, occasionally for reasons that make sense, most often for no reason at all.

In the same way, some comic book characters are more accessible than others, not just for readers, but writers as well.  Whereas everyone and his mother have ideas for Batman stories (or, at least, glorified opinions disguised as ideas), you’d be a little harder pressed to find the person who’ll say, “Frankenstein?  Oh, yeah—I know how to write that dude.”

Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #9 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (story), Alberto Ponticelli (pencils), Wayne Faucher (inks), Jose Villarrubia (colors)

The Story: Undead versus the undead—sounds like a nice break for the living to me.

The Review: While this week’s issues of Batgirl and Batman and Robin demonstrated the bigger scale tie-ins to major Events, there are, of course, smaller, less intrusive crossover issues.  With this series, Lemire takes S.H.A.D.E. on an incidental side-mission which intersects with the storyline pulsing along in his other DC ongoing.  Unlike the “Night of the Owls” tie-ins, this mini-crossover has several advantages going for it.

For one, Lemire has a knack for quickly laying out the context of the crossover, so you don’t actually need to read anything else to get the idea of the story.  Through Father Time’s mission brief, he gives you the gist of Animal Man, why the “costumed dweeb” (Time’s words, obviously) even registers on S.H.A.D.E.’s radar, and why it’s important to us.  And as the story goes on, Lemire only further integrates his “Rise of the Rot” plotline within Frankenstein’s own story, making it relevant and contextual.  But then, Lemire has the luxury of writing both.

Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #7 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (writer), Alberto Ponticelli (penciller), Walden Wong (inker), Jose Villarrubia (colorist)

The Story: Someone needs to teach these humanids a thing or two about labor unions.

The Review: Someone—I don’t remember who—made a point about this some months back, when Justice League #3 came out.  In that issue, there’s a scene where Superman, in his battle against a bunch of Parademons, uses a car to bat them aside and then a car tire to cut a couple them in two.  I distinctly recall a person remarking how funny it is we don’t think twice about reactionary, gratuitous violence the less human things look.

Perhaps I’ve been a bit indifferent myself, considering how long it took me to realize it, but so far this series has been a long string of monsters slaying monsters, wily-nily, rarely taking a pause to consider their next bloody move.  The agents of S.H.A.D.E. have somewhat lucked out in their choice of enemies, as the creatures of Monster Planet were essentially parasites and the head-shot of Colonel Quantum was something of a mercy kill.

But how do we rationalize the death doled out to the humanids, who are aware and conscious, however rudimentarily?  Or the recently unsealed, former Creature Commandos, who continue to call Nina their “mother”?  Can the agents continue to get away simply by thinking it’s killed or be killed?  Obviously not; Lemire’s too canny a writer to overlook the borderline hypocrisy happening here, which is probably why he throws in at the end of the issue a new problem that none of the agents, not even Frankenstein, can just kill off.

This is some tough stuff to chew on, but actually the issue has plenty of the unapologetically adventurous spirit as issues prior.  No matter how much angst may come out of this series, Velcoro and Griffith will always keep the humor and gonzo alive.  Here, they slowly develop—let’s not overstate things by calling it friendship, but, shall we say, mutual points of interest, primarily in big, cutting-edge weaponry (admittedly with less subtlety than what the D.E.O. has to offer: “It’s called the exploding sword,” Griffith enthuses).

Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #4 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (writer), Alberto Ponticelli (artist), Jose Villarrubia (colorist)

The Story: Frank, don’t you think you’re getting too old for this sh—stuff.  I meant “stuff.”

The Review: Frankenstein proves that there’s something to be said for a comic that sets out purely to entertain, and in these trying times, pure entertainment is invaluable.  The plot of this opening story arc, aside from its imaginative elements, can’t be simpler: slay the evil creatures or the planet is doomed.  The whole issue is basically a lot of stabbing and shooting, with a few jokes thrown in.  So why can’t you stop smiling as you read through it?

Perhaps because the action is such over-the-top insanity that you just get dragged along for the ride before you can take exception to it.  Lemire makes no apologies for crafting a boyhood fantasy on speed.  If his dream is to write about parasitic monster Titans who leech off the life-force of a massive sentient entity that only looks like a planet (complete with ocean), then he’s going to go for it and haters be hanged.

And why stop at living planets?  If you’re going to write a government agency composed mostly of mad scientists, you might as well throw in whatever crazy idea your brain can cook up, like the Toybox, a teleportation cube that can be sent through space-time to unleash all manner of goodies upon S.H.A.D.E.’s enemies.  This issue, it packs War Wheels, giant, rolling battle stations that can blast energy beams from ports all over its surface, and a G.I. robot squadron, “a battalion of autonomous android soldiers”—with rocket packs.  Bliss.

All this would be worthwhile reading in itself, but Lemire also injects plenty of enjoyable character moments as well, giving each team member a chance to shine.  It looks like Frank and Nina may have something deeper bubbling under the surface of their business partnership, with our main man turning up the charm as only he can: “I admire your determination, m’lady.  This situation reminds me of one of my favorite Milton poe—”  There’s also Griffith and Velcoro’s ongoing squabbling, which Bride describes as something you’d hear on “some really trashy reality show…!”  You have Bride herself taking charge and proving just as competent a leader as her husband, directing the defeat of a Titan while doing nothing more than “look[ing] good.”  Even the men back at S.H.A.D.E. HQ get some page-time, with Father Time and Dr. Belroy gleefully manipulating the War Wheels from game controllers, while the martyred Ray Palmer sighs, “What have I gotten myself into…?”