Review: Madam Frankenstein #3- Flesh on the monster

Writer: Jamie S. Rich
Artist: Megan Levens
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 2nd July 2014

This was a very enjoyable third issue, with the writer putting meat on the bones of our main protagonists. I like it when my comic books don’t rush, and this one didn’t rush. It took its time, taking us into the recent past of some of the main characters and it was all done without anything too obvious or overly dramatic. After all, the most traumatic events in our lives are normally just interpersonal dramas, not movie explosions or run-ins with serial killers.

The story told in this issue is interesting and convincing, and I gained some sympathy for the villain of the piece. That is always a good thing, as a well-written villain has to be a fully formed three dimension character, rather than a moustache twirling bad guy who just does his evil deeds because he’s an evil man. The old saying is true, isn’t it? The best villains don’t see themselves as villains. Look at Tony Blair, one of the most despised real-world villains in the UK today, but does he see himself as a villain? I very much doubt it.

Before I conclude this review, a quick mention of the artwork. Perhaps it's because the story has an old-time horror comic feel about it, but the decision to leave the artwork uncoloured is a good one.  It just seems right for the story that is being told. It’s good and the story is good. What else do you need to know? So that’s my review. The book was interesting, well written and I care about what is going to happen next. There were no silly liberal slap your forehead moments, the story progressed whilst fleshing out the main protagonist, and I’m already eagerly awaiting next month’s instalment.
Rating: 8/10

Review: Madame Frankenstein #2- Living the Impossible Dream

Writer: Jamie S. Rich
Artist: Megan Levens
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 4th June 2014

Doctor Vincent Krall is living the impossible dream in this issue of Madame Frankenstein. He’s obviously living in a parallel universe to the one that I live in, because not only does he get to choose the best body parts for his woman, but he also gets to form her mind and mould her personality as well. What a lucky man. He’s living the impossible dream. It’s a life where the boot is on the other foot, where men are in charge and women are moulded to suit the man, not the other way round. It’s a bit different to the modern western life where men take whatever they get, and when they do get it, ‘it’ comes with a list of preconditions that are so vast and deleterious to the man himself that he’s probably best off not getting ‘it’ in the first place.


Hang in there with me. I’m only joking, well half-joking if I’m being completely honest, but I hope you get my point here. This book is about a mad scientist creating his perfect woman. And yes, I know that’s incredibly creepy and analogous to the book ‘The Collector’ by John Fowles, and when you look at certain middle eastern cultures as well that’s certainly not what I want happen here in the UK. The point I want to make here is that the balance between men and women in this country has swung so far over to the side of the female these days that it often seems to me that the only role for the male in today’s feminised culture is to serve as some kind of emasculated slave to the boss, and that boss of course is a woman, not just at work, but in your private life as well.

Do you hate me now? If you do, well then I’d suggest that what I’ve just said probably applies to you as well. If you want to know why my reviews only exist on my blog, and not a mainstream comic book website, well, now you know. You’ll only get this kind of review on a 100% independent blog. A blog where I’m free to say whatever I want, and break down those politically correct barriers that have increasingly begun to spring up all around us.

This comic book, as you would expect, portrays the man as an evil, crazy doctor who is certainly the villain of the story, and not someone we should be looking at with any feelings of admiration. The woman he is moulding is essentially a slave, being controlled by fear (of fire), and his indoctrination techniques are pretty much the same as you would expect from a cult leader. Plus, his morals are called into severe question by his murderous actions within this issue.  He’s not a man to be admired, but neither was Doctor Frankenstein either, who less we forget was the real monster in Mary Shelley’s (or was it written by Percy?) original novel.

The art in issue #2 has that same feminine touch that I really enjoyed in issue #1. It portrays the heroine of the story (the monster) in a sympathetic light that’s perfect for the story being told of a crazy Doctor moulding a woman to fit his needs, no matter what the moral costs. The front cover (by Joelle Jones) was a lot better this month as well, and hopefully it will draw more readers in, as if you remember from my previous review, it was the front cover that put me off picking up issue #1 when it first came out.

Is this a feminist liberal book? Yes, it is, there’s no doubt about that. But that doesn’t mean that I will stop reading it. I like the art, and although the man wanting to be in charge of a woman is obviously being portrayed as the villain, I’m still getting a lot out of it anyway. I’m not exactly cheering him on as he moulds and manipulates his perfect female creation (and she’s inevitably going to turn on her creator anyway, just like in the original Frankenstein novel) but there’s something about the book, probably the soft, black and white art, that I’m really enjoying.  Plus it’s a good example of that feminised liberal bias that I keep talking about, and it offers a lot of insight for me personally into the politically correct mindset that is being pushed onto the masses these days through the liberal mainstream media and school/university system. I’ll keep on reading it to see the evil man being put in his place, and the female ‘monster’ showing the evil Doctor that women are in charge these days. You go girl. Rating: 8/10

3 Quick Reviews: Doctor Spektor #1, Madame Frankenstein #1, El Bigote #1

I’ve just got back from Excelsior comics in Bristol, where I picked up three recently released comic books that I didn’t pick up on their release, for one reason or another. Here’s what I thought of them:

Doctor Spektor #1 (Dynamite comics)

I didn’t pick this one up because writer Mark Waid often writes silly, throwaway material, and I’m getting fed up of the mainstream comic book style of treating everything as a joke whilst avoiding every single important issue of our times. This book also looked like a rip-off of Doctor Strange from Marvel, so I didn’t bother getting it when it first came out. However, when I saw the front cover in Excelsior was by one of my favourite cover artists (Francesco Francavilla) I decided to pick up the book and give it a chance. Halfway through reading the book and I hated it. It was all about an unlikeable television reality show host doing paranormal shows with real ghost’s etc, and he was far too handsome and generic for me to care about. The beginning was very Marvel comic mainstream, with a Vampire getting destroyed by our heroic host, and I was getting ready to sigh disappointingly and toss the comic away, but then it got a bit good. The television host was revealed to be a self hating complicated mess, two other characters were developed quite interestingly and the book ended with a death and a lot of scope for future excitement in the story. I’m not really a fan of Mark Waid, but this story idea interests me, and I’ll read it for a few months until the inevitable decline in writing that usually comes from big name writers. Rating:  8/10

Madame Frankenstein #1 (Image comics)

This was another book that didn’t interest me when it first came out, mainly because of the front cover I think. It just looked a bit too colourful and cartoony for me to be interested. If it had a more Gothic, dark and gritty cover I’d probably have picked it up, but I guess I was scared away by the bright colours. To my immense shock, when I opened the book I saw that it was all in black and white, a style that I quite like and would have been up for if I knew about it a couple of week’s ago. The story itself was a simple tale of a mad genius bringing a car crash victim back from the death, and making her into his ideal female, inspired by classic literature. That sounds a bit creepy, but the art had a soft playfulness to it, and that gave it all a bit of a different feel to your normal Frankenstein tale. The artist is a woman (Megan Levens), and that is very obvious when flicking through the pages. I like that, and it’s enough for me to stick this one on my pull-list as well. Rating: 8/10

El Bigote #1 (Tekilla Comix)

 If this book was a Marvel or DC comic then it wouldn’t have interested me, but the independent aspect of it made me pick it up, and give it a chance. The art, like the previous book, is also in black and white, but this style uses darker inking, and although it’s good, sometimes the overall darknesss of the page makes it a bit difficult to read and navigate through the panels. There was probably too much text as well, and that lead to a feeling of the pages being a bit too cluttered and busy for my liking. The story was pure comedy, and it mostly worked. It was all about a dead Mexican lawmaker, but I got the feeling that the writer has about as much experience of genuine Mexican culture as myself, as this was all sombreros and tequila clichés, and not exactly based on anything resembling reality. That’s okay, and I knew what to expect after a few pages in. Loads of silly jokes and dialogue full of comedy one-liners. The book mostly held my attention, and the main protagonist on his Ostrich and firing cactus spikes at the villains is about as wacky as you can get. Could I read a lot of these books? Probably not, but for a comedy one shot it's pretty entertaining and well worth checking out for a giggle or two. Rating: 7/10.