Appearing in "Death of the Monster!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Victor Frankenstein (Only in flashback)
Villains:
Other Characters:
- Elizabeth Lavenza-Frankenstein (Only in flashback) (Deceased)
- ⏴ Robert Walton IV (Death)
- ⏴ Sean Farrell (Death)
- A snow buck
Locations:
- North Pole
- Switzerland
- Ingolstadt (Mentioned)
Items:
Vehicles:
- Captain Walton's ship
Synopsis for "Death of the Monster!"
Robert Walton's ship is trapped within an ice flow. Both his cabin boy Sean and he are gravely injured, and Canute, the Eskimo travel guide is dead. The Frankenstein Monster tries to drag Sean and Walton to safety. At this time, he decides to tell them how he came to be frozen in the ice.
Flashback to 1799
- After discovering that his creator, Victor Frankenstein had perished on Walton's ship, the monster decides that he no longer wishes to live. He begins walking across the frozen plains in search of a good place to build himself a funeral pyre. As he journeys, he enters warmer climates and discovers a small tribal camp. A community of brute Neanderthal men find him and attack him. None of them however, can overcome the monster's strength and he batters them back. The tribe's chieftain recognizes the creature's great strength and orders his warriors to stand down. He is invited to stay with the Neanderthal and becomes an honorary member of their tribe. They even teach him how to hunt.
- Some days later, a nomadic tribe of rival barbarians stumbles upon the community and raids the camp. The monster joins forces with his Neanderthal friends and fights back, but most of them die in the battle. The barbarians try their level best to destroy the creature, but find that they cannot. The Neanderthal chieftain is mortally injured during the raid. The monster takes the dying man and travels far away with him so that he can die in the tradition of his people. The monster erects a funeral pyre for the Chieftain and burns his body after the old man passes on.
- Suddenly, a quake erupts beneath him, and the monster falls off of the icy precipice he had been standing upon. His body lands into the frigid waters below where he will eventually freeze and become trapped in the ice for the next hundred years.
After telling his tale, the creature notices that Sean the cabin boy has died in his sleep. Robert Walton is not long for this world either. With his dying breath, he begs the monster to find peace and assuage his violent temper. He tells the monster that the last descendant of Victor Frankenstein is still alive. After Walton dies, the Frankenstein monster frees his ship from the ice flow and begins sailing south.
Notes
- This issue is reprinted in the Essential Frankenstein, Volume 1 trade paperback and Book of the Dead #4.
- A more faithful adaptation of the Frankenstein story is provided in Marvel Classics Comics #20.
- Final appearances of Victor Frankenstein and Elizabeth Lavenza-Frankenstein. Victor dies in flashback in this issue, and Elizabeth appears as corpse only.
- 1st and only appearance of the primitive tribes.
- Final appearances of Robert Walton IV, Sean Farrell and Canute; all die in this issue.
See Also
Recommended Reading
Links and References
- Frankenstein article at Wikipedia
- Frankenstein (Universal movie) article at Wikipedia
- Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus; Mary Shelly, 1818
- Frankenstein's Monster article at Wikipedia
- Monster of Frankenstein series index at the Grand Comics Database