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| JOE FRANKENSTEIN No. 4, May 2015 |
Anyone buying this final instalment of the “Joe
Frankenstein” mini-series will soon realise why the comic book’s creators’ post-publication
announcement that “there will be more to come” was so apt. For whilst this lengthy
twenty-seven page fright-fest sees the machinations of “The Mistress” finally
come to a rather fitting end, literally at the hands of the equally evil Lord
Golgatha, co-writer Chuck Nixon’s narrative hardly provides the most
satisfactory of conclusions.
Indeed it is hard to imagine another story ending with
quite so many unresolved plot threads as within this magazine’s final few pages the
mysterious vampiric “Master” successfully retrieves “the blood of the monster”
for some undisclosed purpose, Joe embarks upon a quest to find the one with
“the power of life and death” in order to resurrect his dead beloved Skye, and the
villainous Saxton boards an aeroplane carrying the “human remains” of
Frankenstein’s Bride presumably intent on somehow restoring her ashes back to
life.
Fortunately however, such an annoying shortcoming is
easily overlooked as a result of the numerous funny fast-paced tongue-in-cheek
shenanigans which populate the rest of this publication. The witty banter
between the orphaned teenager and diminutive Enoch is extremely amusing and instances
such as when the pizza delivery boy ‘buys the duo a few seconds’ by throwing a
handful of back-pocket change at the pointy-eared fiends because “legacy
bloodsuckers are obsessive counters…” provides Graham Nolan an endearing opportunity
to really tap into his source material concerning the weaknesses of vampires. Finnabar
the werewolf chauffeur is similarly entertaining throughout as he claws his way
past the Bride’s human guards in accordance with his fellow employee’s
wolf-whistles; “Sic ‘em Finnabar! And start with this guy!”
Sadly despite such an energetic and ‘lively’ storyline Nolan’s artwork appears to be simply competent at best and at times
actually appears to be rather rushed. Such disappointing pencils are especially
evident towards the end of the comic when all attention finally refocus’ upon
the precarious predicament of Frankenstein’s Monster. Admittedly the ‘modern
Prometheus’ is significantly weakened as a result of having several large phials
of blood drained out of him. But that doesn’t necessarily explain why the
American artist suddenly depicts the muscular brute as little more than an overly scrawny giant. Especially after Enoch gives the creature a massive electrical
“pick-me-up.”
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| The regular cover art of "JOE FRANKENSTEIN" No. 4 by Graham Nolan |
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