Frankenstein: Gotham City Monsters and Sideways

So far I was basically going in the order of Frank's publications, but here I'm making a big jump ahead since after Agent of SHADE ended Gotham City Monsters was the first series since then where Frank could be considered a lead character. And Sideways fits thematically to what I want to talk about.

Midnighter was the first Orlando's work that I have read and I was very optimistic about him back then. He liked lots of things that I like and he really looked like he could become next big writer for DC. Years later? Sadly, Midnighter probably remains the best thing that he has written for DC.

On surface level Gotham City Monsters, like majority of Orlando's work, looks like something I should dig. It features characters that I like, it references continuity and brings back some old things that I like as well? How could I not like it? 

My main problem here really is that we never really move beyond references. Melmoth is back, but he is doing same plot he did in Seven Soldiers and ends up being trapped again, just in different place. Crime bible is back, but nothing is really done with it. Frank had a team of monsters in SHADE? Well now he has a different team of monsters in Gotham! It even feels like we get 7 characters only so that Melmoth could make a Seven Soldiers reference. So you know, just like the last time!

To raise the stakes issue #5 even has a last page betrayal that is so fake that every character understands it to be fake, but they let it play out anyway for multiple pages. Why I'm even mentioning it? I don't know, it was funny in a bad way and there is really nothing else to say about this series.

So, why I decided to bring up Sideways here? Because on the surface one of the story arcs in this series is very similar - Seven Soldiers are back. Or in other words, here is a bunch of references to another story that you liked so now buy this story as well.

And what I respect about Sideways is that it doesn't even pretend that it has anything to say about these characters. Frank gets like one generic line about disliking fire, only Zatanna gets a bit bigger role, but it is also very irrelevant. Instead we get a story about Sideways that develops his character and his supporting cast.

Did I feel tricked by Sideways marketing? Yeah, but at least I got a pretty decent story in return. I didn't want it, but I ended up liking it and I hope that we see more of Sideways in the future. So the trickery at least had some positive end result. With Gotham City Monsters? Orlando pretended to the very last page that he actually wants to do something with these characters and plots... and did nothing.

Frank's appearances in Sideways are very few and irrelevant, you certainly shouldn't pick it up for them. But, Sideways is pretty good and likely the best DC's book that came out of New Age of Heroes initiative. Gotham City Monsters is the opposite, it has plenty of pages with Frank, but book itself is below average and easily forgettable. 

Skip Gotham City Monsters, read Sideways.