Frankenstein: Guest appearances in Tomasi's work

With all major appearances (and minor ones before Flashpoint) covered it is time to start looking at various guest appearances that Frankenstein made over the years. I think that Tomasi is a perfect starting point since he has used many toys that were either introduced or revamped by Morrison. Frankenstein is no exception.

We start with Batman and Robin series by Tomasi and Gleason. This series really represents Tomasi's work in general for me, some of it I really like, some of it I really dislike. Luckily for us Frank appears in the better parts of the run. And I'd say that this title always had pretty good art.

After Damian's death Bruce goes a bit crazy and tries to find a way how to bring back his boy back to life. One of the option Bruce is exploring in #19 is turning him into a Frank-like monster. This leads to a conflict with Frank. It is fine one-shot (and is later referenced in #27), but at the same time not really worth tracking down unless you are interested in the overall storyline of Batman and Robin title after Damian dies.

Frank returns in #31 and this time his stay is a bit more substantial. He help Bruce against Ra's in #32 and later in Robin Rises: Omega helps both of them against Glorious Godfrey of New Gods. It still is Bruce's storyline and focuses on bringing back Damian to life, but Frank gets good amount of pages and does a bit of recap about his JLD adventures so you don't have to waste your time reading JLD. Personally I think that these issues were on the high end of this run and are worth picking up. Anyway, following two appearances in #33-34 are just Frank leaving the story and appearing on a screen so can be safely ignored if you don't care that much about Damian's return.

Towards the end of New 52 DC decided to do some weird things with Superman and Frank appeared in few of those issues. I have no idea if Tomasi pushed for his usage here or if Pak/Kuder or Yang or some editor pushed for it. But these appearances are a part of Savage Dawn storyline and Tomasi was involved so I'm writing about them here.

And well, there is not much to writer about. Frank appears in Action #46-48, Superman/Wonder-Woman #27, Superman #49 and Superman Annual #3. One of the bad guys corrupts (mind-controls?) Frank and uses him as a foil for depowered Superman. And thats pretty much it, eventually corruption is removed and we move on. Unlike with Frank's appearances in Batman and Robin this crossover had many writers and many artists involved so consistency isn't there. And well, overall direction of the story was bad and irrelevant, unlike Damian's return. Easy skip.

During Rebirth initiative Tomasi and Gleason got to write main Superman book and luckily for us they wanted to do more with Frank. Frank first appears in two part storyline (#12-13) where he is basically hunting a shapeshifting alien criminal in a town that Kents are currently staying in. Now, the interesting part is that The Bride is also hunting the same alien. Superman and Lois get involved because alien pretends to be an innocent human being. But all that is irrelevant, what matters is that we get a continuation from Lemire's Agent of S.H.A.D.E. run with Frank trying to patch up things between himself and The Bride. And it doesn't work out. It is a great stand-alone story that moves forward Frank and The Bride and fits thematically with the overall direction of this Superman's run. And it is drawn by Mahkne! A must read for every fan of Frank.

Frank and The Bride later return in the Black Dawn storyline (#22-25). Overall this storyline is better than Savage Dawn, but they get smaller role here and since Superman is not depowered this time... entire thing is a bit above their capabilities. And nothing new is said about their relationship. Get it only if you are interested in what Tomasi and Gleason were doing with this run in general.

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