Frankenstein: Reading list and headcanon

With everything, asides of Futures End, till 2023 covered in previous posts it is probably time to make a list of what actually I consider worth reading and how I try to explain away continuity problems between pre-Flashpoint and post-Flashpoint versions.

Lets start with reading list. I'm dividing it into two parts: must read and worth reading for one reason or another. If some Frank story is not included in this list then I pretty much don't consider it as being in continuity or mattering.

Must read:
  • Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein and Seven Soldiers #1
  • Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #1-5
  • Superman Vol. 4 #12-13
Worth reading:
  • Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #6-9; 16
  • Men of War Vol. 2 #8
  • Pieces of me from Young Monsters in Love #1
  • Batman and Robin Vol. 2 #19; 31-32 and Robin Rises: Omega #1
At first I wasn't sure about including stuff like Men of War and Batman and Robin #19, but I changed my mind in the end to make the list a bit more "complete". So, thats that. Frank has been around for a while and in my opinion around 20 issues with him are actually good. Is that a lot? Is that disappointing number? I'm not sure, but it is better than nothing.

Do we really need a headcanon for such limited amount of worthwhile appearances? Sadly we do, main and only real problem here is when Frank joined SHADE? In Seven Soldiers Frank wakes up in modern times and joins SHADE after couple of adventures so he hasn't been SHADE's agent for long. In Lemire's version Frank joined SHADE at least a century ago. So how to resolve this problem? Fortunately Seven Soldiers #1 can help us here.

Klarion is another character who had his origin story in Seven Soldiers. But Kirby had introduced Klarion decades ago in The Demon... so did Grant push one of Kirby's stories out of continuity? No, Seven Soldiers ends with Klarion in control of Sheeda's time traveling ship and as Morrison explains in collected edtion's bonus material - Klarion's next destination is probably Kirby's The Demon #6. 

So what that has to do with Frank? As it turns out this time traveling ship was also the place that we last saw Frank in this story. So if Klarion travels back to The Demon #6 and abandons the ship... maybe Frank crashes back to 19xx? Thats good enough for me.

So with that in mind this is how Frank's timeline would look to me:
Seven Soldiers -> Men of War #8 -> various pre-Flashpoint guest appearances -> Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE #1-5 -> Pieces of me -> Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE #6-9; 16 -> Batman and Robin #19; 31-32 -> Robin Rises: Omega -> Superman #12-13

And if you want to you can also add Futures End weekly to the end since I doubt that Frank's status quo is going to change much in coming years (decades?) that would make that potential future not plausible.

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