A new kind of medical monster is making his rounds in the Magma Comix series The Modern Frankenstein, from the mind of famed Dr. Who scribe Paul Cornell. Alongside artist Emma Vieceli (Dr. Who, Life is Strange), Cornell is reimagining the classic tale by Mary Shelley of horror and emotional neglect in a decidedly contemporary setting, featuring the handsome, yet aloof Dr. James Frankenstein as he takes brilliant medical student Elizabeth Cleves under his wing to take part in his speculative medical research. Medical research that involves experimenting on the brains of psychopaths.
If this new five-issue series from Magma—the creator-owned imprint of Heavy Metal Publishing—goes anything like the original, Dr. Frankenstein’s experiments will likely not conclude satisfactorily. Mary Shelley published the original Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, in 1818 at the age of twenty, detailing the life of an obsessed medical student named Victor Frankenstein who manages to create life from death when he resurrects a patchwork of corpses into a living being. Sadly, Victor refuses to take responsibility for his creation, leading to the creature becoming a merciless killer who slowly destroys Victor’s family in a series of brutal, senseless acts of violence and cruelty before eventually fleeing to the Arctic. The book proved to have pioneering prowess in the field of horror literature, famously being adapted into a film starring Boris Karloff in 1931 among many other adaptations.
In a preview from Heavy Metal Publishing, Cornell’s Frankenstein, anchored by colorist Pippa Bowland and letterer Simon Bowland, takes a thematically similar inspiration from the original novel, with James Frankenstein portrayed as a cold, calculating figure who prizes rationality above all, disdaining faith while secretly conducting unethical and illegal medical experiments…with miraculous results. Told through the eyes of Elizabeth, a young woman infatuated with the new Frankenstein as much due to his medical acumen as well as his attractiveness, this series combines elements of romance and horror, while presenting a much deeper discussion on the nature of good and evil than meets the eye. Check out the preview art below:
The Modern Frankenstein weaves a complex tapestry of ontological allegories, and surprisingly seems to be chiefly preoccupied with a sober discussion on the stark nature of medical ethics: how far should society be willing to venture into potentially unethical territory in the name of curing serious conditions, such as Alzheimer’s? Cornell’s Frankenstein takes this a step further, asking how far should medical science go in attempting to isolate, and destroy, evil within the human mind? If it goes anything like it does in the original, then the lesson will likely be that there’s things people probably shouldn’t mess with.
Will Frankenstein find the cure for evil within the human soul? The Modern Frankenstein goes on sale April 28 from Magma Comix.
Source: Heavy Metal Publishing
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April 26, 2021 at 04:55AM
