The only two NuDC titles I’ve read so far are Mr. Terrific and Frankenstein: Agent of Shade. Let me say up top that I enjoyed them both and I’ll be back next month for Issue Twos.
They’re structured similarly: Start with some action, pull back for some exposition, get a taste of the hero’s personal life, then throw the hero into the main story. That’s probably an ideal structure for a book that introduces an unfamiliar hero, and it allows me to compare & contrast.
1. I’m going to say Mr. Terrific starts stronger, with the hero in actual combat. Frankenstein starts with a grandpa and grandson menaced by a monster in a small town, the standard X-Files cold open. Then we see Frankenstein getting debriefed in SHADE headquarters.
2. Frankenstein has a name recognition advantage (who hasn’t heard of Frankenstein?), so Mr. Terrific goes for an actual origin.
3. Characterization: Writer Jeff Lemire follows Grant Morrison’s lead in making Frankenstein talk like a Romantic poet. That establishes him in the Mary Shelley era – and forestalls comparisons to Hellboy. Writer Eric Wallace establishes that Mr. Terrific is all about SCIENCE! It’s a little on-the-nose, but I like that he has a point of view.
4. Frankenstein goes heavy with the wacky sci-fi concepts. If a miniaturized floating city, biodegradable clone servants , the friggin’ Creature Commandos and an immortal being in the body of a 10-year-old girl strike you as overkill, then this book is not for you. Mr. Terrific has its share of mad science (tesseract secret lair! earthquake thingie!), but spends more time on Mr. Terrific’s personal life.
Bechdel Test Fail
5. Personal life: We see a lot more of Mr. Terrific’s home life, including his late wife’s death and his current friends-with-benefits arrangement with Karen Starr. The book fails the Bechdel test pretty hard when one of Mr. Terrific’s associates (who is unnamed) gets up in Karen’s grill about it. That’s close to a DQ to me. We find that Frankenstein is estranged from the Bride of Frankenstein, but that’s it.
6. Action! Frankenstein spends more time on Action!, although he and the Creature Commandos are strictly fighting faceless demons. The demons decimate the town, but to the Creature Commandos they’re strictly background for the team’s banter. Mr. Terrific sets up some entity that possesses people and turns them into murderous super-geniuses (or something like that – stay tuned).
7. Art: Alberto Ponticelli gives Frankenstein a shaky, scratchy look that suits the book well. Penciller Gianluca Gugliotta and inker Wayne Faucher start out strong for Mr. Terrific, but the art gets really rushed toward the end. Advantage: Frankenstein.
8. Endings (SPOILERS!!!!!!!): They both end on cliffhangers. Frankenstein ends with the team finding some survivors in an odd place, whereas Mr. Terrific is possessed and about to destroy California with a SCIENCE! earthquake thingie. Mr. Terrific gets the edge for action here, but having your hero get possessed isn’t the best way to build him up.
9. All-Around Quality: On first reading, I enjoyed Mr. Terrific better, although Frankenstein seems to be getting better reviews. Frankenstein’s a lot more polished, but I’m hoping Wallace and Gugliotta sort out Mr. Terrific. I’ve always liked Mr. Terrific as a character, and I’d like to see DC do a book with a person of color I can support.
The downtown comic store was fresh out of Grifter No. 1, so you’ll have to wait to hear my take on that.
Action!
I liked them both, but I was looking for more overblown comic book science in Mr. Terrific. Frankenstein was the winner here for me.
I’ve picked up about a dozen of these so far, and only Detective Comics was a disappointment. Action, Omac, and Frankenstein are top of the list for me so far. Batwoman will go there as well if the apparent supernatural theme is a regular fixture of the series.
I’ve been resisting the urge to do a Hawk & Dove post because I thought it would be redundant. Maybe I’ll get around to it, if only because they found a writer as bad as the artist.
I wanted to like Frankenstein, but it fell too much like all the elements I like about Hellboy. Maybe I had it too built up in my head. I’ll be dropping it from my pull before the next issue hits.
We popped by Darkstar Books this weekend and they had all the nu52′s. I picked up Superboy, Demon Knights, Wonder Woman, Animal Man, and Supergirl. All titles I couldn’t find either at the Ogre or Packrat because they were sold out at the time.
I also stopped in the other comic shop in Yellow Springs. (Super Fly?) The ‘new’ wall was rather small but I was impressed by the dense selection of graphic novels. I could find stuff much easier than at Packrat or the Ogre.