The Good
Jeff Lemire is a writer who can craft a good story, but for reasons below, he fails to hit this mark. The book isn't without its good points, as it captures the character of Frankenstein as he's been experienced in the past. There's also a little bit of black humour involved between Frank and Father Time, which I can appreciate.
I'm happy The Atom (or, well, Ray Palmer, who has developed shrinking tech) has a place in the New 52. Hopefully he'll be a good fit as a "normal" person in this book.
The Bad
Everything in this issue just seems a bit... rushed. We're introduced to Frankenstein, Father Time, the Atom, four other members of the Creature Commandoes, Frank's wife, the town they're going to be saving and the whole base/S.H.A.D.E scenario one after another. This spitfire delivery really makes it hard to work details about the characters in.
I mean, all I know of the Creature Commandoes is that there's a cynical vampire, boy scout werewolf, female scientist Abe Sapien and a mummy. All of them have a high respect for Frank, and can fight flesh-ripping demons hand-to-hand. Yawn.
I really don't like Father Time's "new body", a pre-pubescent girl. It really stinks of a copycat Hit-Girl, or some other attempt to be edgy by putting grown-up words in a child's mouth..
The Verdict
The main problem I had with the new Frankenstein is that this issue could have been spread over two or three. There just seemed to be an urgency to skip all the "hokey introduction stuff" and get the team out the door and into the demon-fighting wilds. It reeks of an action movie where the director doesn't take the plot seriously and just wants to move onto blowing things up.
This is a problem, because I've only read a little Frankenstein (as part of a foray into Flashpoint tie-ins that I regret fully) and this issue did nothing to make me want to pick up issue #2. I barely know enough about the characters to care, and I'm not really inclined to learn any more.
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