Issue(s): Doctor Strange #37
Cover Date: Jan 92
Title: "Frankensurfer"
Credits:
Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas, & Jean-Marc Lofficier - Writer
Geof Isherwood - Penciler
Geof Isherwood - Inker
Barry Dutter - Assistant Editor
Mike Rockwitz - Editor

Review/plot:
Jean-Marc Lofficier has been co-writing historical back-up features in this series (with Roy, but not Dann, Thomas). In this issue, he gets a similar co-plotting credit, but this time, instead of it being in a back-up, his scenes are co-mingled with the main story as flashbacks. It's confirmed in the lettercol for issue #42 that this story started out as a Tales of the Vishanti back-up but got reworked into a full story.

The purpose of the flashbacks is a consolidation of the history of the Frankenstein family in the Marvel universe (and even real history, with some weird moving back and forth between Germany and Switzerland to account for the fact that there was a real Frankenstein family in Germany but Mary Shelley made them Swiss in her novel). You can see in the References what is being pulled together. The history surprisingly does not address Uncanny X-Men #40, which was written by Roy Thomas and which featured a Frankenstein Monster that at the time was presented as if it were the one from Mary Shelly's novel. The focus is more on the Frankenstein family itself, not the monsters that they've created.

With most of the issue being devoted to a history lesson, there isn't much room for actual story. I will note that the history lesson comes from the Book of Vishanti...

...which apparently is even aware of more recent events like the Nazi Frankenstein that fought the Invaders, and Iron Man's encounter with the original Monster.

I mean, it's magic, of course, but it's worth noting that the book has that attribute.

As for the actual story, Dr. Strange is attacked by what appears to be the Silver Surfer. When Strange turns out to be too powerful for him...

...the Surfer says that he needs to get back to Castle Frankenstein. That's when Strange does his research. Then Strange arrives at Castle Frankenstein and meets Victoria Frankenstein, the daughter of Ludwig, the guy that created the "Frankensurfer" (aka Borgo, Ludwig's servant).

Strange fights the Frankensurfer, noting that whatever created him doesn't count as magic.

Frankensurfer is attacking because he's wracked with pain. The fight ends when Frakensurfer accidentally kills one of the local villagers that previously tried to take care of him. The Frakensurfer kills himself by crashing into a mountain.

I'm still not really sure what caused the Frankensurfer to attack Dr. Strange in the first place, except that it helped get him involved in the plot. The story is very thin, and feels like a quick wrapping around a Tales of the Vishanti back-up, which is exactly what it is. Maybe the back-up was promoted to a main story for deadline reasons. It really feels like the only point of the story is to say, "Hey, remember the Frankensurfer? That was pretty weird, right?". And it was, but reading this only makes me ask, "So what?".

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Frank von Frankenstein was shown to battle with a pre-vampire Dracula in Dracula Lives #2.
  
• A dragon of Castle Frankenstein was shown in Savage Sword of Conan #22 (it was actually a Solomon Kane story).
  
• Mary Shelley's novel was adapted in Frankenstein #1-3.
  
• Frankenstein's monster met Dracula in Frankenstein #8-9 (incorrectly cited as Dracula #8-9) and he met Vincent von Frankenstein in Frankenstein #10-11. This is all out of scope for my project, but i did a quick review of the Frankenstein comics on the main blog.
  
• In Invaders #31 we saw a descendant of the original Frankenstein create a new monster.
  
• The Frankensurfer is from Silver Surfer #7.
  
• The original Monster woke up in Monsters Unleashed #2.
  
• The Monster fought ICON and met both Veronica and Victoria Frankenstein in Frankenstein #15-18.
  
• Iron Man met Frankenstein in Iron Man #102.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A