Issue(s): Legion of Monsters #1 (Frankenstein story only)
Cover Date: Sep 75
Title: "The monster and the masque"
Credits:
Doug Moench - Writer
Val Mayerik - Penciler
Dan Adkins & Pablo Marcos - Inker

Review/plot:
Goddammit people! How many times do i have to tell you, if you are going to have a comic called Legion of Monsters, it ought to have a Legion of Monsters in it. Especially when the cover of this issue shows me Frankenstein, Dracula, and Manphibian all hanging out together. Manphibian! For that matter, what kind of jerk puts together a trade reprinting this issue and doesn't include the Manphibian portion? I guess at the time this Essential Frankenstein trade was published, they didn't realize that Keith Giffen would bring back the Manphibian in a 2005 Nick Fury's Howling Commandos series.

Oh well, no Manphibian for me. And the Dracula story was actually part of an adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel. It's actually, kind of confusingly, part 7 of a 16 part adaptation of that novel, which, considering that this is the only issue of this series, must have made it pretty difficult for anyone actually trying to read the whole thing (it's eventually all collected and completed in a 2004 "Stoker's Dracula" series). The reason for this is that Marvel's black & white monster magazines were collapsing, and this new magazine was an attempt to consolidate Haunt of Horror, Monsters Unleashed, Tales of the Zombie, Dracula Lives (which is where the previous Stoker parts were printed), and Vampire Tales all into a single magazine, presumably with the idea that the lack of filler content would have made it a more appealing buy. That seems like it would make sense: Frankenstein, the Zombie, Dracula, Man-Thing, Brother Voodoo, Morbius, etc.., all in a single magazine, making it like an early version of Marvel Comics Presents for horror characters. But for whatever reason, perhaps because the market had already been flooded with horror magazines or perhaps because the fad was just over, this will turn out to be the only issue.

As for the Frankenstein story, it has the Monster stumbling into a costume ball.

Straight as an arrow? What?

That straight as an arrow comment isn't the only gay reference. This one's more direct.

Weird how it's not even jokes, exactly. And in both cases, there's the assumption that gay people are predators going after straight people.

Anyway, the lady that Monster fancies at the ball winds up getting murdered (the Monster is actually tricked into helping to provide a distraction). So in the end the Monster kills the murderer.

Not sure what to make of it. Definitely not as good as if the Monster teamed up with Dracula and Manphibian.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Essential Monster of Frankenstein vol. 1

It's possible that Moench had a serious problem with homosexuality at this point; the 2nd part of his Moon Knight story in Marvel Spotlight around this time has a number of gay slurs.

To be fair I got the impression the characters throwing the slurs around were supposed to be unpleasant people rather on the shallow side and we shouldn't side up with them.