DC Comics' 'Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E' No. 2 Preview (Exclusive)

Having successfully launched its No. 1 issues, DC now has the hard job of keeping the momentum of its revamp going more powerfully than a locomotive.

One of the books hitting shelves this week is the second issue of Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. It's written by Toronto-based Jeff Lemire, the indie up-and-comer who is the creator of the unique and arty post-apocalyptic Vertigo comic Sweet Tooth. (And in case you're wondering, S.H.A.D.E. stands for Super Human Advanced, Defense Executive.)

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The book takes Frankenstein, makes him into a destroyer of evil, throws in a gallery of Universal Studios monsters via a genetic mutation route on the Wolfman, the Mummy and the Creature from the Black Lagoon (now a woman), who are Frankenstein's Creature Commandos, and drops a bag of sci-fi concepts on them all. It's a little bit of Hellboy, a little bit of Grant Morrison.

Like many of the other new DC books, you don't need to know any previous DC history (Creature Commandos were introduced in the early 1980s, Frankenstein was brought back into the DC universe by Morrison in the last dacade, for example) to have fun with the book. 

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