Sherlock Frankenstein and the Legion of Evil

Sherlock Frankenstein and the Legion of Evil by Jeff Lemire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When the heroes of Spiral City disappeared fighting the Anti-God, Lucy Weber, the Black Hammer's daughter, was left fatherless. Now, fresh out of journalism school, Lucy tries to track down her father's greatest foe, Sherlock Frankenstein, for answers...

I was wondering how Lucy eventually showed up on The Farm and this goes part of the way toward explaining it. Lucy goes tracking down her father's enemies in an effort to figure out if he survived the battle with the Anti-God. Her trail leaders her to super villains like Cthu-Lou and the Metal Minotaur before finally meeting Sherlock Frankenstein. It was pretty cool.

The background of Spiral City is further fleshed out as Lucy plays detective. Analogues of The Shadow, Doc Savage, and Tarzan are touched upon, and various super villains are introduced. Sherlock Frankenstein's look reminds me of Mr. Freeze from Batman: The Animated Series if he lived in Victorian times. Part zombie, part mad scientist, Sherlock Frankenstein proved to be an interesting antagonist, for what little screen time he actually had.

I didn't know what to think of David Rubin's art at first but I wound up liking it quite a bit, far from typical super hero art. It was cartoony and had a retro-horror vibe at times.

Much like Kurt Busiek has done with Astro City, Jeff Lemire mines the human side of a world of superheroes for some interesting stories. Four out of five stars.



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