The Bride of Frankenstein Lives #1 // Review
In 1935 the central title character of The Bride of Frankenstein had, presumably, died in the fire that ended the film. Nevertheless, the iconic image of Elsa Lanchester in the role of the bride has continued to find its way into various forms and formats including film, cartoons, novels and comic books. They tend to be light horror. Rarely are the more complicated thematic ends of the bride given a deep and intimate narrative embrace. Writer Kelly Thompson rectifies this in a new mini-series with Skybound that is brilliantly brought to page and panel by Mattia De Iulis. This Halloween, Skybound and Image present Universal Monsters: The Bride of Frankenstein Lives #1.
Thompson’s story picks-up more or less exactly where the 1935 movie left-off. Against all probability, the bride intended for the Karloff version of Frankenstein’s monster has survived. She emerges from the water only to have to contend with a group of drunk men who try to rape her. They quickly find out what a bad idea that is. Instincts of a life before her murder lead the bride back to the home she once had, but there are no memories of the life she had led before. She looks at a photo of her and recognizes her own face, but she does not recognize the life and light reflected in her own eyes...
Thompson wastes little time in getting into the deeper thematic end of the life of the woman in question. The events that unfold after her apparent death at the end of the movie are given context with first person narration. It's revealed that while she wasn't necessarily all that articulate right away after the reanimation, she did become quite articulate as she is the one narrating her own story. Thompson channels that narrative with an impressively minimalist style that calls to the deeper themes of life, identity, and agency.
De Iulis’ renderings are deeply engaging. The Bride looks unmistakable as Elsa Lanchester...even after she’s emerged from the water and lost the distinctive shock of her hair. De Iulis captures Lanchester's shock and disorientation in flashbacks. Once she emerges from the water, the character gains a subtle power and instinct that lies underneath the terror and vulnerability. It’s a brilliant visual likeness of the bride. Beyond that, the coloring work is sharp. The rendering of human emotion is deeply heartbreaking. There's a powerful emotional connection to the title character and the world in which she inhabits. It's all brought to the page in a way that feels very much like an extension of the film that it's based on.
Skybound’s Universal Monsters series has had a relatively high standard of quality. And as good as some of it has been in a recent memory, none of the previous series have quite managed the level of achievement that Thompson and De Iulis have managed with The Bride of Frankenstein Lives. It respects the original film while expanding on it in a way that feels both faithful to the original franchise and deeply engaging for modern readers.
