Val Mayerik

Access a version of the below that includes illustrations on my blog.

Bloodstone & the Legion of Monsters collects all of the original 1970s appearances of the monster hunter Ulysses Bloodstone, plus a few one-shots featuring his daughter Elsa, and a four-part miniseries, Legion of Monsters. It does not collect, despite what the solicitation indicated, the 2001-02 miniseries that introduced Elsa and indeed, remains inexplicably uncollected. The stories are put in a somewhat weird order here (though I can see the logic), but I will go through them in publication order.

The earliest issues are nine featuring Ulysses Bloodstone. Ulysses made his debut in Marvel Presents #1, appeared again in the second issue of that title, and then transferred over to the black-and-white series Rampaging Hulk, appearing in seven of its first eight issues. Ulysses an immortal; ten thousand years ago, he was present when the magical bloodstone was shattered, and a bit of it was embedded in his chest, granting him immortal life. He's spent his time tracking down other fragments, stopping those who misuse them—especially rampaging kaijuesque giant monsters. There's a core of a good idea here, but I didn't find it to be terribly well executed. The first two issues, in particular, a very choppy; writer John Warner clearly thought he was setting up a long epic when he wrote Marvel Presents #1, and then issue #2 has to hastily wrap up and explain everything, and completely ignores some key aspects of issue #1 in the process!

His six issues of Rampaging Hulk are fine; mostly the high point is the beautiful black-and-white artwork. I did like Bloodstone's supporting cast, a lackadaisical actor turned assistant monster hunter and a crusading journalist, but the actual stories focused too much on the tedious machinations of a globe-spanning conspiracy, and never seemed to really go anywhere. Bloodstone was always on the backfoot, bizarre twists were being piled on top of bizarre twists, new complications being introduced at random. And again, it all gets abruptly cut short, this time in a one-issue conclusion by writer Stever Gerber that somewhat tastelessly discards the characters you've spent six issues getting to know. So what was the point?

That was (spoiler) the end of Ulysses Bloodstone, and as far as I know, he's stayed dead. I did pause reading the collection at this point to read the 2001-02 miniseries, but that's outside the scope of this review. The short version, though, is that Ulysses's somewhat overcomplicated backstory was played down; no more mention of the bloodstone fragments or the conspiracy, he just became a flamboyant hunter of monsters of all sorts and his mantle passed on to his daughter, Elsa. The omission of this miniseries from this collection is, frankly, obnoxious and inexplicable. Elsa was then reinvented with a somewhat different backstory in the miniseries Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E., which I haven't read yet but will next. I can see why this isn't here (it's twelve issues long and not all about Elsa) but the retooling of a retooling is a jarring thing to happen between stories.

It's this retooled Elsa who is the focal character of three short comics from 2009-10, reprinted from Marvel Assistant-Sized Spectacular #2, Astonishing Tales: Boom-Boom and Elsa #1, and Girl Comics #2. The first is kind of meh, but the other two are fun stories about her overdramatic, overviolent life and her friendship with Tabitha "Boom-Boom" Sparks. You can never go wrong with some Faith Erin Hicks.

Lastly, there's Legion of Monsters (2011-12), a miniseries where Elsa has to work with some monsters, helping defend an enclave of ostensibly peaceful monsters from an attack via plague. The art is nice to look at, dark and moody, and I certainly appreciate any superhero comic that attempts to do something different, but I found both art and writing difficult to follow and ultimately got a bit lost in the contortions of it all; I think the story assumes a deeper familiarity with Marvel's bench of monster characters than I actually possess.

So overall, it's not the best Bloodstone collection that could have been published. If I hadn't read the 2001-02 miniseries in the middle, I don't think it would have been coherent at all; as it is, it seems to be about two characters related in nothing other than their name and the vague concept of monster hunting.

Elsa Bloodstone: Next in sequence »… (meer)

This is an enjoyable collection, but my main gripe is that some of the issues are not in chronological order, and easily could be.

The Monster of Frankenstein/Frankenstein Monster is an outstanding 70s Marvel horror series, starting with the origin of Frankenstein retold, then picking up 100 years later with the great, great grandson of Robert Walton in search of the Monster, leading to more misadventures of our misunderstood Monster.

While the Frankenstein Monster monthly was going on, there were also a series of black and white tales being told in the Monsters Unleashed magazine format series. These were more adult tales. Marvel used these issues to explain how the Monster arrived in the present day. Here, however, is where my problem lies.

It would have been simple for the compilers of this Essential collection to put the Monsters Unleashed story in the proper order along with the main title run. Instead, the Frankenstein Monster run is complete (with a brief interruption for Giant-Size Werewolf by Night, perfect place for the Monsters Unleashed story), followed by the full Monsters Unleashed run. It makes reading in proper story order difficult.

Another problem, there are several moments where different writers mix up the back story, screwing up certain elements like how the Monster damaged his throat (shown as damage from a vampire bite in the main title run, but explained as damage due to fire in Monsters Unleashed). Considering these books were being produced within months of each other, it's a glaring error that should have been noticed before the books went to print.

Overall, though, a fun read. Definitely worth picking up for comic fans and horror fans alike.… (meer)