2008-04-19 Interesting but not consistent by any means.

These tales gathered here are neatly broken into three separate parts.
The first few tales are pretty decent. Set in the 18th century as the origin of the creature is re-told, most of this part will be familiar to anyone with any knowledge of the Frankenstein story from its creation, the bride and the slaying of its creator's new wife. The journey to the Arctic and the consequent falling into the ice sets the scene to move the story forward into the 19th century.
The second section features a great start as the creature is thawed from the ice aboard a ship and makes his way back from the frozen wastes to his home searching for the descendants of his creator. Along the way he meets strange tribes, a werewolf woman and a meeting with Count Dracula himself. This part of the volume is the weakest and contains a continuity error of magnificent proportions as the creature is dragged into a cellar in a London townhouse and after a fight with a large hunchback and the creature being shot it staggers out of Castle Frankenstein into the shadow of the Alps and to another fall from a glacier into another century long sleep.
The final part brings the creature into the 20th century and a meeting with another Marvel regular Jack Russell, the Werewolf. The stories are presented slightly out of sync and reading a few issues of the Monsters Unleashed section from the back at the book helps.
This part has some great tales of pathos, some humour and a real oddity with a brainswap tale involving three men, the monster and a mouse that does not quite meet the standard of some of the other tales.
The volume as a whole just about scrapes 4 stars but mainly due to some of the later tales featuring ICON, the Berserker and the freaks from the later Monsters Unleashed tales. There is some solid artwork firstly by Mike Ploog which fits well with Gary Friedrich's early storylines and later by John Buscema and Val Mayerick.
It is pretty easy to see as you read this why there were only 18 issues of the original comic series, it had plainly run its course and it was a wise editorial decision to discontinue the run.