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Description

Monster Bio: Frankenstein

Height (giant form): 70 meters

Mass (giant form): 60,000 metric tons

History: Before Godzilla, before Kong, there was Frankenstein’s Monster. In 1818, a grief-stricken Victor Frankenstein defied the natural order and unleashed a Creature of a different kind upon the world. The mad scientist spent the rest of his life locked in an unending, lethal game of cat and mouse with his reanimated creation, hunting the Creature across the globe until he succumbed to illness in the frozen wastes of the far north. Upon seeing his dead father, the Creature resolved to kill himself. That proved harder to accomplish than he expected. His body was highly resistant to damage, and what wounds he could inflict upon his person would rapidly heal. Grief and self-loathing gave way to intellectual curiosity and hope for redemption. If by chance his unique condition could be replicated, the Creature believed it could be shared with the world. Although he himself was extremely intelligent, he lacked the resources his father had been privy to during his research, and so the Creature resolved to find someone of comparable intelligence to assist him.

Adopting his creator’s name, Frankenstein engaged in countless misadventures for the next few decades, until a research laboratory he established in Romania was destroyed by the emergence of Baragon. In his heightened emotional state, Frankenstein unintentionally triggered his size-changing ability. He was able to restrain Baragon to keep it from rampaging across the countryside and causing even more destruction. The well-meaning Baragon was nonetheless too dangerous to live alongside humans, and Frankenstein had failed to earn humanity’s trust over the years. And so, with a heavy heart, Frankenstein chartered a cargo ship to ferry himself and Baragon to an island in the Central Pacific Basin in the waning hours of peace before the beginning of World War I. The two monsters disappeared from the world, which quickly forgot about them.

In 1925, acting through several proxies, Frankenstein made a triumphant return to the world with a revolutionary medical discovery: kaijuphage therapy. Harvested from plant matter on the island, kaijuphages were extremely virile bacteriophages which could achieve total destruction of bacteria and viruses from human bodies. Within several months, Monster Island’s GDP grew to rival the highest of the world’s nations. This marked the start of Frankenstein’s entry into the world of bio-pharmaceuticals; a field he would dominate with virtually zero competition into the modern age. He was uniquely suited to harness the unknown and seemingly unlimited potential of Monster Island. Contenders for Frankenstein’s seat of power would come in many forms in the decades that followed, but none of them managed to supplant him.

Despite his success, Frankenstein was not satisfied with just his research and development operations. Having spent so much time in the company of monsters, he was painfully aware of their destructive capability. As humanity became more entrenched, he feared that encounters with more monsters like Baragon would become an inevitability. In the 1920’s, Frankenstein began gathering allies and allocating resources to developing an organization capable of responding to monster threats. Frankenstein’s information network was vast, affording him and his team the freedom to act without relying on world governments for intelligence. Frankenstein’s organization was widely regarded as the only “Authority” on the subject of giant monsters – the name stuck.

The Authority would work in relative secrecy and isolation throughout the 1920’s, responding to what threats and obstacles they could given the limits of technology at the time. In 1933 the world would be reintroduced to giant monsters, though not of the same variety that the Authority was accustomed to handling. Carl Denham and the surviving members of his voyage to the legendary Skull Island had brought back the last surviving member of a species of giant ape. King Kong, as Denham had named it, escaped from captivity and terrorized the city before it was felled from the top of the Empire State Building. Frankenstein personally led his team on the scene with medicines engineered for monsters to tend to the grievously wounded Kong. These measures could only stabilize the ape, and so Frankenstein brought his new charge to Monster Island for further treatment. Using notes from his father’s research, Frankenstein built a bio-electrical generator, based on the same technology which imbued him with life, and implanted it over Kong’s heart.

Over the next few years, Kong’s body was more than rehabilitated. The monster’s body absorbed radiation emitted from the generator like a sponge and grew to over ten times his original size. Ann Darrow, the former actress who had accompanied Denham on his fateful voyage, aided in Kong’s recovery, and would become the Authority’s first monster handler. Together, Darrow and Frankenstein would work with Kong and Baragon to quell monster uprisings around the world. These incidents became much more frequent with the advent of World War II, and Frankenstein began to worry his Authority was ill-suited to handle the more dangerous creatures which were being drawn to the surface.

In 1954, Frankenstein’s worst fear was realized in the form of Godzilla. Within minutes, the city of Tokyo was set ablaze, hundreds killed, and thousands wounded. The Authority dispatched Kong to subdue this new foe, as well as their own search and rescue teams. However, Kong was not able to defeat Godzilla on his own, and the Authority was poorly equipped to handle devastation on this scale. It was only thanks to the intervention of Mothra was Godzilla’s rampage halted.

Frankenstein reached out to United States Navy Captain George Gordon, who was stationed in Japan at the time of the attack and had been assigned to monitor Godzilla as he set out on his special mission and offered full Authority collaboration. Captain Gordon accepted – his fleet worked closely with the Authority in the following year. While Godzilla gathered his own allies, Gordon and Frankenstein worked on humanity’s contribution to the impending battle against the space monster, King Ghidorah. Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, one of the Authority’s most brilliant scientists, had single-handedly developed a weapon he was sure could defeat the coming foe. Authority funding and state-of-the-art military technology combined allowed Serizawa to realize his vision. When the battle finally came, Frankenstein escorted Serizawa to the battlefield. With Ghidorah distracted by the combined naval might of the United States and the Soviet Union, Frankenstein handed Serizawa off to a dying Kong. Godzilla provided additional cover so Kong could get close enough for Serizawa to detonate the Oxygen Destroyer, killing himself, Kong, and Ghidorah in a single blast.

In the aftermath of the battle, Gordon tendered his resignation from his post and joined the Authority in full, as did every serviceman and servicewoman under his command. Frankenstein arranged for the purchase of their fleet from the United States. During their reorganization talks, Frankenstein saw that new leadership was required to prevent the Authority from growing stagnant and ineffectual. The entire operation was restructured and rechristened as G-Force, in honor of their new monster ally. While Frankenstein would remain involved in G-Force in an advisory role, in the following decades his presence diminished until he had all but vanished entirely – living on in the stories about his exploits, and in the memories of his friends.

Personality: Though Frankenstein is an avowed ally of humankind, he isn’t exactly “friendly.” His entire existence has been dogged by hatred, fear, revulsion, and countless attempts on his life. Though his principles have remained unchanged, his demeanor has soured. Frankenstein prefers the company of monsters to humans, and when interacting with humans he is curt, dismissive, and easily agitated. A small handful of humans have earned enough of Frankenstein’s respect to engage in pleasant conversation with him. Old Authority records preserved as the organization transitioned into G-Force indicate Frankenstein’s personality has not always been so blunt and unkind. Given the composition of his body, and the energies used to bring him to life, it is believed that Frankenstein’s mind and body are slowly, but steadily, deteriorating. What impact this will have on his personality as time marches on remains to be seen.

Powers and Abilities

Strength: In his standard form, Frankenstein’s strength far surpasses that of ordinary men. He can lift objects of over one ton with little exertion, and his endurance is similarly enhanced. In his super-sized form, Frankenstein’s strength allows him to grapple with monsters similar in size. However, his endurance in this form appears to diminish rapidly, allowing him to use his enhanced power only for short periods of time.

Intelligence: Frankenstein’s brain was modified by Victor Frankenstein prior to bringing his creation to life. The specifics of this modification have been lost to time, but the result is the most intelligent mind known to man. Frankenstein was the first to discover and name “radiation”, and his research into bio-pharmaceuticals was decades ahead of its time. With access to the vast wealth of his Authority, Frankenstein pioneered satellite and microchip technology. Frankenstein was the lead engineer on the Gotengo project, and was instrumental in reverse-engineering alien technology recovered from the scenes of battle. Though his intellect is vast, and his ability to learn is sharp, G-Force worries about Frankenstein’s future with their organization; the deterioration of his mind will likely have severe consequences for him, and for the organization he leaves behind.

Size-Changing: At first only triggered by extreme emotional reactions to powerful stimuli, Frankenstein eventually learned how to control this ability at will. In short bursts, he is strong enough to take on dangerous monsters. When not physically exerting himself, there doesn’t appear to be a limit on how long he can remain in this form.

Durability and Regeneration: Regardless of his size, Frankenstein is highly resistant to damage. What attacks manage to pierce his durable skin quickly regenerate – a trait only observed in a very small handful of monsters, including Godzilla. Though he has yet to unlock this secret, Frankenstein believes his power is tied to the very origins of monsters themselves.

In the nearly fifty years since he appeared on the scene, Godzilla has defended the world against all manner of threats, from the ocean depths to the stars above. Time and again he has prevailed against these foes thanks in no small part to the help of the friends he’s made along the way. It was, perhaps, only a matter of time before a worthy challenger appeared; one stronger than Godzilla, smarter than Frankenstein, and with a few friends of his own…

Up Next: Mechagodzilla

Description

Monster Bio: Frankenstein

Height (giant form): 70 meters

Mass (giant form): 60,000 metric tons

History: Before Godzilla, before Kong, there was Frankenstein’s Monster. In 1818, a grief-stricken Victor Frankenstein defied the natural order and unleashed a Creature of a different kind upon the world. The mad scientist spent the rest of his life locked in an unending, lethal game of cat and mouse with his reanimated creation, hunting the Creature across the globe until he succumbed to illness in the frozen wastes of the far north. Upon seeing his dead father, the Creature resolved to kill himself. That proved harder to accomplish than he expected. His body was highly resistant to damage, and what wounds he could inflict upon his person would rapidly heal. Grief and self-loathing gave way to intellectual curiosity and hope for redemption. If by chance his unique condition could be replicated, the Creature believed it could be shared with the world. Although he himself was extremely intelligent, he lacked the resources his father had been privy to during his research, and so the Creature resolved to find someone of comparable intelligence to assist him.

Adopting his creator’s name, Frankenstein engaged in countless misadventures for the next few decades, until a research laboratory he established in Romania was destroyed by the emergence of Baragon. In his heightened emotional state, Frankenstein unintentionally triggered his size-changing ability. He was able to restrain Baragon to keep it from rampaging across the countryside and causing even more destruction. The well-meaning Baragon was nonetheless too dangerous to live alongside humans, and Frankenstein had failed to earn humanity’s trust over the years. And so, with a heavy heart, Frankenstein chartered a cargo ship to ferry himself and Baragon to an island in the Central Pacific Basin in the waning hours of peace before the beginning of World War I. The two monsters disappeared from the world, which quickly forgot about them.

In 1925, acting through several proxies, Frankenstein made a triumphant return to the world with a revolutionary medical discovery: kaijuphage therapy. Harvested from plant matter on the island, kaijuphages were extremely virile bacteriophages which could achieve total destruction of bacteria and viruses from human bodies. Within several months, Monster Island’s GDP grew to rival the highest of the world’s nations. This marked the start of Frankenstein’s entry into the world of bio-pharmaceuticals; a field he would dominate with virtually zero competition into the modern age. He was uniquely suited to harness the unknown and seemingly unlimited potential of Monster Island. Contenders for Frankenstein’s seat of power would come in many forms in the decades that followed, but none of them managed to supplant him.

Despite his success, Frankenstein was not satisfied with just his research and development operations. Having spent so much time in the company of monsters, he was painfully aware of their destructive capability. As humanity became more entrenched, he feared that encounters with more monsters like Baragon would become an inevitability. In the 1920’s, Frankenstein began gathering allies and allocating resources to developing an organization capable of responding to monster threats. Frankenstein’s information network was vast, affording him and his team the freedom to act without relying on world governments for intelligence. Frankenstein’s organization was widely regarded as the only “Authority” on the subject of giant monsters – the name stuck.

The Authority would work in relative secrecy and isolation throughout the 1920’s, responding to what threats and obstacles they could given the limits of technology at the time. In 1933 the world would be reintroduced to giant monsters, though not of the same variety that the Authority was accustomed to handling. Carl Denham and the surviving members of his voyage to the legendary Skull Island had brought back the last surviving member of a species of giant ape. King Kong, as Denham had named it, escaped from captivity and terrorized the city before it was felled from the top of the Empire State Building. Frankenstein personally led his team on the scene with medicines engineered for monsters to tend to the grievously wounded Kong. These measures could only stabilize the ape, and so Frankenstein brought his new charge to Monster Island for further treatment. Using notes from his father’s research, Frankenstein built a bio-electrical generator, based on the same technology which imbued him with life, and implanted it over Kong’s heart.

Over the next few years, Kong’s body was more than rehabilitated. The monster’s body absorbed radiation emitted from the generator like a sponge and grew to over ten times his original size. Ann Darrow, the former actress who had accompanied Denham on his fateful voyage, aided in Kong’s recovery, and would become the Authority’s first monster handler. Together, Darrow and Frankenstein would work with Kong and Baragon to quell monster uprisings around the world. These incidents became much more frequent with the advent of World War II, and Frankenstein began to worry his Authority was ill-suited to handle the more dangerous creatures which were being drawn to the surface.

In 1954, Frankenstein’s worst fear was realized in the form of Godzilla. Within minutes, the city of Tokyo was set ablaze, hundreds killed, and thousands wounded. The Authority dispatched Kong to subdue this new foe, as well as their own search and rescue teams. However, Kong was not able to defeat Godzilla on his own, and the Authority was poorly equipped to handle devastation on this scale. It was only thanks to the intervention of Mothra was Godzilla’s rampage halted.

Frankenstein reached out to United States Navy Captain George Gordon, who was stationed in Japan at the time of the attack and had been assigned to monitor Godzilla as he set out on his special mission and offered full Authority collaboration. Captain Gordon accepted – his fleet worked closely with the Authority in the following year. While Godzilla gathered his own allies, Gordon and Frankenstein worked on humanity’s contribution to the impending battle against the space monster, King Ghidorah. Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, one of the Authority’s most brilliant scientists, had single-handedly developed a weapon he was sure could defeat the coming foe. Authority funding and state-of-the-art military technology combined allowed Serizawa to realize his vision. When the battle finally came, Frankenstein escorted Serizawa to the battlefield. With Ghidorah distracted by the combined naval might of the United States and the Soviet Union, Frankenstein handed Serizawa off to a dying Kong. Godzilla provided additional cover so Kong could get close enough for Serizawa to detonate the Oxygen Destroyer, killing himself, Kong, and Ghidorah in a single blast.

In the aftermath of the battle, Gordon tendered his resignation from his post and joined the Authority in full, as did every serviceman and servicewoman under his command. Frankenstein arranged for the purchase of their fleet from the United States. During their reorganization talks, Frankenstein saw that new leadership was required to prevent the Authority from growing stagnant and ineffectual. The entire operation was restructured and rechristened as G-Force, in honor of their new monster ally. While Frankenstein would remain involved in G-Force in an advisory role, in the following decades his presence diminished until he had all but vanished entirely – living on in the stories about his exploits, and in the memories of his friends.

Personality: Though Frankenstein is an avowed ally of humankind, he isn’t exactly “friendly.” His entire existence has been dogged by hatred, fear, revulsion, and countless attempts on his life. Though his principles have remained unchanged, his demeanor has soured. Frankenstein prefers the company of monsters to humans, and when interacting with humans he is curt, dismissive, and easily agitated. A small handful of humans have earned enough of Frankenstein’s respect to engage in pleasant conversation with him. Old Authority records preserved as the organization transitioned into G-Force indicate Frankenstein’s personality has not always been so blunt and unkind. Given the composition of his body, and the energies used to bring him to life, it is believed that Frankenstein’s mind and body are slowly, but steadily, deteriorating. What impact this will have on his personality as time marches on remains to be seen.

Powers and Abilities

Strength: In his standard form, Frankenstein’s strength far surpasses that of ordinary men. He can lift objects of over one ton with little exertion, and his endurance is similarly enhanced. In his super-sized form, Frankenstein’s strength allows him to grapple with monsters similar in size. However, his endurance in this form appears to diminish rapidly, allowing him to use his enhanced power only for short periods of time.

Intelligence: Frankenstein’s brain was modified by Victor Frankenstein prior to bringing his creation to life. The specifics of this modification have been lost to time, but the result is the most intelligent mind known to man. Frankenstein was the first to discover and name “radiation”, and his research into bio-pharmaceuticals was decades ahead of its time. With access to the vast wealth of his Authority, Frankenstein pioneered satellite and microchip technology. Frankenstein was the lead engineer on the Gotengo project, and was instrumental in reverse-engineering alien technology recovered from the scenes of battle. Though his intellect is vast, and his ability to learn is sharp, G-Force worries about Frankenstein’s future with their organization; the deterioration of his mind will likely have severe consequences for him, and for the organization he leaves behind.

Size-Changing: At first only triggered by extreme emotional reactions to powerful stimuli, Frankenstein eventually learned how to control this ability at will. In short bursts, he is strong enough to take on dangerous monsters. When not physically exerting himself, there doesn’t appear to be a limit on how long he can remain in this form.

Durability and Regeneration: Regardless of his size, Frankenstein is highly resistant to damage. What attacks manage to pierce his durable skin quickly regenerate – a trait only observed in a very small handful of monsters, including Godzilla. Though he has yet to unlock this secret, Frankenstein believes his power is tied to the very origins of monsters themselves.

In the nearly fifty years since he appeared on the scene, Godzilla has defended the world against all manner of threats, from the ocean depths to the stars above. Time and again he has prevailed against these foes thanks in no small part to the help of the friends he’s made along the way. It was, perhaps, only a matter of time before a worthy challenger appeared; one stronger than Godzilla, smarter than Frankenstein, and with a few friends of his own…

Up Next: Mechagodzilla