Gotham City Monsters

Gotham City Monsters #1-6

by Steve Orlando, Amancay Nahuelpan (Illustrator), Patricia Mulvihill (Color Artist)

Now that S.H.A.D.E. has been dismantled by Leviathan, Frankenstein finds himself free to set his sights on his former mentor, Melmoth, the one evil that got away. With bad things happening across the Multiverse, this may be Frankenstein's last shot at setting things right. Of course, Melmoth has his own agenda, and it's going to take more than a lone monster to take him down. So Frankenstein heads to Gotham City in search of allies and recruits Killer Croc, Lady Clayface, Orca, vampire Andrew Bennett, and a mysterious figure known as the Red Phantom. But will even these dread creatures be enough to save humanity before the entire cosmos collapses in on itself? Fan-favorite writer Steve Orlando (Midnighter, Martian Manhunter, Batman/Shadow) and red-hot artist Amancay Nahuelpan (Crush & Lobo) bring the monstrous might of the DC Universe in full force. Collecting Gotham City Monsters #1-6.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Horror, Superheroes, Fiction, Comic Book

144 pages, Paperback

First published August 13, 2020

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy these DC Monster stories.
They aren't really good-good, but I tend to like them anyway just because they have these cool characters.



I had never heard of Melmoth (the villain in this) but he had a Doctor Doom vibe to him in that he was doing terrible things for (what he thought was) the greater good. I liked that a lot better than the usual generic evil because I'm evil thing that sometimes happens in comics.



I'm also a sucker (pun intended) for anything with Andrew Bennet. I've never found a really great I...Vampire! comic but I'm just intrigued with his persona and think he could be really cool in the right author's hands.



Frankenstein isn't as interesting to me, but he's a staple in the Monster universe, so you know he's got to be in this. Killer Croc and Orca fit in well, too.
I don't know who the clay chick or the ghost guy were, but I liked them both.

There was a surprising bit of carnage in this for a DC comic, but it added in some tension that wouldn't have been there otherwise as the heroic monsters raced to beat the clock and save the innocents.

If you're a fan of DC's Monsters you might want to check this one out.

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

A parte Batman la mia conoscenza riguardo ai fumetti DC è alquanto carente così, dopo aver letto Justice League Dark, Volume 1: The Last Age of Magic pochi giorni fa, volevo sapere qualcosa in più su Frankenstein ed il vampiro Andrew Bennett, così questo Gotham City Monsters uscito nello stesso periodo mi sembrava interessante e l'ho comprato in fumetteria.



Mi aspettavo una trashata immonda ben disegnata ma, sorpresa, si è rivelato essere un gran bel fumetto con personaggi interessanti,  tanta azione, e delle splendide illustrazioni che raggiungono il top nelle spesso truculente splash-pages che costellano il volume.



A parte Killer Croc avevo poca o inesistente confidenza con i personaggi e, non avendo letto Leviathan, City of Bane, 7 Soldiers e tanti altri eventi o storie DC precedenti a questa miniserie, è stato un po' come entrare al cinema a film iniziato, ma questo non ha inficiato troppo sulla lettura ed anzi mi ha fatto venire voglia di leggere anche le suddette saghe e le storie di Batwoman relative alla Bibbia dei Criminali.



In conclusione, una lettura che si è rivelata essere molto meglio del previsto e le splendide copertine illustrate da Philip Tan hanno arrotondato il voto finale a ☆☆☆☆ piene.



Spero decisamente che l'autore continui prima o poi la storia di Killer Croc proprietario dell'hotel per mostri in un racconto stile American Horror Story: Hotel, o che faccia uscire un seguito di questa divertente miniserie.



Una gran bella sorpresa.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bunch of D-List monstrous characters band together to stop Melmoth from sacrificing billions to save the Multiverse from all that nonsense with Perpetua that Scott Snyder has been working on over in Justice League for a long time. Melmoth is one of the villains from Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers of Victory that Frankenstein appeared in 15 years ago. Yeah, it's a reach to not even reference who the guy is or where he came from. This would have worked better had the story been smaller in scope and focused more on the characters involved. Everyone is pretty generic. The art is really good though.

[Ben Truong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gotham City Monsters is a six-issue limited series has Frankenstein gathering a group of so-called monsters to stop a foe that has the entire cosmos on line. It was written by Steve Orlando with art by Amancay Nahuelpan and collects all six issues of the 2019–2020 limited series.

Gotham City Monsters is a six-issue limited series that has Frankenstein recruiting Andrew Bennett (a vampire), Waylon Jones as Killer Croc, Grace Balin as Orca, and introducing Sondra Fuller as Lady Clay and Michael Drown as Red Phantom with the supporting aide of Katherine Kane as Batwoman to take down one-time mentor Melmoth, who has a plan to sacrifice billions and to save the cosmos.

Steve Orlando has penned the entire trade paperback. For the most part it was written moderately well. Orlando has created a narrative with his usual head-on insanity, while making sure that readers never lose sight of the humanity at the core of the story that drives the characters forward. However, it is connected to too many events happening around the time and at times feels like a tie-in series that would not accomplish much.

Amancay Nahuelpan penciled the entire trade paperback. Since he was the only penciler, the artistic flow of the trade paperback flowed exceptionally well. For the most part, Nahuelpan's penciling was done wonderful well and is excellent at keeping the action tight and clear even when there are many characters involved.

All in all, Gotham City Monsters is an interesting narrative with potential, but a tie-in with the current event and the uneven pace of the narrative made that potential suffer.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frankenstein, I, Vampire, Killer Croc, Lady Clayface, and Batwoman unite as a multiversal mishap only the mismatched monsters of Gotham can prevent threatens not one but all realities!

I love stories like this. A load of random C list characters (and Batwoman) band together to save the day, proving once and for all that being a monster doesn't stop you from being a hero. Steve Orlando tackles the plot with his usual head-on insanity, while making sure that we never lose sight of the humanity at the core of the story that drives the characters forward.

Does the plot get a bit out there near the end? Sure. Does it introduce new characters and concepts faster than the average reader can keep up? Yeah, probably. But it's a whirlwind of fun that I couldn't take my eyes off of, and it ties into the larger DCU with the villain's plan actually playing into the multiversal problems going on during Year Of The Villain as well.

The artwork is entirely handled by Amancay Nahuelpan, who is excellent at keeping the action tight and clear even when there are loads of characters involved. Trish Mulvihill's colours invoke the right atmosphere no matter the setting and without muddying Nahuelpan's pencils, so this is a good looking book all the way through.

More often than not, it's stories like this that focus on smaller characters that are the best, because the writers have more freedom to do things with them, and that's definitely the case here. Long live the monstrous!

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gotham City Monsters collects issues 1-6 of the series written by Steve Orlando with art by Amancay Nahuelpan.

The monsters of Gotham City (Frankenstein, Killer Croc, Orca, Lady Clayface, I Vampire, and Red Phantom) team-up with Batwoman to battle Melmoth, who in his own villainous way is trying to stop Perpetua from redesigning and destroying the multiverse.

I really liked the group of monster put together in this book, but just wasn't invested in the story. I feel like Batwoman is one of DC's most interesting characters but they really struggle with finding her place. I'm not sure if Red Phantom is a new character or I'm just familiar with him, but I found him very interesting. Would love to see him more. Even though the book is just okay, the art is really strong throughout.

[Kyle Dinges · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is what I'd hoped the Rebirth Justice League Dark series was going to be but never actually materialized

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uma proposta interessante, já que a DC Comics, diferente da Marvel - em Legião dos Monstros -, nunca havia feito uma história com a reunião de seu rol de monstros urbanos. Frankenstein, Crocodilo, Orca, Eu Vampiro, Dama de Barro e outros se unem contra um demônio que quer dominar o multiverso. O roteiro é espertinho e os desenhos são de boa qualidade. Mas o que mais gostei foi a criação e inclusão da equipe do personagem Fantasma Escarlate, um novíssimo integrante da lista de superseres queer da DC Comics. Depois de ser vítima de uma maldição, o Fantasma Escarlate teve sua existência eterna atrelada a um Teatro do bairro dos monstros de Gotham. Uma homenagem descarada ao Fantasma da Ópera, só que mais gay e mais demoníaco. Só esse personagem já valeu a história toda e, embora o Frankenstein seja o protagonista é o Fantasma Escarlate quem rouba a cena todinha. Afinal, ele é dono de um Teatro, não é mesmo? =P

[Jaime Guzman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Frankenstein assembles Killer Croc, Orca, Lady Clayface, Vampire Andrew Bennet, Red Phantom, and Batwoman in order to defeat evil Melmoth from destroying the multiverse.
Interesting characters in a book with mediocre writing and slightly better than mediocre art.
Give this one a pass.

[Ronald · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoy this version of Frankenstein in the DC Universe. He is just this eloquent grumpy guy with a sword killing evil. But this story is just kind of boring. Lots and lots of talking but very little actual fighting. Lots of not saving the day by a second over and over again letting people die This could have been a shorter four issue limited series instead of six.

[Thomas Gangert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was haben Marsianer, Vampire, Paviane, Orkas, das Multiversum, Impfungen und Frankenstein miteinander zu tun? Wenn du eine Antwort auf diese Frage willst, dann wird dir dieser Comic auch nicht helfen.

Der Band ist inhaltlich viel zu dicht verpackt, ohne dass auch nur irgendetwas ordentlich auserzählt wird. Mit mehr Comic-Background zu den gezeigten Charakteren wäre das Verständnis wohl leichter, eine Geschichte sollte aber auch ohne Internetrecherche gut und verständlich sein.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the idea of comics (like the sprawling, fantastic worlds they allow and there's a relatively tiny special effects budget for what they can show) but in general I think they're too expensive for how much time you spend reading them. But this was on hoopla so I checked it out.

I figure there's some missing context here. Either that or the bad guy is just a Martian vampire trying to save the multiverse from something (alongside his army of Martian mandrill mooks) and Frankenstein just recruited a bunch of monsters to stop the bad guy and that's all you need to know.

I think the biggest 'the heck?' moment for me was the mandrills. The mandrills from Mars. Who serve a vampire. Of all the random crap you can do in comics, that's the one that really stands out.

All that being said, story was fine, pretty straightforward but I'm really here for the art because that was pretty cool. Croc and Frankenstein really stood out. Though Orca's kind of disconcerting to look at.

The art was really cool throughout though.

[Will Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeah, this was a good time. Probably 3.5 stars. Just a bunch of monsters violently trying to stop the bad guy- a guy who looks like a grown up Saw doll.

[Scott E · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not quite awful but very poor. Properly old school DC camp in places while trying to take itself seriously and just doesn’t mesh

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no real knowledge of any of theses characters other than a couple of Batman arcs with Killer Croc. I had heard of Frankenstein, agent of S.H.A.D.E., but had never read anything (apparently nether did anyone else since the book was canned pretty quickly).
I really enjoyed the Justice League Dark, and this book kind of fit in with that type of story, and those characters. Being a limited series with less known characters did limit the story more than the JLD, but Orlando still managed to have some character development to go with a decent, if shallow, story.
Frankenstein was a bit of a dick which was somewhat disappointing. I really wanted him to be cool because, you know, Frankenstein as a monster hunting superhero.
Anyway, I liked the book, the art was really good, and I would definitely read another one.

[Rhys Causon · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable enough action/horror romp that is self contained enough as to not bother readers will massive expositional moments about what’s is going on with the DC universe at the time. Though clearly some big Bane story was either going on at the time or had just finished.

As always I love to explore the more monstrous and magical side of DC. And when one of my favourite characters, that being Killer Croc, is one of the leads I know I’m going to enjoy it. I enjoyed it as single issues years ago and reading it in a trade really helps show how good its pacing is.

Despite how weird some of the characters are in it… because I had forgotten about Martian Mandrills and don’t know if I needed to remember them.

[Niche · Rating 1 out of 5]

Trite gravity

I feel like this was shooting for a modern Gotham version of Grant Morrisson's Seven Soldiers of Victory, but the writing just wasn't there for me. It tries to introduce the characters, unite them, and set the cataclysmic stakes to quickly with character dialog that left me rolling my eyes with attempted gravitas.

I can honestly say the only character I didn't know was the Red Phantom, but I found myself caring less about them by the end than I did at the start. I wanted to give it bonus points for the lesser known picks and no romance, but the writing lost me.

[Andrew Garvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

DC's self-contained, six-issue story about a gang of monsters teaming up to stop a supernatural madman destroying the multiverse to save the metaverse (no, not Zuckerberg's empire, something else, presumably) is big, brash, bloody and quite a lot of fun. I'm not sure how much sense any of it really makes but there's a LOT of characters, it's all very fast-paced and even if the thin-yet-overloaded and not especially well-explained story isn't the best, I really, really enjoyed the artwork by Amancay Nahuelpan who drew all six issues and shows real skill in depicting big, gory action.

[Zay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A okay read only picked up this book because I seen killer croc on the cover.
Felt this was more centered around Frankenstein and the vampire guy in till towards the end of the book you see some of the other monsters and team members get some shine.(Not counting there introductions at the beginning)
2.8/5
I would only recommend this too Huge DC fans or someone who is already familiar with the characters

[Norman Cook · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this series over a year ago as individual issues. That it has taken this long for it to be collected as a trade is probably indicative of DC's low faith in it. I remember reading this because Frankenstein Agent of SHADE is a favorite character of mine. I frankly don't remember much about the series other than that. I do have a vague memory that it was not very good.

[Frank Enstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a sucker for Frankenstein, enjoyed it but hated Melmoth who I’ve never heard of until this book. (Seems Melmoth and Frankenstein have a long history, might dip further into that to flesh out both characters further)

[Chris Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

What could have been just a typical story is elevated by its wit and self-deprecating humor. I enjoyed the characters enough that I’d read more if this is going to be an ongoing series.

[Jameson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Would like to see this series continue in some way...

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

A monster squad romp with some fun moments.

[Aaron Herrera · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always love seeing Frankenstein.
Minor spoiler alert:
Only issue is the story never really explained what the danger to the multiverse was. Good to see Melmoth again too.

[Cass Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Poor Man's JLD - very dull. It does its best to introduce you to all of its characters but it didn't work for me, and the story became empty and overstuffed at once. Tynion or V, Orland is not.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was goody but overall just ok

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have heard of Croc and Orca in DCU before adding
Frankenstein (monster) and a powerful vampire is
interesting. Plus Batwoman and a theatre as a box!!!!
Pretty good with great artwork!