SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED #21

J. Jonah Jameson sends Peter Parker and Betty Brant on an assignment to Switzerland, to cover a scientific conference. To Peter's unease, the subject is cloning. Dr. Walston Kraft, the organizer of the council, hosts a cocktail party at his ancestral castle to begin the weekend, and while there, Peter and Betty overhear some comments about Kraft and his questionable ethics. The pair try to snoop around but their way is blocked by a hulking being who, unknown to Peter, is the Frankenstein Monster, accompanied by a hunchback named Ivan. Later, Peter does some snooping on his own. Using his Spider-powers, he climbs the outside wall till he comes to a window where he spies the Monster standing over a tank in which a body lies. The Monster speaks to the body which is being grown to house his mind, allowing him to abandon his patchwork form and regain his lost humanity. The next morning, Peter and Betty compare notes, and she tells him she had heard mention of a "Baroness Frankenstein" who resides about fifteen miles away. Peter decides to drive to Castle Frankenstein to visit her. Once there, he finds the Baroness Victoria has been locked in a cell. Peter releases her, and soon they are in her sitting room where she tells him the tale of Frankenstein's Monster. She states the classic novel is mostly true, and that the creature awoke from suspended animation in the Twentieth Century. Eventually, he made his way to Castle Frankenstein where Victoria welcomed him. Years later saw the arrival of Ivan, who had been a foe of the Monster over a century before, but now came as a friend. The creature accompanied Ivan to Kraft's castle, but the hunchback later returned and imprisoned the Baroness. Peter returns to Kraft's castle to continue his search for answers. He spies on Dr. Kraft, then enters a private lab to find several tanks containing what appear to be clones of Frankenstein's Monster. Peter suspects Kraft is breeding an army. Peter then seeks out the creature and tells him what Kraft is doing, and that Ivan is not his friend. The hunchback calls Peter a liar, but the Monster, not knowing why Kraft offered him a new body, has his doubts, and he grapples with Ivan. Their fight spills into the conference, and the attendees scatter. The Monster, stung again by Ivan's betrayal, breaks the hunchback's neck. Peter then guides him to the cloning lab, where his fears are confirmed; Kraft has been using him. Dr. Kraft arrives, then activates the "Frankenclones" and orders them to kill the intruders. During the battle, a fire is ignited and spreads quickly. Peter and the Monster escape through a window, but the clones apparently perish as the castle collapses. Later, the pair sit at a lake side, the Monster bemoaning his fate, while Peter offers encouragement, but in vain. The Monster slips away when Betty and some firefighters find Peter. On the flight home, Peter ponders the horror of the Frankenstein Monster's existence. Meanwhile, Dr. Kraft roams the ruins of his castle, vowing revenge on the creature.

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