Doctor FRANKENSTEIN

Real Name: Frankenstein (presumed surname)

Identity/Class: Human mad scientist;
    active from latter 19^th Century through early 20^th Century and up to 1933, at least

Occupation: Scientist

Group Membership: The (von) Frankenstein Family (not a team, but a grouping);

Affiliations: His monster (aka Frank), Phineas Randall;
    formerly Orson Randall (formerly Iron Fist)

Enemies: Prince of Orphans (John Aman), Orson Randall (formerly Iron Fist);
   Wendell Rand was brought to him for aid, but it does not seem likely that the Dr. Frankenstein had any plans to actually save him...and, if he did, it would probably have been for some experimentation

Known Relatives: Unidentified "Son of Frankenstein" (surname presumably Frankenstein; brain replaced by his father's who then became him);
    likely more directly connected to Ursula Frankenstein (see comments);
    presumably either a descendant of or of common ancestry with Victor Frankenstein (see his profile for extended relatives, as this Frankenstein's relationships with them is unrevealed; see comments)

Aliases: "Doc" (from Orson Randall), "Son of Frankenstein"

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    formerly an unidentified castle somewhere;
    formerly an unidentified laboratory presumably in Germany

First Appearance: The Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death#1/3 (April, 2008)

Powers/Abilities: He created a Frankenstein monster (presumably a reanimated being assembled from various corpses or something similar) and could somehow transplant his own brain into another person, but those sorts of things are relatively common amongst the Frankensteins.

    Frankenstein subsequently rebuilt his laboratory in a new location one unique piece at a time until her could again perform "his miracles."

    Obsessed with science, he had no compunctions with slaying and usurping the body of his own son and/or betraying (and presumably usurping the body of) a long-time friend.

History:

(The Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death#1/3 (fb) - BTS) <Sometime in the latter 19^th Century> - Frankenstein was roommates at an unspecified university with Phineas Randall, whom he taught that science could not be rushed.

(The Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death#1/3 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, this Frankenstein created his own monster, similar to that of his ancestor (or ancestral relative), Victor Frankenstein.

(The Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death#1/3 (fb) - BTS) <15 years before the main story, sometime after 1918 A.D.> - Orson Randall encountered this Frankenstein monster in Germany. Orson was unafraid of the monster, who eventually came to befriend him.

    Orson knew Frankenstein -- whom he considered a friend and whom he knew had been his father's roommate -- and his son, and he also knew the location of the elder Frankenstein's "old hiding place," a castle in another, unspecified location.

(The Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death#1/3 (fb) - BTS) - Frankenstein transplanted  his "priceless and irreplaceable" brain into the body of his "useless son" "to escape those damned Germans and their mobs and pitchforks.

    Frankenstein subsequently rebuilt his laboratory in a new location -- apparently his old hiding place -- one unique piece at a time until her could again perform "his miracles."

    He largely worked on cadavers, perfecting his techniques until the perfect specimen came along.

(The Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death#1/3 - BTS) <Sometime during or after 1933 A.D.> - After his ward Wendell Rand was shot, Orson Randall carried him thirty miles, eventually locating the castle and being pleased that it was still there.

    As Orson shouted at the door, the monster confronted him, growling, but Orson told the monster that he was not afraid of him in Germany fifteen years ago, and he certainly wasn't afraid of him now. Looking closer at Orson's face, the monster recognized him, smiled and excitedly tried to pronounce his name. Orson appreciated this but urged the monster to let them in before the kid bled out.

(The Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death#1/3) - As Frankenstein worked on an undefined experiment, his monster tried to announce Orson's presence, but Frankenstein, calling the monster "Frank," told him to keep it down, asking how he could work with his constant distractions. However, as soon as Orson called out, "Doc," Frankenstein turned and gleefully recognized Orson Randall/Iron Fist and asked what on Earth he was doing there. Orson replied that he was on the run, and that his ward fancied himself the next Iron Fist and had nearly gotten himself killed for it. After Orson continued that he knew they had been near "this old hiding place of your father's" (assuming this to be the son and having no knowledge of how the senior Frankenstein had usurped his form), Frankenstein asked from whom he was on the run, noting that continuing his father's work required -- discretion.

    Orson told him that while his powers could heal a lot, they couldn't treat massive blood loss, and he asked, "As a friend of your old man's, I'm begging you -- help." Instructing the monster to lift him, which he did, Frankenstein asked what kind of doctor would he be to turn away a patient in need, and he assured Orson that they would operate at once.

    As Wendell was given mask inhalant anesthesia (likely ether or trichloroethylene), Frankenstein remarked that he was so rarely given the opportunity to ply his trade on living specimens. As he handled his knife, he considered, "to work...on living flesh...instead of the cold, useless flesh of the dead..."

(The Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death#1/3 - BTS) - As Orson comforted the not quite out Wendell, Frankenstein commanded his monster to knock out Orson. Although the stuporous Wendell saw the monster raising his fists behind Orson and tried to warn him, he couldn't vocalize this, and monster's smashing, double-fisted blow rendered Orson unconscious.

(The Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death#1/3 (fb) - BTS) - Frankenstein presumably had his monster put Orson on another table and strap him down, and he likely gave Orson some sort of drugs.

(The Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death#1/3) - As Orson awakened, dazed, he asked Doc if he had operated yet, and Frankenstein told him, "Not yet, Randall. Science can;t be rushed. I taught your father that when we roommates at university." As he turned on his bone saw, he added, "Too much to ask, I suppose, to expect him to pass my lessons of wisdom to the next generation." Although feeling screwy, Orson asked the perceived son how he could have known Phineas Randall, and the Doc smiled and raised his goggles from his forehead to reveal the craniotomy scar, noting, "Isn't it obvious, Randall? I'm not the son of Frankenstein...I am Frankenstein!"

    Frankenstein then detailed his history and noted that never in a thousand years would he have dreamed that the perfect specimen for which he had been waiting would have been Iron Fist: "A source of limitless power, limitless energy..! It will be as if living inside of lightning itself."

    As he lowered his bone saw, Frankenstein warned that this was going to hurt, but assured him that he could scream all he wanted, as they were isolated there.

    However, the Prince of Orphans, who had been vengefully seeking Orson Randall for his perceived betrayal of K'un-Lun, subsequently arrived and filled Frankenstein with lethal green mist. Futilely resisting, Frankenstein's last words were, "But I'm brilliant."

    The Prince of Orphans replied, "Were. You were brilliant. Now you're just a dead little ghoul."

(The Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death#1/3 - BTS) - The monster growled at the Prince of Orphans, who appreciated that the monster meant them no harm and had only attacked because the doctor had ordered it. The monster subsequently sat down and stroked the hand of the unconscious Wendell.

(The Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death#1/3 (fb) - BTS) - Randall and the Prince of Orphans stopped Wendell's bleeding and combined their chi to stabilize Wendell. The Prince of Orphans stayed with Wendell to assure his recovery but forced Randall to depart and warned that when next he saw Randall, he would kill him.

Comments: Created by Matt Fraction and Lewis LaRosa.

    This character was called "Frankenstein," and he presumably was a Frankenstein, but he wasn't ever called Victor Frankenstein, nor did he ever reference any events from Victor's life. He created a Frankenstein monster and could somehow transplant his own brain into another person (despite the fact that his adult brain would likely not have fit in his son's skull without damaging compression), but those sorts of things are relatively common amongst the Frankensteins.
    Maybe he was able to somehow reduce his own brain's size without affecting his intellect.

    The continuity doesn't fit for Victor or his monster. Phineas Randall would have been at university in the latter half of the 19^thcentury, nearly a century after Victor's death. Victor died at sea in the Arctic after suffering from frigid cold, exhaustion, and probably dehydration and malnourishment. It seems pretty unlikely that his brain could have been properly preserved...but, stranger things have happened...maybe magic, time travel, etc., was involved. Also, I think it can be ASSumed that Phineas and this Frankenstein were roommates as students, which doesn't make any sense for Victor to be a student again; however, I don't think it is clearly stated that they were students. However, I'm not sure who would have allowed Victor Frankenstein to be faculty...maybe his actions were not widely known at that time? Or, I suppose, Victor could have used a false name and/or been a student to get access to the equipment. But, regardless, Victor died on a low-tech ship in the Arctic circle...
    Victor's monster was frozen at this time, and he didn't get thawed until the modern era, which the sliding timescale has brought into the 21^st Century. Additionally the monster was mute after an injury from Dracula, and he didn't regain the power of speech until Veronica Frankenstein performed surgery on him.
    Additionally, the Frankenstein monster was never a servant of Victor Frankenstein.

    The story took place in 1933 or shortly thereafter, and so this Frankenstein may have been a close relative of Basil Frankenstein. As the senior Frankenstein had been a university roommate with Phineas, who was active around 1900, I would think it likely that he may have either been a brother, cousin or other contemporary relative of Vincent Frankenstein. I am working through the Frankenstein family, and I will EVENTUALLY get to all of them.
    Further discussion of the chronology by Loki:

I think a bit later in 1933, not too long after Prince of Orphans begins pursuing him. He previously encountered this Frankenstein's monster "in Germany fifteen years ago." And in All-New Invaders#12, we have a flashback to October 1917, where he is about to take part in a mission to Prussia to take on Ursula Frankenstein. That seems a likely occasion to have run into the Monster, and the male Doctor Frankenstein who later transplanted his own brain into his son's body. Obviously 1917 to 1933 is more like 16 years, but if we figure the actual mission took place in November and the second encounter in the first half of 1933, then he could be rounding down from "a bit over 15 years."

   I wonder if the "Son of Frankenstein" was of stunted growth. Victor Frankenstein's monster is 8' tall, and this monster seems to be of a comparable size, but the son's body is shown as really small, like 4' or maybe even significantly shorter. Orson is not at all surprised that the person he believed to be the son of the Frankenstein that he knew instantly recognized him. That would mean either that the son was over 15 years old (and likely at least a few years older than that, to be able to have memory of someone, although perhaps he had a photographic memory) to remember him from their previous encounter OR that Orson had again encountered the senior Frankenstein and his son more recently.   
    Other options, alongside the ones you suggest (all of which are valid): Transplanting the father's brain across might effectively have killed the kid, and he's now an unaging corpse like the Monster. Or maybe Orson just recognized the kid as a "Doctor Frankenstein" from the context - in Frankenstein's castle, with the monster and mad scientist lab equipment - and assumed the kid knew him from his father telling him about him.
--Loki

Where does it take place?

    We know Orson encountered the senior Frankenstein and his monster 15 years, and that was in Germany. And then he transplanted his "priceless and irreplaceable" brain into the body of his "useless son" "to escape those damned Germans and their mobs and pitchforks.
    Frankenstein subsequently rebuilt his laboratory in a new location -- apparently his old hiding place -- one unique piece at a time until her could again perform "his miracles." Orson knew of this old hiding place, as it is where he brought the injured Wendell Rand.
    But, we don't know if it is Germany, Switzerland, or elsewhere...I didn't see anything to clarify that.

Son of Frankenstein...or not...

    He was identified as the "Son of Frankenstein" (in quotes, as an unofficial reference) in the Frankenstein's monster profile in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z#4: Frankenstein's monster profile, primarily as a clarifier, since we weren't given a first name for either the father or the son. While he said in story, "I am not the son of Frankenstein," he actually was the brain/mind of Frankenstein in his son's body, and even the senior Frankenstein in the story was presumably the son of someone else named Frankenstein.
    So, without anything further, "Son of Frankenstein" is a pretty good descriptor, if not the official name for this guy.

    This profile was completed 09/29/2025, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25^th anniversary 's celebratory event.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
This Frankenstein should be distinguished from:

• VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN - active in latter 18^th Century, created original monster, pursued by and ultimately perished while pursuing monster--Monster of Frankenstein#1
• other Frankensteins...or more who need to and will be covered at some point...
  

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z hardcover#4 (September, 2008) - Jeff Christiansen (head writer/coordinator), Madison Carter, Mike Fichera & Stuart Vandal (coordination assistants), Sean McQuaid, David Wiltfong, Stuart Vandal, Ronald Byrd, Chad Anderson, Mike Fichera, Jacob Rougemont, Madison Carter, Mark O'English, Michael Hoskin, Eric J. Moreels, Chris Biggs, Gabe Shechter, Al Sjoerdsma, Rich Green & (writers), Boris Vallejo (Frankenstein's monster artist), Brian Overton (copy editor), John Denning & Cory Levine (assistant editors), Mark D. Beazley (editor, special projects), Jeff Youngquist & Jennifer Grunwald (editor)

First posted: 09/25/2026
Last updated: 09/29/2025

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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