Review by Ian Keogh

Elizabeth Cleve is an extremely promising surgeon, doing her hospital training under the overbearing James Frankenstein, who praises her while being scornful about most students. She responds to his methods, not put off by an abrasive personality, nor taking on board warnings about him from other staff members. It turns out his unconventional medical experiments are financed by powerful interests and rather than being repelled at what she’s shown, Elizabeth agrees to become his assistant.

The Modern Frankenstein begins as an ethics-based horror drama with the conflicts established from the start, but Paul Cornell then surprises with an injection of passion. Elizabeth initially has an intellectual attraction to James, which becomes physical, and that binds them in what to outsiders is a frightening pact. It’s all the more frightening for Emma Vieceli’s illustrations being clean and precise, almost a hospital level of antiseptic in underplaying the horror of what’s happening. The understated art cleverly suggests a form of social acceptability to what’s being shown, forcing readers to contemplate the repellent as normal.

Neither of the lead characters is under any illusion that their unethical work will eventually be revealed, and while Cornell leaves it for the reader to decide if romantic love or love of science is the stronger motivation, continue they do. It’s at this point it seems The Modern Frankenstein is about to follow a predictable path to a predictable ending, but Cornell’s better than that, and after a sparkling scene with Elizabeth’s mother matters take an even more sinister turn.

It’s often the case when hearing the deeds of a psychopath we wonder about how they’re able to distance themselves from the conscience that would prevent most us from following the same path. Cornell considers it in his creation of people operating without restraint. Will Elizabeth wake up and smell the coffee before it’s too late, or is she equally complicit? Cornell can’t quite maintain the same raised level until the end, which provides the neat finish of a TV drama angling for a possible second series, but the mojo is present in 95% of The Modern Frankenstein.