Frankenstien’s Kryptonite

With every stitch, every time the needle pokes into one piece of rotting flesh and out the other, I grow ever closer to God himself. The hours spent combining each nerve, setting into place every bone, ever strand of muscle fiber, making sure the connection between sutures was as perfect as possible allowed for me to take time to truly understand this creature I was creating. The monster, the person that was placed in front of me. Knowing that just a few more pokes of the needle was all that was needed to finally finish creating the body. As the last stitch went in, I backed away, looking upon the gradient of skin that was before me. Ten fingers, ten toes, one man. It was unlike anything I had ever seen, unlike anything anyone else had done. This was my creation – my prize for all of the work I did. After marveling at the soon to be mobile immobility in front of me I reach into my pocket. A warmth washes over my fingertips as each of my fingers grasp the shard of rock. One finger at a time my hand begins warming against the cool winter air. I take the stone from my pocket and raise it in front of me. Ever since I found it’s glowing green light after it fell from the sky I knew what it was able to accomplish. And this is it. I extend my arm and place the rock upon my child’s chest. The rock’s glow becomes more and more intense as it slowly descends into my boy, making a high pitched, shimmering sound. His body begins to glow, as if he was the rock itself. My home made lab began to shake. The wood of the table he was laid upon began to splinter. 

Just then, I heard a rumble – a growl emanating from the child. His mouth opens and lets out a scream louder than any noise I have heard in my long lifetime. His eyes begin to open. One eye – each from a different man. I stand back as they begin to jolt around, two different shades of blue trying to observe his surroundings. Suddenly, the wounds between his stitches began to heal – regaining their beauty as one body. I had never seen anything like it. He was beautiful. He was mine. Until the beams began when the read lights shot from his eyes the scream came back, twice as loud as before. The roof of my family’s home was gone, exposed to the blizzard outside. The snow evaporated as it hit the two perfectly parallel beams emanating from both of his eyes. As much as I wanted to love him – it was at that moment I knew I created something irredeemable. I backed away from the creature in terror and ran out the door. My shoeless feet trudged through the thick slush of the snow which had grown to my knees. I ran to the edge of the hill that my home is – was – set upon only to see a figure burst out of the cobblestone wall at a speed faster than that of a bullet. The boom sent me flying, off the hill, towards the frozen ocean below. 

As I fall, I think of the years I spent researching, gatherthing, training others, proving and disproving my theories of the green rock. Something that I had the gull to name after myself Victor Krypton Frankenstien. The man who would go down in infamy for the being I unleashed upon the world through the power of Kryptonite. 

As I brace for the inevitable crush of the ice. I try to make my own amends, yet they never come. Until I feel two harms catch me – bracing my fall – holding me tight. My eyes reluctantly open. I look up to see my son, scarless, levitating through the sky, unassisted, saving me from the cliff. He set me down in the cold, wet snow and look at me. My son, my child, gives me a smile. It was that point that I would have my final realization about the thing that I made. This is him, this is who he’s meant to be – the one and only creation of mine. The last son of Krypton.

Reflection

I love making the connection between the high adaptability of superman stories and Frankenstein. They’re both such monumental commentaries on Nature Vs. Nurture that it is nearly impossible to not make the connection if you begin looking for one. Superman’s biggest strength is his humanity, and his constant want to do good and do what’s right. Whereas Victor’s want is all for himself, to show off what he is able to do and get as much recognition doing so as he can. When writing this story I wanted to show Victor’s inherent want to show off what he can do, while mixing that with his final realization as to what the creature he created can do, knowing that it can serve a greater purpose than just showing that he can create life, instead, Victor realizes he is able to use the creature’s fantastical powers for himself. I also tried to make a commentary about how Victor refers to the creature, going from “My Son” to “The Monster” and back when he sees the selfish possibilities. Also when all of the scar and stitchings heal, making him look more “Normal” in Victor’s eyes could be another reason as to why he was less scared of the Creature. It shows that Victor had no want to care for the creature even before he began creating it, it was truly just to show that he could. Because he only wanted to care for him after he found out what the creature was able to do for him.