Frankenstein's monster in the context of "Son of Frankenstein"

A monster is a type of imaginary or fictional creature found in literature, folklore, mythology, horror, fantasy, fiction and religion. They are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive, with a strange or grotesque appearance that causes terror and fear, often in humans. Monsters usually resemble bizarre, deformed, otherworldly and/or mutated animals or entirely unique creatures of varying sizes, but may also take a human form, such as mutants, ghosts, spirits, vampires or zombies, among other things. They may or may not have supernatural powers, but are usually capable of killing or causing some form of destruction, threatening the social or moral order of the human world in the process.

Animal monsters are outside the moral order, but sometimes have their origin in some human violation of the moral law (e.g. in the Greek myth, Minos does not sacrifice to Poseidon the white bull which the god sent him, so as punishment Poseidon makes Minos' wife, Pasiphaë, fall in love with the bull. She copulates with the beast, and gives birth to the man with a bull's head, the Minotaur). Human monsters are those who by birth were never fully human (Medusa and her Gorgon sisters) or who through some supernatural or unnatural act lost their humanity (werewolves, Frankenstein's monster), and so who can no longer, or who never could, follow the moral law of human society.

Victor Frankenstein, whose character name has sometimes evolved in popular culture to Dr. Frankenstein, is a fictional character who first appeared as the titular main protagonist of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. He is a young Italian-born Swiss scientist who, after studying chemical processes and the decay of living things at university, gains an insight into the creation of life and gives life to his own creature (often referred to as Frankenstein's monster, or often colloquially referred to as simply "Frankenstein"). Victor later regrets meddling with nature through his creation, as he inadvertently endangers his own life and the lives of his family and friends when the creature seeks revenge against him. He is first introduced in the novel when he is seeking to catch the monster near the North Pole and is saved from potential fatality by Robert Walton and his crew.

Some aspects of the character are believed to have been inspired by 17th-century alchemist Johann Konrad Dippel. Certainly, the author and people in her environment were aware of the experiment on electricity and dead tissues by Luigi Galvani and his nephew Giovanni Aldini and the work of Alessandro Volta at the University of Pavia.

The Hulk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of The Incredible Hulk (May 1962). In his comic book appearances, the character, who has dissociative identity disorder (DID), is primarily represented by the alter ego Hulk, an immense, green-skinned, hulking brute, possessing a limitless degree of physical strength, and the alter ego Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, a physically weak, socially withdrawn, and emotionally reserved physicist, both of whom typically resent each other. Lee stated that the Hulk's creation was inspired by a combination of Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Following his accidental exposure to gamma rays while saving the life of Rick Jones during the detonation of an experimental bomb, Banner is physically transformed into the Hulk when subjected to emotional stress, at or against his will. This transformation often leads to destructive rampages and conflicts that complicate Banner's civilian life. The Hulk's level of strength is usually conveyed proportionate to his anger level. Commonly portrayed as a raging savage, the Hulk has been represented with other alter egos like a gangster (Joe Fixit), a merged personality (Merged Hulk), a mindless, destructive force (War), a brilliant warrior (World-Breaker), a self-hating protector (Devil Hulk), a genius scientist in his own right (Doc Green), and several minor alter egos.

Aspects of genetics including mutation, hybridisation, cloning, genetic engineering, and eugenics have appeared in fiction since the 19th century.

Genetics is a young science, having started in 1900 with the rediscovery of Gregor Mendel's study on the inheritance of traits in pea plants. During the 20th century it developed to create new sciences and technologies including molecular biology, DNA sequencing, cloning, and genetic engineering. The ethical implications were brought into focus with the eugenics movement.

Frankenstein is a 1931 American horror film directed by James Whale and produced by Carl Laemmle Jr.. It is adapted from the 1927 play Frankenstein: An Adventure in the Macabre by Peggy Webling, which in turn was based on Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The Webling play was adapted by John L. Balderston, while the screenplay was written by Garrett Fort and Francis Edward Faragoh, with uncredited contributions from Robert Florey and John Russell.

Frankenstein stars Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein, an obsessed scientist who digs up corpses with his assistant to assemble a living being from body parts. The resulting creature, often known as Frankenstein's monster, is portrayed by Boris Karloff. The makeup for the monster was provided by Jack Pierce. Alongside Clive and Karloff, the film's cast also includes Mae Clarke, John Boles, Dwight Frye, and Edward Van Sloan.

Igor, or sometimes Ygor, is a stock character, as a sometimes hunch-backed laboratory assistant to many types of Gothic villains or as a fiendish character who assists only himself, the latter most prominently portrayed by Bela Lugosi in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942). He is familiar from many horror films and horror film parodies. He is traditionally associated with mad scientists, particularly Victor Frankenstein, although Frankenstein has neither a lab assistant nor any association with a character named Igor in the original Mary Shelley novel. The Igor of popular parlance is a composite character, based on characters created for the plays and for Universal Studios film franchise. The 1823 play gave Victor Frankenstein a sidekick named Fritz. In the first Universal Frankenstein film (1931), Fritz served the same role; in the sequels, a different physically deformed character, Ygor, is featured, though Ygor is not an assistant in those films. Many Igor-type characters are also portrayed with a voice similar to that of actor Peter Lorre.

The Universal Monsters (also known as Universal Classic Monsters and Universal Studios Monsters) is a media franchise comprising various horror film series distributed by Universal Pictures. It consists of different horror creature characters originating from various novels, such as Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde, the Phantom of the Opera, Count Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, the Mummy, and the Invisible Man, as well as original characters the Wolf Man and the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

The original series began with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1913) and ended with The Creature Walks Among Us (1956). While the early installments were initially created as stand-alone films based on published novels, their financial and critical success resulted in various cross-over releases between the monsters, as well as other properties such as Abbott and Costello. Following the positive response to various viewings of these films via television redistribution which began airing in the 1950s, the studio began developing the characters for other media. In the 1990s, it became priority for Universal to promote their catalogue with official packaging that presented films with the official franchise title. Through a number of VHS editions, their popularity continued into contemporary entertainment. This included additional development through modern-filmmaking adaptations, beginning with Dracula (1979) and most recently Wolf Man (2025).