SHERLOCK

The Muppet franchise has translated surprisingly effectively into comics. “The Muppet Show,” under the watchful guidance of Roger Langridge, has become a massive hit, so you can’t blame BOOM! for wanting to expand the series further. There has been a “Muppet Snow White” and now we have the beginning of a Muppet take on Sherlock Holmes. We open with Doyle’s favorite case, “The Speckled Band.” An idea like this, in the concept stage, feels like it should be a homerun. This is what the Muppets do: they riff on known work and they do it well. They play on conceptions that we have and they warp it for childhood consumption that can be appreciated no matter how old you get. That’s the Muppets I know, but it’s not the one I get on the page of this title. The main draw for the Muppets is their humor and this issue offers plenty of jokes to look at. There are usually about 3-4 jokes per page as every character takes their turn at offering witty asides. Storck packs each page, but the problem

Even if you haven’t been reading Black Hammer — which you should be, because it’s amazing — you’ve got to admit that Sherlock Frankenstein and The Legion of Evil is a heck of a catchy title for a comic book. That’s half the fun of the world that Jeff Lemire is building slowly but surely. Every little detail is designed to make you at least go, “Huh, that’s cool” silently to yourself as you’re reading, and it only serves to help build that world even further and make it feel lived in. This is the first spinoff to Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston’s critically acclaimed rural horror superhero series Black Hammer, but instead of following the forgotten heroes cast out from their own world, it follows Lucy Weber — the daughter of the titular Black Hammer — searching for answers regarding her father’s disappearance, which has led her down the trail towards his greatest enemies and the asylum where he imprisoned them. RELATED: Meet the Characters of Sherlock Frankenstein &