The Glass Scientists is a steam-punk comic that follows Dr. Henry Jekyll in his attempts to make mad science look reputable to the general London public. The comic is primarily a retelling of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson. It also takes influence from a number of other classic gothic literature, such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
For those unfamiliar with The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the main plot is driven by Dr. Jekyll’s friends, Mr. Utterson and Dr. Lanyon, as they try to figure out why a man who used to be a cheerful, reliable friend has become so withdrawn and closed off. At the end of the book, Utterson found out that Jekyll had found a way to separate the evil from a person, and that he was the primary test subject for his experiments. Jekyll discovered that he couldn’t remove his own “evil nature” but he could become a man without a moral compass, Mr. Hyde. Hyde functioned as Jekyll’s alter-ego, and as a way for Jekyll to indulge in secret vices without any guilt or threat to his reputation. Eventually, the experiments got out of hand and Jekyll began to transform into Hyde uncontrollably. This is revealed to the audience by Utterson reading Jekyll’s diary, after the scientist’s death.
The big twist of the book is the fact that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person is fairly common knowledge to a modern audience. All the Jekyll and Hyde adaptations I know of reveal the big twist to the other characters in the story as a big climatic event. Chapter 12 is building towards that climax.
As I mentioned in my introduction, the main plot of the comic is Jekyll’s attempts to make mad science look reputable to Londoners. His primary way of achieving this by throwing an exhibition that showcases all of the other mad scientists’ talents to the general public. The exhibition has been worked on in the background over the past several chapters and is going to be incredibly important in shaping public opinion. The tension between Jekyll and Hyde has also been growing over the past several chapters. Hyde wants more freedom and Jekyll doesn’t want to get arrested as himself or as Hyde.
Jekyll is so determined to not let his alter-ego out, that he gets rid of all the transformation potions he had previously made. Hyde, in his typical dramatic fashion throws a hissy-fit. His tantrum starts causing Jekyll physical pain. Jekyll was able to ignore his physical symptoms as he made sure everything was ready for the exhibition, for the most part. He tried his best to ignore the pain from Hyde’s tantrum as the Exhibition began. However, as began to give his introductory speech, Jekyll passed out. It could be from the pain or it could be from Hyde forcefully making an appearance. At the time I’m writing this, the page where Jekyll faints is the most recent page to have come out.The tension grows with each update. I don’t know when Hyde is going to make his appearance in this chapter. But I know that he will show up at some point due to the fact that he is not only on the chapter cover, but he is on the same stage Jekyll just passed out on.
https://www.theglassscientists.com/about