Summary
Spoilers for Monster High: New Scaremaster #1 ahead!Greetings and skull-utations!Monster Highreturns to the world of comics with IDW’s new series,Monster High: New Scaremester. But while the halls of Monster High match the first generation, the story inside is much different from the movie continuity fans may be familiar with.
Monster High: New Scaremester#1 by writer Jacque Aye, artist Caroline Shuda and cover artist Arielle Jovellanos marksMonster High’s first monthly comic.
Earlier this year, IDW published thePride Month comicMonster High: Pride 2024, which saw the canonization of queer couples Clawdeen Wolf and Toralei Stripe, and Kieran Valentine and Spelldon Cauldronello. As explained in the editor’s note,Monster High: New Scaremesterfollows the bookOnce Bitten, Twice Deadby Tiffany Schmidt, which was released in July 2024, picking up where the novel left off.
Monster High: Pride 2024was released on July 20, 2025, written by Hannah Templar, with art by Siobhan Keenan, and cover artist by Betsy Cola.
Felicia Day Interview: Monster High
Fan-favorite Felicia Day joins Nickelodeon’s all-new animated series Monster High as Ghoulia Yelps, and she shares her experience being a geek zombie.
New Monster Claws Forbid Monster-Normie Interaction
In the Monster World, humans are called “normies,” as monsters have unique powers and physical traits that distinguish them from ordinary humans. One of the franchise’s earliest movies, 2012’s Monster High: Ghouls Rule, establishes that Monster High, while still in the Monster World,borders on a town called New Salem. The movie focuses on the events of Frankie Stein’s first Halloween and the chaos that ensues after Monster High is vandalized by a rookie monster hunter and her goons. In the end, the monsters win the normies over after showing them The Hall of Halloween, an exhibition that explains thatthe origins of the holiday are based in friendship and respect.
However, it seems that respect doesn’t last, asMonster High: New Scaremester #1puts back into effect the Monster Claws: ancient laws written by Monster High’s 13 original founders that separate monster-kind from normies, with a punishment of excommunication. As described by Draculaura, excommunication is“a fate worse than living.”The comic teases the differing perspectives that various students have towards the Claws, which will no doubt be a point of tension going forward,given that many Monster species have ties to the normies.
Normies Used To Walk The Halls Of Monster High
It doesn’t bode well for the Monster World to be so divided.
While Monster High’s current student body is made up entirely of monsters—with the exception of Jackson Jekyll—humans used to both attend and teach at Monster High. It is revealed in 2015’sMonster High: Freaky Fusionthat during Monster High’s construction, a human exchange program was in place. Thanks to an accident involving time travel, the ghouls learn that Frankie’s grandfather, Victor Frankenstein, was a student at that time under the teachings of Hexiciah Steam, Robecca Steam’s father.Both were normies and played large roles in the Monster World,with Victor discovering how to bring Frankie and her family to life, and Hexiciah aiding in Vampire Queen Elissabat’s escape to Hauntlywood.
While normies have largely played the roles of antagonists intheMonster Highfranchise, like Bartleby Farnum inMonster High: Skull Shores, or Lilith Van Hellscream inMonster High: Ghouls Rule,the movies have balanced the disasters caused by the normies’ fear of the unknown, with the joy and life that unity could bring. The Monster Claws being reinstated shows a backwards push for diversity—anironic twist given the human outlook on monsters. It doesn’t bode well for the Monster World to be so divided.
With nine issues still to go, anda spooktacular Halloween special on the horizon,Monster High: New Scaremesterhas shown it isn’t afraid of testing the boundaries ofMonster High’s universe. Normies may not be able to walk Monster High’s hallowed halls, but they still have allies in the school. Hopefully, in future installments ofMonster High: New Scaremester, the Monster World will remember, going forwards, thatMonster Highaccepts everyone,freaky flaws and all.
Monster High
Cast
Monster High is an animated supernatural fantasy series based on the doll franchise by Mattel. The series centers on the daughters of three legendary monsters, Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Werewolf as they experience their own version of a supernatural fantasy high school.
