By: Rick Remender (writer), Dan Brereton (art) & Joe Caramanga (letters)
Back-up story: Remender (writer), Andrea Mutti & Luca Malisan (art)
The Story: Franken-Castle turns back into good, old-fashioned Punisher.
What’s Good: Everything comes to an end in comics and Rick Remender has caught a lot of flak from old-time Punisher fans for this Franken-Castle experiment. That is very unfair as we should applaud comic creators who attempt to do something new and different, even if it is understood that the party must end eventually and the furniture must go back into its starting positions.
The story revolves entirely around how Franken-Castle morphs back into plain, old Frank Castle – The Punisher. And to make this journey, he gets a huge co-starring role from his League of Monsters compatriots. That was a lot of fun and almost poignant because you just know that we won’t be seeing The Punisher hanging out with a bunch of monsters that much in the future. Probably the best part of the story was how Remender handles Franken-Castle losing all the metal and tubes all over him: he just ignores it. You literally turn the page and that crap is gone which was nice because no one needed to see an unnecessary scene in a surgical suite as the monsters cut away the metal.
And, then if you were wondering whether this “new” Punisher would be the dude you’ve gotten used to over the last 30 years in the Marvel U., Remember gives us a classically styled Punisher short-story that both reestablishes the character AND makes the reader feel that the character is in capable hands with Remender.
A huge assist goes to Dan Brereton’s art. His colorful, painterly style wouldn’t be at all appropriate for a “normal” Punisher story, but it is smack on the money for a farewell to Franken-Castle and all his silly, monster friends.
What’s Not So Good: The actual story of how Franken-Castle loses the Bloodstone and reverts to being the Punisher got a little tedious. It was literally, page-after-page of the monsters telling him, “You have to give up the Bloodstone. It’s making you crazy”.
There’s also the fact that this story is what it is: an ending. If you loved/liked Franken-Castle, you pretty much knew what the end product of this story was going to be. If you hated Franken-Castle, you can skip this issue and just pick up new: Punisher – In the Blood miniseries.
Conclusion: A fitting end to a fantastical journal for a Marvel character who can get a little one-note. Bravo to Remender for “going for it” and doing something new. Even if you didn’t personally love Franken-Castle, creators who aren’t afraid to try new things should be rewarded and the fans should remember that even if not all character experiments work out to their liking, without experimentation characters get stale pretty fast.
Grade: B
– Dean Stell
Grade
Conclusion