PUNISHER: FRANKEN-CASTLE hard back collected edition
Collects: Dark Reign: The List – Punisher
Punisher #11-#16
Franken-Castle #17-21
Dark Wolverine #88-#89
Writers: Rick Remender
Daniel Way
Marjourie Liu
Art: John Romita Jr, Jefte Palo,
Tony Moore, Stephen Segovia,
Mike Hawthorne, Paco Diaz,
Dan Brereton, John Lucas,
Roland Boschi, Andrea Mutti,
Luca Malisan
This massive book brings together every part of the Franken-Castle storyline, from the untimely carving up Frank receives from Daken in The List to him seeking out Daken for some retribution or "punishment" in the pages of Dark Wolverine and finaly his return to normality in Franken-Castle #21. I’m well aware that a lot of Punisher fans avoided this arc on the grounds that it sounded stupid so I’ve written a larger than normal review explaining why you should all give it a try. I DOUBLE DARE YOU!!!
Now I've heard that this story arc has upset a lot of Punisher fans and I can totally understand why it would. To be fair it's a really odd direction for Rick Remender to take The Punisher in after his outstanding run of Punisher comics during Marvels Dark Reign which I enjoyed every bit as much as Garth Ennis' acclaimed Marvel Knights run. They did print a few messages on the letters page from fans moaning that the Punisher had been ruined by the changes and I have to admit that when I first learned that Frank Castle was to be turned into a Frankenstein's monster style abomination, when I was already reeling from seeing my absolute favourite comic character get carved up by a B-list villain like Daken in The List, I was fully prepared to be upset by this story as well. But I'm a Punisher completionist and for better or worse I collect and read every comic with his name in the title. So read them I did! And do you know what? I'm really glad I did.
Where to begin? I don't like the Punisher just because he kills criminals and has all his stories rooted in realism. I like him because of his uncompromising commitment to punish and kill evil people without being held back by all the moral red tape that prevents a lot of the other Marvel characters from killing serial murderers, rapists, kidnappers or whatever no matter how much they deserve it and that part of his character is still very much alive in this storyline. Of course I like that he's usually just an ordinary soldier with only his wit's, training, experience and equipment to rely on ( I loved seeing him go up against the Hood and his followers in Remender's previous 10 issues. Frank just sees super powered villains as targets that need to be shot with a bigger gun!) but since The Punisher has been around for 35 years now this is not necessarily the way things have to stay all the time. In any case there's still the Punisher Max for gritty realism and Frank was never gonna stay like this forever anyway.
Any story concept, no matter how strange it may seem, can be fun to read if it's well written, just as a great idea can be ruined by crappy writing. For example: in the 3rd series of the Punisher back in 1995 The Punisher became the head of a mob family which ,while sounding like an interesting idea, it really, really wasn't. Then during the Purgatory mini-series, Frank returns from the dead as some sort of angelic super soldier with infinite pocket space for holding weapons in a big magic trench coat. Sounded ridiculous but it wasn't bad at all. However when they used the same story arc for a Wolverine/Punisher team up called revelations it was one of the biggest wastes of paper Marvel ever published.
This isn't the first time The Punisher has been killed and brought back to life either and despite what a lot of other Punisher fans say I think it's necessary to keep him as a believable character in the Marvel Universe. I don't mean that having him as a half man half machine monster makes him more believable because that would be a ridiculous thing to say. I'm saying this: anyone who fought during the Vietnam war like Frank Castle did would have to be well into his 60's by now and while the grizzled old veteran with aching joints and a bad attitude thing works very well in the MAX series, when he's usually murdering simple street thugs using his cunning and military experience, it's very difficult to accept that a 65 year old man who's been shot, stabbed, blown up and set on fire more times than any other comic character without any special powers I can think of (except perhaps Judge Dredd) would be able to take part in the high paced and often acrobatic battles he has with the bizarre range of villains that populate the Marvel 616 Universe. So the way I rationalise it is that every time he dies and is mystically resurrected, he comes back revitalised, younger and at the peak of his athletic, crime fighting condition.
Now I don't want to give to much of what happens away (I hate reviews that do that) in case any of you decide to buy the comics but here goes. Frank Castle is resurrected by Morbius the living vampire who has stitched and bolted his remains back together along with a good measure of mechanical parts after the rooftop mullering he received from Daken, son of Wolverine. Morbius, along with his comrades,Manphibian and Jack Russel the werewolf (fantastic names) are part of the Legion Of Monsters who are attempting to defend the Earths largely peaceful monster population from a group of fanatical Japanese monster hunters led by a 150 year old lunatic called Robert Hellsgaard. Frank, having gone from being what many would call a metaphorical monster ,with a body count in the thousands after decades of punishing the wicked, to becoming an actual physical monster decides to make the Legion Of Monsters' war his own as repayment for bringing him back from the dead. What ensues is one of the most violent stories the Punisher has ever been in and not only violent but gory! As well as a lot of the characters and plot devices being straight out of a horror movie so are the fight scenes. For the most part the incredibly detailed artwork is done by Tony Moore (Walking Dead vol 1). There seems to be so much going on in each panel that I can't remember the last comic I read where I spent so much time examining every inch of the background and scenery. The fights are downright chaotic with limbs and heads flying in every direction which meant I spent even more time looking at these panels to try and keep track of how many villains The Punisher had dispatched. All the action is accompanied by The Punishers crisp, dry, trademark inner monologue that Remender does so brilliantly so that no matter how outlandish or surreal the situation gets you never forget who it is in the thick of it and who’s comic it is.
Tony Moore is also incredibly good at illustrating the emotion on the faces of the characters both human and the myriad of creatures that populate a lot of the pages. When you see a fish man learn of the death of his children you really can see the pain in his expression despite his inhuman appearance. I really did feel sorry for a lot of the monsters who were butchered by the extremists because of the obvious terror etched across their faces.
The second half of the book sees Frank setting about taking some revenge on the most recent people to have stumbled onto his shit list. Mainly Daken! I don't think I can put in to words just how crap I think Daken is and how much bullshit it was that he could ever kill Frank, even on his worst day. The Punisher has gone up against Wolverine himself on more than a few occasions and not only survived but once left Wolverine minus his face and testicles underneath a steam roller (The second Marvel Knights Punisher run Garth Ennis wrote) and once he just flat out killed him! (Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe) But none the less here we have him getting chopped in to about 15 different pieces by a "son of" character. Dakens character worked well in the brilliant Dark Avengers series as part of a team but as a stand alone character he's just pointless. Ooh, he's like wolverine but younger and more mean and he's got a big tattoo! We've already had Son Of Hulk so what's next? Son of Thor? Son of Iron Man? TRY HARDER MARVEL! Or don't try at all. There's already about a million characters in the Marvel Universe (at least 30% of them crap) and none of the writers seem to have the balls to kill any of them off permanently so why keep introducing new characters anyway? Frank said it best himself "Reputation coattail rider, dressed up like someone else... I built my reputation. Ground up. You? Snuck into the show on another man’s back. You're just a poser."
During this story you're gonna see Frank in situations you probably never dreamed you'd see him in. Nazi zombies? Anyone who tells you they saw that one coming is a massive liar. But that doesn't mean it isn't a total blast to read.
The main thing you can expect from this story is big over the top silly, fun, fighting action with the Punisher being able to take and deal out loads more punishment than usual due to his monstrous form. And to be fair he does give Daken the kicking of his life. He even gives Wolverine, himself what's coming to him when he tries to get involved so I was satisfied with the story. Lots of different artists keeps the visuals constantly changing and interesting. Ranging from the amazing detailed pencil work of Tony Moore to the lush painted sections by Dan Brereton.
If you're a serious Punisher fan then you'll enjoy it and if you don’t read Punisher, but you like horror, sci-fi or action then you’d probably enjoy this too. If it was a film it probably wouldn’t win any Oscars but It's a really good fun read and a big one at 13 comics. There's an almost record breaking amount of different artists work in it too. I got my hardback copy for a bargain seventeen sheets from amazon.co.uk and it was worth every penny. Plus as much as I've enjoyed the change of direction for the Punisher it's ace to see him returning to normality at the end with a brief bit of grass roots criminal killing.
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