Frank Castle + Frankenstein = Frankencastle.
Math the Marvel way!
I'm not sure if I can recall the last time a story line in a comic has had my brain so twisted up and unsure what to think.
It's perplexing.
It's preposterous.
It's a slap in the face.
It's...so ridiculous and over the top that it's kind of enjoyable.
(There will be spoilers and plot points talked about from here out)
As you may or may not know, last fall during Marvel's over-long Dark Reign storyline Frank Castle a.k.a The Punisher, was brutally killed by Daken, Wolverine's Son a.k.a Dark Wolverine.
I'm not talking about stabbed in the chest or some other mortal wound that Frank is usually able to rub some dirt on and be fine an issue later. The Punisher had his head chopped off and his body cut up into little idy bidy pieces.
Good thing that Man-Thing and some Moloids show up to collect the pieces and take them down to their secret lair in the old Morlock tunnels where Morbius, yes that Morbius, and the Legion of Monsters reconstruct Frank to defend them against a group of crazy Samurai from Japan who have swore to abolish all monsters because they got tired of Godzilla stepping on their stuff all the time.
Yeah, re-read that sentence because that just happened.
The first few issue of the arc I was in absolute shock. I didn't like it one bit.
What the hell was this? This isn't my Punisher, this isn't what I come to expect when I read a Punisher comic. It has taken me a long time to start coming around to thinking that maybe this is a good thing. In fact it was one particular panel that turned it all around for me - Frank on the back of a dragon with a heavy caliber machine gun leading an assault on a castle full of samurai.
Rick Remender is the brains behind this drastic change of pace. He's been writing Frank's mainstream Marvel adventures for the past few years and done an admirable job in my estimation. He is also the creator/writer of "Fear Agent" which happens to be one of the best sci-fi adventure comics you can find on the shelf. So he is a man whose work I have an appreciation for but I'll be damned if I didn't think he'd lost his mind.
With his frequent collaborator, the super talented Tony Moore on pencils, these two men didn't just turn the Punisher on his head, they literally chopped it off. And I was pretty sure I hated it.
Now I've been known to hang on to certain comics for too long before finally jumping ship and cutting the book off my pull board, hoping against hope that sunny days will come again.I was not expecting for this storyline and direction to grow on me.
Now please keep in mind we all know that Marvel isn't going to keep Frank this way forever. I was just pretty damn sure that I didn't want to bear witness to this insane journey he would be a part of. Part of what I think has allowed me to enjoy this story to the extent I have is that I know I can grab a copy of the the current and excellent PunisherMax series by Jason Aaron and Steve Dillon and get the type of Punisher story I am accustomed to.
This wasn't always the case when in the past certain titles would go off the rails. Spider-Man is a book that comes to mind. The last time I flipped my lid with that book was the whole Gwen Stacy/Norman Osborn affair.
One reason why I feel that this story is worth a look is due to my ever growing complaint that too many comics are happy playing it safe and never allowing the characters to grow.
It's no secret that this is the age of decompressed storytelling in comics. Whether or not you think this a good or bad thing is to individual tastes. But for the most part there can be no real everlasting change made to a character. No matter how long you read comics - Peter Parker will be Spider-Man. Sure events may unfold that take him out of the costume from time to time, but he will never die and stay dead. So we have to accept that Frank Castle as we know him will be back eventually. It's another sad aspect of Marvel and DC characters is that these fantastic characters that we have grown up with are really nothing more then potential paydays.
But that is a topic for another time.
Franken-Castle is a story that allows Frank to see his black and white world with a nice shade of gray. Its become a pretty interesting method for Frank to reflect on himself in ways we've not seen in the 30 some years since the character debuted. But I know it's not for everyone. For every person who likes it, I find one who doesn't.
So why recommend it?
Because I do feel it is a story that deserves to be read. If you can get past what's on the surface you might find a Punisher story that is to your liking....just in a way you probably weren't expecting.
Oh and did I mention that Frank rides on the back of a dragon while firing a mounted machine gun?
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