The Bill September 29, 2010

It's a sad day for this day marks the end of one of the greatest, most fun adventure The Punisher has ever embarked. That's right, today was the end of FrankenCastle and the world will never be the same...



Canceled Book of The Week

FrankenCastle #21
Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Dan Brereton

For a series that was all kinds of giant fun, this finale was a bit of a letdown. But I don't think it was Remender's fault. In a nutshell, it felt rushed.

After coming off of the huge bloody fight with Daken last issue, Ol' Frankencastle holds up on Monster Island to recuperate. And exactly three pages into the story, we get our last glimpse of the greatest undead cyborg vigilante ever:



That's it, no more FrankenCastle. A page and "Weeks" later, Frank is healed and sporting a pretty sweet beard while he hunts monsters. While he looks good on the outside, apparently the bloodstone that healed him (that being the special stone that feeds off of revenge and vengeance) is making him kill crazy.



So Frank's support staff would do what any group of friends would do, and recruit Elsa Bloodstone to tear it out of him. A chase and philosophic conversations later, Frank looses the stone to become the man that he always was: The boring old plain jane, "I kill mobsters because they killed my family", Punisher.

Sigh.

I don't know what I really wanted from this story, but I was honestly expecting a little more FrankenCastle in it. But I get it, Remender did what he had to do because of publisher concerns, so his story was probably sped up a bit. Or more than a bit.

It makes me sad that this book never found the audience it deserved. I admit, I was on the fence about it when it started; the idea of a zombie Punisher seemed silly and not typical for the character, but that's exactly what made it great.

Why not try something new with The Punisher? Yeah this idea brings up bad memories of spirit guns, but it's infused with so much more fun that it instantly dashes those thoughts. Besides, it's not like you can't get original recipe elsewhere in the Marvel Publishing line.

Frankencastle was one of the most fun, violent, and creative books that starred Frank Castle. In my mind, there's only so many ways I can watch Frank kill a thug before it starts to get old. But watching him throw around ManThing while taking out dragons? That's something that I will never get tired of.



Farewell FrankenCastle, you were awesome while you lasted, but like all good things you had to come to an end. You will forever be my favorite take on the character and I will make sure that everyone knows it.

Until your inevitable revival, have fun beating the crap out of Angel Punisher in limbo.