Franken-Castle #21 – Review

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.

Deadpool Team-Up #894

By Ivan Brandon (writer), Sanford Greene (art), Nathan Massengill, John Rauch (colors) and Jeff Eckleberry (letters)

The Story: Our favorite Mouthy Merc is hired to kill famous vigilante Frank Castle— the Punisher— in order to avenge the death of an innocent man killed in Punisher’s crossfire. Deadpool gets far, far more than he bargained for when he follows Punisher’s trail down into the sewer and discovers that his prey is already dead, but still moving about. And worse yet, it has friends…

What’s Good: What can we say about our poor, overused Deadpool? He can be written, drawn and utilized in any number of ways, and that leaves him wide open for abuse and mischaracterization. Fortunately, things don’t go so badly for him here. Although none of his lines or antics are particularly good, they aren’t awful by any stretch, and will almost certainly give you a chuckle or two. Sadly, when it comes to these Deadpool spinoffs, that seems to be about the best one can hope for.

The story itself is actually one of the most creative ones that this series has seen so far. The problems Deadpool has to solve are interesting, and the trouble he gets himself into is (at least mildly) unexpected. Greene does a great job bringing this madcap story to life, and his take on Frankencastle’s monster posse are the highlight of the book. It’s a lot of fun just to look at the different designs and poses he has for them. His more human-centric art doesn’t fare quite as well— Deadpool’s proportions, especially his head, seem rather off and inconsistent, and the panels are often over-cluttered. Still, it gets the job done and tells the story effectively enough.