It appears that during Dark Reign Frank Castle is so physically fucked-up by Norman Osborn and so psychically fucked-up by The Hood, that to continue his war on crime, he has no choice but to become a half-cyborg, half-reanimated corpse, hence "Frankencastle".
(The solicited cover of "Punisher" #12)This is (I'm going to admit it first) clever. The character of The Punisher has grown pretty stale as all he ever was, and still is, is a crazy guy with guns. He was a franchise all his own only because the late 8os and early 9os happened to have a film and comic-book fad for that stuff, which has thankfully passed. The only place he's remained interesting (indeed, occasionally excellent) is in his Marvel MAX title usually written by Garth Ennis. Furthermore, Marvel has a large roster of great monster/horror characters from the 70s that have been almost entirely overlooked for years and will now apparently be integrated into "Punisher", albeit temporarily.
So Marvel says: "TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE!!"
And Gorga says: "Why THIS way?"
Why not bring a new writer on to "Punisher" and create a new title written by Remender to spotlight the old Marvel Monsters? Instead of this awkward shoe-horn method of reintroducing them in a series they REALLY don't belong. Better yet, have them appear as guests in the new "Doctor Voodoo" title already being written by Remender (or anywhere else magic and horror could fit better than in a crime comic) and gauge audience reaction that way.
Corporations mystify me.
I dunno, Jon- this could be pretty cool. I'll probably pick up the first issue of the Frankencastle arc and see what happens.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised that I can detect no irony in your comment, Josh...
ReplyDeleteWell, you will have to review it here so we can all see how you like it!
Nope, not an ounce- look, the premises that ultimately work the best are the ones that makes us say "Huh, that might just be crazy enough to work!" like you say, the Punisher is stale- so why not try something wildly different? This is the kind of think Marvel should be doing all of the time, rather than publishing a hundred bazillion comics feature Wolverine and Deadpool.
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