The Punisher: Franken-Castle (Dark Reign: The List, The Punisher #11-16, Franken-Castle #17-21, Dark Wolverine #88-89) PART TWO

"Quit squirming, you crazy sonofabitch.  We already had this dance!! We know how it ends." - Daken

Time to wrap up the Franken-Castle storyline. In the first part of this tale Frank Castle aka The Punisher was trying to kill Norman Osborn who set Wolverine's son Daken to kill him.  Which he did.  He sliced Fank into pieces but those peices were reassembled and given life again by some desperate monsters who were being hunted by a man called Hellsgaard and a small army of Japanese monster hunters.  After overcoming his initial reluctance, Frank took out most of the army and with the help of Manphibian banished Hellsgaard to the limbo dimension he had planned to use to dispose of the bodies of the monsters he killed inside.  However Frank was very badly injured in the battle and this half of the storyline picks up after he has spent some time recovering.  His next job now the monsters are safe is to extract his revenge against Daken.  But Daken is an accomplished fighter with claws and a healing factor just like his father. So defeating him will be no easy task, and how will Frank regain his normal human appearance?  Read on to find out.  Franken-Castle is written by Rick Remender with a variety of artists, Dark Wolverine is written by Daniel Way and Majorie Liu with art by Stephen Segovia and Paco Diaz.

This first chapter is drawn by Roland Boschi. We begin with Frank laid out in Morbius's operating table with Morbius saying there is nothing more he can do.  The Muummy says they have other options, and they owe it to Frank because he refused to abandon him, because "he wouldn't let Hellgaard's massacre go unanswered".  So reluctantly fetches the Bloodstone and places it inside Frank's chest saying it will regenerate him over time and it will also keep the stone safe.  Morbius says it's power could make him very dangerous if he doesn't take his synaptic bonding pills and goes on a rampage. The Mummy says they owe him a chance at life, Morbius agrees but says if he is wrong:

Morbius: "We will be responsible for creating the worst monster this world has ever known".

Then we jump to one month later.  Frank is still out cold.  Henry has been taking care of him all this time.  He wakes up grumbling about the music Henry is listening to.

Such gratitude!

Henry tells him he shouldn't be moving around just yet. Frank asks Henry if he has found them any work.  This irritates Henry who starts ranting about all the crap he's been put through over the past couple of months.  After he watched Frank die, then he showed up while Henry was sleeping and frightened the life out of him, then he was dragged into the battle with Hellsgaard and this ended up with him living in a sewer nursing Frank back to health.

"You find us some work?" repeats Frank. Henry says he has not because he's been cleaning his bedpans, watching his sutures, feeding him applesauce and juice and trying to set up a base in the Morlock hole they're living in.  He's been tending to him like he his mother and he doesn't know why.  So now the sarcastic crap has to end.  Frank pauses, then apologises and calls Henry a "good kid".   Now he will he find him some work?

He walks out into the Monster Metropolis and Manphibian walks with him, telling him after the assault on Hellsgarrd's castle there were "complications" and he shows Frank the prisoners they took. They don't know what to do with them and thought Frank might have some ideas.  Frank puts a gun in Manphibian's hands and walks off.  But Manphibian tells the panicking prisoners he isn't going to shoot them.

Frank is out and about driving his motorbike.  Henry tells him over the radio he's putting some missions together for him. Frank arrives at the graveyard his family are buried in.  He kneels by his wife's grave and touches the cold stone. Then suddenly two ninjas attack him.  Frank tells them they crossed a line and grabs one by the leg and smacks the other one with him.

A touching moment.

He shoots one and holds the broken body of the other upside-down and asks who he reports to.  He is about to spill the beans when a woman in a black catsuit and mask shoots him in the head with a sniper rifle and then speeds off. Frank jumps on his bike and goes back to base telling Henry to track her and also to set up a satellite to evaporate anyone who touches their graves.

Back at base, Henry says it all traces back to a "Lady Gorgon" who was one of the people who tried to kill Frank when Henry's dad "Jigsaw" put a bounty on him a few months ago.  Because she failed she was cast out of "The Hand" a ninja clan who get up to all sorts of shenanigans in the Marvel Universe.  He's found her, and she is in Tokyo. Frank tells him to gather all the intel for everyone on his list, he's off to Tokyo.

The next chapter is drawn by Jefte Paolo.  Lady Gorgon is contemplating how to get her and her team back into The Hand's good graces.  She has a sword called the "Izanami-no-Mikoto". It has a gem on it that glows when it predicts it will draw blood.  She believes delivering the sword to Yoshiokya will restore them to their rightful positions in The Hand.  A message is delivered to her, information on a man she killed to get Frank's attention during their previous encounter.  This means he's here and out for revenge.

Lady Gorgon in just her undies?

The room goes dark and Frank guns everyone down bar Lady Gorgon who lights the room with the blade. She runs to the helicopter and finds Frank waiting.  He gives her a short history of the man she killed, a man who ended up a vagrant.  She says killing him did him a favour.  Frank says "I'm here to return it."

She tries to dominate his mind, but the jumble it's in now means she can't.  So she psychically links him with the ninjas that jump down to kill him "you will suffer each death".  Frank doesn't care and hacks them all up.  He grabs Lady Gorgon by the throat and says he won't give her an honourable death in battle.  Then he tosses her off the roof.  She survives the fall though and Frank jumps down after her.  

She tries to psyche him out by linking him with the terrified driver of the car she is on.  He crashes his bike in it and pulls the driver free before the car blows.  Henry is still tracking her, she's gone to the heart of The Hand's district.  She barges into Master Yoshiokya room where he is meditating and offers him the sword.  He tells her to kill the man who hunts her, only then will she be able to rejoin.

Lady Gorgon, neutralised.

Frank runs a gauntlet of gunfire through The Hand building until he reaches Lady Gorgon and Yoshikya.  Before Lady Gorgon can do anything though, Yoshiokya runs her through. Frank walks off telling Henry to cross Lady Gorgon off the list and open Daken's file.

We then crossover with Dark Wolverine, art by Stephen Segovia and Paco Diaz.  Daken is in a sushi bar being fussed over by some girls while he looks bored. He gets up and goes to the toilets and stabs a man inside there.  He tells the other man standing there terrified that he is to call his primary client - The Silver Samurai - they need to meet tonight at his office about matters that can't be discussed over the phone.  He leaves the man vomiting in fear.

He leaves the restaurant and detects Frank following him and attacks him from behind.  "You look different.  Have you had some work done?" he sneers at Frank who answers him with a laser to the head that Daken just manages to dodge.   He says to Frank that he gets the pleasure of chopping him to bits all over again.  Frank says if he is trying to piss him off, it won't work - "Little boy, I'm always pissed off."

Let battle commence!

As they trade blows Daken notices that Frank's chest is glowing. He asks what it is.  "Wouldn't you like to know." responds Frank. Then rather graphically Frank snaps Daken's arms and smashes him through the roof of the building they are fighting on.  Daken says Frank used to be more gentle, Frank says he's not that nice anymore:

Frank: "But I'll do you a favour.  The same favour you did for me.  I'll take it slow.  And save all the important parts for last."
He pulls out a knife while Henry tries to warn him over the radio about his vitals. Then  Frank notices one of the people in the same room as him and Daken holding her son saying "please don't hurt us."

Frank punches a hole in the wall and goes through into an underground tunnel, Daken follows so they are away from innocent civilians now. Frank takes a pill while Henry scolds him over the radio.  "Stop whining" says Frank.  "I hate you" responds Henry.  "No.  You don't" replies Frank looking a little pensive.  

Frank: "You don't know what it's like to hate.  To have your entire life become nothing more than an expression of hate.  Nothing else matters.  Nothing else can compare, or taste as sweet".

And we see Daken having regenerated his broken arms clench his fists and snarl.  Then we're back in the Franken-Castle series with art by Tony Moore again. Daken has changed into his brown Wolverine costume and is tracking Frank through the sewers.

Daken: "Stale.  Blood of an old man too dumb to know he's already dead... because I'm coming Frank.  I'm coming to kill you all over again!"

He shouts down the sewer that did anything The Punisher ever do change anything?  He also knows what's in Franks chest and he wants it.   Jumps down and lands on some disturbed ground and it collapses into a hole full of bladed spikes. Frank comes and stands over him.  He bellows at Frank that he'll kill him again. Frank says he didn't kill him, he was just the "gun I used to shoot myself"  But he is feeling better now.

Inconvenient brain spasm.

And he drops a grenade into the pit and walks away from the explosion.   He readies a rifle to shoot Daken's head off as he climbs out, but then collapses.  Henry says his heart rate is going wild. He runs off holding his head saying "attacks. Brain... C-closer.. Upredic-table". Henry reassures him the Bloodstone is eventually going to heal him but maybe he should put off this revenge tip until it does.

Frank takes a pill and pulls himself together. He picks up his gun and says he is going to kill Daken, so Henry can help or shut up.  Henry says he'll help but there has been a complication.  Before he can tell Frank what it is, Daken attacks and cuts off Franks ear.  He knocks Frank down and rips open his chest to reveal the Bloodstone. He stabs Frank in the throat but Frank is unphased and grabs Daken by the neck hurling him through a wall, across a station platform and onto the train tracks.

But as Frank comes after him, Daken slices off his power supply and knocks Frank onto the tracks.  He tries to get the Bloodstone again, but Frank grabs him and a track and electricity surges through him electrocuting Daken.  Then a train appears, Frank jumps out of the way but it hits Daken and runs him over.  He is still mobile and staggers off to heal up.

He runs into a building site and thinks rambling thoughts about the Bloodstone and how Frank is "a gift-bearing angel resurrected and sent down to me.  Straight from Black Heaven".  Then Frank swings towards him on a crane hook.  Frank knocks him onto some metal poles running him through as he remembers their battle when Daken killed him.  Daken snaps the poles and charges at Frank who riddles him with bullets then slices him up with a circular saw.

So satisfying.

Finally Daken stops moving.  Frank grabs him by the hair and takes him to a pit where he has readied some concrete to be poured.  He is about to throw Daken in the pit saying he'll probably suffocate in there when suddenly two sets of claws are stabbed through his chest and he collapses.  He turns and sees Wolverine standing there. 

Wolverine: "Kid's a knucklehead.  But I can't have you killin' my boy Castle".

Back in the Dark Wolverine series, same artist as before. Wolverine tells Frank to get lost before things turn ugly, "too late for that" says Frank and they start fighting.   Wolverine slices off two of Frank's fingers.  Henry tries to warn him things are going bad but Frank can't hear.

Oh great. Wolverine.

Wolverine tells Frank that Daken isn't worth it.  Frank refuses to back down.  Wolverine slashes and stabs him saying he knows he's not himself right now and warns him Daken is after the stone.  Frank smashes Wolverine into a wall stunning him and asks Henry to find Daken. The Japanese police are on their way, Henry is doing his best to sabotage their comms but Frank needs to get out of there now.

Frank picks up Wolverine and is about to dump him in the concrete pit when Wolverine comes too and slices off Franks fingertips saying he won't let him near Daken.  Then he collapses and Frank tells him "he isn't worth your protection".  Henry finally gets through to Frank that he needs to leave and Frank starts to walk away from the unconcious Wolverine.  He drops down into the sewers and climbs up some way away.

And he is hit by a truck driven by Daken.  Almost out cold, Frank can't do anything to stop Daken cutting the Bloodstone out of his chest.  "So sorry Frank" says Daken, "you lose again".

Daken about to take the stone.

We return to the Franken-Castle series, this issue with art by Tony Moore, Paco Diaz and John Lucas. Frank is almost unconcious but recognises the sound of Daken laughing and rage consumes him.  "I need to kill him.  Turn that laughter to choking.  Gargling.  Begging" he thinks, but the "world goes drunk and the kid has my ace card".

The Japanese police have them surrounded.  They tell Daken to raise his hands and drop to his knees.  Daken says he will in a moment and punches Frank in the face.   Then he starts laying into the police, not noticing that Frank has managed to get in the truck.  Frank then hits him with it and crushes Daken into another vehicle.  The police surround Frank, but he doesn't speak Japanese and they don't understand his warnings about Daken...

...Who starts tossing cops about like they were nothing. He yanks one out of a car and runs his claws through his head, saying he sees them thinking about their terrible life choices, not too different from what he sees in Frank's face:

Daken: "Dusty old turd from an entitled generation doesn't know when to shuffle off to the old folks home."

And he tosses Frank into a neon sign which collapses on top of Frank. Daken drags him out continually trash talking Frank about his age, "a sad ego pleading for relevancy" which was what lead Frank to target Osborn a man "fantastically out of your league".   He leans over Frank saying he couldn't even protect his family when the cops open fire on him.  He runs into cover and where the bullet wounds were suddenly there are tumourous skin growths.  Confused he tries slicing one off making him yelp in pain.

Frank really likes to vent.

Frank crawls towards a live electrical cable hoping a jolt will get him on his feet, but exhausted he can't make it. Then Wolverine appears and jams the cables in him which gets Frank back on his feet.  Wolverine says it's Frank's fault Daken has the Bloodstone and now he's going to help getting it back off him. Frank rages at him:

Frank: "Your boy's a ruthless, blood-soaked monster!  How far's he gotta go before you do somethin'?  The cur's gotta be put down - and you know it."

Wolverine just reponds with silence. Daken hijacks a helicopter but Frank and Wolverine jump on it  and in the struggle the helicopter crashes into the roof of a building.

Daken climbs out of the wreckage to come face-to-face with Frank's big gun.  Frank says all his big talk was funny coming from Daken.

Frank: "Reputation coattail rider, dressed up like someone else, lecturing me about overcompensation.  I built my own reputation.  Ground up. You?  Snuck into the show on another man's back.  You're just a poser".

Daken is covered in more fleshy growths.  As he lunges at Frank in a rage, Frank punches a grenade inside him and it blows.  Daken then explodes into a mass of lumpy flesh  which ends up covering the whole rooftop

Wolverine asks what Frank did. Frank says the Bloodstone is a healing relic, he figured when he saw the first tumours it might react this way to Daken's healing factor.  "Your idiot kid gave himself super lupus".  Wolverine tells Daken what a disappointment he is as he cuts the Bloodstone out of the mass of flesh.  Daken says "likewise".  Wolverine then puts the Bloodstone back into Frank's chest.

Wish I had a Bloodstone in my chest.

Frank recovers enough to stand and says he won't stop coming for Daken until he's dead and if Wolverine wants to keep him safe he'll lock him away somewhere. "I plan to" says Wolverine. But he turns and finds Daken has cut himself free.  Frank has gone too leaving Wolverine alone, "right" he says and leaves as well.

Final chapter now, art by Dan Brereton, Andrea Mutti and Luca Malisan. Frank has decided to go and heal on an uninhabited island. Actually it's Monster Island but it was the closest Henry could find. Henry tells him they can't have him around people until he gets a hold of himself.

Henry: "Dig in - recover,  The Bloodstone will do its work if you let it.  Once you're mended you hit me back... we'll come get you".
The line goes dead and Henry says Frank won't be happy about this.  Morbius says it was their only option after the mess in Tokyo. Henry wonders if he'll be safe there, Morbius says it's not his safety he's worried about.

We then jump to some weeks later.  Frank is fully healed and human again.  His mind though is in bad shape.  He can think of nothing but vegeneance, on everyone. Especially those who left him here.  The Bloodstone is feeding his revenge fueled nature and he is mentally talking to his dead wife Maria all the time.

Frank:  "I am Frank Castle.  I am The Punisher.  I am going to fix the world".

At the Hall of Monsters the assembled squabble over whose fault it was that Frank's gone as mad as he has.  Then Elsa Bloodstone, the English monster hunter, daughter of Ulysses Bloodstone and one of the stars of the amazing NEXTWAVE series appears saying she'll help them fix the mess they made.

Fabulous hair Frank!

Frank is brooding over his plans to lay waste to the criminals of the world while eating by a fire.  Then Manphibian appears and gently tries to explain that the Bloodstone is clouding his thinking and turning him crazy.  As Frank's inner voice tells him to kill Manphibian his words start to get through to him.  Then Elsa fires on him, but Morbius yanks the gun and she misses her shot.

Manphibian tries to calm him down but all Frank can think is he brought someone here to kill him.  He and Elsa get into a punch-up.  She holds her own saying she's fought Frankenstein and that Frank is no Frankenstein.  Manphibian, The Mummy and Jack argue about what to do and Jack decides to take Frank on directly.  Frank fires on him but bullets don't phase Jack, then the Mummy uses bandages to smack Frank into a tree and Elsa fires a bullet that goes through him.

He and Elsa struggle and Frank pushes her face into Man-Thing's hand and she burns at his touch.  Jack snatches her up and dunks her in water.  Frank asks why he cares about a monster hunter.  Jack says she doesn't deserve to die.  She's just doing what her father taught her, "I don't agree with her methods, but her intentions are clean".   Frank says if he kills her he'll be saving the lives of all the monsters she'll kill in the future. 

The Mummy: "It is not your responsibility to kill anyone capable of crime.  That is the road of a tyrant.  You kill those who prey on the innocent.  The stone is destroying your ability to see the difference.  Taking away your one redeeming quality...that you only kill those who deserve it".
Silently Frank pulls the Bloodstone out of his chest and gives it to Elsa, then he turns his back on all of them and walks away saying "we're done."

Seriously Frank. Learn to gratitude.

Weeks pass. Some young men are talking in incomprehensible youth speak on the streets of New York.  They go upstairs to a flat and inside they find Frank in his Punisher outfit. He tells them to both sit down or he'll kill them slow.  When he has finished talking with them, one can leave.

He tells them to put their guns on the table, "I understand one of you recently graduated to cop killer" he tells them.  They both accuse each other, but Frank says the cop was killed with a .357 Magnum.  That leaves G-Dey off the hook.  He then tells G-Dey to pick up the Magnum and shoot his friend in the head.  The terrified G-Dey does so.

Then Frank tells G-Dey he is going to send a message for him. He puts a sign round his neck and tells him to stand by the window and G-Dey "leaves" the room in a hail of bullets, landing on the hood of a car and the sign has the Punisher's skull symbol on it and the word "BACK" written on it.  And that brings The Franken-Castle storyline to a close.

Yes, most definitely back.

While I prefer the first half of the storyline more thanks to its varied slection of cool characters and more consistent art, this second half is still very enjoyable even though it is about 90% fight scenes.  Daken is the Scrappy Doo of the Marvel Universe as far as I am concerned and seeing him getting an extended beatdown and a vicious verbal assault from Frank that skewers him for being an poor copy of his incredibly overrated father is very satisfying.  Of course Frank is being a little hypocritical when he tells Wolverine his son is an unrepentant killer who needs to be put down, because Frank is pretty damn unrepentant even if he covers himself with the figleaf of only killing those who in his eyes deserve it. Still it was cool that he managed to bring down Daken using his superior brain, even as messed up as it was it was still able to recognise a way to use the Bloodstone to incapacitate Daken in a huge flesh explosion similiar to what happened to Tetsuo at the end of the Akira film adaptation. This second half suffers a bit from the art changing styles so dramatically, but kudos to the writers of Dark Wolverine for making their issues work seamlessly with the Franken-Castle ones.  I said this in my summation of Part One but I cannot understand why people hate this chapter in Frank's life.  To me it is everything awesome about comicbooks, only in comicbooks could such a cheeky way be used to bring a character back to life and change him so drastically and the prior existence of The Bloodstone means there wasn't even an asspull required to bring him back, just an item with plenty of prior history in the more monster orientated annals of the Marvel Universe. The whole fourteen issue storyline has been collected in one bumper volume which is where I have got this from and is a great and good value read for Punisher fans with a sense of the absurd. Like me.

The Punisher: Franken-Castle (Dark Reign: The List, The Punisher #11-16, Franken-Castle #17-21, Dark Wolverine #88-89) PART ONE

"Mind fading... rage takes over.  Let it" - Frank Castle

It's fair to say that Frank "The Punisher" Castle has always been a weird fit for the main Marvel Universe.  Conceived originally as a villain in the Spider-man stories back in the late seventies, he achieved a kind of breakout success in the darker worlds of comics in the eighties and nineties.  He's always been an unrepentant killer of criminals which puts him at odds with 95% of the heroes of the MCU and attempts to turn him into an anti-hero at best have never really come off.  The only person who has ever dealt with him satisfactorily was Garth Ennis and even then he had to transplant him into a "real world" continuity shorn of all superhero fripperies to tell a compelling story about him.  So over the years people have had a hard time knowing what to do with the character and he's ended up involved in some incredibly goofy storylines; like the time he died and came back as an avenging angel or the time he was turned into an African American or this storyline, which is possibly the goofiest of the lot; known as "Franken-Castle".  This maxi-storyline (starts in Dark Reign: The List, continues in The Punisher #11 to #16, which then changes it's name to Franken-Castle #17-21 and crosses over with Dark Wolverine #88-89) sees Frank die and then be born again becoming caught up in a war that includes all the oddball monster characters of the Marvel Universe as he reluctantly gets drafted in to help them defeat their persecutors before going after the person responsible for his death.  Oh but I'm giving away the plot, so without further ado, part one of my look at the glory that is the Franken-Castle storyline by writer Rick Remender and various artists, with part two to follow in a few days time.

First some backstory.  Due to the events of the 2008 Marvel Event "Secret Invasion" Norman Osborn aka The Green Goblin is in charge of H.A.M.M.E.R a goverment agency that has replaced S.H.I.E.L.D.   Frank has vowed to bring his corrupt rule to an end and an attempted assassination attempt has put Frank on Osborn's list.  Frank is not alone, he is being helped by a skate punk tech whiz called Henry who is the son of one of his old enemies.  Osborn has recruited various supervillians to hunt Frank down and now Henry and Frank are seperated and weakened and with that Dark Reign: The List begins.

This single issue is drawn by John Romita Jr. Frank is in his his hideout his wounds patched up and mentally talking to his wife Maria. Osborn's people target a huge missile strike on his location, but manage to miss him. So he send out his ground agents which include "Daken" son of Wolverine.  Henry finds Frank but Frank knocks him out at leaves him in a dumpster so he'll be safe.

Daken versus Frank round one

Cops open fire on him and he is hit in the leg. He escapes into the sewers but Daken finds him. They grapple and Frank fires a laser at him saying Osborn "shoulda sent the real deal.  Gimme something worth getting out of bed for".   He climbs up onto the roof of a building and Daken follows. Up there are many gunmen but they hold their fire as Daken engages Frank again.

Frank riddles him with bullets but Daken has his dad's healing factor.  He cuts off Franks arm and Daken notes Frank seems like he "looks relieved."  Then cuts off his torso and head and The Punisher is dead. His remains fall off the building and lie in the gutter, this whole incident is witnessed by a distraught Henry and Osborn satisfied notes he has been terminated.

Yep, definitely dead.

We then cut to Monster Island and the next few chapters are drawn by Tony Moore.  Some monsters are being chased and shot down by some armoured Japanese men, whose leader shouts "slay all monsters!".  Then he gets a call and tells the person at the end of the line that he hasn't found "the item".  The person calls him Yamato and tells him to "implement the Prime Doctorine.  Destroy all monsters!" And Yamato's team get back to it.

Back in New York the assembled gunmen are told to collect Frank's remains.  But before they can a bunch of little monsters pick the remains up and run off into the sewers and Osborn's men lose them. Before they can trace where the monsters have gone the imposing figure of Man-Thing rises up in front of them. Whatever knows fear burns at the touch of Man-Thing and Osborn's men burn well.

Then things are black, one voice say that Monster Island needs a "tactician- a soldier".  The other voice is dubious that this "actual monster" will help. Then the voices are revealed to be Morbius The Living Vampire and Jack Russell the werewolf.  The person they were operating on comes too but his brain isn't ready, "w-what y-you done to mhme-me?" it says grabbing Morbius by the throat.  And then we get our first look at the resurrected Franken-Castle.

Frank reborn.

He screams "Rhnnoooooo!" and runs off.  The mummy says to him that he knows the pain he endures and welcomes him to the family.  He bats the mummy aside saying "Nho fhamily!!" and he crashes into a church. There a preacher made of living lava tells him "there is a plan for you - God doesn't make mistakes".  But Frank rages that he does and the preacher can't get through to him. The preacher grows large and takes ahold of him and Morbius and Jack have him bought back to the lab to fix his mind.

Finally Frank is calm and Morbius gives Frank pills and tells him if he takes one every twelve hours the "synaptic glue" will keep him in charge of himself. Jack postures in front of him and Frank gets up and starts to leave.  Morbius tells him to wait and tells Frank that a few months ago some soldiers started hunting them and they don't know why.  They formed a Legion of Monsters to protect themselves and the survivors have come to live in these abandoned Morlock tunnels.  He says they needed a strategist someone with military experience.  Morbius says he saved Frank's life, "make good.  Help us. What do you say?"  And Frank strides off saying "I say good luck."

We then cut to Manphibian who has been captured by the monster hunters. He demands to know what they want from him. The leader of the monster hunters wants to know where the item he is looking for and his monster friends are hiding.  Manphibian says he knows nothing. and they have no right to be treating him and his comrades like this.

The imprisoned Manphibian

The head monster hunter says it is "divine purpose - to cleanse God's earth of all shadow beasts and horned devils - it is a privilege".   Manphibian says he'll tell him nothing.  But this was expected and his children are brought out and executed. A sobbing Manphibian asks why he is doing all this. "Why do anything?" the head monster hunter is then revealed to be a skeleton in power armour, "I like it".

Frank is brooding in a room he's found. He fumbles the pills and drops some of them down a grate he takes one then looks hungrily at a rat. He grabs it and is about to eat it when a mute kid monster appears.  Frank tells him to get lost but it offers him a chocolate bar and Frank accepts, they eat together in silence.

A tentative friendship is struck up.

Morbius and Jack discuss the situation and Jack says Morbius was the one who "opened the can of worms that got us all in this less-than-optimistic epxerience." Jack believes the Japanese know where they are hiding.  Jack then angrily tells Morbius he is captain of the sinking ship and should go and assure the sailors they are OK, "you know...lie" and he slams the door on the way out.  "Terrible man" says Morbius to himself.  He takes a red stone out of a safe and says it'll be safer if it is with him.

Frank is in some distress, the pill is wearing off and he has no more. Then the Mummy appears and tosses him a new bottle of them.  The kid persuaded Morbius to hand more pills over even though Morbius is mad at Frank.  The Mummy then takes Frank on a tour, as they walk he says he knows it is in Frank's nature to protect. Frank says "I'm not in this business" he's in the "nothing business" as far as the monsters are concerned. The Mummy says helping people survive is a "worthy oponent to your apathy.  A reason to live worth fighting for."

The monster hunters have slaughtered thousands, supernatural beings, inter-dimensional travellers, aliens, oddities of the deep, "to them it is simple - we are monsters - we deserve death". All the monsters left on earth have congregated here in the Monster Metropolis where the Legion of Monsters will protect them.  "I fear that promise will go unfulfilled" says the Mummy.  They arrive at a display of weaponry taken from the monster hunters they have killed.  The Mummy says they just want to be left alone.  "That's one thing we've got in common" responds Frank.

The Preacher has harsh truths for Morbius.

Morbius is in the church.  The Preacher asks him how he is surviving, Morbius says he has a new formula keeping him alive. The Preacher asks him if he has told the others why they are hunted and what it is he holds.  Morbius says he doesn't know who else to trust with something so powerful.  He says he cannot be corrupted by its power unlike mortals. The Preacher reminds him he is both mortal and man and he has already been corrupted.  It is the stone quenching his thirst for blood and while it is here "we are all in danger".

Suddenly there is an explosion and the monster hunters pile into the Monster Metropolis.  Morbius runs back to put the stone in the safe, but the skeleton in power armour is already there. Frank is lying in a small room and the little alien comes to get him.  But he is shot through by a laser and dies in Frank's arms:

Frank: "Deaf and mute.  But his eyes tell me the story.  He dies terrified.  He won't be the only one".

And with fiery rage in his eyes he looks up at the monster hunters that have appeared in the doorway.  As he slaughters the monster hunters Frank thinks that his war is supposed to be over, but "they need a hand. And I've got two on 'em... both of 'em twitching for some murder".  He takes the sword of one he has killed and slices another clean in half.  And spends the next hour killing, "the first natural thing I've felt in weeks."

Morbius is down and the leader of the monster hunters has the stone!

Meanwhile the skeleton in power armour is beating down Morbius saying he is the rightful inheritor of the stone.  He fires pure sunlight at Morbius which knocks Morbius burning to the ground.  Meanwhile Jack Russell has a score to settle with the Monster Hunters for killing a pack of werewolves in Montreal.  Jack charges in to attack even though the man wields a pure silver sword.

Jack is soon surrounded and things look bad for him until Frank appears and crushes the silver bullet firing gun that was about to finish Jack off, "even a mangy stray has rights" he says.  He puts a grenade in the gun barrel and tosses the man into his group of hunters and they are all blown up.  Frank offers Jack a sword but Jack declines.  Another hunter appears, it's Yamato and he takes Frank on.

They struggle with each other with Yamato stabbing away at Frank who is feeling slow and unresponsive and needs his pills. Man-Thing appears but Yamato blasts him with his arm cannon.  Frank gets his second wind and fires his gun into Yamato's chest.  Yamato picks himself up but the bullets bury knives into him and Frank bashes him with the gun barrel.  Frank goes to check on Man-Thing who is all right and Frank holds out his hand to him knowing that he does not feel fear so will not burn at his touch.  "Let's go start a fire" he says.

The skeleton in power armour has Morbius and is returning to their ship.  Sixteen of the squad have been killed and as the ship takes off, Yamato flies up to grab the skeleton's hand and be pulled inside.  Before that can happen, Frank hurls Man-Thing at Yamato and Yamato burns.

Fastball special!

Later Frank and the survivors of the Legion of Monsters take stock.   The Preacher tells them about the powerful relic Morbius was hiding and finally names the skeleton in power armour, his name is "Hellsgaard".  Frank says he has a guy who can help them find Hellsgaard. 

Frank: "Then we find 'em.  And then we teach that son of a bitch what a real monster is."

A short time later hacker Henry has come to help them out.  He tells them Robert Hellsgaard is "one hundred and fifty years young".  He's a hero in Japan, and according to his S.H.I.E.L.D file the Howling Commandos wanted to take him down.  They're defunct now, but they have a file that includes testimony from Dracula.

Henry says normally he would disbelieve that but "the events of the past few hours have broadened my perspective".  He then starts reading the file which contains testimony from Hellsguard himself and we start a flashback, painted pages by Dan Berereton.  It begins with Hellsgaard in Germany 1898 returning home after visiting Nikola Tesla.  When he departs the carriage he is in and walks into the village he finds people lying savaged and bloody in the street.

Blimey!  It's the wife!

Horrified he runs to his home and a werewolf attacks him. He manages to stab it in the heart with a silver knife and it turns back into his wife.  He then rams a knife in the heart of all the attacked people.  Unfortunately because they turned back into humans he is put on trial as a mass murderer.  No one believed his werewolf story and he was convicted of seventy-eight counts of premeditated murder.

He served twelve years of hims sentence obssessively reading about the occult and making notes.  Then one day a "roguish gentleman walks through the prison walls".  It was the famous monster hunter Ulysses Bloodstone.  He has heard Hellsgaards story and knew that he would be "starving for revenge.  A perfect partener".  They hunted for years, no matter how many they killed it was never enough for Hellsgaard.  He created power armour and found a way to dispose of their kills permenantly and created access to a limbo dimension. 

But Dracula was onto them and learned of their plans and he crashed in on them.  Hellsgaard put on the power armour but Dracula ripped a tube out and flooded the armour with the coolant that burned off Hellsgaard's flesh. Then Dracula pushed him into limbo. Somehow Hellsgaard survived seventy years in there.  The next mention of him is from the journal logs of a Japanese scientist Yamato in 1978.

He'd been researching ways of combating Japan's rising tide of atomic super-monsters attacking their cities.  They read of Hellsgaard work and began to revere him.  They travelled to Castle Bloodstone and there they freed Hellsgaard himself. He joined their monster hunting cause gladly and with his technology put an end to the atomic beasts.  But it didn't stop there, they hunted supernatural creatures and when they couldn't find actual monsters they hunted mutants and morlocks and even disfigured people.  But they are also looking for the one thing that can restore Hellsgaards body - the Bloodstone.

Awkward...

"And now he's got it" says Frank.  Henry says it's mostly regenerative but it will give him "super insane rage strength at least".  Henry says he'll kill Morbius.  Jack says they should let him, it's Morbius's fault they have been hunted.  The Mummy says it's not the only reason. Frank then implies it was Jack who originally attack Hellsgaard's family and village. Then Frank says if they allow Hellsgaard to keep the stone "you will see him again.  On his terms."  Hellsgaard's castle is in the Alps.

Frank: "Alps is cold. Perfect temperature for the dish I'm gonna serve him".

The next chapter is drawn by Roland Boschi.  Frank is dreaming about his family burning.  Henry waks him up and asks why he is sneaking off.  Frank says the others aren't coming, he's going to face Hellsgaard alone.

Hellsgaard tortures Morbius.

Henry asks him why he is doing this, this isn't their war.   Frank just says he's "paying a debt". Meanwhile Hellsgaard has Morbius chained up in his dungeon telling him during his time in limbo he drew up an "endless stream of revenge scenarios against those who had taken my family and placed me in that dismal hell." Morbius says he should have drawn from the teachings of Confucious, "before you embark on a journey of revenge - dig two graves."

Hellsgaard says the power of the Bloodstone has it's power directly proportional to the person's desire for revenge.  It draws its power from a "deity known as the exo-mind" which had deposited it on earth to aid in its observation of the evolution of humanity. He takes in the Bloodstone and it powers him up.

Hellsgaard: "Soon I will be a whole man again.  A man with the power to extract swift revenge.  Power to ensure no one is ever hurt by another monster.

Up on the battlements the monster hunters discuss Hellsgaard and how he saved Japan and now they will save every other land.  Then the head of one of then explodes.  It was Frank riding a dragon round the castle picking off the guards.   Between his gun and the dragon's firey breath they take out many of the monster hunters.

*cue Ride Of The Valkyries*

Finally one of them shoots a laser through the dragon's neck killing her.  Frank drops down off her and thinks that her entire race was wiped out by the hunters, "Ol' girl got herself a respectable body count.  Gave a taste back. Best anyone can hope for".  But Hellsgaard has a trap prepared and raises the dead much to the horror of one of his officers who accuses him of creating monsters.  Hellsgaard punches his head off.

Henry tells Frank to hurry up, his readings say Morbius and Manphibian are almost dead.  The zombies flock round Frank but he mows them down while he imagines his dead wife Maria speaking to him. He reaches the castle gates and the guards blast him with a cannon but somehow miss.  And the zombies come flooding in and attack them.  Frank has got behind them and locks the interior castle gate trapping them in the courtyard with the zombies.

He works his way upstairs and frees Morbius and Manphibian saying "C'mon.  Goin' home.  Good guys won."  But Hellsgaard appears and shoots Manphibian saying Frank has been corrupted by the beasts. "You are the villain" he says to Frank and says that some part of him must know what they've turned him into. But he is here for him, "I'm here to send you back" he says and fires his cannon point blank at him.

Frank and Hellgaard tangle.

Tony Moore is back on art duties for this chapter. Manphibian is down but not out, as he gets painfully to his feet he thinks about Hellsgaard killing his children and that he has spread the poison of vengeance to him.  He sees that Frank is still alive and battling Hellsgaard.   Manphibian joins in but is punched to the ground.  Before Frank can help him, the monster hunters restrain him and Hellsguard shoots Manphibian in the head, just after Manphibian exorts Frank to kill Hellsgaard and avenge his children.  He then tosses Manphibian's body through the limbo portal.

Frank mentally makes the promise even though he can't move.  Hellsgaard starts ranting and Frank thinks this will buy him time to "get a damn pill".  Hellsgaard says they are alike, both had their families torn away from them and started them on a crusade against those deemed responsible.  He rotted in limbo for decades, the torment ensuring he never would forget what happened. 

Hellsgaard: "With the Bloodstone in my grasp I will fill limbo with the bodies of earth's monsters.  Wipe their existence from history".

Then he sees Frank reaching for a pill.  Morbius under torture told him Frank's need for the pills.  Then he asks Frank what he would do to the man who murdered his family.  "You would murder him.  Gruesomely" he says.

Frank is super pissed off now.

He tells Frank he has gone mad, joining the mafia of monsters and so he must die.  He tells his men to cast Frank into limbo but Frank finally gets free although he cripples his arm in the process. Hellsgaard fires on him but Frank tosses a hunter in the line of fire.  He then jumps at Hellsgaard and both of them topple through the opening to limbo and land inside.  This panics Hellsgaard, he says it's suicide.  "Already dead" says Frank.

Several hunters run to the portal to help Hellsgaard but before they can go through, Morbius appears and says "I hold three Phds in partying with your mothers" and grins wickedly.   Inside limbo, Frank and Hellsgaard fight.  Hellsgaard says the power of the Bloodstone means Frank can't defeat him.  He half rips off Franks damaged arm and keeps punching him.  He's about to crush Frank's head when there is a lava eruption that knocks him away.

They keep fighting and though Hellsgaard has the upper hand Frank refuses to give up.  He sees the pills that Hellsgaard had tossed through the portal.  Hellsgaard says they will only fix his mind not his broken body.

Hellsgaard:  "You prolong this to placate your own ego!  This isn't about giving meaning to our families' deaths!  We're killers.  We'd kill under any pretense."

Then Frank hits him hard and smashes the faceplate of his armour.  This enrages Hellsgaard but Frank realises he's uncertain underneath the anger.  Frank tells him he's going to share Hellsgaard's death with someone who wants it more.  And Manphibian rises up and rips Hellsgaard's emaciated body out of his armour.

Hellsgaard doesn't understand how he can be alive. "My brain is in my neck" replies Manphibian.  He batters Hellsguard and is about to land the killing blow when Frank stops him, "no. Not a path you want to walk" he tells him.  Hellsgaard wimpers that he only wanted to rid the world of monsters.  "All you did was create new ones" says Manphibian. Then a portal opens and Morbius comes through, he helps Frank who can barely walk to get to the portal and they leave Hellsgaard alive, but without the Bloodstone.  "Thank you for your mercy" says Hellsgaard.  "Yeah. Right.  Mercy" says Frank as he looks back at the pathetic figure down on his knees amongst the rock and lava.  And that brings the first Franken-Castle arc to an end.

Cruel mercy indeed.

At this halfway stage I think this has been fantastic.  It's a wonderfully daft concept executed in a confident style.  It's great seeing all the monster characters from Marvel's rich history bought together like this.  Turning Frank into a Frankenstein's monster is just such a loopy idea I'm surprised it made it past editorial.  But it works brilliantly with a smart script from Rick Remender and fantastic artwork from Tony Moore whose thin lined super detailed style reminds me a lot of Doug Manhke's work on the Frankenstein chapters of Seven Soldiers Of Victory.  The parallels between Hellsgaard and Frank are interesting, both having declared war on those they deem responsible for their families deaths. The difference of course is that Frank for better or worse only kills criminals, whereas Hellsgaard targets everyone he deems a monster and spares no one, not even children.  The action is exciting, seeing Frank riding a dragon is a super-cool image and just shows how few fucks the writer and artist give about the reactions of the more humourless comicbook readers.  And I often read online that many people consider this part of Frank's life to be one of the worst comics ever made.  I beg to differ, so far it's been fun, and everything awesome about comics and their ability to go to strange and unusual places.  Just to troll the kind of reader who would declare this Worst. Comic. Ever, after this half of the series was over, the name of the comic was changed from The Punisher to Franken-Castle implying this change was for good. Of course it wasn't but still to come is how Frank became a normal human again as well as a crossover with Dark Wolverine as Frank seeks revenge against the person responsible for his death - Daken.  Come back in a few days to see how that pans out.