Franken-Castle #20

The Punishment cross-over, which is largely dominated by Daken and Franken-Castle, has had a strong start, to say the least. But as it went past into its second half, the quality of the story has taken a questionable turn, often dwelling into the unacceptable. Can Franken-Castle fix the blunders made by Dark Wolverine #89 and give a strong finish, or will it continue the dwindling story quality made by the previous issue of the crossover? Get your guns, and join me as I review Franken-Castle #20.
 

The Good

Rick Remender picks up where Daniel Way and Marjorie Liu left off in Dark Wolverine #89, and does a good job in picking up the pace of the story as it comes to its conclusion. He also does a good job of capturing Daken's arrogance in every panel as he fights both Castle and Wolverine. He does an interesting job on displaying both the characters' shortcomings, without pulling any punches. The fight scenes do keep the same level of frenzy as it was shown in Issue #19, in which Tony Moore does a good job in depicting every bloody scene as it develops. Even as Wolverine gets to be added at the last minute, it doesn't deter the quality of the story, overall. But the one layer in the story that was eye-popping to a degree, was right after Daken obtained Castle's Bloodgem, he begins to convulse into a large human squid. The logic of mixing the Bloodgem with his superhuman healing factor was another twist in the story that not only showed that Daken was not as invincible as he's portrayed, but that he is also prone to making rash decisions in the heat of battle. Simply put, Remender does a good finish for Punishment.
 

The Bad

Aside from the obvious homage to Akira by Daken's decision to have the Bloodgem, this issue fell flat in key parts. It became inexplicable how could Franken-Castle manage to use the same truck Daken ran him over with in Dark Wolverine #89, while he had his Bloodgem ripped out of his body. The needless assault on the cops was excessive, as if it was used a desperate ploy to inject some shock value into the issue. The culminating confrontation between Wolverine and Franken-Castle against Daken felt very convenient for relying on Daken's unstable skin tissue after holding on to the Bloodgem. The ending was the worst of it all, it was left in a unresolved manner, with both Daken and Castle leaving Wolverine alone on a rooftop covered with excess skin of Daken. In both terms of script and visual, it left much to be desired. In a nutshell, the ending to this issue, and to the crossover in general, should've been a lot better than what they had presented right now, which it's disappointing, at the least, and infuriating, at the most.
 

The Verdict

Back in June, when Marvel announced the conclusion of this crossover, it gave the feel that it would be shocking. Now, looking at this issue, it didn't became that shocking at all. If anything, the shock factor was mostly place in Issue #19, and the rest of the issues were just incapable of matching that same quality. It was expected for this issue to stand and deliver after a lackluster contribution from Dark Wolverine #89, but instead, it did the opposite. To be fair, it had its share of interesting moments, a lot of emotional strings with Wolverine hesitating to kill Daken, despite Castle showing him the obvious reasons why he has to do so, and overall, the Franken-Castle issues did more of an effort to make this crossover interesting, if not for a little bit. But unfortunately, it all culminated into just another trade paperback for Marvel to sell by December. Get this issue if you must, to complete the crossover. It does give a good read, but in terms of quality, it seriously could have been a better job. 3.5/5 GOOD BUY