Punisher: Franken-Castle #1

After being chopped into pieces by Daken, the Legion Of Monsters stitch him back together creating Franken-Castle. 

I was skeptical about this whole idea of turning the Punisher into "Franken-Castle" as the idea seemed a little out there to me. I ended up deciding to give the story a shot mostly due to the fact I got a good deal on the hardcover and it was written by Rick Remender. Unfortunately this isn't Remender's best work. It'll probably never be remembered or considered one of the best Punisher stories either. It just lacks so many essentials a good Punisher story needs.

I will admit there were moments I enjoyed throughout the story. However, they're completely overshadowed by the mundane plot, lackluster writing and execution. The story seems to drag on far longer then necessary. Most of the story seems like filler material. The story could have been condensed to at least half the length it was dragged out for. The moments that stood out for me were the parts that included Daken which I found surprising considering I've never been a fan of his character. Adding Wolverine to the mix made things even more interesting. None of that could save this story though. You'll become bored often times while reading this especially during the parts with the Legion Of Monsters. 

There so many different artists that contributed to this story. With that comes a variety of different styles. The main look they were going for wasn't completely bad, but a lot of the time it was difficult to depict what was drawn in the panels. As a comic reader that's something I can't stand. The art was at its best during the Dark Wolverine issues as the artist of the series (Stephen Segovia) drew those issues to much satisfaction. 

I really wouldn't recommend reading this at all. It's not exactly the type of Punisher story that you want to read. I'd really advise new readers to Punisher to stay away from this. It could really turn you off from reading Punisher in the future. This is something I personally (and I'm sure many others) would like to forget ever happened.