Punisher #11

This comic doesn't really work, but not because of the story. Rick Remender has created a new sub-world of the Marvel U, a world of monsters. I love the opening scene on Monster Island; it is a testament to the skills of both Rememder and artist Tony Moore that I immediately sympathized with the fleeing monsters. Of course, seeing a bunch of samurai kill a mom-monster (momster?) and her kids will quickly set your allegiance on the side of the monsters. So the greater plot is that there is this horrifically dedicated crew of monster hunters out to destroy all monsters.

In an attempt to save the monster population, the Legion of Monsters (Werewolf-by-Night, Swamp Thing, Morbius, N'Kantu the Living Mummy, and more) have created a refuge for monsters in the morlock tunnels under NYC. The legion can fight, but they need a soldier to lead them against the monster hunters. And here's where things go wrong. Immediately after the Punisher was chopped up by Daken, his remains were snatched up by some mole men and brought to Morbius, who assembled the parts into Frankencastle. That's right, a Frankenstein version of the Punisher. Things go poorly when he goes berserk during the procedure and runs amok amongst the refugees. I loved seeing a few famous Marvel monsters mixed into the crowd. I don't remember all their names, but I'm certain I've seen some of these guys in old 60s monster books. This is a really neat idea for a story. But the Punisher doesn't fit. I understand Remender is going to try and contrast the Punisher's single-minded crusade for vengeance against a similarly motivated leader of the monster squad, but the use of monsters makes this a bad fit. There are two good ideas here, the monster story, and the dangers of single-minded goals, but they do not fit together well. I'll read through this story, because I really want to see what happens to the monsters, but I'll be pretending that this isn't the Punisher. If this comic featured the real Frankenstein in the same story, I'd probably give it an Excellent.

Tony Moore's work is wonderful, as always. He actually makes me worried about a family that resembles giant crayfish. Of course, the mom and dad crayfish are holding a little baby crayfish, so how could that not pull on your heartstrings. Moore's Morbius is quite cool looking, he seems fairly harmless and altruistic. I was getting more of a Beast-vibe off him than I usually do. I do wonder how does this fit in with ARMOR as seen in Marvel Zombies 3.

Good