Punisher Chopped Up, Reassembled As Frankencastle

When they announced the "Frankencastle" series where Punisher (a.k.a. Frank Castle, ba-dump) becomes some kind of monster, I wasn't expecting the tagline "Rest In Pieces," to be quite so literal.

If you've been sitting out on the Dark Reign titles because nothing seems to happen in them, you may have missed the rather startling events of "Dark Reign: The List: Punisher" #1, where Frank got decapitated and chopped into many, many pieces at the claws of Wolverine's son, Dark Wolverine.

Rather than the usual faux-death followed by inevitable resurrection that passes for mortality in the comics universe, the Punisher is apparently going to be reassembled Osiris style from his severed body parts and, I don't know, junkyard machinery?

Some people are saying that this "Frankenstein" version of Punisher is yet another example of comics hopping on the zombie bandwagon, but it's important to remember that 1) Frankenstein is technically the name of the scientist who created the patchwork monstrosity, not the creature itself and 2) Frankenstein's monster was a tragic, misunderstood golem who was rejected by humanity (and has more in common with Marvel's mutants than anything else), and not a mindless, brain-eating animal.

Marvel.com is offering users a chance to "Build-A-Frank" and submit it to a Flickr pool, although rather than assembling a wide array of potential monstrosity your only option is to swap in a head of your choosing.

And now, a close-up of his rotting, dismembered hands!