Alright, here we go. The most recent of the Punisher’s many ongoing series.
<b>Chapter 6: Current Series: Punisher MAX and War Journal V2</b>
Created in 2001 (due to Marvel’s breaking away from the Comics Code Authority), the MAX brand is reserved for the most graphic, disturbing, and shocking of Marvel’s comics. So, when the Marvel Knights series was canceled, it was only natural that Ennis would take his version on the Punisher (by this point seen as the definitive version, unfortunately) and transplant him into an AO series.
It wasn’t the first time the Punisher appeared under the brand. Previously, Ennis had created a four-issue miniseries, Punisher: Born. Although the Punisher’s time in Vietnam was far from glossed over (being covered fairly extensively in the last issues of Marvel’s Nam series), this was a major retcon in terms of Frank Castle’s general sanity and personality during this time. Whereas before he was presented as unbalanced but mostly there mentally, in Born he was a total psychotic lunatic, actively killing off any commanding officers or fellow soldiers that he thought would shut down his small fortress. In the end, during a massive Viet Cong assault that leaves Castle as the only survivor, a voice calls out to him, telling him that it will grant him “a war without end.” Desperate to survive, Castle agrees to the voice’s demands, and proceeds to KILL THE ENTIRE FUCKING VIET CONG ARMY!
Of course, once he gets home, the voice returns, revealing that in exchange for his war, there’s a little price: his family. Castle is horrified at this, but the voice soon erases any memory of their encounter, and things proceed as normal. Frank Castle’s family go on a picnic, they run into a gangland execution, and the Punisher is born.
(Note: From what I understand, the voice was supposed to be Death, the same Death that Thanos lusts after. Given MAX’s tenuous relationship with canon, this is pretty disputable; however, a supernatural force being the Punisher’s actions would help to explain how he has remained so successful despite having no powers and nearly reaching his seventies.)
The new Punisher series (called Punisher MAX for the interest of this article) launched in 2004, shortly after the previous series was canceled. Just to make sure readers knew this was going to be a VERY different series, Ennis started things off by bringing back the long-dead Microchip, now an agent of the CIA. He manages to capture Castle (mostly because he was surprised to see Micro still alive and was caught off-guard), and tries to persuade him to help the CIA hunt Osama bin Laden. The Punisher, however, is not interested in working with the government, and furthermore knows of Micro’s connection to a drug and weapons trafficking ring in Afghanistan.
The two end up in a warehouse, where the Punisher gives Micro an offer he never gives anyone else: the chance to run. As long as he never sees Castle again, the Punisher will not actively hunt him. However, Micro doesn’t budge, instead opting to help the Punisher in a subsequent shootout with the CIA. When the battle ends, Micro is gutshot, and the CIA agents are all bloody smears on the concrete. In their last meeting, Microchip theorizes the REAL reason Castle keeps visiting his family’s grave: he’s apologizing to them, for using their deaths to create something so horrible. At first he seems to get to the Punisher; however, when Micro tries to use this to wheel his way to safety, he learns that the offer to run has been rescinded, and soon loses his head…courtesy of the Punisher’s sawed-off.
Microchip’s second death was used more as a means of establishing the series’ direction. Ennis basically rewrote the Punisher, keeping some elements of established canon but freely altering anything he felt like. This was HIS Punisher, not Marvel’s. Superheroes were eliminated entirely; the only other Marvel character to appear was Ennis’ bastardization of Nick Fury, a revision so heinous that Stan Lee himself spoke out against both the miniseries and its author. Stories frequently involved R-rated content like pedophilia, human slavery, genocide, rape, biological and nuclear warfare, and above all else, how single actions don’t amount to a damn thing. (The Punisher is frequently faced with the fact that his actions amount to nothing, and that no matter what he does, he can never even create a dent in crime.)
The violence was ramped up significantly. The closest parallel I can think of is the Rambo series. In First Blood Part II (the first incredibly violent Rambo movie), there was blood, but people simply fell over when they were shot. In the latest movie, however, people EXPLODED when they were shot, keeping more in line with what REALLY happens when you’re shot. The MAX series keeps it at this level, with people disintegrating into piles of blood and gore when shot. The body count is also huge; the old Punisher series typically had only two or three Punisher victims per issue, while the MAX series has about twenty a page.
The problem with the MAX series is that it falls back on its violence too much. Ennis is a good writer (despite Wil’s vehement protests), but he simply uses the grittiness and goriness of the Punisher’s exploits to justify toning down the story, especially in later issues. The other thing is, the level of violence is simply unjustifiable for a comic. I’m not naive; I know the world is a cruel, merciless place filled with disgusting people, murders, and general insanity of the worst kind. Do I really need a comic book, a medium designed to provide escapist entertainment, remind me of that?
I don’t want to sound like Wil here, but I really can’t stand looking at the MAX series at times. I have nothing against blood and gore, but it seems like Ennis simply brings in these elements just to have them, not because they have any relevance to what’s going on.
That’s really all I have to say on the subject.
The Punisher may have been chilling at MAX, but back in the mainstream universe, our beloved skull-suited vigilante was still MIA. With the successful MAX series proving that the Punisher still had marketing potential, Marvel decided to bring him back into vogue with a new series, Punisher: War Journal. After years of being published in side brands and spin-offs, the Punisher was back.
The series began with the Civil War event. Wil’s already fired off enough about this, so I’ll just cover the Punisher’s rather significant involvement. He first becomes involved when hunting down a child pornographer. However, Stilt-Man, the dorkiest of all supervillains, was trying his hand at being a hero, and tried to capture the pornographer at the same time. Although the Punisher realized Stilt-Man was really trying to atone for his crimes, he still killed him and his original target. However, with the Initiative using supervillains, he decided to turn his allegiance to the Anti-Registration heroes.
He saved Spider-Man from Stark’s goons (sent after Spidey decided to switch sides), and was reluctantly allowed into the ranks of the Anti-Registration heroes. Unfortunately, he soon blew his position by killing two villains, Pluderer and Goldbug, that had tried to peacefully join the rebellion. Enraged, Captain America beats the shit out of Punisher and kicks him out of the rebel alliance. The Punisher is not seen again until the end of the Civil War, were he picks up Captain America’s discarded mask.
From there, the Punisher changes his tactics. Instead of simply going after regular rank-and-file goons, he decides to go after <i>supervillains</i>. His first act is to pull a Scourge of the Underworld and blow up the Bar With No Name. (Strangely, no one died in the explosion, despite everyone also being poisoned beforehand.) At the same time, G.W. Bridge (yes, I never heard of him before this series, too) is brought out of retirement to lead a SHIELD investigation of the Punisher. The two initially cross paths when Bushwacker, in an attempt to fulfill a contract for the Punisher’s head, uses a hostage to draw Castle out: G.W. ends up kicking Bushwacker’s ass and hauling him back to jail. All in all, a very successful first five issues.
And then, at the end of issue 5, Captain America is shot. And everything changes.
One thing the new series brought up was the Punisher’s great admiration for Captain America. This was mentioned as early as the first ongoing series, with Cap being the only superhero the Punisher really respected and supported. Conversely, Cap saw the Punisher as a psychopath, but also as a fellow soldier. This complicated relationship serves as the main drive for the next five issues, known as the “Captain Punisher” period. Turns out a new Hate-Monger (yet another lame villain revived) created his own version of Captain America’s costume and was leading a militia group to kill illegal immigrants. (Yes, Marvel’s idea of political commentary is about as subtle as a right cross from George Foreman.) Naturally BEYOND pissed, the Punisher creates his OWN Captain America costume (using Cap’s original mask), heads to the US-Mexican border, and eventually wipes out both the new Hate-Monger and his private army.
While we’re talking about lame villain revivals, does anyone remember Rampage? No? Well, he’s back as his alter-ego, Stuart Clarke. Shortly after Punisher killed Stilt-Man, he tracked down Clarke, who had escaped from the Raft and was in hiding. In exchange for not killing him, Clarke works with the Punisher, basically becoming the new Microchip. Unlike the original duo, however, Punisher and Clarke have no illusions of friendship; Clarke knows the Punisher will no doubt kill him when his usefulness runs out, and the Punisher more or less views him as a whiny pest. However, Clarke does create some nifty weapons and gadgets, including a Venom-like cybernetic suit.
And while we’re at it, how about the Rhino, the EPITOME OF STUPID BAD GUYS! Strangely, the series did a good job with him. Rhino is working with two generic thugs to rob banks; however, during a job, he accidentally impales a security guard on a steel pipe (from the wall he smashed through). Guilt-ridden at actually killing someone, he tries to get out of the deal; however, the Punisher has already found out about him, kills the two toughs. The Rhino is saves by Spider-Man…only to be captured by the new Kraven the Hunter, to serve in his “menagerie” of animal-themed supervillains. (Huh?!) The Punisher stops Kraven, and allows the Rhino to “run.” On a closing note, it turns out the Rhino’s guilt was genuine, as he sends the money from the robber, along with a letter, to the security guard’s widow.
The only real storyline to mention besides those is the Punisher’s very brief involvement in World War Hulk. Obviously, Castle knows he has no chance in Hell of facing the Hulk, so he does the next best thing: help evacuate civilians from the area. Despite the massive amount of blood spilled in the process, this is notably the first time since the Punisher’s guest appearances that he appears to do anything remotely heroic. In fact, he actually accomplishes something by going after the lower level thugs in the Warband, rather than immediately try to take out the Jolly Green Giant. (Yeah, great plan there, guys. Let’s rush the big green guy that gets stronger the more pissed he gets…oh, and he has every reason to be pissed at us, because we shot him into space, and he THINKS we’re responsible for blowing up his new home!)
From the time of its inception, Matt Fraction has been headlining the Punisher: War Journal. Now, before Wil begins another “modern comics are all garbage and everyone associated with them sucks” argument, I just want to say that I like Fraction’s work. He seems to understand each character he writes intimately, far more so than anyone else the industry parades around these days. However, he seems to stumble quite a bit with the Punisher. Prior to this, he dealt mostly with straight heroes; however, here, he was focusing on a murderous vigilante with occasional anti-hero tendencies. The same techniques don’t always work.
One problem with the general concept is the idea of the Punisher fighting supervillains. To be fair, in the past, the Punisher would occasionally fight supervillains; however, he always ended up fighting big-name character like Kingpin and Doctor Doom, who would promptly own his ass without much of a struggle. The few times he fought lower-level supervillains were against riff-raff like Bulls-“My hand are broken again!”-eye and Bushwacker, and even then they would escape alive. Here, however, he manages to actually kill supervillains, and even those that escape alive are often scarred for life; for example, not only does Princess Python lose her husband, Stilt-Man, but the Punisher BLINDS her at the same time. Even if these guys are still bottom-rung, the Punisher’s power here is far more than in any other series, and to be frank, it’s a little disconcerting.
Furthermore, the quality of the art is highly inconsistent. In one panel, it looks great, but in the very next panel it looks like something my six-year-old cousin scrawled on a napkin. When compared to the excellent styles of the MAX series (despite the blood and excessive gore), one has to wonder why Marvel decided to ignore the series that actually CAN be sold in stores.
This all brings us to the current storyline, one so bad that it appears to be the death of the series. Jigsaw is brought back, but this time has the power to change between his normal appearance and his more well-known shredded face. Furthermore, he’s sent a group of assassins after the Punisher. The plot stinks, the arc goes on for FAR too long, Jigsaw’s power is ridiculous, the artwork has REALLY gone to shit, and I’ve had about all I can stomach. I hope the series continues, because it has real potential; however, if the staff keep screwing up, I can’t really forsee that.
There, the Punisher’s many comic appearances have been fully covered. However, we’re not done yet. No, there’s still whole realms of media to cover. Next time, we’ll take a look at:
The Punisher video games: Specifically, the beat-em-up and the third-person shooter.
The Punisher’s guest appearances on Spider-Man.
The Punisher movies. (Oh boy, this isn’t gonna be pretty.)
And of course, closing thoughts.
And now, let us listen to Wil’s eternal cursing of Garth Ennis. unfolds a lawn chair, grabs a six-pack, and turns on his iPod.
