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-   -   Weekly Comic Review: The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe (http://i-mockery.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69700068)

MockBot Jun 30th, 2008 03:17 AM

Weekly Comic Review: The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe
 
Automatically generated comment thread for Weekly Comic Review: The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe.

Shadow40000 Jun 30th, 2008 06:08 AM

Oh hell yes! Thanks for reviewing this, I heard about it once before and was never able to find it.

JJ_Maniac Jun 30th, 2008 09:58 AM

The Punisher's always been my favourite "Anti-Hero", and I like the sound of this particular incarnation of him. I distrust Marvel for the whole "Fighting Nazis In Captain America Suit" debacle.

wobzire Jun 30th, 2008 12:01 PM

this sounds fucking awesome!

Brunbb Jun 30th, 2008 02:27 PM

Are you kidding? This is perhaps the worst story ever written. The Punisher is vaguely in character, if you consider him to be nothing but a mindless psychopath (like Ennis does). No one else is even close to being in character, and they have all become complete idiots. The killings are just awful. He nukes the moon? Really? Nukes the moon? Wow. Honestly, this is the only time I have ever heard anyone say this book is actually good. I'm a huge Punisher fan, but there is no way you can actually call this good. Even if you aren't looking for a serious story, just something fun to read, this won't be it.

Dr. Boogie Jun 30th, 2008 02:54 PM

So what is the Punisher's character, then? I've always imagined him to be a guy who kills for revenge, and this seemed like an extrapolation of that.

Brunbb Jun 30th, 2008 03:34 PM

He kills to prevent innocent people from being hurt. He is not simply a mindless killer. You could argue that innocent people get hurt during the fighting between super heroes and villains, as this story did, but you also have to take into account how many people they save. But, even if you made that excuse, in the beginning the X-Men and Avengers are fighting the Brood (I think it was them). Frank never does anything about them. He gets rid of all the heroes on Earth and leaves it open for an invasion from any outside force. That's much worse.

Dr. Boogie Jun 30th, 2008 04:03 PM

For his motivations, the Punisher isn't made out to be a mindless killer in the story. He goes through all the assassinations in a very methodical, Punisher sort of way (and I acknowledged that the nuke bit was a bit silly).

Spoilers!


As for the threat from afar, I would say that overlooking the Brood, et al. was one of the things that was glossed over due to the enormity of what the title described. I used the Silver Surfer as an example because it would've taken considerable effort on his part to kill a man who can travel faster than the speed of light and is able to transmute matter at will. Even then, though, how would the Punisher have been able to take on Galactus? You could make the argument that killing a herald would give him powers, or some such nonsense, but the bottom line is that stuff like that doesn't belong in a Punisher storyline.

In short, saying that the Punisher is killing every superbeing in the Marvel universe was a bit overblown. It was really just an excuse to get the Punisher to take down some of the most recognizeable heroes and villains. I think Ennis did the best he could, given the topic.

Brunbb Jun 30th, 2008 04:18 PM

Well, I didn't mindless as he doesn't plan it. I mean mindless in the fact that he isn't thinking about the consequences, just killing.

Yeah, I don't think he would be able to take down Surfer or Galactus either, but I don't think he would be able to take out every X-Man and X-Men villain either. As the story clearly shows, Ennis doesn't let anything like logic stop him. None of this really belongs in a Punisher story. This isn't what he is about. He deals with the problems that the bigger heroes don't bother with.

I don't have a problem with Frank not being able to kill everyone. My problem is how poorly written, and, quite frankly, stupid the story is.

And it's not like Ennis was assigned this. This story was his idea. It came out in 1995 (or was it 94?) and is his first Punisher story. I believe his first story for Marvel. It probably came from his hatred of most super heroes (I believe the only one he actually likes is Superman).

A final thing for this post; If anyone is interested in reading this story, it's being re-released in August.

Ozzie Jun 30th, 2008 04:50 PM

I rather liked this one when I first read it as a kid. I don't think it withstood the test of time when I reread it earlier this year, but it was still enjoyable. I particularly liked the way he killed Spider-Man,
Spoilers!

Octiron Jun 30th, 2008 05:36 PM

The artist is Doug Braithwaite. That "unknown" there was bothering me a little haha

Dr. Boogie Jun 30th, 2008 06:05 PM

That was my fault. I wrote it at work and left that note in as a reminder to myself to find out who it was. Lemme just fix that now...

Protoclown Jun 30th, 2008 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brunbb (Post 564996)
Are you kidding? This is perhaps the worst story ever written. The Punisher is vaguely in character, if you consider him to be nothing but a mindless psychopath (like Ennis does).

I'm guessing you've never read Ennis's Punisher MAX series then? Because that's the best the Punisher has ever been as far as I'm concerned, and probably the best he ever will be.

Brunbb Jun 30th, 2008 07:08 PM

Yes, I have. In my opinion, it is the absolute worst.

Protoclown Jun 30th, 2008 08:46 PM

Wow. Granted, I never read this story Boogie reviewed here, but Ennis is one of my favorite writers, and Preacher is my favorite comic.

Nick Jun 30th, 2008 09:10 PM

I want to read this. Now.

Kybo Ren Jun 30th, 2008 10:18 PM

It's a great read and probally should've been sporting a "What if", but it's definately not the worst Punisher story.
If you don't like it, just go back to watching your Dolph Lundgren dvd.

gingerninja Jul 1st, 2008 12:13 AM

JJ, I personally liked the captain america style thing simply because it showed that even Frank has someone as a hero and someone to emulate.
I thought he also looked interesting with the bullets as skull teeth and all.

Huh!? Jul 1st, 2008 12:36 AM

Hey, long time listener...uh, viewer, I guess, first time poster. I'm a huge fan of Garth Ennis' run on Punisher, which is unfortunatly coming to an end. Now I'm not denying that this is a bit out there at points, but it's a pretty entertaining read (how he kills the Hulk... why hasn't anyone in the mainstream comics thought of that?). And with all due respect, to anyone who thinks Castle kills criminals to protect the innocent, they're kinda missing the point of the comic. It's not about defending others, he kills criminals because he hates them. Just my opinion though.
And I've gotta recommend Ennis' "The End" one-shot for Punisher. Great story, and nice artwork by Richard Corben, which manages to be cartoonish but still pretty graphic.

Julio Jul 1st, 2008 02:12 AM

Gotta love that Punisher's satire called Big Shot that appeared on The Tick. The line "Seek professional help..." that The Tick says to him when he blasts his way into the lair of the Idea Men (first episode) doing nothing more than shooting carelessly and taking the shit out of the criminals is pure classic.

Kitsunexus Jul 1st, 2008 03:59 AM

This is probably the best premise for an American comic book ever made. Besides the one where Sonic Jr. asks Antoine's dad where babies come from.

Purple Man Jul 1st, 2008 05:20 AM

Not surprised this review got such divided comments. I got this when it came out, as a guilty pleasure, seeing as I normally avoided all things Punisher. But I think this comic does create a better, more three-dimensional, view of Mr Castle than we see in some other appearances. And all those awesome death scenes! CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-SQUISH!

RationalDementia Jul 1st, 2008 11:54 AM

I bought this comic in a two pack with the first collected edition of Ennis's Marvel Knights version of the ongoing Punisher series, and it quickly cemented itself a place on my repeat reading pile. It reminds me of an old issue of What If? (I think it was "What If The X-Men Hadn't Killed Dracula", and what a title THAT is) in which most of the Marvel Heroes are turned into vampires by a vamped out Storm, and Frank is called in to take them down. There's a great fight scene near the end where he takes on a large crowd of vampy ex-heroes in a cathedral.

Dr. Boogie Jul 1st, 2008 12:35 PM

My view on the Punisher is the same as Huh's. It seemed to me that the Punisher was borne of revenge, and he just decided to keep that going, rather than settle into some kind of "protect the innocent" type hero. He hates criminals, but innocents being protected is purely incidental.

At the very least, it's just an extrapolation of that line, "it's not justice, it's punishment."

Lobo Tommy Jul 1st, 2008 01:33 PM

I heard about this comic once like 7 years ago. My dad was talking to one of his art students and the kid was talking about it. I thought it was the coolest idea in existence but never found out the name. Thanks I-Mockery!


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