Punisher

Rating:
Summary: Punisher reinvented
Review: Garth Ennis reinvents a boring character with his wonderful & twisted sense of humor. If you liked Hitman & Preacher for DC comics, you will love it!!!!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: DELIGHTFUL!
Review: I actually saw the "Punisher" movie before I read this comic. Now that I have read this I realize the movie doesn't come close to doing this justice. The comic is approximately 500 times better than the movie. The comic is very fast-paced, with a wonderful dark sense of humor, and excellent narration. Some people complain that the stories are over-the-top, but that is the charm of "The Punisher". His constant fights with superheroes make for entertaining reads. This is a must read for fans of Ennis and Dillon or just anyone interested in having a good time.

Rating:
Summary: Sad
Review: I am not a big fan of what Garth Ennis has done with the Punisher. For some reason I was expecting something gritty and rough, something to match Tim Bradstreet's covers, but what we got here instead are silly and ridiculous tales, about as thought-provocative as en episode of teletubbies. If you like childish stories, with a poorly drawn Punisher who kills people in lame and silly ways, by all means, pick this up...

Rating:
Summary: punisher looses all realism with ennis
Review: I believe that most people who read the punisher read it hoping for a realistic story and character. After all, a guy with no uniform except for a skull on his shirt and no superpowers, the punisher was made this way. However, when Ennis began to write him he lost all sense of realism. Here is what you have to look forward to.
The punisher fights a large Russian with big breasts (yes 6 years old may find it funny I personally thought it was dumb) The punisher fights an old lady with no arms and legs, again it was just dumb. If you are looking for a creative story thats realistic don't go here. The people that rated this book so high I believe were just big fans they don't recommend the average person who read this comic I don't think. Think twice before buying it is all i'm saying. If you want to give the punisher a try I'm not saying don't, read "circle of blood" or "punisher warzone" both are great realistice comics with the punisher

Rating:
Summary: SPACKER Dave!
Review: I was somewhat enthused when I heard that Garth Ennis got the nod to write this new chapter in the life of my fave comic-book vigilante. I've enjoyed many of his previous works, and was hoping he'd do some great work on the revival of the Punisher. Fortunately, he didn't disappoint. Thanks in part to his scripts, he crafted an adventure that finally put Marvel's famed anti-hero back on top of the world of illustrated print. And if that wasn't enough, PREACHER & HELLBLAZER cohort Steve Dillon's also in on the action with the rendering!

This rejuvenated Punisher isn't quite as "Grim 'N Gritty" as you'll remember from his late 80's to mid-90's glory days, but the dark humor and strange moments more than make up for the lack of angst. There's several unbelievably bizarre situations (two of Punisher's kills in this collection are among the May 2001 Wizard magazine's list of comics' most absurd deaths), several off-the-wall supporting characters (an Ennis trademark), and death & destruction in spades. The violence is significantly toned down compared to PREACHER, HITMAN, or THE RIFLE BRIGADE. The really nasty stuff is implied more than actually shown- usually off-panel or in silhouette. I guess Marvel isn't quite ready to go "all-out" with this title like DC did with the recently-retired HITMAN. Oh well...

And of course, what would a Garth Ennis-penned epic be without the wacky supporting characters? Most of 'em aren't quite as off-the-wall as Dogwelder or Arseface, but they're quite memorable none the less. There's the vigilante squad made up of Elite, a high society socialite; the low-rent-hero-of-the-downtrodden Mr. Payback; and the psycho ax-wielding Catholic priest The Holy. They get together and have aspirations of assisting New York's #1 vigilante anti-hero in his war on crime. The two police officers that make up the "Punisher Task Force" to track down our "hero" are the most pathetic and unfortunate examples of "New York's Finest".

Then there's Frank's neighbors at the apartment complex where he's hiding out. The morbidly obese Mister Bumpo is involved in one of the funniest comic-book fatalities since the death of Allfather D'Aronique in PREACHER. Then there's Spacker Dave, the guy who seems to spend all his time hanging out at the entrance to the apartment complex. His face is covered in all sorts of studs & rings from forehead to chin. Whenever Mr. Castle (under the pseudonym "Mister Smith") greets him with just "Dave", he calls out, "SPACKER Dave!" A close friend and myself actually annoyed a mutual buddy named Dave with the "SPACKER Dave!" war cry for several days in a row (yes, comic-book geeks really do this kinda stuff. Pretty pathetic, huh?). Needless to say, this real-life Dave doesn't hang with us much anymore...

But there are some truly dire & serious moments as well. The best of these is Frank putting Daredevil in a situation where he has no way to stop him except by killing him. Check it out to see how it all unfolds!

I now leave you with a totally useless and time-wasting activity: look for Ennis's & Dillon's tribute to "The Empire Strikes Back" somewhere in this collection. That should keep ya busy for several seconds...

'Late

Rating:
Summary: Punishment, Ennis & Dillon style
Review: If the story wasn't about a mass-murdering vigilante (not that I have anything against mass-murdering vigilantes), I could've described it as lighter than air. Story-wise, with the exception of one terrific defining moment between Frank Castle and Daredevil, this was basically nothing more than a catalog of semi-creative ways to off people. The frustrating thing was that Ennis already knew that and said as much in the introduction, effectively neutering his critics by beating them to the punch.

Dillon's art, however, was great and Jimmy Palmiotti did almost as good of a job inking it as Dillon himself. The more dimensional computer-assisted coloring was also surprisingly well suited to Dillion's art. Tim Bradstreet's covers were up to his usual standard of gritty realism.

By all reports the duo had a ball on this twelve-issue run, and as a result they've signed on to produce the on-going series. With the recent addition of ex-Vertigo editor Stuart Moore to the book, I'm hoping Ennis and Dillon are inspired to give us a little of that magic I was hoping for but didn't get in this miniseries.

Rating:
Summary: Isn't this all getting a little old?
Review: If you've ever wondered what happened to Jessie and the Saint of Killers after the conclusion of Preacher, Ennis & Dillon answer the question: apparently they got married, had a child together, and he grew up to be the Punisher. At least, that's what I concluded from the art and story in Ennis and Dillon's widely-praised reinvention of Punisher. By the end of the Preacher cycle, some of us were beginning to tire of Ennis & Dillon's limited repertoire, and sure enough their interpretation of Punisher re-affirms what we already suspected: Ennis has run through all his original ideas, and Dillon still can't draw women. Or different men, for that matter. Dillon's Punisher bears a striking resemblance to a cross between Preacher and the Saint, there's a mob boss eerily reminiscent of Preacher's grandmother (right down to the way she dies), and an assorted cast of cannon fodder and barflys that you've seen drawn almost identically in a dozen other Dillon backgrounds. The "plot" such as it is consists of one-note mayhem that quickly loses its novelty, briefly picking up only when the Russian puts in an appearance. This book received a lot of positive reviews, proving if nothing else that Hollywood probably can't lose if it keeps churning out mindless sequels to summer blockbusters, but my advice is to read either Preacher or Punisher - reading both is a waste of your money and time.

Rating:
Summary: Black comedy and bleak violence work well together.
Review: It would have been hard to find a formerly cool Marvel character further past his "sell by" date in 2000 than the Punisher. Frank Castle, a decorated Vietnam war veteran who returned home only to see his family butchered before his very eyes, had seen an explosion of popularity in the late '80s and early '90s, but he'd pretty much lost any relevance he might have had by the time fan-favorite writer Garth Ennis decided to scrape away the rust and give the Punisher another lease on life. The end result was a twelve-issue limited series now collected in the trade paperback entitled, THE PUNISHER: WELCOME BACK, FRANK.

Rather than try and replicate the guns 'n' guts jingoism of the Punisher's earlier exploits, Ennis took a completely new tack: black comedy. The Punisher had been up to this point a near carbon copy of Mack Bolan, the vigilante hero of the long-running action-adventure series of EXECUTIONER novels. Comedy was most definitely not an idea associated with the grim, unkillable Frank Castle. And yet...it works.

From the first few pages of WELCOME BACK, FRANK, when the Punisher gives a ponytail-wearing coke-head a second chance that they guy doesn't take, to the grimly humorous final panel, Ennis lays on the laughs in equal measure to the gruesome violence, and never strikes an off-note. What makes this approach so interesting is that Ennis doesn't treat Castle as a joke, but as the dour straight man surrounded by ever-more-outrageous acts of violence. Mafia goons are shot, stabbed and incinerated by flamethrowers. A pack of angry polar bears get an impromptu evening snack of mafioso. The body count is massive.

Artist Steve Dillon is able to capture perfectly this blend of farce and seriousness, depicting even the most shocking moments in a straightforward manner than wouldn't be out of place in any Marvel Comic, but which seems almost off-kilter itself when taken in context with the book's absurdist tone.

If there's any mistake made at all in WELCOME BACK, FRANK, it's the inclusion of a police subplot featuring the hapless Detective Soap and his partner-by-necessity, the sexy Lieutenant Von Richthofen. The two cops, outcasts in their own department, follow the Punisher's trail as he singlehandedly decimates the Gnucci crime family, waiting for their chance to swoop in and make arrests once the last bullet casing has hit the ground. The problem? Their story goes absolutely nowhere.

It's clear that Ennis wants to say something with the story of Soap and Von Richthofen, but it's never clear what. And by the time the last few pages of their subplot flip by, what little promise the characters held out to become relevant or entertaining simply slips away. But at least there's Frank Castle and his over-the-top brutality to fall back on.

WELCOME BACK, FRANK launched not one, but two ongoing comic series, and lit a fire under the moribund character such that even Hollywood came calling, despite the existence of a truly wretched Punisher film from 1988 starring Dolph Lundgren. Ennis's revision of the Punisher doesn't erase all the terrible comics that came out during the character's heyday, or eliminate Lundgren's sloppy turn as Castle onscreen, but it's darned good stuff all the same. Welcome back, Frank, indeed.

Rating:
Summary: Whole Lotta Spackin' Goin' On!
Review: Joining the ranks of Frank Miller's Daredevil™ books and Claremont & Byrne's X-Men™ run, Garth Ennis' indelible mark on one of Marvel™'s most popular characters has resulted in some of his best Punisher™ stories being put into a deluxe hardcover edition, complete with glossier pages and slightly heavier paper stock! Personally, though, I don't care too much about HC-edition comics. I don't mind them all that much, I just consider them less convenient than their paperback counterparts. True, paperbacks tend to not wear as well, but I read my own so infrequently that they don't wear that much anyway. Still, if you wanna great collection of Ennis-penned Punisher™ tales together in one tome and are willing to pull out the extra bucks for the dust jacket, then this bad-boy is highly recommended!

Commencing this four-color medley is the 12-ish MaxiSeries that revived the popularity of Marvel™'s famed vigilante in the funnybook realm! Filled with the Ennis staples of over-the-top ultraviolence, disturbingly hilarious dark humor, super-bizarre situations, and offbeat-yet endearing-- supporting characters, this story arc brilliantly succeeded where previous attempts to bring the Big P back from superhero limbo failed miserably! Preacher™ cohort Steve Dillon lends an assist here with his trademark artwork, which is lovingly 'traced' by inker Jimmy Palmiotti. I'd go into further detail about this particular tale, but I'd rather you look up my review for 'The Punisher™: Welcome Back, Frank ©' TPB instead. It covers my views on it in far greater detail!

Up next is one of my all-time fave Marvel™ 'What If...? ©' stories, 'The Punisher™ Kills The Marvel Universe', which was Ennis' first contribution to the Punisher™ mythos. This story features our beloved vigilante taking his vengeance out on the superheroes and villains who seem indifferent to the innocents caught in the middle of their battles. He spends the rest of the book systematically hunting down and taking out as many of the Marvels as he can! The Big P highlights here include a near-trouncin' by Doom™, and his fateful tussle with Wolverine™! His hits on the Hulk™, Spider-Man™, the rest of the X-Men™ & the Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants™ (including Magneto™!) were somewhat anticlimactic, though. And what kinda scheme did he employ to kill Galactus™? Unfortunately, we may never know 'cuz this particular take-down was never shown or alluded to. Is there anybody or anything that can stop him? You'll just hafta find out for yourself...

Finally, there's the short piece that takes place from the mouth's-eye view of a mobster who's getting his not-so-regular checkup at the dentist's office. And I'll give you three guesses who's waiting for him, and the first two guesses don't count! This particular story features the Punisher™'s sadistic side as he interrogates our helpless mobster with the kinda zeal that would've made Dr. Mengele very proud! I'm placing bets that someone will develop this story into a scene for a new 'The Dentist™' sequel! Lord knows Corben Bernsen could use the work...

'Late

Rating:
Summary: The Vigilante of Death at his best!!!
Review: Okay, I'll admit it, I'm a huge fan of shoot-em-up, violent comics. This happens to be the first Punisher graphic novel I've ever read, and I absolutely loved it!!! This guy is definitely a vigilante who is not afraid to kill! He cleans up crime with his machine guns, .45s, and explosives and takes no prisoners!!! In this graphic novel he goes after an Italian mob crime syndicate. Except this syndicate doesn't have a Godfather, but a Godmother!!
Like one of the people commented about this book, if you liked the "Godfather Trilogy" movies you'll definitely like this!! You'll also enjoy this if you liked the "Rambo" movies.
Only one thing though, I would recommend this graphic novel to mostly mature audiences, and the people out there who aren't faint-of-heart, simply because of all the graphic violence that is involved. All fans of the Punisher and vigilante superheroes, certainly will cherish this giant graphic novel!!!