Saturday Splash Page #151

 

"Down the Barrel of a Gun," in Spectacular Spider-Girl #2, by Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron Frenz (writer/penciler), Sal Buscema (finished art), Bruno Hang (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

A 4-issue mini-series from 2010, where New York City is in the middle of a gang war between Black Tarantula and an old-school Maggia guy enhanced with cybernetics. No, not Silvermane. This guy calls himself Silverback. I guess DeFalco and Frenz thought Silvermane would have to be dead by now or something.

Mayday promised her parents she'd stay out of it, but it's not sitting well with her. But she's got enough problems as it is. There's a horribly-dressed weirdo named Wild Card who keeps kicking her ass and telling her to stay out of the conflict. I mean, the outfit is bad. Like he's trying to fight her by making her go blind. Her clone/sister April is really getting into her Mayhem identity, and is actually working for Silverback.

Oh, and Frank Castle came out of retirement (that he spent in South America, where he still periodically fucked drug lords up) because Silverback was a guy he left crippled as a message before ending his war on the mob. Years of reading Garth Ennis' Punisher leave me unable to see Frank doing either of those things. Not ending his war on the mob, and certainly not leaving a guy alive as a message. "People scare better when they're dying," is definitely a philosophy the Punisher subscribes to.

The story has a feel of DeFalco and Frenz clearing the decks. They probably know this is one of the last Spider-Girl stories they're going to write, and they try to definitively move the old guard off the board, both characters that existed before Spider-Girl, and ones that didn't, but are supposed to pre-date her. Silverback and the Punisher bite the dust. Black Tarantula opts to leave New York with Arana, basically removing him as an issue. Peter (once again) accepts that he needs to trust his daughter can handle things. Even the two goons of Silverback's that are based on DeFalco and Frenz (I guess they didn't de in the wilds of Jersey) end up turning state's evidence in the hopes of being able to start new lives in witness protection elsewhere.

Silverback turns out to be a puppet of another villain, and that villain gets killed by Mayhem. Which sets up April's continuing descent into a "lethal protector" type as Mayday's biggest issue. Especially combined with her desire to assert her individuality as the true, only daughter of Peter and Mary Jane, which would come to a head in Spider-Girl: The End.

And with that, Summer (and Fall) of Spiders draws to a close.

He's Murder in the Kitchen

It's almost Thanksgiving here in the U.S., and that means it's time to ask the question on everybody's mind:

How good of a cook is Frank Castle?

What do you mean, that wasn't on your mind and never has been? You won't spare a thought for poor Frank Punisher's (tip o' the cap to Jay and Miles Explain the X-Men for that name) culinary skills? Who else is gonna make Thanksgiving dinner for him? His family? They're dead, you know. You're so insensitive.

OK, OK, we all know Frank isn't celebrating Thanksgiving with anything other than shooting some guys trying to hijack TV shipments on their way to the big box stores for Black Friday. But the man has to eat something other than the smell of gunpowder and cordite, and C-4 does not have enough fiber for a man his age (however old Frank is these days.)

I think we generally see the Punisher eating MRE rations, or indistinguishable stuff out of cans. I know in Ennis' run he went to a pub at least once, because he was eating in a dark corner when that news broadcast came on about Nicky Cavella digging up his family's bodies. But at some point, before all the punishing, the guy lived a relatively normal life with a family*. They would have family meals, because that seems like the kind of family they were from his memories, and he must have cooked occasionally, if only to give Maria a chance to rest.

So, what's in Frank's kitchen repertoire? I'm assuming he knows how to make chili, or stew. All American men are supposed to know how to make those. Even I know how to make chili, and I'm about two steps above Homer Simpson somehow causing a fire make Corn Flakes. I'm sure he knows how to grill burgers or hot dogs, his dad would have taught him that. Scrambled eggs, toast, probably grilled cheese sandwiches, stuff like that.

That's pretty straightforward stuff, but I dunno, I feel like Frank would know some surprising stuff. The Tyger established that he like reading poetry, and that his mother encouraged it, over his father's half-hearted objections. Frank seems to be an only child, I could see his mother trying to pass on things she knows, Frank patiently listening and absorbing. Maybe he can make pie crusts from scratch, or he knows how to make really good cannolis, something like that.

Although I could see the argument that Frank makes these things technically perfect, but the food lacks soul or some other ineffable quality. Like he follows the recipe to the letter, but lacks that inventiveness or instinct that causes him to make a slight alteration that enhances the experience. I'm kind of like this, except I stick to recipes as closely as possible so I don't fuck up and waste a bunch of food. If I'm going to burn x amount of time cooking, I better get something edible out of it! Utilitarian, but it works, which was probably Frank's approach.

* It just occurred to me, I have no idea what Castle did for a living between when he came home from Vietnam/the Middle East/whichever American military boondoggle his origin is tied to currently, and when his family died. Was he still in the military, but as an instructor at a boot camp? Did he have a civilian job?

Never Research the Fates of Minor Characters

In Random Back Issues #50, I mentioned I wasn't sure what Cammi had been up to since Dennis Hopeless let her go back into space at the end of Avengers Undercover, and that I was a little leery of trying to find out, because Donny Cates probably killed her during his Guardians of the Galaxy run.

Well, I did end up looking into that weekend, and well, Donny Cates didn't kill her in his Guardians of the Galaxy run. She popped up in that Drax series CM Punk wrote, and then in Asgardians of the Galaxy, a book I had blessedly forgotten existed. And then Dennis Hopeless killed her in Revenge of the Cosmic Ghost Rider, which is, when you think about it, Donny Cates' fault, because he created that stupid character.

I mean, a Ghost Rider in space? OK fine, the '90s Guardians of the Galaxy series established that was a thing, and Jason Aaron's Ghost Rider was all about how there were a bunch of Ghost Riders just on Earth. But then you write him as a) working for Thanos, and b) so nutty I thought it was supposed to be Deadpool. Which would at least make sense for a) if you figure those two characters each have a thing for Death.

But no! Cosmic Ghost Rider is actually Frank Castle. Yes, the guy who kills murders and drug dealers for killing or even just preying on people works for the guy who killed half the people in the universe. Because he decided he couldn't kill him, so if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Which sounds so entirely contrary to Frank Castle, I'm not sure where to start, but it makes me think Donny Cates and whoever lets him write for a living should probably be ostracized (in the Athenian sense of being exiled for 10 years.)

And from what I can tell looking online, Cammi let her soul be sent to Hell to save Frank's (wasted effort there), and then when he got her out, her soul was devoured by some other thing, and now it runs around in her body.

So, Hopeless offed her so Frank can. . . be angry about someone who got killed and want to kill the one responsible? Frank Castle's already like that, all the time. It's his entire existence, killing people because he's mad his family got killed. He doesn't need more deaths to be angry about.

Back when Avengers Arena came out, I knew I would've been one of the folks angry with it if Hopeless had offed one of the characters I really liked. Meaning either Cammi or Darkhawk. They dodged that bullet, but when you're a third-tier character or worse, it's always just a matter of time before somebody offs you for cheap dramatics.

Random Back Issues #49 - The Punisher (MAX) #44

Well if they did that, then there wouldn't be any more Punisher comics, and you wouldn't like that would you? Oh, you would? Well, take your complaints to Marvel, I'm just a blogger.

Get with the good times, it's Garth Ennis' Punisher run! So consider that your obligatory violence and profanity warning. Today we're looking at the second chapter of the Widowmaker arc, where five mob widows decide that if all the men are too incompetent to kill the Punisher, they'll do it. The only progress on that front here is that they figure out one of them is dyslexic, so she's no help going through the police reports. But, she can fuck the guy that's going to give them weapons, so hey! Teamwork! Also, they conclude Frank has a bit of a white knight complex when it comes to abused women (having read up on his actions in "The Slavers" arc three storylines ago), and that's how they'll trap him.

But the story starts with Frank visiting a suburban home where the parents film porn, using their children. Frank is understandably not happy about this, and well, you see how it turned out for those two. He at least insisted they show him the set-up in the basement, while the kids stay in the living room, used a silencer, and called the police to come collect the children after. Ever the optimist, Frank thinks the daughter might be young enough to have a chance. As for her two older brothers, Frank has 'a sinking feeling. . . I'd be seeing them again in twenty years.'

I'm most surprised Frank thinks he'll still be alive in twenty years.

Part of what Ennis does in this arc is compare and contrast Frank with some other would-be vigilantes. One is a cop, Paul Budiansky, who Lan Medina clearly based on Samuel L. Jackson. It's not quite Mike Deodato using Tommy Lee Jones as the model for Norman Osborn, but it's real close. Paul ignored orders and went into a school where a student was killing other kids with machine pistols, and shot the kid. Now he has to meet with a psychiatrist, who Paul feels is just trying to use him as material for his next book, and that he's only here because his Captain is mad he bucked orders and can't find another way to fuck with him.

He also says telling people they're traumatized might keep them from dealing with their problems, one panel after insisting he will deal with this by having nightmares and drinking whiskey. That's about what I'd expect from a Garth Ennis character, and I can't tell whether we're supposed to think that's macho bullshit, or cheer Budiansky on. Probably the second, after he concludes by telling the doc she's 'just another racist bitch.'  

At least he has his wife for support and to assure him he's nothing like the Punisher. Sure hope nothing traumatic happens to her! He might not have enough whiskey to go with the nightmares.

The other vigilante is after the five widows themselves, for reasons that aren't made entirely clear for another couple of issues. The only progress on that front, is a guy tries to pick her up outside a cafe and she blows him off, telling him he seems like a nice guy, and that's why she doesn't want him anywhere near her. Also, she's listening in on the widows plan from the next table over.

As arcs in this series go, it's one of the weaker ones. It's 7 issues instead of his usual six, and there really isn't enough there to justify it. Wedged in between the "Man of Stone" arc that preceded it, and the rematch with Barracuda that comes next, it isn't nearly as strong.

[8th longbox, 230th comic. The Punisher (MAX) #44, by Garth Ennis (writer), Lan Medina (penciler), Bill Reinhold (inker), Raul Trevino (colorist), Randy Gentile (letterer)]

Punisher Season 2

Out of boredom as much as anything, I watched Season 2 of The Punisher on Netflix a couple of weeks ago. Probably spoilers because who cares? It's a Punisher series, you know how things end. People get shot in large numbers.

It was OK. I didn't exactly like that the season starts with the girl on the run and mysterious religious guy who kills a lot of people, which I was interested in, only to be sidetracked onto the whole mess with Billy Russo, Agent Midani, and Billy's extremely unprofessional therapist/psychologist Dr. Dumont. There are points you almost forget the "pilgrim" is supposed to be out there, somewhere, hunting them down. The urgency he showed in killing a crapload of people, in staging an Assault of Precinct 13 on some podunk-ass sheriff station, vanishes like a fart in the wind the moment things move to New York City.

Also, the way Pilgrim never answers anyone's questions gets really irritating. Mostly because no one ever calls him on it. They ask his name, or where he's from, and he just walks away or asks a question of his own. You think someone would point out how rude that is.

I was intrigued by the idea Billy didn't remember exactly what happened to him or why. In fact, I'm not sure he ever actually remembers that Frank smashed his face into glass because Billy was responsible for killing Frank's family. That could have been an emotional scene. Or a hilarious one, depending. Billy just being gobsmacked to learn he did that.

Agent Midani seems marginally more competent than she did in Season 1. I mean, she eventually figures out something is up with Dr. Dumont, and manages to not die against a furious Billy Russo. I'm not sure what to make of her decision to switch from Homeland Security to the CIA at the end of the season. A decision made apparently because she hated having to play by rules and laws. 

I know that in a Punisher story, there's going to be a certain amount of support for ignoring laws and human rights, given that the main character is a mass murderer. Like that saying about how all war movies are pro-war (which I don't think I agree with, necessarily). The characters that should ostensibly object - Midani, Detective Mahoney, probably Karen Page who shows up again in one episode - all come up with some convoluted reason or another not to. 

(Well, Mahoney may not have excused it, so much as he was too beat to shit to stop Frank escaping, and he didn't want to just shoot a man in the back. Surprising turn from a cop.)

Not sure you want a situation where Frank's success doing whatever he wants in turn encourages other characters to behave similarly. At least, not when that involves joining the CIA, with its history of destabilizing governments, assassinations, abducting people and throwing them in hidden prisons.

At least Curtis, Frank and Billy's old Marine friend, has a valid reason to work with Frank. He's terrified of Billy, and doesn't appreciate Billy gathering up disgruntled veterans and convincing them to pull heists.

An Ambivalent Punisher Review

I watched all of Netflix' Punisher series over the last two weeks. Originally, I hadn't thought I would. I wasn't sure I would be up for a guy with guns just running around killing whoever he deems to deserve it over a broad class of people. As it turned out, the series stuck to a more narrow revenge theme, rather than some "war on crime" story. Let's pause for stations identification, and for a SPOILER warning, here on the RML Network. SPOILERS, they'll ruin your day if you want to watch this show free of someone else's notions (which I was mostly able to do).

The Punisher is presumed dead. Frank has settled into a life as a mostly silent construction worker under an assumed identity, believing he's killed everyone involved in his family's murder. Wrong! And those people were also involved in ruining the life of David Lieberman, who has gone into hiding under the alias "Micro", and wants Frank's help to stop these people so he can rejoin his family. There's also Homeland Security agent Dinah Midani, back from Afghanistan, trying to track down the U.S. soldiers responsible for murdering a friend and contact of hers there, a murder Frank Castle might know something about, if only he weren't dead. . .

Like the second season of Daredevil, there were almost enough plates spinning to keep me from noticing pacing issues. That said, around episode 10, when they do that old bit where they show the same event in flashback from multiple characters' perspectives, I started to get impatient.

There is a lot of time spent on Micro spying on his family through cameras installed in their house, and Frank spending time with them, initially in a power struggle with Micro, later because he cares about them, and it's probably pleasant for him to recapture a sense of domesticity. It's a good idea if you want the audience to care about Frank, rather than him living alone in some basement, just eating beans all the time, stepping out periodically to kill some drug dealers. Show more of the mostly good person he was before, don't show him executing people so much. And it mostly solved my concern about watching this man run around killing whoever he deems a criminal whenever he feels like it, because that barely happens. Outside of him killing a few guys at the very beginning - who we're told were involved in his family's murder - I think everyone Frank kills is, at the moment of their deaths, trying to kill him or some other innocent person.

Still, there came a point I was sitting there wondering when I was going to see Frank Castle kill some of these bad guys. I kept thinking of Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park. "Now eventually, you are going to have some punishing in your Punisher series, correct? Hello?"

That said, Jon Bernthal as Castle and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Micro have decent chemistry. Micro has this sad-eyed hangdog air to him, while Frank is gruff and awkward, frequently resorting to a raspy scoff when he doesn't know how else to react. Bernthal's Frank Castle can still care about people, he hasn't buried that part of him, but he tries to, and no longer seems to know how to react. I do like that he acknowledges that his family life wasn't always sweetness and rainbows. Even if it makes sense those are the memories that would keep coming back to him.

There's a series of threads running through about other soldiers and how they've adjusted or are struggling to adjust since they left the service. Frank has an old corpsman friend (played by Jason R. Moore) who has a discussion help group going, and his old Marine buddy Billy is a big shot running a private security firm. One of the people in Curtis' group is a young man who feels like he misses being in combat, and feels abandoned here. That ends badly.

It was interesting as contrast with Frank, not just in terms of what he lost once he returned home, but the sense he has that he left something behind on those tours of duty. There are parts of him he couldn't get back, and so he's never felt whole, even once he was back with his family. He left something behind, and something else followed him home. All these people suffered in some way or the other, and many of them continue to suffer after. Frank seems to have given up really trying to go forward with his life at the start of the show, he's just existing. Some of the people in the group are lost, others are trying to move ahead if they can, but aren't sure they're getting anywhere.

That said, the point at which Lewis decides to start striking back violently at society was a mistake. It felt too cliched, another soldier striking back at an entire subset of people he holds responsible for the dislocation he feels. Another mirror to play off Frank. But by the time it reached that point, I was invested in seeing Frank get the people he was after. Frank taking time to deal with Lewis was an irritating diversion. He was on one plotline, which I wanted to reach the conclusion of, and then was wrenched onto a different plot for two episodes. I preferred Curtis' discussions with his group serving as a parallel to Frank's story.

I couldn't decide if Dinah Midani (Amber Rose Revah) was unlucky, in over her head, or just incompetent. She's driven, but it seems as though everything she tries fails. Every clever scheme or attempt to get the upper hand backfires, often with people dying as a result. I thought she'd make the big save at the end, but couldn't even manage that. She mirrors Castle, someone out to avenge lost loved ones, but also too caught up in it, charging ahead blind to other dangers. Castle has Micro to at least try to pull him back, Midani didn't have anyone effective at that, only people who were good at telling her what she did wrong after the fact. I think she's also meant to make Frank face the things he did (under orders that he didn't know were actually bullshit), but I thought that got lost in the shuffle much of the time. So is she a different cautionary tale for Frank, like Lewis, or am I giving the show too much credit?

When the show does decide it's time for violence, it goes for it. People's faces gets beaten into bloody pulp, eyes are gouged out, a lot of people get stabbed multiple times. Definitely felt like another level from the violence in the other Marvel Netflix shows. Which, if you are going to do a show about a guy whose whole shtick is he violently kills lots of criminals, I guess you shouldn't hold back on said violence. Credit on that score.

Paul Schulze plays a pretty contemptible, arrogant villain in Rawlins. The kind of guy who was handed everything and believes that was his birthright. When things stop going how he wants, he loses all composure, maybe too much. Scenery chewing going a bit far. I can make explanations for him acting like that, but again, I'm not sure I'm not giving the show too much credit.

I don't think I ever got really fired up and excited during the show. Except near the end, when Frank gets at Rawlins, that might have been a "Fuck yeah!" moment. Otherwise, there were a lot of quieter scenes I enjoyed, conversations that were pleasant to watch, which is not what I would have expected, but that's the extent of it. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. I could watch it and have it mostly hold my attention for 50 minutes at a pop.

First We Consolidate, Then We Obliterate

Because a coworker asked me to try and keep a body count, I watched the 1989 Punisher movie. I have strange coworkers.

The movie was in the box of stuff my dad loaned me a month ago, part of a discount action movies disc. You know, eight crappy films on two DVDs for some really low price? I'm not at all sure why he would buy it, or why he would think I'd want to watch any of it, but I've come to realize I can't always follow his tastes.

For the record, the body count, by my best estimate, is 98 confirmed on-screen deaths. Not bad, I guess. It doesn't count the 125 or more kills he racked up the previous five years, since we didn't see those. I did count the flashback of his family dying, since we got to see that. I didn't count Detective Sam Leary (Nancy Everhard), since the last we saw of her, she was only getting pistol-whipped as the mob rescued Frank. I can't confirm her death, because she drops out of the film entirely after that.

In some ways, it wasn't as bad as I expected. Then again, some of the particulars of a Punisher film are pretty simple. Give him a family killed by the mob. Make him frighteningly determined to kill criminals, but protective of children. Give him a reliable source of information. Using a down on his luck drunk of an actor was a curious choice, but he adds some color.

It's also a very '80s action movie, which isn't necessarily great for the idea of Frank Castle I have in my head now (pretty much Ennis' version). The one-liners felt out of place, the use of a motorcycle stuck me as impractical (it attracts too much attention, and severely limits how much firepower you can carry). I found it curious the big white skull on his shirt was too far, but using a remote control truck with a bottle of hooch to get Shake's attention was OK. I don't really care for either of the cops, Leary or Berkowitz (Lou Gossett Jr.), but I guess they needed some way to get the backstory and emotional depth into the movie. One that didn't rely on Dolph Lundgren, I mean. Some of the faces he makes cracked me up. Especially the one as he surrenders to the cops. Oh well, I wasn't expecting much from him, and that's what I got.

I was impressed by the conclusion of Castle and Gianni Franco's (wasn't expecting to see the evil doctor from The Fugitive in this movie) partnership. Frank agrees to help Franco recover his child from the Yakuza, but promises to kill Franco as soon as that's accomplished. Except you presume the boy will be there at the time, so how were they going to work around that? I figured there was no way they'd have Frank kill the guy in front of his son. I expected them to weasel out of it. Send Tommy away, have Lt. Berkowitz show up and kill Franco because he got the drop on Frank, have Franco accidentally kill himself while trying to get Frank.

But no, Frank actually did kill Franco in front of Tommy, albeit after Franco made a very game attempt to kill Frank, and after Tommy came to Frank's aid. I honestly couldn't decide what to make of Frank giving Tommy the chance to kill him as revenge. Frank's reasoning - that if Tommy gets it out of the way now, he won't grow up to be his father - was a little dodgy. We have no indication Franco acted as he did out of some childhood revenge anger. It's more likely Frank's deathwish coming through than anything, but I have a hard time seeing him encouraging a child to kill someone, even under those circumstances.

Of course, right after that, he tells Tommy he's a good boy, and had better stay that way, because Frank will be watching. Which makes Frank out to be Robot Santa from Futurama, essentially.

Are They Stuck In One Of Those Cycles?

I picked up some back issues yesterday. Nothing that finished out a run, but I did move considerably closer to wrapping up Hitman. I was reading #53, I think, when Tommy attends the funeral for Tiegel's grandfather, and pauses to pay his respects at Sean Noonan's grave. He talks with Sister Concepta, and she brings up what Tommy did to the people who killed Sean. Namely, he attended the wedding of the daughter of the Gallo family, and killed her and every wiseguy there (he did spare the priest). Tommy argues he did it because Sean meant a lot to him, and it was the only way he knew to make things right.

The sister is not impressed. She argues there were children there who lost their parents because of Tommy, and who will think this is how the world works. I don't quite know what she means, because I'm not sure how much the kids would understand. Do they know Tommy did it for revenge, and so the kids will learn that the way to deal with loss is anger, and if they're angry, they should kill the people they blame for the loss. Or is it the idea that the world is a chaotic place, where people can be killed at any moment, for no reason a child can discern or understand?

It makes me wonder what those kids grow up to be, in Ennis stories in general. In his Punisher works, there were definitely children left behind after Frank Castle got done with their fathers or mothers. At one point he attacked a funeral, and a small boy was the only one who saw him drive up, and drive away. That kind almost certainly lost someone close to them that day, assuming they weren't there to mourn the deaths of everyone close to them already. Do they become like their absent parents, or the men who killed those parents, or something else entirely? Maybe they're better off without mob types as parents. I suppose there's no reason they can't be wonderful, loving parents, and inhuman monsters to everyone else on the planet.

We did see Marc Navaronne near the end of Hitman, whose father was killed by Tommy, and who subsequently was set to kill Tommy. But Marc was already being trained to kill before his father crossed paths with Monaghan, so I don't know how much credit or blame could be placed on Tommy for how Marc turned out.

I think in the Punisher's world, those kids probably grow up to be crooks, because part of what Ennis worked with there was that Frank was fighting an endless war, that there would always be more criminals, and Frank knew that, and to a certain extent, accepted it. Not accepted in the sense he stopped killing, but he knew crime would continue on beyond his end, and so he'd do all he could until then.

In Tommy's world, I'm not so sure. You could argue those kids Monaghan orphaned will wind up in the same business as their parents. After all, despite Sean's best efforts, Tommy wound up a killer, and even if Pat wasn't a killer, he was still an arms dealer. But Tommy worked to protect Maggie Lorenzo and her unborn kid because he thought they deserved a chance for a good life. As a result of his (and Natt's, and McCallister's) actions, Maggie and her boy won't grow up in the Cauldron, and I think the kid will turn out OK. That's just conjecture, but it feels like the point is Tommy tried to do that good thing he was looking for, and it worked out. So maybe people aren't doomed. Though there's obviously a difference between a child and mother saved by Tommy, and a kid orphaned by Tommy, but Hitman isn't nearly as bleak as Punisher.

Quick Trigger Finger, Even For Castle

Anyone find it strange that Frank Castle killed the Puppet Master so quickly in Heroes for Hire this week? It's not a surprise he killed him; this is the Punisher we're talking about. But his insistence that Puppet Master would never talk is a bit odd. Frank gets criminals to spill their guts to him all the time, and those crooks have to realize they're going to die the moment they run out of useful information. Yet they talk anyway. Who's to say Puppet Master wouldn't have done the same, just to keep himself alive until some more folks could show up to protect him from Castle? Everything he'd say could be lies, but the lies might tell them something, and there might be some truth in there as well.

It makes me wonder if Frank wasn't still under someone's control, that being Puppet Master's mysterious boss. Masters had refined and updated his controlling techniques, but that might also make them usable for someone else. Maybe he let his employer in on too many trade secrets?

What's Frank Castle Get Out Of The Afterlife?

Late in 2008, Marvel released a Punisher: War Zone mini-series by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. In it, there's a sequence where Frank asks the fellow who's been after him why he thinks Frank would be haunted by the people he kills. His next two lines are 'I send them to Hell. I sleep just fine.' I saw the page originally in one of Chris Sims' "Ask Chris" columns, and I've been thinking about it periodically since then. Last week, it struck me as strange that the Punisher basically admits he believes in Hell. I've been sorting out my thoughts on that since then.

My thinking was Frank is focused, but also very practical about what he does. He tries to bury the emotional part of himself, because it'll make him stupid and get him killed more quickly. For as many as he kills, he's knows there will always be more criminals, long after he's dead. Even while he's alive, there are numerous ones he'll never catch up to, and the most he can hope for is what he does might give them a moment's pause. He knows he's gone too far down this path - willingly, it's worth noting - to turn back, which is why he can't be part of the life of the daughter he learned he had with O'Brien. It's not so much that Frank couldn't believe in an afterlife, but more I didn't think he would bother to. He's focused on his mission, and doing it efficiently as possible.

Today, it occurred to me that War Zone was under the Marvel Knights imprint, the same as the "Welcome Back, Frank" mini-series Ennis and Dillon did several years earlier (which lead to a Punisher ongoing under the Marvel Knights heading, and eventually the ongoing Ennis wrote in the MAX imprint). At the very start of "Welcome Back, Frank", Ennis addresses Castle's previous status quo: acting as a killer of paranormal stuff under Heaven's direction. Ennis deals with it quickly, basically stating "Yeah, it happened, but Frank's alive again, back to killing mobsters and such. Moving on!" The idea that Frank Castle believes in the afterlife wouldn't come as any surprise, considering he'd seen it, acted in service of it, even.

I'm not clear on what connection there might be between Ennis' Marvel Knights and MAX Punisher work. Costumed superheroes are never mentioned in the MAX stuff. Neither is the Russian, or Frank once making a French military officer drop a nuke on an island. However, Frank's SAS buddy Yorkie Mitchell showed up in both titles, though more often in the MAX book. Still, MAX imprint Frank believes in something, too. In Punisher: The Tyger one-shot, at the end, as Frank begins his war on crime, he thinks to himself that he'll show them something not made by God. it's a reference to a scene earlier in the book, when Frank attends a poetry class as a kid. After hearing Blake's "The Tyger", he asks who made the Tyger, because he doesn't believe it could have been made by the same being that made lambs, meaning God*. It could be a product of his upbringing he hasn't shaken, the same way there are certain things he learned as a kid he honed as he's grown older.

There's always the possibility that Frank believes because he likes the idea that after he's done with the crooks, they wind up someplace worse, where they suffer more than he could ever inflict. By and large, Ennis' Punisher doesn't torture. When he does, he doesn't hold back, but it's rare enough that it even worries him how easy it was. Normally, he's trying to do things as quickly and cleanly as possible, so there wouldn't be time to drag it out. So those he kills could fall under the category of "At least it was quick", if that's a consolation. But he can tell himself there's more waiting for them on the other side.

I don't think that's it, though. He's killing them, and that should be satisfaction enough, in its own way. It's another scene in the MAX run I was thinking of as evidence of his beliefs I think is the reason. At the end of the "Up is Down, Black is White" arc, Frank's captured Nicky Cavella, the mobster who dug up the remains of Frank's family, urinated on them, then sent a recording of it to major news stations. Frank went wild for a bit, not killing civilians wild, but being much more showy and careless (with himself) in how he did things. Now though, he's leading Cavella into the woods, and he thinks to himself (I don't have it in front of me, so paraphrasing) that the clouds had gone and he could think clearly again. He remembers Maria and the kids are someplace people like Cavella can never touch them.

That's the key to it, because Castle isn't just the Punisher, unstoppable, remorseless, emotionless killer. Frank Castle, husband and father, is still in there, but buried as deeply as possible. Because when that part of him comes to the surface, takes control, he gets careless. He does things less intelligently, puts himself and others at risk. It isn't a strict revenge thing, because that would end with the ones responsible for his pain**. It's a mission that doesn't end with the death of one criminal, but hypothetically ends with the death of all criminals (though it really ends with Frank's death), and so emotion can't enter into it. In that way, the belief that his loved ones are somewhere else, in peace and happiness, safe from the sort of violence that killed them, is a soothing measure for that emotional part of Frank. They aren't simply dead and gone, they're dead, but in a better place, so he doesn't need to be angry over them. It keeps that part of Frank Castle quiet, so the soldier can do what he has to, how he has to do it.

* The teacher, a priest, responds that God made everything, and that's all there is to it, as far as he's concerned.

** As it did for Jenny in the Widowmakers arc. She'd trained herself to be very good at killing, but once she killed the specific people she hated, there was nothing left for her, and she killed herself.

I Know There Are People Who Would Pay Money For This

And here I was, worried I'd have nothing to post about tonight. Sally has this post, which talks a bit about Batman, his current adventures in time, and includes that panel of Batman tied up with cavemen all around.

Looking at it, I think Bats looks rather like Frank Castle. I think it's the stubble, or maybe the lines around his mouth. They make him look older, and I'd figure Castle should be older than Bruce Wayne*. This, of course, lead me to wonder what happens if the Punisher becomes lost in time. If he meets cavemen, and one of those cavemen tries to kill another because, you know, they're trying to survive, or they want the other one's stuff, or whatever, does Castle do what he does?

Initially, I was thinking of it in terms of whether he'd risk the timeline, but considering his timeline leads to the death of his wife and kids, I don't think he'd care**. There was a story in Marvel Knights Punisher about Castle getting Nick Fury to convince Reed Richards to send Frank back to Capone's time to kill him, under some premise that killing Capone would keep the sort of organized crime that took his family from existing. Yeah, I know, it was all a dream story, don't sweat it. At any rate, it would suggest Castle doesn't particularly worry about stuff like that.

Then I started wondering whether law exists at that time. If there are no laws stating it's illegal to take another person's stuff, or cave their head in with a rock, is it still criminal to do so?It could be considered immoral (that would depend on who is making the judgment, though), but without laws prohibiting it, it could be argued the person isn't actually a criminal***. Then I remembered Castle isn't much for technicalities, a crook is a crook, so if he saw a caveman doing something he considered criminal, he'd kill them.

* Though I'm not sure how old Bruce needs to be to incorporate his years of training, then Grayson's years of being Robin, then Nightwing, and Drake's time as Robin, and everything else. Wayne has to be in his early forties at least, right? I figure Castle's pushing 60, though.

** Plus there's Marvel's bit about how you actions in the past only create new timelines where those actions have an effect, but the original persists unchanged. When writers actually use that, anyway.

*** It reminds me of a piece from The Forgotten War, that I read back in March. Hierry talked about how the Germans would let a native of the islands off with a warning if they committed a crime, but were from a section of the island the Germans hadn't reached with their administrative and judicial offices. The reasoning being, they didn't know the law, so it would be wrong to exile them, or sentence them to hard labor. In that case the laws exist, but since the person in question wasn't aware of them, the laws in a way don't exist until the moment the Germans let them know about them.

Probably A Preferable Situation Than His Usual Fare

That is probably my favorite panel from Deadpool: Suicide Kings (it's from #4). Apologies for the glare in the center. I tried taking the picture 7 times, and that was the best result.

Carlos Barberi is definitely trying to ape (homage? copy?) Skottie Young's style, since Young was drawing that Marvelous Land of Oz mini-series at the time. That's fine with me, as I prefer Barberi trying his hand at being Skottie Young to Barberi's work in the rest of the mini-series. Which doesn't bode well for my satisfaction with the upcoming Deadpool #20. Then again, that issue is going to feature Deadpool and Spider-Man trying to stop Hit-Monkey. Considering my disinterest (or distaste) for most non-human primates in comics, that's possibly a bigger strike.

At the end of the previous issue, the Punisher performed and explosive headshot on Deadpool, and this is what he's dreaming about as his entire head regenerated. No, I'm not sure how, minus a brain, his body remained alive long enough to pull that off. What's a little creepy is he was trying to explain to Spider-Man he wasn't guilty of the particular crime he was being hunted for, and so Spidey and Daredevil (who showed up shortly after the unsafe cranial expansion) brought him in an empty apartment to pull himself together. Which suggests they watched his head grow back (well, Daredevil radar sensed it, but close enough*). even for two heroes who have been around the block as much as those two, you'd think that would freak them out more. They were pretty blase about it.

In the panel, we have Wade as Dorothy, Spidey as the Scarecrow, Frank as the Tin Man**, and Daredevil as the Cowardly Lion. Spidey as having no brain I get. He wouldn't believe 'Pool. Frank as having no heart, yeah, makes perfect sense. Daredevil lacking courage is a little dodgy, but this is Deadpool's regenerating brain we're talking about. It's close enough.

* Then again, he also heard and probably smelled it. That might be even worse than seeing it.

** Two panels from now he's going to kill the freak Deadpool mentions. Which is actually a munchkin, as the munchkin points out. Then Tin-Frank kills it.

Hopefully We'll Avoid Arguments About Crime-Fighting Methods

One thing I've developed as a side-effect to reading (and enjoying) Garth Ennis' Punisher MAX work is I don't feel much interest in seeing the Punisher in the Marvel Universe proper. I guess that stems partially* from my disinterest in his run-ins with Spider-Man and Daredevil. As you might know, those two don't really approve of Frank's "Let's kill the criminals" attitude. That leads to tension between them, if not outright attempts to apprehend Frank by the other costumed type**. At that point, most stories seem to boil down to two conclusions: Frank is captured, or Frank escapes. Well, the first leads to "Punisher in jail", which has been used to some effect in the past, but it limits your options with him, until you get him back out of jail. My problem with the second is it requires the hero to play the fool for Frank to escape. Not all the time; sometimes Castle takes advantage of the confusion of a big fight, or the arrival of emergency services, or random innocents being in danger, and slips away while the hero is occupied. Still, there are times where it's as though Frank has some gas pellet that saps the I.Q. of people around him, and they wind up looking like chumps.

So I imagine it's the lack of a philosophical difference that keeps me from minding Frank's showing up in Moon Knight. I doubt there's going to be a lot tedious arguing between the two about whether they should kill the criminals they're inevitably going to confront. We know Frank won't kill any cops, and Jake has already made it clear he's not OK with that either, so that just leaves the criminals to kill, and any innocents around to not kill. Should keep things simple.

* The other reason is I've grown pretty comfortable with the idea of Frank focusing on more "normal" crime, and perhaps deciding that going after costumed villains is just too much trouble. You have to fight the heroes, it requires specialized ordinance, and the villains never stay dead. Sure his struggle with more everyday crime is just as endless, but there he can usually point at someone he shot and feel confident they aren't coming back in a couple months.

** I was going to say hero, but that would imply Frank is a hero, and that tag doesn't really fit him.

Well, It Was A Dream

I just noticed this today, so I figured it was worth discussing.

In Punisher #50, Frank has a dream where the kids were sick so they didn't go to the park, and thus tragedy did not strike the Castle family. The dream takes place in what I assume would have been the present, where Frank is a grandfather, having a dinner with the whole family, and good times, and it's very pleasant. Eventually Frank wakes up, and he's bothered by the dream, and he's tries to do some target shooting to clear his head, and it doesn't work, and then he runs into Barracuda again, learns he has a daughter, and away we go.

The thing that caught my eye this time around was during the dream, Frank is talking with his son and son-in-law, and the in-law is asking about Frank serving in Vietnam. Frank says he served most of a tour, but caught some shrapnel near the end. What's interesting to me is that Ennis had established in various other works that Frank had three tours in Vietnam, not just one. The first, as far as I can tell, was fairly basic. The only thing I know about it was that he heard Sal Buvoli* had gotten killed on that tour. The second tour was the one that apparently invovled darker work, including a mission to go silence a captured American general**. The third tour was the one that put at Firebase Valley Forge, where the events of Punisher: Born took place.

Seeing as Ennis wrote all those works, I don't think that was an error. The way I see it, there are two possible explanations. One, in the dream, Frank is not being totally honest, because the things he experienced on those later tours are things best left buried. I recall from Born that Maria was pregnant with Frank Jr. during the third tour, and since he told the son-in-law, it's possible Frank just never told him about all of it, and Maria and Lisa agreed not to discuss it either. I don't really buy that though.

What I think is, Dream Frank never had those latter tours, he never went on, is wetworks a proper term, never had to do whatever was necessary to survive at Firebase Valley Forge, and that strikes me as an interesting thing for Ennis to put in there. The one thing Ennis kept working at throughout his time on Punisher was that it isn't as simple as "family dies = Punisher". Frank Castle is more than that, and more than the training he received in the military. He's those things, plus a hundred other little things through his life before that*** that helped make him as effective as he is. Still, it's interesting that Frank's subconscious removes those tours for the dream. It suggests that Frank realizes that whatever he experienced over there, whatever darkness he reached for to survive, would have wrecked this happy life, even if his family survived.

It raises the question in my mind of what Ennis believes Frank Castle would have been, if he had done all three tours, but not lost his family to crime (or random superheroic activities****)? Would he have kept going back to military service, or become a cop? I have a hard time seeing Castle as a serial killer*****, just killing people randomly. Would that darkness drive him to kill his own family, or would he turn to more self-destructive pursuits to release it? I don't have any answers, and unless Ennis has said something about it somewhere, I don't imagine I will. I like that Ennis gives Frank that level of self-awareness. It's not new, Frank has been pretty open about why he does what he does, how effective he is, and what it's done to him as a person. Still, I appreciate that even if his dreams, he isn't trying to delude himself, even if the result is a bit disturbing.

* Sal being the older brother of the girl that Frank was sweet on in The Punisher: The Tyger. Sal was also the one who burned alive the mafia son who assaulted her, which lead to her slitting her wrists.

** Also described in The Tyger.

*** For example, in The Tyger, we see young Frank is very good at sneaking around, and listening in when nobody knows he's there. He probably honed that as he aged, but that tendency towards moving silently, not announcing his presence when he doesn't want to, was already in place.

**** So let's leave Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe out of consideration.

***** Actually, is the Punisher a serial killer? Carnage is considered one, and Frank has a higher body count than he does, I'm sure.

Trying To Describe My Dissatisfaction With The Punisher

I feel reasonably certain that when I go to the comic store tomorrow* I'm going to request the Punisher be removed from my pull list. But I figured it might be worth trying to examine what about Hurwitz' Frank Castle that rings so false for me. Chris Sims has been doing a pretty solid job of summing it up as he's been reviewing the issues, but I figured I might spend a little time examining my personal feelings on it. I think it's because Hurwitz writes him as Frank Castle, not the Punisher.

The feeling I got from Ennis' work was that the Frank Castle calling himself the Punisher has actively attempted to bury the Frank Castle that had a wife and two children, and that other Frank leaks through mostly in dreams, provided nothing upsets the balance. It's a conscious decision, done to help him maintain a certain distance from what he does. Without that distance, what he does goes from a mission to kill those who harm the innocent, to a revenge based killing spree. The end result is possibly the same, but with emotion in the picture, the means will be different, his thinking will be less clear, innocents are more likely to get caught in the crossfire, and he is more likely to die himself. While Ennis' Punisher is realistic about his mission, that he will never kill all the criminals, and that he will die someday, that doesn't mean he's in any hurry for his time to end. He plans to keep doing what he does for absolutely as long as he can.

Going for revenge jepardizes that**, so he tries very hard to push any emotion down, and it's a constant struggle. Nearly every arc Ennis wrote seemed to involve Frank being faced with some situation that dragged his human emotions to the surface. It was Micro reentering his life, his family's remains being desecrated, girls being used by the slavers, the generals sending American soldiers to stop him, or his having another daughter. Those produce reactions in him that hampoer his effectiveness. He holds back, or loses control entirely and makes poor decisions. For the continuation of his mission, it's a bad thing.

With Hurwitz, the memory of Frank Castle's family is much closer to the surface. There was the monologue about all the things that are still happening while 'they are dead'. Seeing them in TV screens, mirrors, or in drinks. I'm fairly certain the scene at the end of #62, where he grasps the wrist of the girl he believes he's just killed to be a callback to him holding his daughter after she'd been shot in that park. The one that truly stuck in my craw was when he's reached the town, and the townspeople offer him the services of a girl. He turns them down initially, but she follows him to his room, and he doesn't send her away. But as she starts in, he looks over and sees his family bleeding out on the ground reflected in the mirror. That was a bit much. Really, if it bothers him that much, why didn't he send her away again? He typically trusts his instincts, and if they're telling him this is wrong, then why would he continue?

I think that's what goes wrong with it. Hurwitz wants us to feel a deeper connection with Castle, so he wants to make sure we know he still misses his family. But having him not refuse the girl kind of udnercuts that. Ennis certainly wasn't adverse to having Frank get some action (O'Brien in two separate arcs, Jenny in The Widowmakers), but there was never any indication that Frank felt he was being unfaithful to Maria. I think that's because he did his best to deny any emotional connection to these women***. He questions in Long, Dark Night arc whether he merely pretended to like O'Brien because that's what he felt the situation demanded, or if he genuinely cared about her, despite his best efforts to avoid connections. It wasn't love, but affection? Possibly. Still, I think it works because the specter of his deceased wife doesn't loom over it. It doesn't feel he's being unfaithful to her memory, because he doesn't seem to dwell on how it might be. The man that married Maria, loved her, is hardly there. he's been buried out of necessity, to undertake this mission. Hurwitz has brought that man out to be a more consistent part of the picture, but he's trying too hard, and it's overwhelming some of the professionalism, for lack of a better word, that I think defines the Punisher's approach.

* That's right, I've returned to the place I was before the previous two months. So I'll actually be able to provide my crappy reviews in a timely fashion! For the next 2 months or so, anyway.

** See the arc Up is Down, Black is White.

*** Beyond perhaps sympathy for them.

Garth Ennis' Punisher: What Survives?

Jog's already put up an interesting read about Ennis' Punisher run, which I encourage you to go read. It pointed out a few things to me, such as the fact that the author of the book we kept getting excerpts from in this last arc is the brother of a character from Ennis' Punisher: Born mini-series. It's not vital to this arc, but it was something I wasn't aware of.

Of more importance was Jog pointing out that this last arc contained none of Frank's usual inner monologue. It's entirely from the view of the characters around him, mirroring the book where everyone describes what they remember or think of the event so many believe to be the origin of the Punisher (Vietnam, specifically the battle at firebase Valley Forge). It's kind of amusing in light of Ennis' Punisher: The Tyger one-shot, where we get to see that the genesis of what Frank becomes started long before he went to Southeast Asia, and he even muses on how people will ascribe his motives to his family's death, and his time in the service.

There's other things in that essay that I'd been thinking about periodically, like the impermanence of Frank's supporting cast (I think O'Brien appeared in more issues than any character besides Castle, and nobody, including her, showed up in more than three stories, because you can only be around the Punisher, or in his sights, for so long before you die), and how he just keeps on keeping on in the face of all of it, and his understanding the reality of what he does. The thing I wanted to get at is this: Are there things Garth Ennis added to the character of the Punisher that you think will be kept by future writers, and if so, what are they?

I'm hampered here, because Ennis' Punisher pretty much is the Punisher to me. Prior to "Welcome Back, Frank", I owned two, maybe three comics where the Punisher was the star, and maybe a dozen comics where he guest-starred (probably less than that). So I can't really separate what was Garth Ennis, and what was already there. I imagine the idea that Frank still dreams of his family isn't new, but maybe the idea that he actively works to bury those dreams (as seen in #50) is. The idea that it's not supposed to be a personal thing with him, that he tries to regard it as a mission, not much different from the stuff he did in Special Forces, sounds new. Especially the idea that when he lets things get to him (ala the Black is White, Up is Down, or The Slavers arcs) it either gets him in trouble, or worries him after the fact. The idea that the Punisher is actually capable of doing things to criminals that even disturb him after the fact (which he reflects on at the start of The Widowmakers), certainly seemed new.

Again though, I'm not familiar enough with what he was before to really say, which is where you come in.

Unrelated note: I'm leaving town tomorrow, to go help move things. I'll probably be back Friday. Maybe Saturday. So expect reviews one of those two days, and hopefully at least a little posting in between now and then.

Just Help Me Try And Figure This Out

This isn't actually related to the rest of the post, but for the people who read the Punisher, did you notice the advertisement for the new Runaways series? The Punisher seems like kind of an odd book to put that in, as I wouldn't think the two titles' audiences would overlap very much.

OK, main issue today. The Fourth Worlders in Final Crisis. So, all the New Gods died at some point prior to the start of Final Crisis, though not necessarily in the manner it was depicted in Countdown or Death of the New Gods, correct? I mean, we know Orion killed Darkseid (what with the prophecy and all), and Orion got killed by the bullet traveling backwards in time*, but other than that, do we know what killed the others? It's not really vital to the post, I was just wondering.

Anyway, New Gods die, but don't stay dead, instead possessing the bodies of various mortals, until they burn out*. The possessing is a consequence of their deaht, and loss of previous bodies, right? I can't figure Darkseid putting up with the hassle of bodies that keep decaying on him if he didn't have to**.

So here's what I'm trying to figure out. Shilo Norman, is it a case of Shilo Norman's body, but Scott Free's*** spirit possessing it, or is it Shilo Norman, the guy who was trained in the arts of escape by Scott Free, and has inherited/taken up the mantle of Mister Miracle in Scott's absence/retirement/death the mortal man, on his own?

* Which is kind of a cool idea, actually, except time travel tends to make my head hurt. It also housed the virus that transformed Wonder Woman into Super-Person with Tusks, correct?

** Which raises the question of why he hasn't tried to sucker Superman in close to try and possess the way he did Turpin. Maybe that's coming later. He could always try a robot body, that woudl probably be more resilient. Just don't use Red Tornado, that guy falls apart like he was made of toothpicks and spit.

*** Scott Free is a really cool name, even if you aren't a master escape artist.

And Everything Else Just Fades Away

Originally, I was going to do a post about how, in the final confrontation between the Punisher and the Barracuda, inside the school in #54, the background faded away, leaving only darkness, and talk a bit about what that meant.

Then I went back to check and whoops!, there were some background details. Not a lot, but enough you could tell they were in a room and such. So that didn't quite work the way I had planned. But then I noticed something else, and that's what I've got to talk about today. It's the internal monologue, you see. Or the lack thereof.

What I noticed was, that in that final confrontation, Frank has no captions until after he has used the AK to remove 'Cuda's head. Compare this to every confrontation they had prior to that in this story.

In #50, as 'Cuda lays waste to criminals with a M-60, Frank's thinking about how he's at a disadvantage, and how Barracuda planned this out perfectly. In #51, Frank wakes up in a hospital, and tries to figure out what must have happened. And in #53, he's thinking about exactly what he's doing to Barracuda as he kicks him in the head, hooks up jumper cables to 'Cuda's boys, and how he probably made a mistake leaving 'Cuda chained up in the back of his car, with all his firepower. Even at the beginning of #54, when they're fighting in the woods, Frank thinks about what'll happen to his daughter if he can stop 'Cuda. But when Frank breaks out the ax, all conscious thought, at least that we are made aware of, goes away. It's all about the action of the moment, and after that, Frank can take the time to think.

I think it's a nice move by Ennis, letting the fight speak for itself, and tell us a little something about the lengths a parent might go to protect a child, even when that parent is someone as seemingly inhuman as Frank Castle can be.

One other thing that occurs to me now. While the background doesn't completely fall away in the final battle, the lighting dims significantly in each battle. The first fight is in a brightly-lit hotel room, the second in a seedy, but lit, room, then subsequent battles take place in a darkened home, the forest, and finally an empty school. And it does get darker as the battle continues and the night stretches on. Maybe it signifies that Frank and Barracuda keep descending into more and more savage methods in their attempts to gain final victory. Certainly their clothes get less spiffy, since Barracuda had that nice jacket when he showed up in the hotel, but he's in an increasingly ragged tank top and jeans as they go back and forth, and Frank's bandaged up like crazy, and it ceases to be about planning anything, and more about grabbing whatever is handy, and using it to kill the other fellow.

International Boundaries Can't Deter My Enjoyment

So I read this post, and it got me thinking about manga. I do enjoy a few manga titles, and thinking about the "whys" of that got me thinking about what my favorite mangas have in common with the American comics I enjoy. For the record, I have no beef with people who don't like manga. Everybody has types of "entertainment" that do not, in fact, entertain them. It's all cool though, the differences are what make us cool, dig? *in the background, a beatnik taps on a bongo* So let's move on.

So I just wanted to look at some of the parallels between Japanese and American comics that I enjoy, beyond the fighting, and struggling with internal conflicts related to past actions.

Rurouni Kenshin is about a man, who during a civil war, worked as a highly successful assassin, until he accidentally killed someone he cared about deeply. When the series begins, he's spent the last decade wandering Japan, using a sword that is designed not to kill (the blade is set reversed in the hilt, so the leading edge is not sharp), and helping defend those who need help. Kind of like the A-Team, but without the getting paid part, or Mr. T. But, Kenshin is constantly forced to confront his past, in the form of people who wish to challenge one known as the greatest of all, or by people who hate him for what they feel he represents (the side that won, which he greatly aided) had some nasty skeletons in their closet. Kenshin has to deal with how far he's willing to go to stop them, and resist slipping back into his old, killing ways. Plus he runs into to people who lost loved ones to his blade, and want revenge, and how is he supposed to respond to that?

It reminds me of both Batgirl and recent developments in Cable/Deadpool, as each character has been trying to change their lives, and atone for past deeds. In some ways, both those titles could be considered like seeing Kenshin's early years as a wandering swordsman. Cassandra Cain seems to be constantly dealing with the fact she was raised to be a perfect killer, and trying to make up for it, and trying to move past it, find a better way. It's harder for Deadpool, because he's been even more deeply ingrained in killing for whatever reason for years, but now he's trying to change after Cable sacrificed his life (as far as he knows), to make sure Wade was OK. Wade's trying to change, trying to do better, but he's got to deal with the skepticism of all the established heroes who know him primarily as a violent, amoral goof, and so he's got to keep working to show he's not like that anymore.

Additionally, all those titles have a theme of characters trying to find a place to belong, although when Cassandra found a place where she seemed to be doing well (Bludhaven), DC proceeded to blow it up. Well, no one ever said finding a place to belong was easy. But Kenshin had been wandering for ten years before meeting Kaoru and helping her stop the person killing people in the name of her family's school, and Deadpool has just recently found a place at Agency X, where he can work with actual friends.

The other manga title I'm a big fan of is Hellsing, which I've decided reminds me of the current Punisher MAX series. Both characters kill lots and lots of people, and do so with no real hesitation, but each character has things about them that make them more than just killing machines. Ennis has gone to great lengths to demonstrate how it was more than just three tours in the 'Nam that made Frank Castle the Punisher, it's a culmination of his childhood neighborhood, his tours of duty, the loss of his parents, the kind of kid he was, just so many things that make him a truly unique being In the last few volumes of Hellsing, Kohta Hirano's started giving us glimpses of who Alucard was before he became a vampire that kills other vampires for the Hellsing Organization, and well, he's still not a sympathetic figure, but there is a sadness about him, that for all the power he's gained, all the destruction he can bring, he's lost some very important things, and he knows he won't ever get those back. Not unlike Frank Castle.

Some time, I need to sit down and see how similar some of these series are, and how much differences in Japanese and American culture contribute to differences between them. Are they paced differently, do they present different kinds of challenges to the protagonists, things like that. Uh, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for those posts, if I were you, seeing as how I never have started the "Spider-Man: Giant Slayer" posts.

Everyone Has A Limit

Reading The Punisher #51 last week, it was interesting to see the response of the cross-eyed police Captain, Hoefker {That name sounds dirty, doesn't it?}, to Frank's request to let him go. The reaction was a violent opposition to the suggestion, punctuated with lots of profanity. Because it's Garth Ennis, that's why. And really, it's about the reaction you'd expect if a person with Frank Castle's body count asks the police to let him go.

But it seems in stark contrast to the reaction cops have usually had to Castle and his activities through the series. The refrain you hear most often is that the cops love the Punisher because he makes their lives easier. I guess there's less paperwork for "victim terminated by shotgun blast to the face" than if they were simply left webbed to a light pole, and the cops have to figure out what they did to merit that.

Of course, the cops have had a task force after Castle since the Slavers arc, but I figured that was going to be sort of a joke, like the "task force" consisting of Detective Soap in the Marvel Knights Punisher series. You know, the cops put on a show of going after him, but they aren't really all that interested in bringing Castle in. Apparently, I was wrong. Of course, we haven't heard the task force mentioned since early in the Barracuda arc, so maybe I'm not wrong.

Then again, the characters who most often talk about the cops not being interested in stopping Castle are the criminals he's pursuing, so things probably look very different from their perspective, being the hunted. I'd imagine every moment the Punisher is out there, is another moment he could show up and kill them, so that would tend to increase one's dissatisfaction with the police.