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MAX Punisher

 
  

Page: 123(4)

 
 
Feverfew
17:48 / 18.04.08
#55 is good, in a text-y way, and I like the setup of the one set of people that the generals think Castle would never kill - if there are only four more issues to go, then this could prove to be an amazing conclusion.

I'm not so sure that it's going to be all about the baby, though - at the end of the Long Cold Dark Arc, it was seemingly established that Barracuda had worked out the baby's existence by himself without notifying anyone else, and now that McAllister and Yorkie are dead, all the bridges would seem to be burnt, surely?
 
 
FinderWolf
14:03 / 13.06.08
Ennis' final story arc on the book continues, and it's a doozy. Not to be missed if you've enjoyed the earlier parts of his run. The folks behind many earlier plots are revelead, and they go after Frank in a big way...
 
 
Axolotl
14:35 / 13.06.08
I'm enjoying it and hopefully it will be a suitable capstone to Ennis' amazing run.

Are they finishing the Max Punisher series with Ennis or are they bringing someone else in to replace him?
 
 
FinderWolf
15:48 / 13.06.08
They will have a series of rotating writers, most of whom are moderately successful crime (prose) fiction writers. One arc by one guy, then another arc by a different writer, and so on... that's how it will go for about the next year or so, editor Axel Alonso has said.

I doubt any of them can match Ennis' run on this title. He's just nailed it.
 
 
Mark Parsons
04:42 / 14.06.08
Ennis was interviewed on, IIRC, CBR recently (@ a Philly con?) and indicated that he would eventually return to the book.
 
 
FinderWolf
23:46 / 14.06.08
whoa! That is very very good news indeed (at least to me). Thanks for the info.
 
 
Mark Parsons
15:18 / 15.06.08
Yes, it is good news. I hope Ennis doesn't intend to do so as an OAP...
 
 
Alex's Grandma
08:08 / 25.06.08
They will have a series of rotating writers, most of whom are moderately successful crime (prose) fiction writers. One arc by one guy, then another arc by a different writer, and so on... that's how it will go for about the next year or so, editor Axel Alonso has said.

I doubt any of them can match Ennis' run on this title.


They're not going to have the opportunity, to be fair. One of the things about what's possibly the most considered, and consistently great, pieces of long-form comics fiction ever (it's just better than 'The Sadman', 'Teh Invisibles' or 'Shade', even, because more thought out) is that it took Garth Ennis a while to get it right - the 'funny' Punisher, which he wrote for a long time, is going to struggle to be remembered. Unlike the later, darker work.

To write Frank Castle properly you almost have to become him, I suppose - I doubt it's an easy process, so the idea that a set of yard-dog, busted-up, screenplay-submitting Lee Childs wannabes are in charge of the franchise now, for four issues only, seems like a guarantee that sales will plummet
 
 
Axolotl
08:55 / 25.06.08
To be honest Ennis' run is so monumental it's tempting to say Marvel should have call it quits when he left. I mean his version is only loosely connected to the mainstream Marvel U, so if they really felt they needed to have a Punisher book on the shelves they still could, just make it in continuity.
 
 
wicker woman
09:44 / 25.06.08
At this point, it's pretty much the only thing keeping Marvel's MAX line struggling along, isn't it? I can't recall the titles of anything else under the imprint except for the short-lived Fury, and definitely not anything that's been successful.
 
 
Axolotl
14:28 / 25.06.08
I think you're pretty much right. They put out some horror miniseries recently, but nothing I bought. I think Ennis' recent Phantom Eagle miniseries is on the Max line as well.

But then again it's not like the Max line is like Vertigo - a specific division with it's own identity for exploring different themes and areas to the mainstream DC universe - isn't it just more for when Marvel need to put out a comic with sex and swearing and maybe more realistic (i.e gory) violence than normal.
 
 
FinderWolf
15:53 / 26.06.08
I will give a shout-out to WAR IS HELL: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle. It's a well-written war story, the kind we're used to from Ennis, although a bit more quiet and introspective/less action-oriented. Lots of 'chaps sitting around talking snarkily - but with appropriately period dialogue - about the war and how much it sucks, ribbing each other, etc. Chaykin's art here is the best it's been in a while.

When this mini was first solicited, it was to be titled The Phantom Eagle, I recall - I suppose maybe the copyright was problematic in some way, despite the character being super-obscure from Marvel's 1940s output...? WAR IS HELL is an odd title, but I figure there must have been some reason behind it...
 
 
murphy
03:07 / 16.07.08
When did Marvel officially make Frank's birth name "Castiglione"?

Is it just a Max thing, or is it the same for the regular Punisher, too?
 
 
Bastard Tweed
20:03 / 17.07.08
Wasn't that the city where Kevin and the Time Bandits met Napolean and impressed with their rendition of "Me and My Shadow"?

Cross-reference?
 
 
Imaginary Mongoose Solutions
03:40 / 20.07.08
If I recall correctly, the alias thing was from one of Chuck Dixon's Punisher stories way back when in the 90's. "Frank Castle" was the alias he used to re-up for a 3rd or 4th tour of duty. Wikipedia backs me up on that, but wikipedia is also filled with lies.

Back on topic, I find myself increasing convinced that history will show this run on Punisher to be one of the definitive comics of this decade.
 
 
FinderWolf
01:31 / 21.07.08
hear hear. I've been saying that from the beginning (raving about how good this book is under Ennis) and am glad to see that others are seeing it. (for a while, somewhere in the middle or so, this thread was mostly me posting about how great the book was and no one else really chiming in all that much)
 
 
FinderWolf
01:38 / 21.07.08
(or it just felt that way, since there were often big lags in time in-between posts on this thread) Anyway, viva la Ennis Punisher! Only one (snif) issue left ... for now, until he hopefully returns in a while to the book. I still occasionally have flashes back to that eerie vision of the ghostly wreckage of countless vehicles of war and innumerable dead bodies in the rocky hills & mountains of Afghanistan that Frank saw back when he was over there with O'Brien, esp. in light of the current struggles going on in that historically war-torn country.
 
 
Mark Parsons
03:13 / 22.07.08
OT: is anybody checking out the Phantom Eagle mini Ennis is doing with Chaykin?
 
 
Triplets
11:02 / 22.07.08
"Frank Castle" was the alias he used to re-up for a 3rd or 4th tour of duty. Wikipedia backs me up on that, but wikipedia is also filled with lies.

"Max Punisher" is the guy's real name, surely? It's on the cover and everything.

And who doesn't want to be known as "The [Surname]"? Only busters. Specifically Tom "The Buster" Buster, of Sussex.
 
 
FinderWolf
13:59 / 22.07.08
Yep, I've been reading Ennis' WAR IS HELL: The First Flight The Phantom Eagle - it's quite enjoyable. Not as good as the best of Ennis' War Stories, but still a good read, and some of the bits at the beginning about how planes became involved in warfare during WWI was educational/informative as well. Chaykin's art suits this sort of story well. One wonders, though, why they couldn't just call the mini "The Phantom Eagle" as it was originally announced - guess they don't actually have the copyright of the Golden Age Marvel war character itself, or there's another more famous copyrighted thing called The Phantom Eagle...?
 
 
FinderWolf
18:22 / 18.08.08
Ennis' final MAX Punisher issue, #60, is out (well, before his upcoming 6-issue miniseries drawn by Steve Dillon, the tone of which will be half-serious/half-wacky light comedy a la his very first Marvel Knights run), and I apparently didn't see it at the store. Ach. ACH, I say!!
 
 
FinderWolf
01:29 / 20.08.08
huh, we're back to 'anyone else reading this....?' now. I've gotten a hold of issue 60 and it's quite stunning. Worth reading, folks, esp. if you enjoyed any of the previous Ennis run or the build-up in this particular story arc. And damn well-drawn, too, by Parlov.
 
 
Mark Parsons
05:46 / 20.08.08
It was a great finale. Initially, I was not wild about the prose sections in each issue, but they grew on me and by tale's end they become very evocative, essential, moving, powerful, etc.

I have all the arcs in the oversized HC format. If I went back in time and told my 1995 (or 1975) self that, I'd beat my future self up. The MAX run made be fully appreciate the character.
 
 
Axolotl
14:36 / 21.08.08
I enjoyed the last arc, thought it tied everything up nicely and the art was great. That last panel of Frank walking towards us was just fantastic. I reckon that's got to be the definitive Punisher run and possibly Ennis' most consistently great work on one series since maybe his Hellblazer work (which I'm a big fan of). Actually thinking about it this might have been stronger. Don't think I'm going to continue with it now Ennis has left as I need to reduce my pull list right now.
 
 
Thorn Davis
09:45 / 15.01.09
I owe Barbelith a big thank you for this one. I'd never considered The Punisher a remotely interesting character, and back last year I came across the thread, and was suprised to see the board raving about something I'd assumed was a pointlessly violent teenage revenge fantasy. Been steadily making my way through the trade paperbacks for the past six months or so and have absolutely loved it. It's so much stronger and more exciting than I thought the character could sustain. Finished Barracuda a couple of days ago, which seemed slightly weak following on from the awesome double-whammy of Up is Down, and The Slavers, but still seemed like a brilliantly told story.

Embarrassingly enough, I had no grip whatsoever on the Enron meltdown until I read Barracuda. Finishing the book I had a read around about that financial scandal, and was suprised how close it ran to the fictionalisation. Except for the bit about them all getting eaten by sharks, obviously, but finally equipped with the facts I've now decided that's how things [i]should[/i] have ended. So there's a greater truth at work there. And apparently I'm now relying on comic books to fill me in on world events.
 
 
Sensual Cobra
22:37 / 22.01.09
I'll second that thanks. I'd just finished the Thy Kingdom Come arc in JSA, which promptly erase the area of my brain capable of articulating why I read comics. Ennis's Punisher reminded me. Oddly enough, I don't know if I have much to say about it -- it's such a straight-forward storyline, with a tone that so perfectly matches the (previously shallow, to my mind) character, that I find myself without a need to interpret or critique it.

I'm sure that'll pass, but still -- wow.
 
  

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