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Underground > Comic Books >

Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon: Punisher

16:15 / 07.07.02

I just caught the ad for this in the back of XMen 129. I have to say that it made me laugh. A lot. As Moominstoat said: "The Punisher will suddenly find an Irish friend, and will spend a lot of time in the pub."

I have to say that I at least want to see what he'll do. I used to love the punisher as a kid.

19:41 / 07.07.02

Haven't they been doing The Punisher since issue 1?

Jack The Bodiless

14:37 / 10.07.02

I remember Ennis writing 'The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe' and laughing my ethereal socks off.

See, he just followed the Hulk around, right? For ages? And then the Hulk turned back into Banner when he calmed down, and the Punisher shot him in the head, making three generations of Hulkbusters redundant. It was beautiful.

15:00 / 10.07.02

Actually he didn't follow The Hulk, he just used a device to track him down and he waited until he stopped moving. When Punisher got there, he saw Banner asleep and killed him. And it was beautiful.
I've read the first issue of the Ennis/Dillon collaboration and thought it was full of Ennis' tricks... "This villain will have huge breasts, they would never expect something this fucked up...".
But the end of the arc turned out interesting and sickly funny, bonus points for

S
P
O
I
L
E
R

giving old Frank full nuclear capability, at last...

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

16:36 / 15.07.02

What I like abotu the book is that they make no bones about the fact that the Punisher is a one note character. He kills people. Lots of people. When I worked comics retail I would listen to kids talk abotu comics and when it came to the Punisher the conversation I remember is:

Kid 1: What's his power?

Kid 2: He has a shitload of guns.

For the book to work, they have done two things...

1) The Punisher himself is taken deadly serious. He is nothing but his mission and drives the plot by simply looking for whoever he has to kill for the story to end.

2) He is put in bizarrly funny situations with odd supporting characters you can't help but like.

The only way you know its Ennis is the blackest of black humor in the stories. He hasn't put anyone in a pub in Ireland, and no one is trying to fight gods.