3by Marvel Comics -Review By Stewart Loud Now I've heard that this narrative arc has broken a lot of Punisher fans and I can all understand why it would. To be honest it's a very odd commission for Rick Remender to make The Punisher in after his outstanding run of Punisher comics during Marvels Dark Reign which I enjoyed every bit as often as Garth Ennis' acclaimed Marvel Knights run. They did publish a few messages on the letters page from fans moaning that the Punisher had been ruined by the changes and I get to accept that when I knowing that Frank Castle was to be turned into a Frankenstein's monster style abomination ,when I was already reeling from seeing my absolute favourite comic character get carved up by a B-list villain like Daken in The List, I was fully disposed to be distressed by this story. But I'm a Punisher completionist and for better or worse I gather and take every comic with his epithet in the title. So show them I did! And do you live what? I'm actually glad I did. I don't wish the Punisher just because he kills criminals and has all his stories rooted in realism. I wish him because of his uncompromising allegiance to punish and kill evil people without being held binding by all the moral red tape that prevents a lot of the other Marvel characters from killing serial murderers, rapists or whatever no matter how often they deserve it and that portion of his role is really much active in this storyline. Of course I wish that he's usually only an average soldier with just his whit's, training, experience and equipment to swear on ( I loved seeing him go up against the Bonnet and his followers in Remenders previous 10 issues. Frank just sees super powered villains as targets that want to be shot with a larger gun! but since The Punisher has been about for 35 years now this is not necessarily the way things bear to stop all the time. In any case there's still the Punisher Max for gritty realism and Frank isn't gonna stay like this for ever anyway.
Any story concept ,no matter how strange it may seem, can be fun to learn if it's well written. Just as a big mind can be destroyed by crappy writing. For example, in the 3rd series of the Punisher back in 1995 The Punisher became the point of a mob family which ,while looking like an interesting idea, it really, really wasn't. Then during the Purgatory mini series, Frank returns from the short as some kind of angelic super soldier with infinite pocket space for holding weapons in a magic coat. Sounded ridiculous but it wasn't bad at all. However, when they used the same story arc for a Wolverine/Punisher team up called revelations it was one of the biggest wastes of paper Marvel ever published. Now I don't need to yield to lots of what happens away (I hate reviews that do that) in character any of you resolve to buy the comics but here goes. Frank Castle is resurrected by Morbius the living vampire who has stitched and bolted his remains back together along with a full amount of mechanical parts after the rooftop mullering he received from Daken son of Wolverine. Morbius, along with his comrades Manphibian and Jack Russel the werewolf (fantastic names) are partly of the Host Of Monsters who are attempting to maintain the Earths largely peaceful monster population from a grouping of fanatical Japanese monster hunters led by a 150 year old lunatic called Robert Hellsgaard. Frank, having departed from being what many would address a metaphorical monster ,with a body count in the thousands after decades of punishing the wicked, to becoming an actual physical monster decides to take the Host Of Monsters' war his own as repayment for bringing him support from the dead. What ensues is one of the almost violent storys the Punisher has always been in! And not only wild but gory! As good as a lot of the characters and plot devices being straight out of a horror movie so are the battle scenes. For the about part the incredibly detailed artwork is done by Tony Moore. There seems to be so much loss on in each panel that I can't recall the last comic I read where I spent so much time examining every edge of the ground and scenery. The fights are downright chaotic with limbs and heads flying in every way which meant I spent even more time looking at these panels to try and keep track of how many villains The Punisher had dispatched! All the activity is attended by The Punishers crisp, dry, trademark inner monologue that Remender does so brilliantly so that no matter how bizarre or surreal the site gets you never forget who it is in the midst of it and who's comic it is! Tony Moore is also incredibly proficient at illustrating the emotion on the faces of the characters. Both man and the infinite of creatures that inhabit a lot of the pages. When you see a fish man take of the death of his children you actually can see the anguish in his expression despite his inhuman appearance. I actually did feel sad for a lot of the monsters who were butchered by the extremists because of the obvious terror etched across their faces.
During this story you're gonna see Frank in situations you probably never dreamed you'd see him in. Nazi zombies? any body who tells you they saw that one approach is a massive liar! But that doesn't think it isn't a full blast to read. If you actually are a heavy core Punisher fan then you'll know this and if you've never read Punisher but you like horror and action then you'd probably love this too. I enjoyed all 6 issues from first to complete and I've already pre-ordered the graphic novel collecting these 6 comics, the next 5 Franken-castle issues and 2 tie in issues of Dark Wolverine. I should be getting that in early December so you can bear a survey of that soon afterwards Rating: 7/10 - About the Reviewer:
Stewart Loud has agreed to voice some of the deranged ramblings that are his opinions and save some reviews for the Adventures Of M.He lives in England and his love for comics began at age 6 with Transformers and now has grown to encompass titles such as 2000ad, Preacher,Aliens and The Walking Dead to Avengers, The Authority, Transformers (still) and his all time favourite comic character The Punisher (can you not separate from the pic?)He is an absolute Punisher nut and owns almost every Punisher title ever printed along with a serious lump of his appearances in other titles.If anybody wants to ask him any questions or discuss anything they can see him on the Adventures Of M facebook page regularly updating his latest reads.
No comments:
Post a Comment