Punisher

Punisher 43-60

Garth Ennis ends this run with three of the best comic arcs I’ve ever read.  These issues have been every bit as good as I’ve remembered them to be.  

Widowmaker: A female version of the Punisher arrives, looking to revenge herself on the mobster wives who ruined her life.  She succeeds in her aims, but realizes that there are damn few people in the world who can carry that level of hatred and anguish in their souls without cracking under the strain, and she isn’t one of them.  The best Ennis Punisher stories have no happy endings.  This is one of his best stories.  

So.  Wrong.

There really is power in that skull.

So bleak.

Long Cold Dark: Turns out Castle and O’Brien had a baby.  Barracuda finds out before Castle and kidnaps little Sarah from O’Brien’s sister.  The resultant battle is epic and as brutal as anything Garth Ennis has done, accentuated by the innocent child at the heart of it all - For the first time in a long time, Frank’s motivated by something other than hate.  And on the other side is someone who give zero fucks about slaughtering a tiny baby.

Taken levels of competence.

When has Frank ever been uncertain about anything?

With Cavella, Rawlins, and Barracuda, Ennis has created a Joffrey trinity of comeuppance.

Nice to know his capability for feelings hasn't atrophied away.

Ennis has never had an MCU villain problem.

He spent a day with her.  My heart melts.

Even more so than his relationship with O’Brien (if it truly was one), Frank’s newly discovered fatherhood truly highlights the grim, soulless reality of his existence.  That there’s no room for any joy in his life is entirely on him, and he knows this.  And still he soldiers on.  

Valley Forge, Valley Forge: 

It’s as haunting of a poem as I’ve ever read.  Ennis imbues the words with a mythic, tragic, ethereal magic; the horrors of an unimaginable battle distilled into two repeated words, a mantra that’s somehow a soothing balm that still can’t heal the scarring wounds of that place.  

No internal monologue for the Punisher in the final arc of this incomparable run.  Frank’s thoughts aren’t nearly as important here as the effect he has on everyone around him.  This arc is ultimately about the evils of the military industrial complex and how it destroys the lives of ordinary people with no conscience, leaving them with no comfort except for the two words, running on a continuous loop.  “Valley Forge, Valley Forge.”

Thanks to Ennis, Leandro Fernandez, Gorlan Parlov, and all the rest for this inimitable run.  I said it before, I’ll say it now: The Punisher will never be one of my favorite characters, but this will always be one of my favorite comic books.  (I really should do a top five ranking at some point.)

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pure joy

That’s it for Marvel Box 14!  I have literally one box left to go.  (Sandman and Preacher.) Everything else is on the shelf.  Down to less than 500 comics left…

Box Summary

Time spent reading: 17 hours, 34 minutes

Issues read: 196

Issues cut: 1

Highlights (Good or better): Fury: My War Gone By; Punisher v5; Punisher v6 1-5, 19; Punisher: Tyger; Punisher: Born; Punisher: Soviet; Punisher: Platoon; Punisher MAX; Punisher: The Cell; Punisher v7 1-6, 13-60

Project Summary:

Time spent reading: 59 days, 11 hours, 48 minutes

Issues read: 12409

Issues cut: 1172