New Punisher Series

finally, a new series for the punisher. i loved war journal when it started out around the time of the death of captain america. the image of the punisher cap made for an awesome cover, and a great premise. then bucky took on the mantle and punisher kinda started slipping for me. around the time of the jigsaw storyline i quit reading altogether. i'll pick up the last few issues that deal with the skrull invasion, but it's a series that i'm done with.

same for the garth ennis punisher. ennis is one of the rare writers that i think honestly understood the character and what he stood for. his run will easily go down in my top twenty with no hesitation. but he dropped off and they brought on new writers, and again the quality starts to slip - like your favorite restaurant gone to pot. they used to serve the best steaks - lean, perfectly grilled, and just melt in your mouth. simple, but effective, and you just want more. and then they decide to skimp a little on the meat - but just a bit. and it may still be good, but you're nitpicking over every little piece of fat that wasn't trimmed off, upset about just a little too much char on the outside. and it's never the same.

so when i heard about a new series for the punisher today - set to debut in february, as soon as war journal ends its run - i was a little skeptical. any fan of the punisher has gotten used to having their heart broken over the years as people took a simple character and bastardized him rather than work with him (ahem...black punisher).

but i have mixed feelings. the little bit of art that i saw looks good - no runaways anime bullshit here folks - and the writer claims he's taking frank back to his roots...hunting criminals. and in a post civil war marvel universe full of unregistered super heroes - and villains - that means the new avengers had better watch their back. that's right, we're going to get punisher the way punisher used to play - going up against spiderman, wolverine, daredevil, etc...

...unless it derails with issue one, which has the punisher going up against the sentry...that's right, the motherfucking sentry...this is kinda like lois lane deciding to take on superman in a fight with no kryptonite. had they started with daredevil or spiderman, or even a return of the kingpin to new york i would have been on board, but punisher is the batman of our marvel universe - he's not superhuman, and to see him take on the sentry really makes me hestitant about the rest of the series...

but as always i guess we'll have to wait and see...if it's great it will still have to compare to ennis. and if it sucks...well we're all used to that by now...

(rob)