Punisher

Punisher with a beard......I have to admit it too, why didn't anyone think of this before now? The beard makes Frank more intimidating and forceful.

What it also makes me think of is my underlying love for this character before he became a 90s' cliche joke. I've been re-reading some old classics to rekindle that love here lately.

Like Steven Grant's and Mike Zeck's classic 4 issue (with 5 books) mini-series back in the mid 80s. Then the phenomenal start of his first ever ongoing series. Just finished reading the first opening arc of Punisher War Journal. Story by the ever great Carl Potts with finished art by Jim Lee, it deals with the story behind the original mob hit that Frank and his family witnessed all those years ago in the park. Strong powerful moving story (featuring a cameo or two by Daredevil) and these issues are over 20 years old.

Thanks to Eliot R. Brown, the Punisher Armory mini-series is informative, insightful, and fun as ever.

I have yet to read any of Ennis' Punisher. By then, the joke was becoming tired and I really didn't care anymore. I know Ennis helped revitalize the character so if anyone who has read it can testify, tell me some of the best things it did in doing so.

Same goes with the current title. I love Rucka and this would seem like a good fit for him. But money woes have prevented me from getting the single issues. Anyone here read them?

Punish Frank with some luv by sharing what you like (or cringe) about this classic character.

By the way Marvel non max seems to have abandoned that Vietnam was his war right? I'm not against it, just wondering. It needs to happen sooner or later annyway. I thinknit just says that he was a marine or something now?

They haven't definitively dropped that aspect J-style, they just don't really mention his past very much. I think Rucka figures that everyone knows Castle's past of being a Marine and losing his family and going out to punish people so they just don't really re-hash any of it. Though I bet that at some point there will be a .1 issue for the title that will get into that stuff sort of, like how the recent .1 for DD got into his past and powers a bit while telling a story.

Frankencastle was some great b-movie fun, but this Punisher is just great stuff. Rucka really took it up a notch.

The MAX stuff is really good too and gives you a Frank that is pretty free to do almost anything as there are no supers around every corner swooping in to stop him. Cause realistically we know that someone on the Superhero side would have stopped him by now, which is why Marvel took him out of the MU for all those years of to be in the MAX titles, but Rucka is doing really great with him in the MU. One just has to figure that Cap and company have bigger things to worry about.

If you're on the fence with jumping into Ennis' run, hunt down and read his one-shot, Punisher: The Cell. It's quite possibly my favorite Punisher story ever, easily top three.

Originally posted by Cable That's why Frankencastle is one of the worst stories ever. It completely misses that crucial aspect of the character. You cannot relate to Frank Castle as a *$%*iing zombie. Also why the angelic story is garbage and the upcoming Punisher space story will be too. It turns him into just another anti-hero, Wolverine-esque tough guy that are a dime-a-dozen. The more down-to-earth the Punisher story is, the better it will be. That is what makes the character great.

Until Rucka's run, Frakencastle was the only bit of Punisher-ness that I owned.

Some people read comics because they're fun and ridiculous. I love Frakencastle.