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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2014 0:17:53 GMT -5
Here you get to explain why you love the Punisher or why you think he's a bad idea....personally, I could wallow in his MAX books all day...they are my personal mire of moral mud.  And Tim Bradstreet's cover art is exquisite...  I really started to buy his comics in my teens starting with Welcome Back Frank. How would you rank them in order of favourites? I'm like... - Welcome Back Frank 1-12 (2000)
- Punisher Born (1-4) 2003
- Punisher Max (1-75) 2004
- PunisherMax (1-22) 2009
- Punisher 1-37 (2001)
- Punisher War Journal 1-26 (2006)
- Punisher 1-20 (2009)
- Punisher 1-5 (1985)
I haven't indulged in the new 2014 series yet...it's kinda hard to get out of MAX mode....but will be picking up all issues in one fell swoop when I'm ready....
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 12, 2014 0:43:44 GMT -5
Anything by Ennis was the best.The early run by Mike Baron I enjoyed as well.Dixon was OK
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Post by foxley on May 12, 2014 2:32:28 GMT -5
An interesting idea when the character started, but (like Wolverine) ruined by overexposure. I lost all interest in the character in the 90s.
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Post by crazyoldhermit on May 12, 2014 4:42:34 GMT -5
MAX, all the way. It is exactly what the character was designed to be. The Slavers is my go-to feel good story. There is nothing I love more than seeing Frank give those monsters exactly what is coming to them.
The new series is actually really good. It may be mainstream Marvel but it's written in the style of MAX. If Ennis' MAX run is the character's from Year 30-35 then Edmondson's run is the character in Year 10 or so.
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ironchimp
Full Member
Simian Overlord
Posts: 456 
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Post by ironchimp on May 12, 2014 6:09:26 GMT -5
beard hunter for the win  |
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Post by impulse on May 12, 2014 10:53:57 GMT -5
As soon as I saw a Punisher's Greatest Hits thread (love the title, so punny), I was going to come in here to sing the praises of Ennis' MAX run, but you beat me to it. That is absolutely the definitive take on the character, and it was the most consistently good book I was reading when it came out. Other stuff may have been better here or there, but that run never had a down issue. Love it.
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Post by thebeastofyuccaflats on May 12, 2014 16:18:00 GMT -5
The Punisher really belongs to Garth Ennis; no differently than Swamp Thing belongs to Alan Moore, Animal Man is Grant Morrison's, Black Canary belongs to Gail Simone, etc. He took a 'Dirty Harry for kids'/standard boilerplate 'noble' Marvel-badass (Morrison's "The Beard Hunter" above is probably the last word on that Punisher) and turned him into the main feature in a once-in-a-generation longform comic book almost vascillating between crime or war.
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2014 16:27:25 GMT -5
The only Punisher I've read is (some of?) Rucka's run. I remember it being better than I expected, but not much else.
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Post by thebeastofyuccaflats on May 12, 2014 16:37:35 GMT -5
I tried the first couple issues of Rucka/Chechetto's, and not that I thought they were incompetently crafted per se, I just couldn't really get comfortable. Namely, I couldn't shake this feeling: that the second Spider-Man/Captain America/Wolverine/whoever showed, it'd stop being a gritty crime thing and become yet another 'all hail Spider-Man/Captain America/Wolverine/whoever'-story. And flipping through War Zone, I was right.
I mean, it's not that I don't get that Frank is a guiltless mass murderer living what's at most a less monstrous life than that of his targets... I just don't give a good Goddam what the frelling Avengers think of it all.
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Post by gothos on May 12, 2014 16:37:54 GMT -5
Anything by Ennis was the best.The early run by Mike Baron I enjoyed as well.Dixon was OK I wish Baron had stayed on the title longer. His manic sense of humor seemed the best match imo. |
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Post by Phil Maurice on May 12, 2014 16:39:47 GMT -5
Since Ennis' Punisher will rightly dominate this thread, I'll give a quick shout-out to his appearances in ASM in the 160s and 170s. I also really enjoyed ASM 201-202. Great covers even if you take issue with "mercy" bullets (as I did).
Also mustn't fail to mention Miller's great take on the character in DD 183-184. The Punisher as a visual design was an instant sell for me back in the day.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 12, 2014 17:14:12 GMT -5
I just re-read Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15, which I like overall, but the Punisher is not very well written here. I'm not even a Punisher fan (I agree with Phil Maurice about those mid-1970s Punisher appearances. They are so fun! Nightcrawler!), but I can tell when a character is being badly handled. Doctor Octopus shouldn't be able to whup the Punisher so easily. It's just ridiculous.
Oh, Dennis O'Neil.
Nice art by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson though.
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2014 17:16:18 GMT -5
I can't argue with much of the Ennis appreciation...in fact, it's his writing in Punisher which made me backtrack to the backissue bins to get Preacher and Jennifer Blood.
But, I must say I was pleasantly surprised by Jason Aaron in his Punishermax spell...he not only reinvented Kingpin, Bullseye, Elektra and Vanessa Fisk (loved the lesbian angle lol)...but kills them all including Frank. I'm waiting for something to come along to top these arcs...
Kingpin (1-5)...among other things, Wilson gets gang-raped by 5 prison inmates...sacrifices his own son...
Bullseye (6-11)...possibly my favourite Bullseye interpretation ever, brilliantly psychotic...becomes the Punisher to think like him and determine his weakness in an effort to bring him down;
Frank (12-16)...Punisher gets incarcerated and goes up against inmates who want him dead...great interlude...and forerunner before the finale storyline...
Homeless (17-21)...Frank gets out of jail and goes after Kingpin and Elektra (great showdown with her...she's ultimately killed by the Hand after he cripples her);
War's End - the death of Frank, and reminisced by Fury...the only sonofabitch who can sympathise with what Frank has done for society.
I was terribly disappointed to see the series end...but it was planned as a 22 issue run and accomplished it in spades.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 12, 2014 17:25:30 GMT -5
Forgot about Aaron. He's the only current Marvel writer I consistantly enjoy
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Post by crazyoldhermit on May 12, 2014 18:45:00 GMT -5
Since Ennis' Punisher will rightly dominate this thread, I'll give a quick shout-out to his appearances in ASM in the 160s and 170s. I also really enjoyed ASM 201-202. Great covers even if you take issue with "mercy" bullets (as I did). Also mustn't fail to mention Miller's great take on the character in DD 183-184. The Punisher as a visual design was an instant sell for me back in the day. The Punisher's appearance was by favorite part of Miller's run. The Punisher-Daredevil relationship is one of those things I wish would be explored more. It's interesting that Miller took that relationship and more or less transferred it over to Batman and Superman.
Loved Aaron's run, thought it was a great successor to Ennis' run. Not a big fan of Steve Dillon's work (especially after the powerhouses who had previously done MAX work like Leandro Fernandez, Garon Parlov, Doug Braithwaithe and John freakin Severin) but it is by no means a dealbreaker. |
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And Tim Bradstreet's cover art is exquisite...
