The Punisher

The Boys has improved tremendously, but it's not Ennis at his best.

Glad to hear he's reviving his War Stories series.

Punisher #61 already shows the inability of others to follow in Ennis' steps.

Although I liked Valley Forge, Valley Forge, I think Long Cold Dark was way superior. That should have been the one Ennis went out on, I think.

I was at a comic book store last week looking for some Criminal and Scud: The Disposable Assassin and this guy was helping me look for them. After he helped me out he was trying to get me to pick up some other stuff and he mentioned the Ennis run on Punisher. So he told me that it is not connected to the rest of the Marvel universe at all. He also said that the Punisher is now going around killing not only the bad guys, but their families also. Is this true? Because if the Max line isn't connected to the rest of the Marvel bullshit I can see myself giving it a shot.

He's a lying sack of shit! He kind of takes out a family in The Slavers arc but they're all evil!

But is it connected to the Marvel universe?

No, it's in own little corner. The only other character from Marvel universe that shows up is Nick Fury, and he's an old, boozing, whoring, vulgar curmudgeon.

Though apparently one of the new guys is going to be bringing Jigsaw in to the MAX universe.

Didn't Spider-Man show up for a "team-up" early on in Ennis run? Or was that just Steve Dillion on the art and someone else writing?

Spider-man and Daredevil showed up earlier in Ennis' run on Punisher when he was doing the Marvel Knights title, not the Max run.

I don't know guys, I had read the first first couple Ennis Punisher mini-series, the Marvel Knights run, and then through issue 40 or so on the MAX run...and the MAX run just wasn't doing anything for me. It just started feeling like the same tired old shit as Frank was going after mobster after mobster. Sure, the ethnicity of the mobster would change, and their racket would change, but that's all they were. I actually enjoyed when Punisher could go after a super-villain every once in a while, or tumble with the Russian. So while I'm an Ennis fan, I ended up putting the series down.

Not sure I understand - if it was various supervillains instead of organized crime members it would be more interesting? As it was, I found the rogues gallery of crooks in Max Punny an interesting bunch, capped off by Barracuda and Pittsy.

It wouldn't work in any case - Ennis changed the game by making Castle a stone-cold killer. It would require some real contrivances to bring him back into 616.

Subotai, Garth Ennis wrote interesting Punisher comics yet he is no...Mike Baron. I will take 80's Punisher over todays easilly.

However, Now that Ennis is not writing the exploits of Frank Castle, no contrivances are needed, as The Punisher used to be an angel and he was returned to the living, so the character returning to his roots should be a mite easier to explain.

That's what Tier-Z villains are for. The Punisher offed a number of villains during Civil War after all. Of course, that only works for crappy villains so good stories would be harder to do.

I've really enjoyed Ennis run on Punisher, he knows the character is a murdering psychopath, Ennis wrote a short intro for the trade of Welcome home Frank essentially nailing the character, he doesn't take the character seriously and neither should we.

I was disappointed The Slayers storyline, I think it really could've gone somewhere.

Dragon Ma, If Ennis thinks that The Punisher is a psychopath...then I am glad he is gone from the book. Frank Castle aka The Punisher is a superheroic vigilante, whom only kills criminal scum using various weaponry, money, he takes from the mob, with his one ally...Microchip supplying him with weapons, and of course...The Battlevan. I would like to see a return of that Punisher.

I would like to see the return of headless Microchip. Maybe he could have a robot head. That he built himself. You know, because he's good with gadgets and stuff.

Back and unwilling to give up on his dreams!
Me and you, Frank!
WE CAN KILL OSAMA.
Together.

Fuck, how I wished they'd gone after Osama.

You're spilling them
you're spilling them

I'm not saying to use just Marvel villains, but that I did occationally like to see them pop up. Yes, I know in the end that Frank won't kill the Kingpin, but in the meantime the Kingpin would be able to hatch a very intricate plot to bring down the Punisher which could be chock full of people Punisher can kill (including Z-list villains). Hell, even if they avoided actual established Marvel villains (because he couldn't kill them), I wouldn't have minded if they created some new superpowered bad guys for Frank to take out. I think taht was my major problem, I was used to seeing Punisher in a world full of metahumans and him doing his best to deal with that, and with the MAX run that aspect of the book was gone. And I did enjoy seeing other heroes run across Castle's path every once in awhile.

I enjoyed Punny, Barracude, and Pittsy. It was the storylines after that one that my interest started to really fade in the book. But I do think you bring up a point that probably had something to do with my decision; the complete loss of emotion (stone cold killer) aspect of Frank just didn't appeal to me as much as a passionate avenger. I've seen Ennis write two different kinds of Punisher, and I prefered the earlier version (or even the version in the Born miniseries).

Got the second issue from the new storyline, and it's off to an interesting start. I liked the mystery at first about what was going on, but then it shifted to it being another drug cartel. Still, the story seems pretty interesting so far. Can't wait to see what Frank does to these guys.

I didn't need to see Frank get oral while imagining his dead family!

It's the only way he can get off. Let's not judge.