After Frank Returned From the Dead the First Time...

[espanolbot]

Garth Ennis firmly closing the door on the previous Punisher series, where he became a literal avenging angel after killing himself.

Comments

[thatnickguy]

I keep hoping someone will post some of the Angel Punisher stuff. I remember seeing it back in the day but have almost forgotten about it.

[leoboiko]

I should post the moment of Frank’s confession to Micro; for me this is the moment that defines Garth’s Punisher, more even than Born.

[kd_the_movie]

Ahhh the "Welcome Back, Frank" monlogue. A classic moment in comics, not because its a particularly great/clever Punisher moment, but because it officially ushered in one of the greatest runs in comic history.

[leoboiko]

People tend to cry about continuity, but I’m actually a huge fan of these “fuck the previous writer” debuts.

[silverhammerman]

Indeed. I think they're much better than some long and convoluted explanation about how no, that character was mindcontrolled and that was an imposter. A simple "yeah no, this is the way it is now." and then move on works perfectly well for me.

[an_idol_mind]

I think having it somewhere in the middle is usually nice. I like it when writers show respect to other creator's work, even if they disagree with it. On the other hand, if a retcon takes more than a page to explain, it's wasting the readers' time.

On the one end of the spectrum, I though that Byrne's Dallas-style retcon of everything that happened between his runs on She-Hulk was pretty disrespectful. On the other end of the spectrum, Peter David once spent five issues on what was essentially a drawn out quasi-retcon of the Hulk's history, which I thought was just as bad.

[silverhammerman]

The middle is indeed nice if you're following up a decent run that just happens to run counter to what you want to do, but I think if you're following a monumentally bad story that really kind of ruined the character, the blunt "this how things are" approach is the best and least painful way to go about it.

[glprime]

They can be fun. There's a dark side when the previous writer wasn't that bad and you just want to piss on them to be an ego-centric jerk, but in this case, it both pushed away from the previous work (while acknowledging it completely) and established the tone of the work going forward.

[needagasmask]

Frank's one saggy lip from becoming Stalone.

[darkblade]

I sometimes think Stalone and Duff Lundgren should have traded rolls in their bad 90s comic based movies.

Stalone as the Punisher and Lundgren as Judge Dredd would have worked out so much better.

[icon_uk]

Given their take on Dredd, NOTHING could have saved that bloody movie. Stallone really looked the part, but then had to spoil it all by opening his gob and starting to talk; An adenoidal "eyyyemderlaw" just plain doesn't cut it.

[espanolbot]

Aw, the guy can't help it, he's got a birth defect that makes him slur his words.

[icon_uk]

My apologies to Mr Stallone. I should not castigate him for his role in the movie, I should castigate the casting director, the scriptwriter and the director.

[espanolbot]

This makes more sense. Like why they thought that Dredd needed THAT GUY as a sidekick.

[an_idol_mind]

I think the blame was to the folks who cast Rob Schneider followed by whoever decided that Dredd should take his helmet off. The moment Dredd removes his helmet, you know there's not hope of the movie at all resembling the source material.

[mrstatham]

Ah, yeah. That's the thing - I'd want them to do it the way Karl Urban suggests if Dredd EVER removes his helmet in the new series. Basically frame it like they do in the comics on the few occasions Dredd has the helmet off, so he's either obscured by something, or it's from the back.

[sir_razorback]

I'd heard that it wasn't a birth defect at all, it was a delivery accident. Hmm.. a question so topical, only Google knows for sure.

[espanolbot]

I think that he dressed as Superman and jumped off his mum's roof when he was a kid too.

Wow, imagine Stallone as Superman! :D He was also Schumacher's second choice for Mr Freeze, while the third was Hulk Hogan (yes, really).

[mrstatham]

Fuck. They should've got Hogan.

"FREEZE WELL, BRUTHAAA!"

"Whatcha ya gonna do brother, when the 24" ice guns and Freezamania run wild on you!?"

[espanolbot]

Robin: I WAS FROZEN TODAY!

[mrstatham]

Please. Take all the internets. Anything for someone who can use a Suburban Commando line.

[cyberghostface]

When he was delivered one of the doctor's forcep's severed a facial nerve.

[mrstatham]

That last panel would be so much more effective without the standard issue comic-book-font-style SPLAAAAAAAAT going on behind Frank like he's just taken part in some cream-pie escapades at the circus.

[espanolbot]

Eh, Marvel Knight's version of the Punisher did place violence up to deliberately cartoonish levels compared to it's regular and Max universe versions. Like Wolverine being run over with a steamroller? That's from here too.

[mrstatham]

Fair enough. It.. Well, to me, there's just something of a disconnect between the Punisher's 'this is why I'm so fucking badass' speech and that example of onomatopoeia behind him.

[mrph.livejournal.com]

Given the length of the drop and the impressive size of the SPLAAAAAAAAT that Frank (presumably) hears, that must be pretty deafening at street level...

[an_idol_mind]

It's actually an unrelated event in which Spider-Man was chasing down the Shocker, who had stolen a pudding truck.

Honestly, given all the weirdness that happens in Marvel's New York, I'm surprised we aren't constantly bombarded with background panels full of other superheroes fighting crime that is completely unrelated to the narrative being focused on.

[md84]

New Yorkers in the Marvel verse must be the most jaded people ever. Rivaled only by the people of Gotham in the DCU.

And yeah, I could see Shocker being pathetic enough to be reduced to hijacking a pudding truck.

[salinea]

Honestly, given all the weirdness that happens in Marvel's New York, I'm surprised we aren't constantly bombarded with background panels full of other superheroes fighting crime that is completely unrelated to the narrative being focused on.
That'd be awesome.

[akodo_rokku]

The closest I can think of is an old New Warriors annual. Speedball had lost his powers, and was trying to restart them by massive kinetic impact.

Throwing himself off buildings.

Stepping in front of trains.

Etcetera.

And every time some superhero or another saved him. Thor. Spider-Man. Power Pack...

[eyz]

Still my all-time favorite Punisher run!