PunisherMax: Frank - Part 1

[espanolbot]

'Frank' is both the penultimate storyline in Jason Aaron's Punisher Max run as well as the second to last storyline in the series as a whole. It basically acts as a direct sequel to the events of Garth Ennis' Born prequel, dealing with the events of the Valley Forge outpost and Frank's building bloodlust.

'Frank', told half in flashback with Frank in a prison hospital in the present (having lost a finger against in a fight against Bullseye, who then broke Frank's mind by reminding him his last words to his wife were that he wanted to divorce her), with memories that Frank had kept surpressed for some forty years start flooding back, and for the first time he doesn't really care if he dies or not, as he's come to feel that he deserves it.

The first flashback is him in a MASH unit following Valley Forge, recovering from his multiple bulletwounds before being shipped back to the US. He has a certain look about him that a man in the next bed is... less inclined to hide.











The next night the lunatic in the bed opposite breaks free and murders a doctor and nurse with a scalpel. He offers to take Frank with him so they can escape together, but a military policeman shoots him in the head before he can respond.

Shortly afterwards, Castle is back in the USA meeting his family again for the first time in a long, long times...

Comments

[kd_the_movie]

I loved this storyline. People kinda criticize Jason Aaron for not being Garth Ennis (and yeah sometimes it is kinda noticeable, like how his Frank talks just a little more than Garth's for instance) but I thought this storyline fit into perfectly into what Garth had previously established (well mostly as theres a little continuity hiccup in the tail end of the story).

[darkknightjrk]

...Yup, gonna have to pick up the Aaron run too, aren't I? Man, here I thought no one could top Ennis' run...

[espanolbot]

Yeah, I know that people didn't seem to like it here when it was first published, but I thought that Aaron did a good job at building upon the universe Ennis created and expanding on it.

People seemed really annoyed that the Max versions of Kingpin, Elektra and Bullseye didn't act the same way as their regular Marvel versions... when it's pretty clear to be taking place in a completely different universe to the regular comics.

References are made, but organisations like the Hand (when they're briefly mentioned later in the series) are more a global assassination buearu ( a la the Agency from the Hitman games) rather than a ninja cult that has resurrection powers for some reason.