Punisher and Batman: Deadly Knights

[cyberghostface]

Jigsaw has come to Gotham City and has allied himself with the Joker so you can imagine that Batman and Punisher both end up crossing paths.

Comments

[astrakhan42]

The actual Batman/Punisher issues are good, but the best interaction between them was off-panel in JLA/Avengers. Plastic Man lecturing Batman about him knocking out the Punisher after warning the League not to interfere with anything in the Marvel universe is just glorious.

The best part: nothing in that sequence indicates that the previous crossovers didn't happen, so for all we know, Bruce was really eager to knock Frank out.

[alicemacher]

Cue a slew of comments along the lines of "Batman should've let the Punisher do it."

(I can understand the sentiment, mind... it's just if he condoned that, he wouldn't be Batman. Well, he'd be very early Golden Age Bat-Man.)

[angelophile]

I can understand Batman not wanting the Punisher to do it, but telling him to run off goes a bit beyond standing up for his principles and toward enabling to me. At least knock him out.

[alicemacher]

I agree. It's not as though "let Punisher kill him" and "let him go for now" were Batman's only choices.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I dunno, as long as Punisher and Joker were in close proximity to one-another, someone was probably going to die save for Batman keeping them apart.

[commodus]

I love the artwork here. It pretty much encapsulates everything I love about 1990's comics - the brightness, the vibrancy, a focus on being cartoony instead of bizarrely photorealistic. I wish more artists today embraced this style.

What doesn't work so well is the writing for The Joker. I know he's a tough character to get right, but the dialogue here is just cringeworthy.

[coldfury]

Man, I don't see how this crossover works at all. Batman would never consider Punisher an ally, even under duress.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Did he? I know they had similar goals here, but were they really allies?

[cyberghostface]

Yeah they were in the same situation going after the same enemies but Batman didn't really 'team up' with him.

[karthak]

Add me to the chorus going "godDAMMIT BATS!" In real life, I'm against the death penalty, but when it comes to the Joker...

[bradygirl_12]

There's something definitely squicky about Batman saving Joker. I think of all of Joker's future victims and weep.

[cyberghostface]

I think it's kind of sweet that Batman cares about Joker. They're practically BFFs at this point.

[alicemacher]

But "He'll never love you, sweetheart! You can keep screwing with his city, but he's never gonna take you to the prom!"