More punishing time, and given that Spider-Man’s in these, but not much, we’re just gonna take them all in one post. Like so many comics, these take place in some nebulous time during Civil War 6. Furthermore, #2 seems to pick up where PWJ 1 left off, but Spider-Man appears in his red & blues, meaning some time has passed. Who knows anymore? An event with so many tie-ins is hard to keep track of. If memory serves, this is also where I have problems with this comic. It opens with Cap and Frank debating whether he should be allowed to work with the team, whose methods make more sense, etc. Outside, Patriot, Hulkling, Vision and Luke Cage wait, Patriot eavesdropping against the door (With a funny aside of Luke Cage being an old head to Patriot about bass) until Cap punches Frank right through the wall, announcing that if he stays, he can only use nonlethal means.
Not a single background on this page, Ariel? Not even a one? Boooooo. We cut away to seeing GW Bridge and some lackeys staking out Frank’s new tech partner, Clarke, who is furious Frank has put him in this position and decides to go on the offensive. Then, back to the main story:
Frank and Cap fighting villains who were caught in SSM 31 might seems like a weirdly specific continuity error, but it turns out SHIELD set them loose as a trap, making it a nice continuity moment instead. Punisher sets off a flash grenade and they escape. Cap still doesn’t fully trust his new partner, but he salutes him for a job well done. Frank goes to see Clarke, getting in by disabling all the agents on the roof, and acquires things he needs to break into the Baxter Building. He tells his new partner he’s not allowed to hurt Bridge, then leaves. Bridge realizes Frank is/was in there and decides to go in alone and unarmed.
No idea who these jobbers are. “Blank Costume Man” there feels like the kind of character you’d seen in an ad in a comic book, the company making a pathetic attempt to relate by drawing a painfully generic superhero.
Well, so much for Blank Costume Man.
Things are getting weirdly kinky! Let’s get right into issue 3:
Ok, I misremembered, here’s where it stops making sense.
Yes. We’re saying Captain America met Frank Castle during “the war.” Vietnam. A war Cap was around for at the time, but now absolutely was still frozen for. I can’t believe they let this happen. But, the editor was Axel Alonso, so I guess I can. Never one to let “common sense” or “bad ideas” get in the way. Back in the present, Cap is beating on Frank, there’s a lot of very stupid macho posturing that is right in line with the rabid dog version of Cap in the main book, then we return to the flashback, where things get even worse, as we learn Frank Castle, then and now, has an unwavering reverence for Cap that wouldn’t allow him to punch his idol, even as his idol is beating on him, then and now. This is a retcon on the level of Vulture in the last Peter David story we saw. There’s plenty of encounters and animosity between these two in the past. This hero worship of Cap was not in any of them. It just doesn’t play. Again, Axel Alonso should’ve said so, but he didn’t. This guy is Marvel’s next Editor-in-Chief despite presiding over Sins Past and the Other and this.
Frank, like everyone else in the world, knows Captain America is Steve Rogers. His identity is public, his story is famous. Fully half this issue is just nonsense. The rest of it is Frank reuniting with his new sidekick, getting some advanced weapons, and going to beat up the Rhino with a rocket launcher and a power glove.
So… that’s that. Frank’s back and he’s not just going after mobsters anymore. Now, then, issue 4…
Well, I just kinda put it here. It doesn’t have anything to do with Civil War. But it does have Spider-Man in it, and it can’t take place after Civil War 7, so… here it is. Quickly, if I can manage it. It’s got fill-in art by Mike Deodato, I think his only appearance on the run, just here to vex me. HE inks himself here, with colors by his new long term partner Rain Beredo. This issue is…
…a wake for Stilt-Man, which is pretty funny. And look, already we have weird old friends like Masked Marauder and Armada involved.
Professor Power, Shocker, Ringer, the Answer, Puma, Absorbing Man, Xandu, Grizzly, and so many more. The silliness escalates as Princess Python of the Circus of Crime arrives, identified as Stilt-Man’s widow. The Cat, last seen on the blog in TAC 48, first seen way back in ASM 30, tries to hit on her, which is hilariously poor taste, and Fraction scores points with me by having Prowler try to attack him for stealing his suit in TAC 47. I had no idea about that when I first read this. I didn’t even know who like half these dorks were! I’ve learned so much. The Gibbon is depressed that no one would ever do this for him, but then Princess Python asks him to dance.
It’s superfluous, but you can see why I’d want to cover this on the blog. This last page is flashbacks to DD 27, ASM 30 and presumably ASM 46.
Armadillo and Rhino get into a fight, and soon the whole bar is fighting, the narration saying this is their idea of a good time. But wait:
Totally a valid blog entry! Spidey leaves. Eel is impressed by him showing up, but Masked Marauder is furious, feels condescended to, and gives a big speech to the assembled about how it’s time they were feared again. He riles up the crowd, but then they all start to notice they’re sick to varying degrees, and the Cat is lying in a pool of blood. And the bartender is gone, having left a skull drawn on a napkin.
As the Jam said, that’s entertainment! A lot of those guys stay dead, too. This is the actual end for stupid ol’ Xandu, for instance. I’ll never have to deal with his name being autocorrected to “Xanadu” when I type it ever again. A weirdly poignant, funny, crazy issue. And with that, unshackled from Civil War, this book was off to the races. Fraction took it to some wild places, both absurdly funny and deeply dark. What it does in the immediate wake of Civil War, starting with #5, is pretty insane, but not part of our remit.