Once in a great while, right up til I stopped buying paper comics, I would still buy a book for the art. As comics got more and more expensive, buying a comic just for the art became harder and harder to justify. Which is crazy, really, when you think about it. I mean the art is most of the comic. If the story is bad and the art is good, you still got a lot more of your money’s worth than the opposite. But, you know. We’re kinda programmed the other way, I think. At any rate, I want to say that, by the release of this Punisher, I’d solidly re-abandoned the character since Matt Fraction quit writing it. Also, like a few Matt Fraction pieces, in point of fact, what had begun as a sort of lighthearted romp had turned into a grim slog, a thought I’ve never actually completed before. Huh. Well, that’s for pondering later. In the manner of the period, up-and-comer Rick Remender was added to the title as a “co-writer,” which, from what I understand, most often meant the original writer just said “Ya did good” and the new writer did everything. Bendis rather infamously said so directly about his “collaboration” with Jonathan Hickman on Secret Warriors 1. In subsequent years, I would come to realize I do not care for the writing of Rick Remender at all, but in this moment, he was just a new name I was learning. While not really a fan of Punisher and not really knowing Remender, seeing the credit for Jason Pearson made this an easy buy for me. In addition to being a very fun and kinetic artist, Pearson was also a rare name to see on anything. He apparently went through a lot in his personal life, and is sadly no longer with us, but I didn’t know about his struggles at the time. I just knew it’d been ages since I saw him draw anything (maybe those covers for ASM 40, 41 & 42), and I was eager to see his work. And he’s colored here by the great Dave Stewart, so it’s hard to go wrong. And Spider-Man is in it. Will I enjoy this story? Maybe not, but no regrets. This story opens with a support group for military vets being interrupted by some kinda Kirby-esque muscle women. And it should be noted that another thing Pearson had developed a rep for was… a certain kind of woman…
It must be noted that this “do what I say power,” right down to the colored text, is lifted directly from Preacher. Like even though, say, Purple Man has similar powers, this is very much the Preacher version. So, like, not a great start, but look at that crisp line. In an industry full of people copying whoever was the big name since its inception, Pearson had an instantly recognizable style. Cartoony, but solid and consistent. Very slick. He was really good at his job. Even when it was… this. Well, some cops investigate the scene, Punisher arrives and gathers some intel wearing a fake goatee and claiming to be FBI, and then he has his lil’ Not Microchip guy we met before feeding him more info. the women are apparently called Letha and Lascivious and known to be dead. Frank goes to investigate the floral shop where the card the girls left at the scene was printed.
Oh yeah, Frank’s been collecting gear from superpeople to use against other superpeople. Those are Jack O’Lantern bombs, and an old Iron Man glove on his leg.
If she wasn’t dead before, she sure is now. The other one smashes Frank through the front window, trying to kill him, but he loops a cable around her neck and zaps her with electricity. He’s about to get down to punishin’, but…
(Dave Stewart used the name “Dragon Monkey Studios” for awhile)
I mean, look at that web hitting her face. It’s got zip! No one else would’ve drawn that impact so, uh, impactfully. Spidey is having fun until that lady users her Word of God to tell him to kill Frank Castle. Uh-oh.
Incredibly, the one who had a grenade go off in her mouth is fine, and the two villains hop in a lavishly drawn classic car to flee the scene. Frank’s Guy In the Chair tells him the only way to stop Spider-Man from killing him is to knock out Letha and break her hold over him. Frank sets a bomb off in Spidey’s face, trying to talk him out of being mind controlled. This gets him as far as Spider-Man yelling that he’s not in control and telling Frank to get away from him even as he grab him and tosses him high into the air. So now, Punisher is falling to his death, like any classic hero does.
What a day, am I right? Improbably, Frank latched onto their rear bumper, and lugs himself up into the car to shoot them (The grenade didn’t work, what’s a gun gonna do?), when Spider-Man returns.
Very much like Stewart’s color choices in panel 4 there. He’s a colorist who varies his approach to support the penciler. Truly one of the best.
The letters in that sign, tho! Pearson, man. I miss him.
Everyone gets to fly today! Returning the gals, the one who was controlling Spider-Man is out, but the other one’s fine. Punisher appears, then Spider-Man webs his Iron Man glove. He’s giving Punisher one of his usual speeches when the other woman hits him with the mind control. They both do it? Who are they? She tells him he loves Frank and to never let him go. The speech turns into one about how “sometimes brothers fight” as Spider-Man sweeps Frank up in an unbreakable bear hug while the conscious baddie runs off with the unconscious one over her shoulder before being picked up by some flying guy off-panel.
Essential reading? Hardly. But a fun showcase for a lost master of his craft. apparently Lascivious was called Titania before she died, and since a much more well known Titania now has that name, she changed it, I’m reading? Ok. Rick Remender is just months away from his big swing on Punisher, which was to have Daken not just kill him, but literally slice him to pieces (Art by John Romita, Jr.), so those pieces, and I’m not making this up, could be reassembled and reanimated, and go on to star in a new title called “Frankencastle.” Really. One of those times it seems like someone came up with a silly phrase and then built a whole thing around it. Frank eventually got better, of course. Comics are weird.