CBB #2: Punisher: War Journal #11

Now so far on This Sentence No Verb I think I've done pretty good at focussing on the positive in comics. OK, I did lay into Thor #2 before the greatness of #3 and I may have had that Ark-of-the-Covenant-ugly panel of Catwoman but generally I've kept it to a minimum. I've tried to bring to you (the hypothetical reader figure) a little slice in every post of why I love comics. Apart from the posts that aren't about comics, natch. I think that I've always endeavoured to give you a little bit of awesome. But tonight...


Is no different! Seamless introduction over with it's time to drop science on those assembled!

I honestly think that at the moment there are some very fine comics out there - Captain America, She-Hulk, Blue Beetle, All New Atom and so on. They're especially good if you keep away from all that Countdown To Final Secret Invasion War: Disassembled Messiah Crisis bobbins that's going on. One of the true highlights at the moment is Matt Fraction's Punisher: War Journal. It's the perfect book to bring the grim and gritty 90s-Cool Punisher back into the mainstream Marvel Universe.

It's a title that gives you not only gratuitous violence, pretty art and colourful supervillains, it's actually pretty smart in a subversive kind of way. Hell, the saddest moment printed in any Marvel comic about the death of Captain America came in War Journal when Frank Castle hears the news. That's a testament to Matt Fraction - I can have my face rocked and mind blown for 22 pages but I also get my heart tugged for two. Not to bring too much with the hyperbole here but when I read War Journal I get the same feeling I do when I read Walt Simonson's Thor or Gail Simone's Birds of Prey - here is someone writing comics who gets it. I've not read any of his work on Iron Fist but I've heard many good things about it and I don't know if I can keep myself from getting it for much longer but what I do know for sure is that Mr Fraction's veins run with pure unadulterated awesomosity.

Issue 11 comes at the end of an arc where the Punisher takes on the Hate-Monger - a Nazi supervillain wearing a swastika adorned version of the late Captain America's costume. Arc recap in extremely brief - Naturally, when the Hate-Monger's immigrant killing ways made the papers our Frank wasn't too happy with the fact a fascist was wearing something that evoked the memory of Cap. So Frank heads on down to take him out in his own imitable way. Oh yeah, and to do so Frank made his own version of Captain America's costume:

Liquid Awesome.

However, after a lot of blood has been shed and the Hate-Monger killed, Frank is left with the realisation that maybe there isn't much difference between him and the Hate-Monger. Of course, there's also the matter of Bucky - Captain America's former WWII Kid sidecick turned Soviet assasin cyborg turned morally grey good guy. Unsurprisingly, Bucky isn't dealing so well with Cap's death and he's not too pleased about The Punisher diserespecting the uniform. We join our two anti-heroes just after superhuman robot assassin Bucky has challenged crazed vigilante The Punisher to a fight. Things do not look good for Mr Castle.

Comic Book Badassery! Live and in your face!

Like the animal cruelty the other night, CBB isn't all about the big moments, it's the smaller things too. Expectations are confounded and in those two pages we get a brilliant summary of the Punisher and who he is. A man seeking vengeance in a world of over-the-top superheroics. A man who knows he can't live up to the ideals of another former soldier fighting the good fight. A tragically conflicted character who can never get back the life he wanted. A man who will knock you the fuck out if you call him chicken. And that's another reason why I love comics.

Matt Fraction: I salute you. I'm going to have to start reading Iron Fist now aren't I?