...and The Punisher is boring again

Mustard

So, over a month ago, I said I would try to catch up on this page.  Obviously, I haven't.  I'm going to attempt this again.  A lot of the stuff I had planned is going to be irrelevant now, so I'm going to condense everything I had planned over the last month in this one post.  Here we go:

• First off, I've been working on Chunklet's upcoming book, and am now writing for their website.
• Isis is disbanding.  You can read about it and download some live stuff on www.chunklet.com (damn, I'm smooth).
• Da Blackhawks are still awesome.  More on that in a couple weeks. 
• LOST ended.  I liked it.
• Ronnie James Dio died last week.  That sucks.  Go find some videos on www.youtube.com.
• Iron Man 2 is really good.  Although the first was a lot better, and Terrance Howard was a much better Rhodey.
• Shade the Changing Man is going to be in upcoming issues of Hellblazer.  Shade is one of my favorite Vertigo series, and I'm excited to see Peter Milligan writing the character again for the first time in seven years (there was a short story in the Vertigo tenth anniversary book).
• Free Comic Book Day sucks.  I know it's basically advertisements disguised as free comics, but can't anyone put out something worth reading?  I give Image credit for putting out Savage Dragon 146 last year.  It's something comic readers would want.  And Marvel prints out books with smaller dimensions.  You're owned by Disney and you can't put out a full-sized comic book like everyone else (including tiny indie companies)?  Fuck you!
• Lastly, I have a stack of books that I picked to write about as Book of the Weeks.  I'm just going to list them.  They're all good.  Look at the companies' websites if you want synopses.  I should be getting the past couple of weeks' books soon, and will write full reviews on them:

3-24-10: Hellblazer 265 (DC/Vertigo)
3-31-10: Punisher 15 (Marvel)
4-07-10: S.H.I.E.L.D. 1 (Marvel)
4-14-10: Punishermax 6 (Marvel/Max)
4-21-10: American Vampire 2 (DC/Vertigo)
4-28-10: Fantastic Four 578 (Marvel)
5-01-10: Iron Man Thor (Marvel)
5-05-10: Hellboy in Mexico (Dark Horse)

Check the Title

Marvel released some of their June solicitations, and I couldn't be happier than to see that Punisher has been renamed to Franken-Castle. Not just the arc; the book's title. This not only implies that Franken-Castle will stick around after the current arc, but maybe for a little while.

I know a lot of people don't like the change in their character, but I've said for a long time that The Punisher is a totally one-note character. His family's dead. He shoots people. That's about it for about forty years

I know he did spend brief time as a brother (which doesn't really change anything except appearance) and an angel. This time Rick Remender did the obvious thing by taking a crap character (Punisher) and turning him into an awesome character (Frankenstein).

Warner Bros. did something similar about eighty years back when the took a lame character (Frankenstein) and made him into a kick-ass character (Frankenstein). The character was later evolved in the early seventies when General Mills turned him pink and gave him a lisp. Maybe the next arc will be called Frankenberrycastle. We can only hope.

Also: if anyone is bored and wants to Photoshop a Frankenberrycastle, you should send it in.

Book of the Week

2-10-10

First off, I'm going to say something that a lot of people don't agree with, and that's The Punisher is a garbage character. He's a psychopath with a lot of guns. I don't get his appeal. I think I'm the only person in the world who didn't like Garth Ennis' Max run (I did very much enjoy his Marvel Knights run, which is hilarious).

That being said, recent months have seemed like a bit of a time warp, being that three of my favorite monthly comics are two Punishers and a Ghost Rider. Well, Ghost Rider just ended. Maybe I'll make my way back to 2010. Although, the way the two Punisher books are going, maybe not.

When I do enjoy The Punisher, I tend to enjoy stories that aren't necessarily realistic or gritty. I watched a lot of Steven Segal movies in my youth and the avenge-family's-death story just seems a little played out to me. However, what I don't tire of is violence, and Punishermax (even the title is barely mediocre) does not fall short in that aspect.

Also, the story is told from the criminals' perspective. The Punisher just kind of shows up like Jason Vorhees every now and again, takes an almost inhuman beating, and offs a bunch of gangsters. There's really more of a pathos with the criminals. Its odd, but I find myself wanting to see the Punisher get killed.

It looks like this series will be about taking classic Marvel villains and rebooting them in the Max universe. This first arc is about the Kingpin and up next is Bullseye. A new character called The Mennonite makes his debut. Oh. And I almost forgot to mention the creative team. It's written by Jason Aaron, drawn by veteran Punisher artist, Steve Dillon, and has these really cool unique covers by Dave Johnson. Check it out.