BEST OF THE STACK (2) - PUNISHER #4

Punisher also continues to be super duper good. I guess it's the ugly side to the bright and cheery (though dark) world of Fables that I need. So, it got high honors this week as well. The covers were cool this issue as they were both an homage to the original #1 issue from back in the day. Anyways, Rick Remender keeps pulling it off with this book. Somehow he's put Mr. Castle back in the Marvel U without it being too campy or goofy. Pitting him against The Hood is a great idea. Plus, he's writing The Hood as he should be - mean and nasty. And Remender doesn't pull any punches. Punished must've laid waste to 12 of The Hood's goons. Knives, guns, strangling, you name it. One particular goon gets blowed up real good - while wearing some ridiculous bear outfit.

Remender's dark humor (see bear explosion above) is all over the place. Especially when The Hood opens his mouth. I believe I laughed out loud a few times while reading this book as well. The writing is just spot on. The art matches the action, and the pace is breakneck.

There are some zings in the issue which are big news. The most obvious is the fact the fucking Microchip has ben resurrected (I guess The Hood can do that) and is working for The Hood against his will in a zombie fashion. I dunno. See where that leads. Lastly, Punisher is finally looking to use all that cool shit he's got laying around. He dona Ant Man's Helmet, a suspicious round shield, and a Iron Man-ish power glove in the last panel. Looks like The Punisher is gonna step it up a notch and take on/out some higher level villains. Cool deal.

This title is quickly becoming the first thing I read when I get home, beating out The Walking Dead and Hellboy related books. Quite the accomplishment!

FAIL OF THE WEEK - THE END LEAGUE #7

It's the end of The End League for me. Oh, how witty.

From such heights to such crap. Rick Remender has my neverending respect for the creation of Fear Agent as well as his recent work on The Punisher. The 1st issue or so of The End League was very cool too. Interesting takes on charactrs and a bleak universe where the heroes are outnumbered by villains. Sweet. But, The End League has now all gone to hell. The artist changed a few issue back to the dude who did Aeon Flux back in the day, Eric Canete. Not a horrible thing, but he's just not doing it for me here. I actually listened to an interview with him a month or so back and I admire his stance on art and the how things get done. He's all about deadlines and respecting them.

Art aside, the story is straight up retarded bonkers times infinity. It started out simple enough - get this hammer and smash this dude - then veered into crazyland. Then there's the issue of about 20 too many characters running around. This can be nice on one hand because characters often get eviscerated, but overall it just sucks. I end up not caring. And bi-montly isn't helping in any way. This thing is going nowhere fast. Such neato promise for a darker kind of superhero book done by a company that isn't Marvel or DC. Oh well. I'm done with this sucker officially.

BEST OF THE STACK - PUNISHER #3

Punisher continues to hit all the high marks of fun in a comic for me. People get shot in the face, there's Fugazi/Black Flag references everywhere, the new microchip dude's name is Henry (a further 80s hardcore nod), insane karate dudes steal eyes, Punisher gets shot and beat to shit, lot's of action each issue, and there was a giant vat full of body parts which exploded. I'm down. Looks like good times for Punisher fans in the Marvel U.

There are some parallels to Fear Agent here and there though that may expose some weakness in Remender's creative writing abilities. Frank and Heath Huston are kinda similar in that they're both unshaven loners. They are both generally out for themselves, leaving others crippled in their wake as they attempt to always uphold their mission. Basically they seem to fuck things up more than fix them and people die because of their single minded focus. But, Frank doesn't have a jetpack. Yet.

I'm still totally into both titles though. I care not!