Punisher Epic Collection, Vol. 7: Capital Punishment

Punisher Epic Collection

by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Chuck Dixon

The Punisher hits Europe! When Frank Castle heads to London in pursuit of the assassin Snakebite, he fi nds a whole continent of trouble - and also his biggest fan: the British vigilante Outlaw! Their fragile Anglo-American alliance must survive a deadly chase from country to country that will draw in mercenaries from Batroc to the Tarantula! But can the Punisher put a stop to a plot that goes all the way up to the Kingpin himself? And if he returns to America in one piece, Frank will be targeted by the anti-vigilantism task force known as V.I.G.I.L.! Plus: the Punisher in space! The death-dealing Baron Cemetery! And a tense team-up with the Avengers' own Black Widow! COLLECTING: VOL. 7: PUNISHER (1987) 63-75, PUNISHER: G-FORCE, PUNISHER: DIE HARD IN THE BIG EASY, PUNISHER/BLACK WIDOW: SPINNING DOOMSDAY'S WEB

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels

488 pages, Paperback

First published December 6, 2018

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

A hodge podge of early 90's violence with the Punisher. Abnett and Lanning actually write a decent Punisher. Theirs is certainly better than the 3 one-shots also in the book. In G-Force, French astronauts are also running drugs and the Punisher heads to space. It's complete nonsense. Kudos to Doug Braithwaite for doing something most artists can't, meet a monthly schedule. Braithwaite draws all of the 13 monthly issues in the book.

[C. Varn · Rating 3 out of 5]

An early 90s bit of ultra violence that feels even older than it is

A hodgepodge of early 90s Punisher that feels way more like it is of the decade prior--it reeks of the late 80s. A mixture of Marvel and Epic titles written by different authors and drawn by various artists. Most plots are inconsequential and ultra violent. Inconsequential because the violence of a Punisher comic means most of the antagonists can't have a particularly important role in the Marvel cannon. The only art that stands out is Larry Stroman, who also did the best of X-force around the same time, but reading this now is strange: it felt tired and of a prior decade when it was released and it's grit seems both tame and exploitative at once.

[doowopapocalypse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could be more suitably titled “Punisher and Friends,” but balances 90s action absurdity with neo-noir.

[Robin Jonsson · Rating 1 out of 5]

In this book The Punisher is portrayed as an incompetent schmuck that would get killed every time he attacks a minor criminal if there wasn't anyone around to save him. This is not the Punisher who held his own against the likes of Spider-man, Daredevil and Captain America.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly good! I heard about this collection from the Epic Marvel Podcast, and they made it sound good enough that I wanted to give it a chance. I've only read a tiny handful of Punisher, the only other book of his I own is my bound version of Greg Rucka's run. I've never been particularly interested in the character, but something about this book really clicked with me. It's very '90s, but in a great way. Extreme and ridiculous at times, but with hidden depths. There are several stories in this book, here's my brief rundown and thoughts:

Punisher: G-Force (graphic novel) - Punisher does Moonraker. Completely over the top and ridiculous, a mix of sci-fi and gritty street punishment that shouldn't work but somehow does.

Punisher # 63 "The Big Checkout" - This is one of my favorites in the whole book, Punisher goes grocery shopping and ends up taking out a group of robbers. It's hilarious and wonderful, I just love "superhero in mundane circumstances" and this was that to a tee.

Punisher # 64-70 "Eurohit" - The main event of the book, a 7 part story where Punisher goes to a different european country each issue on a hunt that all leads back to the Kingpin trying to take over all of Europe's crime families. Fast paced and engaging, with just enough twists and turns to never be boring. Fun stuff.

Punisher # 71 "Loose Ends" - Punisher gets back to America and realizes shit has gotten bad in his absence, new enemies are brought in, he goes on a renewed rampage. Very much a beginning story.

Punisher # 72 "Life During Wartime" - I remember the podcast talking about this, this issue is essentially one long chase scene, and really cool.

Punisher # 73-75 "Police Action" - The ending of #72's chase causes the city to dedicate a task force to taking down vigilantes. This story is good, really exploring the similarities and the differences between the official police and the Punisher, culminating in a very interesting showdown. #75 has a couple short stories at the end, the second of which is called "Flare Up" and has amazing art which is very Moebius-like.

Punisher: Die Hard in the Big Easy (graphic novel) - Punisher visits New Orleans. The funnest part of this was just being reminded of my time there last year. The story was insane but cool enough.

Punisher/Black Widow: Spinning Doomsday's Web (graphic novel) - This was honestly much more focused on Black Widow, which is fine with me as I love her as a character. She and Punisher team up to take down a crazy mad scientist terrorist guy. Very cool art, with interesting panel layouts and great painterly colors. A highlight of the book for sure.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a baffling collection of early 90s Punisher stories, with G-Force easily being the strangest. It's an early 90s graphic novel where Frank takes his war to space on the trail of a French astronaut drug lord. It's definitely not good, but it's worth checking out for how off the wall it is. Eurohit follows, a seven part story in which the Punisher attempts to stop Kingpin from becoming an intercontinental crime lord. For the most part, it's also not that great (outside of a surprisingly excellent fight scene between Batroc and Tarantula of all people) and a rare example of story decompression and bloat from at least a decade before it would become the norm at Marvel.

And the same can be more or less said of the rest of the collection which includes some more issues and two more graphic novels, it's not great, but for the most part there's at least something worth reading in here at any given time. Even the Marvel magazine article at the end, if only for Brevoort deciding that people like Deathlok and Morbius rank anywhere near Punisher and Wolverine in terms of characters who evolved from appearing in one and done stories to something more.

The art is almost competent and the writing, while not great (I haven't read much of Abnett from this period, but him and Lanning don't feel like a great fit for Punisher) is usually serviceable. Might be worth a look for how off the wall some of the stories are, but it's nothing that's going to be on a list of best Punisher stories or anything like that.

[Sebastian Lauterbach · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Epic Collection has a cool cover. The rest is a lot of Punisher mediocrity.

This volume collects Punisher material in the years 1992-1993. Marvel never published Vol. 6 so far, but for the Punisher almost every issue is new reader friendly and can be read out of order, a.k.a. the Punisher has zero character development whatsoever.

It often feels like a low budget book, because the artwork is lacking and the story has few things to offer besides a lot of shooting. On the other hand, there's few superhero comics who show killings without mercy outright like this one.

The titular storyline is fun and there's a spark of a team forming headed by the Punisher. I wish there'd be more Punisher stories like this and less Frank Castle executing small fry criminals. The volume also collects three graphic novels, which usually are produced with a tad better quality.

There's nothing wrong with the stories in this collection, but there's also no need to go out of your way seek any of them out in my opinion.

[Harley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took me a while but it was amazing 400 and something pages of The Punisher who could complain the best marvel superhero ever.
Pros
Every story made sense leading up to the next one unless it was like Punisher with Black Widow, G-force and bad in the city.
Lots of killing like expected
Lots of sewering which was @#$%^ out
Great characters
Cons
Art - i'm not a fan of old colour which made the punisher's hair look blue, there was other areas in the colour they had to fix as well.
#$$%&@ out sewering, which is was not censored.

Overall i recommend this to anybody that loves the Punisher or Europe amazing work

[Al Berry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the stories are top notch in this volume, however there are two very poor graphic novels, thankfully Mike Baron doesn’t write much in this volume, one bad Graphic novel by him and one bad one by D.G Chichester which is even worse due to it being paired with bad art. Rest of the volume has some very good part, and the highlights are a 7 issue miniseries by Dan Abnett and a Graphic Novel set in Nee Orleans by John Wagner.

[Jedi Master Nate Lightray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frank at his best is not Frank traveling the world or Frank fighting super-villains with fellow superheroes. It’s Frank versus the common mafia don. There’s some of that in here. And besides the Black Widow team-up, none of this is bad. The European tour is “fine”. I’m giving the collection 4 stars because only one story is “bad”, most are “meh”, but there are a few really good stories here. I love these complete collections.

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has some of the dumbest plotlines I've ever read in it, like a drug syndicate starting a whole space exploration company, complete with manned flights and a space station, to...sell drugs, I guess? But this middle of the book, 'Eurohit', has Punisher running all over Europe, and it's pretty good.

[Doctor Doom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the collected stories were pretty good and some were pretty bad. Same could be said of the artwork. Still better than faux-Punisher written in recent years with his wife still alive and junk like that.

[Matt Fuller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much better than I expected this was a fast read with great art and action. Frank has no chill as usual as he goes around Europe taking out criminals. The anti vigilante task force is formed in this collection. Tarantula and Batroc have a really cool random fight. 1992-1993. 9/10

[Ron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Baron and Dixon are good writers.

The others, not so much.

[Carsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good old fashioned Marvel Comics fun!! Great to re-read the titles from when I was a teen.

[Batusi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strong mix of gritty action, tense crime stories, and relentless vigilante justice that defines Frank Castle.

The Punisher wages war against drug cartels, organized crime, and dangerous criminals through a series of violent methods that showcase his uncompromising methods.

This is a consistently entertaining volume that captures the character at his hard-hitting best at the peak of his popularity.