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Punisher War Journal (1988) #1-3
Punisher: An Eye For An Eye
Frank Castle's heart once swelled with the love of his wife and children. When a mob crossfire slaughtered his family, Castle's grief and rage wouldn't allow him to die. His body rose again, his empty heart burning for bloody revenge on the human monsters who ravage the law and terrorize the innocent.
"Originally published in magazine form as 'Punisher war journal, ' #1, #2, #3."
"Originally published in magazine form as 'Punisher war journal, ' #1, #2, #3."
- GenresGraphic Novels
80 pages, Paperback
Published December 1, 1991
2 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
About the author
Carl Potts
159 books12 followersCreative Director, Writer, Artist & Editor with experience in visual arts, entertainment, marketing, interactive and education.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 9, 2017
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Whoa Jeff! Starting off a review of a Punisher book with some Robert Frost, that’s kind of classy, but WTF!
Carl Potts ended each volume here with some Robert Frost – concluding the last issue with a bit of the poem above. At first, I thought it was fairly pretentious, but after some consideration and a toke on my crack pipe, I believe it works and is kind of touching.
Before Garth Ennis got his hands on this character and he became a Marvel MAX book (that’s a capital “M” for mature, boys and girls), Marvel editors tried to shoehorn this guy into all sorts of nutty adventures: punching polar bears, bitch slapping sharks, spy capers, going toe-to-toe with Dr. Doom, aliens, etc. etc. and fighting every type of criminal you can figure.
“F**kin’ jay walkers! Eat lead, bitches!!”
I can dream...
His raison d’etre however, was mobsters. There just aren’t enough mobsters in the world for Mr. Castle to kill.
At the height of his popularity, the Punisher aka Frank Castle had four monthly books going. This volume includes the first three entries in Punisher: War Journal.
Castle got his start chasing Spider-Man…
…became popular as brooding anti-heroes came into vogue (Hiya, Wolverine) and a back-story had to be created.
Castle and his family somehow interrupted a mob hit in Central Park in the middle of the afternoon (this was back in the late ‘80’s when it was supposedly a daily occurrence); Castle’s wife and two kids didn’t survive the encounter.
Which led to some self-examination on Frank’s part. To wit:
Rare as in Blue Moon Jeff digression: Remember when the comic book industry jumped into the then lucrative trading card market? A set of cards for everything! Rare inserts! Buy them by the crate! “I’ll trade you a hundred “Justice!: The Punisher garrotes a mobster” for one Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card.”
I have boxes of this stuff at home. Boxes.
Rare as in Blue Moon Jeff digression over.
Revenge is a pretty strong motivator when it comes to comic book justice, which brings us to this volume and almost to Robert Frost.
A plot synopsis in brief by Jeff.
Yet still more players in the Castle family tragedy are revealed (a Punisher sub-genre of books): the dude who had a hand in setting up the mob hit and the son of the victim of the hit. So, it’s going to be a showdown between the two with the son seeking revenge for his father’s murder. The Punisher still has a shred of humanity and tries to prevent the kid from going down the same tortured path (Or ROAD. Hey, Robert Frost! *waves*) he did. Plus, every year Frank takes the anniversary of the event to fly a kite in the park in remembrance of his family.
Odds and ends.
Microchip, the Punisher’s tech-support buddy, is around and when he’s not reading Robert Frost and eating Cheetos and surfing the net for Tigra porn, he helps Frank look up stuff on the Interwebz and invents more weapons and stuff, like this knife that stabs people on its own.
Daredevil is definitely the Punisher’s pu**y in the ointment here.
Always insinuating his sense of justice offering an unsolicited, more humane way of dealing with mooks.
Wimp!!
Bottom line: Despite the era’s comic book trappings: ham-fisted dialogue, a three-page digression into the villain’s background; this volume has some game – it’s short (only three issues), Jim Lee’s art is effective, the violence is toned down, there’s enough gray area with the players to make it interesting and it’s a simplified look at the Punisher before some of the pre-Ennis awful stuff that Marvel published in the ‘90’s. It’s a three star rating for today’s jaded comic book reader who expect gratuitous violence and nude panels of the Kingpin when they read The Punisher, but if you read it back in the day it would have been four.
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Whoa Jeff! Starting off a review of a Punisher book with some Robert Frost, that’s kind of classy, but WTF!
Carl Potts ended each volume here with some Robert Frost – concluding the last issue with a bit of the poem above. At first, I thought it was fairly pretentious, but after some consideration and a toke on my crack pipe, I believe it works and is kind of touching.
Before Garth Ennis got his hands on this character and he became a Marvel MAX book (that’s a capital “M” for mature, boys and girls), Marvel editors tried to shoehorn this guy into all sorts of nutty adventures: punching polar bears, bitch slapping sharks, spy capers, going toe-to-toe with Dr. Doom, aliens, etc. etc. and fighting every type of criminal you can figure.
“F**kin’ jay walkers! Eat lead, bitches!!”
I can dream...
His raison d’etre however, was mobsters. There just aren’t enough mobsters in the world for Mr. Castle to kill.
At the height of his popularity, the Punisher aka Frank Castle had four monthly books going. This volume includes the first three entries in Punisher: War Journal.
Castle got his start chasing Spider-Man…
…became popular as brooding anti-heroes came into vogue (Hiya, Wolverine) and a back-story had to be created.
Castle and his family somehow interrupted a mob hit in Central Park in the middle of the afternoon (this was back in the late ‘80’s when it was supposedly a daily occurrence); Castle’s wife and two kids didn’t survive the encounter.
Which led to some self-examination on Frank’s part. To wit:
Rare as in Blue Moon Jeff digression: Remember when the comic book industry jumped into the then lucrative trading card market? A set of cards for everything! Rare inserts! Buy them by the crate! “I’ll trade you a hundred “Justice!: The Punisher garrotes a mobster” for one Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card.”
I have boxes of this stuff at home. Boxes.
Rare as in Blue Moon Jeff digression over.
Revenge is a pretty strong motivator when it comes to comic book justice, which brings us to this volume and almost to Robert Frost.
A plot synopsis in brief by Jeff.
Yet still more players in the Castle family tragedy are revealed (a Punisher sub-genre of books): the dude who had a hand in setting up the mob hit and the son of the victim of the hit. So, it’s going to be a showdown between the two with the son seeking revenge for his father’s murder. The Punisher still has a shred of humanity and tries to prevent the kid from going down the same tortured path (Or ROAD. Hey, Robert Frost! *waves*) he did. Plus, every year Frank takes the anniversary of the event to fly a kite in the park in remembrance of his family.
Odds and ends.
Microchip, the Punisher’s tech-support buddy, is around and when he’s not reading Robert Frost and eating Cheetos and surfing the net for Tigra porn, he helps Frank look up stuff on the Interwebz and invents more weapons and stuff, like this knife that stabs people on its own.
Daredevil is definitely the Punisher’s pu**y in the ointment here.
Always insinuating his sense of justice offering an unsolicited, more humane way of dealing with mooks.
Wimp!!
Bottom line: Despite the era’s comic book trappings: ham-fisted dialogue, a three-page digression into the villain’s background; this volume has some game – it’s short (only three issues), Jim Lee’s art is effective, the violence is toned down, there’s enough gray area with the players to make it interesting and it’s a simplified look at the Punisher before some of the pre-Ennis awful stuff that Marvel published in the ‘90’s. It’s a three star rating for today’s jaded comic book reader who expect gratuitous violence and nude panels of the Kingpin when they read The Punisher, but if you read it back in the day it would have been four.
Displaying 1 of 1 review