Frank Castle - The Punisher - has a cunning plan: use himself as bait to lure every possible criminal scum in the city into a skyscraper and then blow that son of a bitch to kingdom come faster than you can say "Building 7 of the World Trade Cen---" CANCELLED. In the wake of Punisher's apparent demise, pretenders to the throne of New York's primo vigilante arise - some good, some evil, and some living in the shades of grey. Everything soon culminates in a small-town shootout with the scattered remnants of the criminal gangs, the faux-Punishers, and maybe, just maybe, the real deal Punisher himself back from the dead. Behold, Frank Castle being rescued by a retarded child!
We need no introduction to the Punisher (who also happens to be my favorite comic book character). He's the guy who kills criminals and triggers all the right kind of snowflakes with his logo alone - including, it seems, his original creator, king cuck Gerry Conway. What a lame last name. 😏
Anyway, this compilation by the likes of Chuck Dixon and Steven Grant collects issues of the Punisher, Punisher War Journal, and Punisher War Zone comic book lines and catalogues the aforementioned 'suicide run' gambit of one Frank Castle as he attempts to take out most of the big players in the seedy underbelly of New York City in one fell swoop.
In some ways, the "Suicide Run" arc was Marvel's own stab at the copycat character craze that sold a lot of comics over at rival company DC Comics - the various 'Supermen' that appeared to try and take the original's place in the "Reign of the Supermen!" arc that followed the apparent death of Superman and also the pretenders to the mantle of the Batman in the Knightfall series after Batman is seemingly put out of commission for a time. Thus, in Punisher: Suicide Run, it's a slew of would-be Punishers: the British version of Punisher known as Outlaw, former cops Lynn Michaels aka 'Lady Punisher' and Edward Dyson aka Payback, rich media guy Dean Swaybrick (affectionally known as 'Yuppunisher'), the former Navy SEAL known as Hitman, and Desmond Kline, a former postal worker who goes, well... postal.
What's funny about Marvel's take on the copycat characters is none of them are treated as anything close to the real deal Punisher. In fact, I'd be so bold as to say most of the would-be Punishers are complete butt-monkeys as far as this story arc is concerned. One of them is permanently iced in possibly the most humiliating manner possible for a wannabe superhero approximately one page after he makes his big debut on the streets, while the likes of Dean Swaybrick does little more than cause trouble and make a fool of himself on prime time television. Perhaps the most time is dedicated to the pairing of Lynn Michaels and Payback, but after a brief moment of glory taking down some hoodlums they're rounded up by the vigilante hunting agency known as V.I.G.I.L. (some of the de-facto bad guys of this story arc), beaten and battered like there's no tomorrow, and then spend the rest of the story as scared lambs on the run - a devastatingly quick fall from grace.
Perhaps this was done to show that Frank Castle and Frank Castle alone is really the only guy resilient, crazy, and mentally scarred enough to take on the mantle of the Punisher and survive for longer than a few days. And the version of Castle we get here is indeed one tough son of a bitch. I enjoyed Frank being smug and self-assured during his insane escapades of gathering all of the gangs into the skyscraper before literally detonating the place, but I feel the character is actually at his best in the second half of the series. Bloodied but not beaten, Frank is paired up with the sheriff of a sleepy upstate town and is soon expressing himself with his favorite form of contemporary art: shotgun graffiti.
My biggest complaint about Punisher: Suicide Run is the inconsistent nature of the artwork. In part due to this series being a big crossover event that spanned three different comic books, it tapped into various illustrators throughout the run. In one issue you may find some spectacular pieces, but in the next issue you'll encounter some sloppy sketch style artwork that was passed off as finished work. It's a shame the entire series couldn't have the same art team, but such is the nature of comic books sometimes.
I know it was not exactly trendy to admit to enjoying early 90's cheese in comic books for several years, but seeing as how that's the era I first became interested in comics, I highly enjoyed the trip down memory lane back to this period. You will never forget you're in the 90's reading Suicide Run, from some of the garish color and fashion choices on characters (hello, flannel) to some particularly interesting digs at the Clinton administration (including a direct jab at the Waco massacre carried out by Slick Willie's goons). Remember when mainstream comics could actually be based? Who knew?!
Recommended.
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