Thursday, March 05, 2009

Hopefully We'll Avoid Arguments About Crime-Fighting Methods

One thing I've developed as a side-effect to reading (and enjoying) Garth Ennis' Punisher MAX work is I don't feel much interest in seeing the Punisher in the Marvel Universe proper. I guess that stems partially* from my disinterest in his run-ins with Spider-Man and Daredevil. As you might know, those two don't really approve of Frank's "Let's kill the criminals" attitude. That leads to tension between them, if not outright attempts to apprehend Frank by the other costumed type**. At that point, most stories seem to boil down to two conclusions: Frank is captured, or Frank escapes. Well, the first leads to "Punisher in jail", which has been used to some effect in the past, but it limits your options with him, until you get him back out of jail. My problem with the second is it requires the hero to play the fool for Frank to escape. Not all the time; sometimes Castle takes advantage of the confusion of a big fight, or the arrival of emergency services, or random innocents being in danger, and slips away while the hero is occupied. Still, there are times where it's as though Frank has some gas pellet that saps the I.Q. of people around him, and they wind up looking like chumps.

So I imagine it's the lack of a philosophical difference that keeps me from minding Frank's showing up in Moon Knight. I doubt there's going to be a lot tedious arguing between the two about whether they should kill the criminals they're inevitably going to confront. We know Frank won't kill any cops, and Jake has already made it clear he's not OK with that either, so that just leaves the criminals to kill, and any innocents around to not kill. Should keep things simple.

* The other reason is I've grown pretty comfortable with the idea of Frank focusing on more "normal" crime, and perhaps deciding that going after costumed villains is just too much trouble. You have to fight the heroes, it requires specialized ordinance, and the villains never stay dead. Sure his struggle with more everyday crime is just as endless, but there he can usually point at someone he shot and feel confident they aren't coming back in a couple months.

** I was going to say hero, but that would imply Frank is a hero, and that tag doesn't really fit him.

1 comment:

Seangreyson said...

I didn't mind reading Punisher/Spider-man comics from the 80's too much. In those days their interactions tended to have Spider-man willing to give him a certain benefit of the doubt.

I agree with you these days it's reached a ridiculous level of incompetence for the heroes when guys who have fought and captured cosmic villains can't seem to hold onto a normal guy with a gun (even if he's an exceptional normal guy with a gun).