Random Back Issues #49 - The Punisher (MAX) #44

Well if they did that, then there wouldn't be any more Punisher comics, and you wouldn't like that would you? Oh, you would? Well, take your complaints to Marvel, I'm just a blogger.

Get with the good times, it's Garth Ennis' Punisher run! So consider that your obligatory violence and profanity warning. Today we're looking at the second chapter of the Widowmaker arc, where five mob widows decide that if all the men are too incompetent to kill the Punisher, they'll do it. The only progress on that front here is that they figure out one of them is dyslexic, so she's no help going through the police reports. But, she can fuck the guy that's going to give them weapons, so hey! Teamwork! Also, they conclude Frank has a bit of a white knight complex when it comes to abused women (having read up on his actions in "The Slavers" arc three storylines ago), and that's how they'll trap him.

But the story starts with Frank visiting a suburban home where the parents film porn, using their children. Frank is understandably not happy about this, and well, you see how it turned out for those two. He at least insisted they show him the set-up in the basement, while the kids stay in the living room, used a silencer, and called the police to come collect the children after. Ever the optimist, Frank thinks the daughter might be young enough to have a chance. As for her two older brothers, Frank has 'a sinking feeling. . . I'd be seeing them again in twenty years.'

I'm most surprised Frank thinks he'll still be alive in twenty years.

Part of what Ennis does in this arc is compare and contrast Frank with some other would-be vigilantes. One is a cop, Paul Budiansky, who Lan Medina clearly based on Samuel L. Jackson. It's not quite Mike Deodato using Tommy Lee Jones as the model for Norman Osborn, but it's real close. Paul ignored orders and went into a school where a student was killing other kids with machine pistols, and shot the kid. Now he has to meet with a psychiatrist, who Paul feels is just trying to use him as material for his next book, and that he's only here because his Captain is mad he bucked orders and can't find another way to fuck with him.

He also says telling people they're traumatized might keep them from dealing with their problems, one panel after insisting he will deal with this by having nightmares and drinking whiskey. That's about what I'd expect from a Garth Ennis character, and I can't tell whether we're supposed to think that's macho bullshit, or cheer Budiansky on. Probably the second, after he concludes by telling the doc she's 'just another racist bitch.'  

At least he has his wife for support and to assure him he's nothing like the Punisher. Sure hope nothing traumatic happens to her! He might not have enough whiskey to go with the nightmares.

The other vigilante is after the five widows themselves, for reasons that aren't made entirely clear for another couple of issues. The only progress on that front, is a guy tries to pick her up outside a cafe and she blows him off, telling him he seems like a nice guy, and that's why she doesn't want him anywhere near her. Also, she's listening in on the widows plan from the next table over.

As arcs in this series go, it's one of the weaker ones. It's 7 issues instead of his usual six, and there really isn't enough there to justify it. Wedged in between the "Man of Stone" arc that preceded it, and the rematch with Barracuda that comes next, it isn't nearly as strong.

[8th longbox, 230th comic. The Punisher (MAX) #44, by Garth Ennis (writer), Lan Medina (penciler), Bill Reinhold (inker), Raul Trevino (colorist), Randy Gentile (letterer)]