albrown's Blog

Punisher War Journal #1

(Mon 11/27/2006 08:40am)

I had to look Budd Dwyer up.  He was a politician who shot himself in the head on live TV in 1987.  Frank's mention of a "Budd Dwyer backup," indicating that he's anticipated scenarios in which suicide would be the best option, is an interesting comment on his state of mind. 

Matt Fraction writes Punisher with a bone-dry sense of humor that I like.  Not that Ennis's Punisher is entirely without humor - his recent response to a sexual proposition, "Everything in moderation," was hilarious although I'm not completely sure why - but Fraction brings it a little further forward, and it's a good move for a Punisher who's gonna hang out in the real Marvel Universe, with all the craziness and...y'know, stilt men that that implies.

SPOILER ALERT: Yes, the rumors are true, by the way; Punisher meets Stiltman in this very first issue.  Before you get all upset about it, though, I'd encourage you to consider this: do you know what Stiltman's name is?  Any idea at all?  No?  Then you don't really care about this Stiltman, do you?  If someone else puts the Stiltman armor on tomorrow, do you have any problem whatsoever with that?  Me neither.  Blast away, Frank.  END SPOILER.

Fraction's story moves briskly, as his stories always do; a lot happens in a Fraction book, but it never feels rushed or jerky.  It just moves.  True, that's partly because there are around ten more pages in this book than the usual - but there's about four issues worth of story.  Seriously.  I wouldn't be shocked if, a few years from now, we look back at Fractioon as being one of the pioneers of the next movement in comic books, a movement away from decompression, toward one-to-three-issue story arcs.  (Thanks ahead of time, buddy.)  He feels like Bendis did back in the day: brand-new, fired up, fresh.  Like he could be onto something important.  He's that good.  Ariel Olivetti's art is also superb; always clear, with an interesting cartoony quality that somehow matches the tone really well. 

Frankly, any book in which the Punisher ends up being given a Super-Powered Jerk Detector is one you don't want to miss.  And Punisher War Journal is a great book, man.  So don't miss it.

p.s. I find it hilarious that among the "recently blogged tags" at the top of the Blogs area is the word "vomit."  I will now put "vomit" as one of the tags for every single blog I write from now on.  You can do it too!  This will be so much fun.