NO! (Don't shoot me in the face! The Punisher Topic)

[RoIIo Tomassi]

The ones that do wander into a comic shop do a double take, yell "$4 dollars?!? For a comic!!?? Fuck that noise!", promptly spin around and head right back out the door.

[anarky]

I know I harp on it, but, fuck, it should be obvious. You look at the top 25 movies at the box office, and Titanic is the only one that isn't based on a comic, geared toward an audience that would be open to comics, or have a comic based on it. Marvel's owned by Disney; they have the resources to get free shit into everyone's hands if they want to. The Batman and Superman logos are more recognized in polls than the crucifix--think about that, Supes and Bats are, literally, bigger than Jesus. One of the longest-running NYT bestsellers is Watchmen. The third-highest grossing film is an ensemble piece about heroes who, to the wider public, are all b-list.

Put fucking ads back in the books and put them out more widely. Charge considerably less for digital copies. This should be a fucking no-brainer.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Dangitall. Rucka's Punisher books ends with issue 16. And the War Zone series is his five issue farewell to the character.

Probably means Frank will get some kind of Marvel NOW! Relaunch. Or perhaps by the end of WarZone he'll be in prison again and Alves will be the new Punisher.

[Diabolical]

That really sucks, but on the bright side, Tom Jane is kinda back as Frank.

[anarky]

Can't help but wonder if Marvel's parent company is trying to downplay the character since you can't exactly have a huggable Frank Castle at Disneyland. They don't want to get rid of him, obviously, but they don't want him to be so visible.

They canceled the Max line. Now they're canceling the 616 version (again). Given the nature of this War Zone story, I would not be surprised to see Frank taking a dirt nap at the end. Keep him alive in movies, but not in the comics. Marvel seems to like their dark titles... but only when they star characters who don't seem like they'd be so dark.

[Diabolical]

I doubt it. Apparently sales are what is keeping Frank down for a bunch of it. Like everything Marvel, relaunch is the key rather than an ongoing.
Max went downhill fast after Ennis left. The reluanch was barely Max worthy and had a definite end planned from the beginning.

It may been before the Disney takeover but Frank made an appearance on Superhero Squad.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Yeah, I think Punisher is just getting ended due to low sales.

Not that Marvel needs an excuse to cancel books and relaunch them.
Axel Alonso is the new Bob Harras. Dude LIVES for First Issues. In his first two years as EiC he's already restarted every major book at least twice. Why The Hell even bother with numbers!?

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Tapdancing Christ. Putting Castle on a team of supervillains is about as inane as announcing Batman and Spider-Man will now carry guns. He'd rather eat a bullet than consent to that.

[Diabolical]

Obviously this is an imposter Punisher because this one has a red skull on his chest.
Hell, it probably is Red Skull himself.


Besides, its stupid.

[Diabolical]

And sonuvabitch, its Steve Dillon!

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

[anarky]

Isn't the new Venom a government agent who was never a villain? Wouldn't the new Scarlet Spider be a better choice?

Not that it matters; Frank is obviously an impostor. I can't even worry about the stupidity of Frank being on a team or wearing (sort of) a uniform; it's who he's with and no bullets flying through their heads.

Judging from the comments at CBR, it's only the zombies left. Even normal Marvel fans would recognize how wrong this is for Punisher.

[Diabolical]

Isn't the new Venom a government agent who was never a villain?

Is it still Flash Thompson?

I hope this is just a mini-series where Frank is just playing along to get them all together so he can kill them all.

[Tom Foolery]

I'm speculating here, but I think that whatever happens in the new War Zone limited series ends up with Frank in prison. And General Ross gives him a choice: work for me or rot in jail until they give you your lethal injection.
Now, the REAL Frank Castle would tell him to go fuck himself.
But since Marvel doesn't understand their own characters, they let Daniel Way write this shitty impostor Frank who agrees to be on a gaywad super villain team that are all drawn like transvestites by Dillon.

[anarky]

No, the real Frank Castle wouldn't tell them to fuck themselves.

He'd think it, but never say it. He'd make it clear through his actions (or, possibly, lack of action, if he thought it'd piss them off more).

BTW, regarding the cover: although it's actually pretty cool looking aside from the wonky way they're all headed in different directions and Elektra is attacking Rulk's left arm, why is Frank sporting only one revolver? And why would "Venom" (assuming he's still a government agent) use an Uzi? Yeah, Uzis are coo-looking to see the mysterious masked guys like that use because of Snake Eyes, but they're not standard issue, and are outclassed in 2012.

[Diabolical]

Rucka bids farewell to Marvel & DC