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Aren't superheroes great? Just going around rescuing people, fighting villains and generally saving the day, all with no thought for their own safety. Not according to comic book author Garth Ennis, a sort of real life J. Jonah Jameson, whose work tends to have something of an anti-superhero bias. His Punisher one-shot 'The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe' explores what happens when something goes wrong. And while the title makes it sound like a bad piece of fan-fiction, it's actually an excellent read.
The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe is set in a separate world from the regular Marvel one, a world that still contains all the regular Marvel superheroes such as Captain America, Wolverine, the X-Men and so forth. Oh, and it's also the home of one Frank Castle, also known as The Punisher. But whereas the normal version of The Punisher pursues a murderous vendetta against criminals, this universe's The Punisher has a different agenda. In this universe, his wife and child aren't killed by gangster - instead, they perish during a heated superhero battle. This, as you might expect, annoys him somewhat, and he guns down several superheroes, before being apprehended by the assembled heroes. He's sent to jail but is busted out by a group of civilians who have themselves been injured due to the actions or inactions of the world's superheroes. Who, as you might have guessed, want him to Kill The Marvel Universe. And so off he goes, slaughtering his way through the ranks of superheroes and supervillains alike.
This isn't as daft as it sounds - granted, The Punisher doesn't have any superpowers as such, but he employs a number of methods to take out his targets, even getting his hands on a nuclear weapon at one point. It's a fairly dark tale, sporting some excellent writing. And it raises some very good points too. Certainly, when it was first published in 1995 - it's been reprinted more recently - no-one had really stopped to ask why superheroes in comics were given free reign to do whatever they wanted. Or just why they were considered to be above the law by most other writers – at least until the events of Marvel’s Civil War. It does seem to cram a lot into only a few pages, but then again it would have got a bit boring if the comic showed us every one of the Punisher’s five hundred – count’em – kills. The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe is an entertaining and thought provoking tale, and the artwork's pretty good too. Whether you’re a fan of Ennis’s work, or a Punisher fan in general, it’s well worth checking out. And if you’re a fan of Marvel’s superheroes? Well, feel free to read it, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe is set in a separate world from the regular Marvel one, a world that still contains all the regular Marvel superheroes such as Captain America, Wolverine, the X-Men and so forth. Oh, and it's also the home of one Frank Castle, also known as The Punisher. But whereas the normal version of The Punisher pursues a murderous vendetta against criminals, this universe's The Punisher has a different agenda. In this universe, his wife and child aren't killed by gangster - instead, they perish during a heated superhero battle. This, as you might expect, annoys him somewhat, and he guns down several superheroes, before being apprehended by the assembled heroes. He's sent to jail but is busted out by a group of civilians who have themselves been injured due to the actions or inactions of the world's superheroes. Who, as you might have guessed, want him to Kill The Marvel Universe. And so off he goes, slaughtering his way through the ranks of superheroes and supervillains alike.
This isn't as daft as it sounds - granted, The Punisher doesn't have any superpowers as such, but he employs a number of methods to take out his targets, even getting his hands on a nuclear weapon at one point. It's a fairly dark tale, sporting some excellent writing. And it raises some very good points too. Certainly, when it was first published in 1995 - it's been reprinted more recently - no-one had really stopped to ask why superheroes in comics were given free reign to do whatever they wanted. Or just why they were considered to be above the law by most other writers – at least until the events of Marvel’s Civil War. It does seem to cram a lot into only a few pages, but then again it would have got a bit boring if the comic showed us every one of the Punisher’s five hundred – count’em – kills. The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe is an entertaining and thought provoking tale, and the artwork's pretty good too. Whether you’re a fan of Ennis’s work, or a Punisher fan in general, it’s well worth checking out. And if you’re a fan of Marvel’s superheroes? Well, feel free to read it, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
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Aren't superheroes great? Just going around rescuing people, fighting villains and generally saving the day, all with no thought for their own safety. Not according to comic book author Garth Ennis, a sort of real life J. Jonah Jameson, whose work tends to have something of an anti-superhero bias. His Punisher one-shot 'The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe' explores what happens when something goes wrong. And while the title makes it sound like a bad piece of fan-fiction, it's actually an excellent read.
The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe is set in a separate world from the regular Marvel one, a world that still contains all the regular Marvel superheroes such as Captain America, Wolverine, the X-Men and so forth. Oh, and it's also the home of one Frank Castle, also known as The Punisher. But whereas the normal version of The Punisher pursues a murderous vendetta against criminals, this universe's The Punisher has a different agenda. In this universe, his wife and child aren't killed by gangster - instead, they perish during a heated superhero battle. This, as you might expect, annoys him somewhat, and he guns down several superheroes, before being apprehended by the assembled heroes. He's sent to jail but is busted out by a group of civilians who have themselves been injured due to the actions or inactions of the world's superheroes. Who, as you might have guessed, want him to Kill The Marvel Universe. And so off he goes, slaughtering his way through the ranks of superheroes and supervillains alike.
This isn't as daft as it sounds - granted, The Punisher doesn't have any superpowers as such, but he employs a number of methods to take out his targets, even getting his hands on a nuclear weapon at one point. It's a fairly dark tale, sporting some excellent writing. And it raises some very good points too. Certainly, when it was first published in 1995 - it's been reprinted more recently - no-one had really stopped to ask why superheroes in comics were given free reign to do whatever they wanted. Or just why they were considered to be above the law by most other writers – at least until the events of Marvel’s Civil War. It does seem to cram a lot into only a few pages, but then again it would have got a bit boring if the comic showed us every one of the Punisher’s five hundred – count’em – kills. The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe is an entertaining and thought provoking tale, and the artwork's pretty good too. Whether you’re a fan of Ennis’s work, or a Punisher fan in general, it’s well worth checking out. And if you’re a fan of Marvel’s superheroes? Well, feel free to read it, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe is set in a separate world from the regular Marvel one, a world that still contains all the regular Marvel superheroes such as Captain America, Wolverine, the X-Men and so forth. Oh, and it's also the home of one Frank Castle, also known as The Punisher. But whereas the normal version of The Punisher pursues a murderous vendetta against criminals, this universe's The Punisher has a different agenda. In this universe, his wife and child aren't killed by gangster - instead, they perish during a heated superhero battle. This, as you might expect, annoys him somewhat, and he guns down several superheroes, before being apprehended by the assembled heroes. He's sent to jail but is busted out by a group of civilians who have themselves been injured due to the actions or inactions of the world's superheroes. Who, as you might have guessed, want him to Kill The Marvel Universe. And so off he goes, slaughtering his way through the ranks of superheroes and supervillains alike.
This isn't as daft as it sounds - granted, The Punisher doesn't have any superpowers as such, but he employs a number of methods to take out his targets, even getting his hands on a nuclear weapon at one point. It's a fairly dark tale, sporting some excellent writing. And it raises some very good points too. Certainly, when it was first published in 1995 - it's been reprinted more recently - no-one had really stopped to ask why superheroes in comics were given free reign to do whatever they wanted. Or just why they were considered to be above the law by most other writers – at least until the events of Marvel’s Civil War. It does seem to cram a lot into only a few pages, but then again it would have got a bit boring if the comic showed us every one of the Punisher’s five hundred – count’em – kills. The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe is an entertaining and thought provoking tale, and the artwork's pretty good too. Whether you’re a fan of Ennis’s work, or a Punisher fan in general, it’s well worth checking out. And if you’re a fan of Marvel’s superheroes? Well, feel free to read it, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.