PunisherPunisher was actually considered one of the poorest of the Marvel Knights launch titles by fans and critics alike, in its first 4 issue mini they re-jigged Marvel's most psychotic Vigilante into becoming a warrior of heaven with a celestial armoury. They may have been aiming for a preacher feel and truth be told I liked it, but it is usually a bad idea to give characters who are so defined by their lack of powers supernatural abilities.
Punisher had a second 4 issue mini called Revelation where he teamed up with Marvels busiest mutant, Wolverine. Again, the angelic powers were a turnoff for fans. However this run of poor luck was soon to change. Marvel hired Preacher writer Garth Ennis to take over punsiher. He did It in style, unceremoniously dumping the supernatural elements he took Frank back to basics, taking down the Ganucci crime family in a story called "Welcome back Frank"
Under Garth Ennis Punisher was great, sick, funny and generally warped. When Marvel launched its MAX line for adults only titles, it took a while, but eventually Punsiher shifted over there. Ennis took a different direction, blacker humour and real dark gritty stories really made Punisher a must read title.
During Civil war, Punisher was so popular there was an attempt to re-introduce him to the mainstream Marvel-U. This was in Punsiher: War Journal by Matt Fraction, it wasn't his best work.
Nowadays however Punisher is in rude health, Still running two titles Punisher is mainstream Marvel currently running its Dark Reign plots, and there is still a MAX title as well. It is almost opposite to Black panther, It started shakily but is now a solid title.As for teh angelic powers, I'd like to see them return, not in Punisher, but it was a neat power set, and I liked the idea of him being a crusader for the underdogs. Perhaps a new hero?
Like yourself, I quite enjoyed the angelic powers, but its easy to see why it was a bad idea from the start. It just changed the character too drastically.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as you say those powers on a new character would be interesting.
I thought they were a pretty good idea, but just not on the punisher. Give them to some random and give us a limited series.
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