Comic Review #25: The Punisher #60-62 (1992)

 

Yes sir! It's about time I got around to this character. I can't deny that I love the Punisher. I know it's weird that cops of all people wear the skull of a crazy lunatic but I can not and will not deny that I love the character. I love it when this guy ends up working with other heroes and he's forced to use rubber bullets (it wouldn't be till I was an adult that I would find out that rubber bullets are really bad and Spider-Man should be like "Don't do THAT either" but I digress). Anyway I may complain about a lot of the 1990s output of Marvel Comics but damn if they didn't have some wild and fun comics during this era too. 

Mike Baron wrote Nexus and Badger. I've uh, never read a single issue of either series but they are on the list of comics I'd like to collect and own. I just never come across many 80s indie comics around here in Newfoundland. I bring up Mike Baron because he wrote or plotted the first 63 issues of this series and man if you like the Punisher you need to check these comics out. They are like a crazier version of a Death Wish sequel and I didn't think that was even possible (note to self: Review Death Wish for this blog) 

If you've read this blog you know that I dig comic book stories that were well strange like you wonder how high the people writing these comics were and with this one I imagine they were pretty high. I also imagine the editors at Marvel Comics were high too to let this one go past. I'm incredibly fucking glad they did though because holy hot hell this is a gem of a comic book story. First off before we get to why this story is weird we need some backstory (You can kinda guess why the story is weird from the cover I posted there if you need be) 

The story before this called "The Punisher: The Final Days" and it itself was pretty wild. It took place through seven issues and in those seven issues The Punisher has to work for the Kingpin or Microchip will die. The Punisher goes to kill the criminal the Kingpin wants him too and he gets found out by the police due to you know the Kingpin calling them. The Punisher also thinks the Kingpin got to the Judge but I can't remember if that's actually true or if the Punisher went to prison because THEY KNOW HES THE PUNISHER AND HE'S YOU KNOW KILLED 47,000 CRIMINALS AT THIS POINT. Like the crazy fuck has got to know that right? Anyway it turns out that Jigsaw the only returning Punisher bad guy because he usually blows the shit out of the rest gets the best of him and fucks up his face. The Punisher then escapes the prison and gets his face fixed by a plastic surgeon who is now an ex-junkie prostitute. I'm starting to wonder if I should have saved this story for a whole review but I guess that's wrong now.

So now we get into why this story is wild and weird and well uh, you know that ex-junkie street walker who was a plastic surgeon (man I'd read that life story) turns the Punisher from a white man to a black man. Yep. You might have heard of this story because a lot of blogs have covered it but you know I couldn't stay away from such a strange concept. This story is plotted by Mike Baron but scripted by Marc Mclurin. The Police literally stop The Black Punisher in his car. Luke Cage (now just called Cage) comes in and they beat the shit out of these racist asshole cops. It's pretty great watching their racist asses get some.

The Punisher and Luke Cage end up teaming up to fight a gang and there's the usual Luke Cage trying to keep The New Black Punisher from killing anyone. He fails because well It's hard to keep the Punisher from shooting a criminals dick off really. It seems that only Spider-Man can do that. He's good at letting criminals keep their dicks. Anyway they have a lot of fun scenes together and this makes me want to check out the Cage series which I haven't read mostly because I don't have access to buying them. I mean I could get them on the internet but that kinda takes the fun out of collecting you know? Anyway they take the gang out and in the end a guy the Kingpin hired wants to help some other guy take down the New Black Punisher and that's where issue #62 comes in. 

The New Black Punisher is working with Cage and isn't killing ANYONE or even using a weapon so he's all like "Is this the end of the Punisher?!?" and I'm like nah bro Marvel needs you to keep on existing to make money and more importantly there's only been like a week or two that has past since this issue and last issue and in the last issue you killed like 30 people. Maybe wait at least a few more weeks before thinking you are not into murdering criminals anymore.  

So the Asian dude with the weird hair who was working for the Kingpin (oh during the time The Punisher was becoming the New Black Punisher the Kingpin ended up in prison or on the run or something. Probably something that rascal Daredevil had done to him.) ends up kidnapping the Streetwalking Ex-Junkie Surgeon and gets her back on the smack so that she can ID the New Black Punisher (who is also losing pigment after all this time and will soon become the Old White Punisher again) and The Punisher gives in and everyone tries to beat him to death because they think he is unarmed but they are totally wrong because he was given a weapon back to him from a lady that appeared in the previous issue. He pretty much kills the SHIT out of everyone and shows why you shouldn't fuck with the Punisher regardless of race.

FINAL VERDICT: I don't know how the later issues of this Punisher series are but man oh MAN do I love the Mike Baron issues. He was a genius and making crazy action shit. This isn't the only weirdo story that was done by him. Either way man anyone who is reading this HAS to read these issues. They are cool AND good.