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The Punisher MAX: Girls in white dresses

As should be abundantly clear, here at Fightrunner HQ, we are the Punisher’s biggest fans. And although the movies in the past have generally been a bit of a let down, the comics almost always come up with the goods, especially if we are talking about Max titles. I have read a good few and most of the best ones are written by the main man Garth Ennis himself, so when I saw that this was written by another dude, I wondered to myself if this newbie had the balls to make old Frank Castle as gritty as the mad Irishman did.

“Girls in white dresses” is set in a small Mexican town where the local girls are being systematically abducted and then subsequentaly dumped a few weeks later with their eyes and lungs missing. The distraught townsfolk have heard only in folklore that there is a man from the north that will do what needs to be done and go where the police are to afraid to dare… You guessed it, Frank Castle, AKA: The Punisher. They manage to track him down and eventually convince him to help them get their loved ones back and make the bad guys pay…

Making Bad people pay is what the Punisher is all about!!!! And boy do they get it in this book. Frank beats, shoots, stabs and explodes his way up the criminal food chain in order to get to the bottom of this one. In true Punisher Max style, the violence is brutal and fairly graphic… MAGIC!!! I love nothing more than seeing the king of vigilantes chain five drug dealers ups by their feet and pound the living shit out of them until they spill the beans!

The art in this is quite stylised and it works well with the gritty realistic storyline and the general mood of the Punisher Max series. Never really come across this artist, “Laurence Campbell” but he has made an impression on me. His grainy style and sharp lights in the deep shadows really brings out the bleakness of the situations Frank finds himself in.

The Writer too is a new one to me, “Gregg Hurwitz”, but I swear to god if he had jacked a few more bizarre sex scenes in there, you would be forgiven for thinking it was Ennis Himself… In fact, Ennis is quoted on the cover saying “This is The Punisher, all right. This is how it’s done”. So with approval from the big man, how can you go wrong?

If you like your comics dark, gritty and brutal… Bobs your uncle!

VERDICT: 8.5/10

Like hitting a piñata with a grenade launcher… effective and fun!

Punisher MAX Volume 1 : In the Beginning

You’ve got to hand it to Garth Ennis he has a knack for re-booting popular comics and even resurecting some. As you know the fightrunner have a soft spot for the punisher and with this title Garth Ennis took the Punisher to new heights.

The MAX label is basically Marvel for adults and as such the Punisher feels right at home here. The first change is that the timeline is now fixed and Frank Castle is now in his 50’s as opposed to the fresh faced version seen in the regular marvel run. But with the MAX series we finally get to the see the punisher in full swing and these comics feel more real and grittier.

Beginning with a bloody flashback to the murder of Frank Castle’s family and followed by an even bloodier assault on the mob, Frank finds himself hounded to become the CIA’s own personal hitman, and none other than Frank’s long thought dead partner Micro is here trying to convince Frank to do it. All of this leads to a shocking , violent conclusion that you just can’t put down. The final few panels are heartbreaking to read and some up the genius of Ennis’ work on the character.

The violence and gore are amplified 100 times here but it never ever feels like its done for cheap thrills same with the swearing, like I say if any other comic had the MAX treatment it would feel like shock tactics but here it feels like the punisher is in familiar territory. The artwork here is amazing throughout and perfectly compliments the dark tone of the subject matter at hand whilst also striking a chord for the more emotional parts and even helping the black humour along.

For sure if you are a casual comic reader this won’t be your cup of tea but for anyone else this is nirvana. A bleak, violent, dark, gory piece of genius and a great start to a series. Don’t know about you but I’m up for more!

Rating 9/10

Miss this and you deserve punishment

PREACHER (The entire collection)

Time for my first comic book review. I have been collecting comics seriously since 1992 when I was but 12 years old, but I have to say that this comic really marked the change for me, it’s kinda what lead the way into the darker side of comics.

Preacher, is the story of a small town Precher by the name of Jessy Custer that has grown up in the deep south of America and has began to loose his faith. Jessy is of the rare disposition of being a direct descendent of the big man, Jesus Christ himself. Not only this but he is also possessed by a newborn offspring produced by the forbidden love between an angel of heaven and a devil from the deepest realms of hell. This leaves Jessy with a godlike power, “the voice of God”… this allows him to command a man to do anything he says… literally. This power has only previously been held by God himself and now god shit his pants realising this monumental fuck up and has fled heaven.

This sets off a whole host of people hunting down Jessy for their own means. First off we have a band of angles, that believe he has to be killed in order for the big man to return, they send in a relentless, unstoppable killer by the name of the Saint of Killers.

We also have The Grail, a world wide orginasation that has been around since biblical times to protect the bloodline of Christ. They aim to replace the pope with Jessy Custer in a bid to make the world fall at their knees at the sight of a true envoy of God, thing is they plan to use it to their own end.

Who could forget, Arseface… A teenager whos face has been chewed up in a botched suicide attempt with a shotgun. He has sworn to kill Jessy for ordering his father to go fuck himself, which he does by ripping his own cock off and shoving it up his own arse.

There is a host of other minor characters, ranging from gay private detectives to a Nazi sex dominatrix… yeah that’s right, a Nazi sex dominatrix.

Its not all bad though, Jessy has is one true love by his side, Tulip… a strong willed and passionate girl that would follow him to the end. And Cassidy, an Irish vampire that has a penchant for booze and blood.

Quite a lot to take in eh? Well it is everything you could ever ask for in a comic… funny, dark, violent, action packed, straight talking, hard hitting and very very sharp witted. Written by Garth Ennis, who for me is the greatest comic book writer ever. He may not be as intellectually stimulating as Allan Moore but for me anyway, he sure is more entertaining. Its the kind of writing that means you can’t stop flicking through the pages, it leaves you hungry for more and more and for me, it has left a void in my soul since it ended. Don’t get me wrong, the end was necessary and expertly executed. It ties up to many loose ends in the last book that you feel almost happy that its ended because Ennis just… well he just did it all justice.

As for the art, Steve Dillon is an old pro and these two work together like bacon and brown sauce in a Saturday morning hangover cure. His sharp inks and colours work well without being overly detailed and messy. A few other artists have a pop at some stories in the later books, but for me, it just doesn’t feel right unless its Dillon.

Sorry that this was almost a novel, but fuck me if you haven’t read this book… you really need to get your fat arse of the sofa and run as fast as you can down to your local comic shop and beg the vendor for some of the reprints!!!!

Verdict: 10/10

The most entertaining comic of all time… That is the word of God.

Battlestar Galactica Volume 1 – Dynamite

This more fucking like it, after the big let done and laborious effort that was the BSG manga this first of three in the official comic tie in to the TV series redeems the reputation of BSG comics fully. The action here takes place during the second season whilst Boomer is still in the holding cell. The Galactica encounters a distress call from a long since thought lost in action medical frigate but even stranger is the crew on board they are all people that died in air-borne incidents back on the colonies years ago then add into the mix a group of terrorists and a virus that stricken s nearly the whole fleet and it feels like getting into that warm pair of slippers on a winters day, this is familiar ground.

The writing here is inch perfect and truly feels like part of the BSG universe with all the story elements and plot lines that come about never feeling forced. The Identity of several of the “returners” as they are dubbed by the colonists will come as a big shock and that is where this novel will lose marks as the events in this book seem so large its impossible to believe that they will never be referred to in the TV show. But that aside the characters are also well written with Admiral Adama’s reaction to the identity of one of the returners being on the money.

The big plus here is the artwork and let’s face it the Japanese style does not suit a subject matter as dark and with such a heavy narrative as BSG. Character drawings are all spot on with my only gripe being that President Roslin looks a tad on the young side which we know will dissapoint McFlee given his lusty feelings towards the mature Roslin.

A lot of high points in this story the main revelation is a true shocker and provides the main meat of the story (will try and keep this spoiler free) and also the discovery of a fleet of old school Cylons that are still programmed to respond to human commands, and after the discovery upon being told to go frak themselves proceed to blow seven shades of shit out of each other.

In summary is best to look upon this as an alternative timeline entry, but is still damned entertaining and given that the TV series has just wrapped this will ease those BSG DT’s a little.

Rating : 8/10

Not just a good BSG but a great comic worth checking out.

Battlestar Galactica – Echoes of New Caprica (Tokyopop)

Now that BSG has quite literally gone of our our screens and into the sunset we need something to battle the withdrawals that we will all be feeling looking at that gap in the TV schedule. Thankfully the comic book world has stepped up to the plate on both sides of the globe and here BSG goes east – Manga Style. In the first ever BSG manga title what we have are three different stories set around season three , in fact these were plots that had to be cut from what we saw on TV due to running time.

The first is I think the weakest, not to say that its terrible but merely average. It focuses on President Roslin’s school that she taught on New Caprica under the menacing glare of the Cylons. The main thrust is that some one in the school is giving intel to the toasters and the path leads to one of the children in the class being a Cylon collaborator. Like I say this is an average story and it feels like the bog standard comic book tie in filler in between what we saw up on the screen. The plot is very basic and to be honest unimaginative but the artwork is of good standard and manages to make it look like BSG and traditional manga at the same time. But my mine gripe is there isn’t that much new in this tale it feels like going over old ground and if you wanted so interesting background info into the whole New Caprica affair then give this a miss otherwise it will pass away an hour or so.

Much like a good three course meal we started with a light entry and now we get to the meat and potatoes. The second volume is a Zarek centric story about the early days of the Cylon conspirator trials held on Galactica immediately following events on New Caprica. This story more than the other two does give us something new and that will enhance your viewing of the TV show. Zarek has always been one of the most intriguing players in the BSG mythos. There is a neat twist to this story when Zarek has to face one of his best friends and hand him over to the mob rule and this does have genuine impact. In the time line this follows immediately on from the liberation of New Caprica during Zarek’s very brief stint as president. Overall this is great little story whilst you could see why it would be dropped from the TV it does add something to the BSG story as a whole.

Like the three course meal we get to the sweet which is probably the best way to describe the third and final story of the book. This time the focus is on Starbuck and the child she accepted as her own on New Caprica. There is nothing much ti write home about here storywise and you won’t learn very much about Starbuck or anything else. Simply put Starbuck is haunted by visions of the child and tracks her down where she sees her on her own, abducts her then child returns to her mother and thats about it. Scrub what I said earlier this is in fact the weakest story of the book as nothing new or exciting happens.

Overall the book is a patchy affair but a decent start as there will be more on the way. I feel though that given the Japanese style of fleshing out characters to the maximum, maybe if the writers stick to the supporting cast of BSG for story lines then we will have something to look forward to in the future. The manga fails when the stories focus on the principal charcters as they seem unable to add anything new to what we know already. Overall I would say this book is for the seasoned BSG fan as the casual fan won’t gain that much from it.

Rating – 5/10