let me start of by saying i have a somewhat love/hate relationship with garth ennis. i like his work because its personal. i hate his work because its personal. he writes some wonderful stuff over a range on genres. but when he runs out of steam he tends to fall back to his go-to-guy-moral-of-the-story: god and religion sucks, which is cute, but after repetition, becomes cliched. so. ennis has been writing max punisher for over 50 issues now. fifty. ive been waiting for the ball to drop, but nada, this guy just keeps chugging away. i suspect its due to the socio-political issues he implies, hence keeping him inspired. max punisher is a bleak, bleak view or how the world works and reflects on the worse humanity has to offer. the punisher fits in, naturally. the following is a list of why i am thankful for ennis writing the punisher, and comics in general: - thank you ennis, for not reinventing an (almost) classic character. in this day of reimagining/reboots, this comic doesnt require such gimmicks to tell a good story (and more importantly, make a sale.) - thank you ennis for being funny, thoughtful, scary, sad, all at the same time. i think there are more talented writers out there, with more flair. but none writes with the same fire and...a thing of hardness? like he does. not a lot of ppl can wear their heart on their sleeve and look good doing it. but hes doing it. and its not even creator-owned title. - thank you ennis for making super heroes relevant. this could just be the cynic in me, but i dont look at the world and say, we could use a superman/batman/spiderman to make it a better place. but when i read his punisher, i do go 'i bet if there was a real punisher out there he could make a difference'. which is scary, when you think about it.
Well said KA. Its just too bad Ennis is about to leave the title. I kinda hope it ends when he leaves. I can't think of anyone I'd want to see follow him on it.
I read the series until issue 18, but felt that the TPB format hurt Ennis' writing. Good stuff, but I miss his Preacher.
i read the first miniseries he did while i was on my honeymoon (and i think i left it on the plane, which pisses me off) i do plan on starting the ongoing in TPB and eventually having all of it...and i too think that a real punisher would make a difference...
During college, I was interested in seeing how the Punisher revamp was going. Back in high school, I had seen the Punisher come back as some archangel that looked like a zombie. Actually every character in that team up with Wolverine looked like a zombie. Fast forward a few years, and I hear that Punisher is being released as a MAX title and that Ennis was writing it. Prior to this I had heard of him, but never read his work. Talking about this is like that Werther's original commercial where that grandpa goes to his kids and says "well children, back in the day _fill in blank ____ here, something AWESOME happened that consists of ______, and it tall comes back to me with this savory, butter rich, succulent, drug like, buttery, golden, sultry, subtle, damn butter scotch candy". So one day at VCU, I decide to flip open one of Ennis' Punisher books. Reading his Punisher was a breath of fresh air. His version of Punisher is like Rambo IV, fucking Charles Bronson circa Death Wish, Commando, and guns combined. Not to mention there was no cheese to be mentioned. Castle's monologue is fucking realistic yet entertaining without sounding like a Jeph Loeb script. Not only did I see heads exploding, my own was as well, symbolically, reading the genius of this guy's work. From "Born", to "Welcome Back Frank", and various others, I just knew, whatever Ennis wrote with Punisher was spectacularly awesome and brutal. Seeing Frank beat the shit out of someone who has a tough time dying (the part in one of the books where he jumps from a building onto a piece of fence stuck to a guy, who still won't die, and he says "are you fucking kidding me?!"), to murking his old partner(Microchip?), to seeing how much more awesome the book that the movie was based on was actually a shit ton better than the movie, Ennis is the epitome of more cowbell with a gat. Who else would write a character who would punch a docile polar bear in the face in order to create an obstacle for an old woman? Or visit said lady later on who is in an injured state, yet throws a grenade in her house and ends the book with an optimistic ending, murking 4 psychos who looked up to him? Ennis FTW. I hope he does a run on Moon Knight. Its a perfect fit. With a cape. Ennis' strength is being able to write a character so extreme, who truly believes what he is doing is right, yet still remain grounded and believeable. One of my favorite writers. His work was a great welcoming for me into the Punisher-verse. To say his run started the Punisher back on with a bang is a severe understatement.
If you really think about it, his stuff Punisher started over a hundred issues ago. However the knights book was more comicy than MAX. MAX was just true grim and gritty. It was fun and serious at the same time. I'm sad to see him go and I think the popularity of the character will go as well. Ennis is what brought the Punisher back to center stage. His old series were good but more of the same old. I think War Journal is going the same way. But MAX was just what it was. It was different and spectacular. I actually have the MAX series as my next to read on the train to and from work.
I've never read any of his stuff that's anti-religion. What books does that come up in? I also really love his iteration of the Punisher. I've been reading it since it was mainline Marvel title. When is Ennis leaving the MAX title?
