#classicmarvelera

Alex Ross does it again

This time he reimagines the Greatest Superhero team-up issue by pairing the stars who played the characters, namely Christopher Reeve (Superman) and Nicholas Hammond (Spider-Man)

Marvel’s history like any other comic book publishing house was scattered among its large portfolio of titles spanning over decades. The only thing available were either handbooks (an idea conceived by Jim Shooter) or encyclopedias and even the latter made their way on the shelves in early 21st century 

There was no title at the time that just told the story of a universe, what started it and where was it headed. Enter comic book veteran Kurt Buseik and an artist whose comic book art style was so unique that it made the story stand out aesthetically like none before it. The year was 1994 when the first issue of Marvels hit the shops 

Today, MARVELS 25th Anniversary is being celebrated and for good reason. This series set a new standard about story-telling by borrowing the approach which Marvel Comics used with the Watcher i.e. an outsider’s view which offers a neutral historical account about key events that made Marvel Universe. In addition to that, illustrations or imagery is a key component in comic book story telling and there is no book before MARVELS that offers encyclopedia-type info written in a narrative that allows the reader to travel back in time and see the universe in exactly the way it existed thanks to writers and artists but in a Michaelangelo style painting, panel by panel, page by page 

While Kurt was well-known within the industry, this series made Alex Ross a household name as impactful as Jim Lee in the early 90s

MARVELS (1994) started from Marvel’s Golden Age and ended at the start of the Bronze Age of Comics (1970s) but the story of its narrator Phil Sheldon, a Stan Lee look-a-like character, remained unfinished which was addressed in Marvels: Eye of the Camera in 2008 by Kurt Buseik, the legendary Roger Stern with art by Jay Anacleto. While the story in this series continues the MARVELS tradition, Alex’ art was surely missed despite Jay’s superb artistry 

This series made a point that Marvel needed to take a fresh approach towards story-telling at a time when the most popular X-Men titles and their stories were being stretched beyond limit and at the expense of other titles who saw a significant decline in their content (stories and art); a new creator-owned comic book imprint was rocking the boat for the industry giants

It took time for the company to realize it which in 1998 materialized in the form of Marvel Knights. The rest is history...thanks to MARVELS   

To someone who comes across this character for the 1st time, it would seem that the Punisher is Rambo and Schwarzenegger’s Commando with a pinch of Steven Segal rolled into one. On the other hand, with the recent Las Vegas Shootings, the anti-gun lobby will try to portray him as a character that glorifies gun crimes. Fortunately, that’s not the case

Punisher’s story seems quite straightforward from the outset. A man who lost his family because of the mafia is out to avenge their deaths by ensuring that the mafia and any other organization or persons related to it, exist no more. From the time the character was introduced by Gerry Conway & Ross Andru in The Amazing Spider-Man no. 129, the character was established as an anti-hero (2nd in MU after Namor) but whose methods differed greatly from the conventional heroes of the Marvel Universe 

Much like Wolverine who was later introduced in 1974, both Frank Castle and James Howlett/Logan; are men driven by pain but unlike Logan, Frank Castle ‘lives’ to kill those responsible for organized crime and terror. He finds the law as their protector thanks to existing loopholes and corruption within law enforcement. the judiciary as well as in the security establishment. To avenge the death of innocents & to ensure no more victims, he engages with a world that as freighting and real, as it can be, by seeing it as black and white

Despite serving his country as a US Marine during Vietnam War, killing those who are worthy of getting killed (according to him) is his ultimate desire that leads him to organized crime/mafia in United States to Drug Cartels of South America to Human Traffickers to corrupt members of the US Intelligence and Defense establishment or into the reign of a demon who has risen to the ranks of a National Security Tsar (i.e. Norman Osborne). To him, such parties are no different than the enemy in the battlefield. But what do his stories tell us or what do they show us? 

"Since we can never hope to understand why we're here, if there's even anything to understand, the individual should choose a goal and pursue it wholeheartedly, despite the certainty of death and the meaninglessness of action."

-  Martin Heidegger

Like Superman, he knows he cannot rid the world of organized crime and terror. He knows he has limitations but like Wolverine, he gives into his rage or simply loses it after seeing unspeakable horrors. Maybe because it is the way he has been trained on how to engage a belligerent but has gone south due to suffering from PTSD (otherwise what else triggers the rage in the mind of a military man) who loses everything right in front of him, including his hope for justice. For him Vengeance is the solution, the only answer. While Batman strikes fear into the hearts of his enemies, Frank wants to strike TERROR into the hearts of his nemesis and his modus operandi, unlike Batman’s, ensures a criminal’s death unless he/she is lucky to “dodge the bullet”. His stories show he has good reason to do what he’s known for whether we agree or disagree with him on an idealistic basis much like Daredevil and Captain America in Marvel Universe. His stories provide us a glimpse of our world which in we get read or hear about grotesque criminal activities but rarely see them due to conventional media’s Viewer Discretion standards and yet at the same time his story also strike a warning that our world has deranged, sadistic individuals who don’t deserve a second chance and if any non-state actor (God forbid) decides to take the law into his/her own hands to avenge the deaths of his/her loved ones then it’s a “Suicide Run” that benefits no one

Within Marvel Universe, the Punisher transitions from a Hollywood inspired treatment of a Vietnam vet who goes up against Kingpin, the Drug Cartels of South America, the gangs of New York to an even darker treatment by putting him up against modern day organized crime businesses such as human trafficking, drugs trade and weapons smuggling to acting as a key player in Marvel’s Civil War (2007) for ant-registration camp wherein we come to know his source of inspiration for joining US Marines. Readers can debate endlessly if Chuck Dixon wrote the best stories for the character or was Garth Ennis the one who took a more realistic angle on the character but it would be fair to say that both writers represent the alpha and the omega of a character’s fictional discourse most of which is relevant to our world which is increasingly becoming dark, hopeless and confused. The in-between writers who have defined or re-defined Punisher’s discourse such as Steven Grant, Carl Potts, Matt Fraction, Jason Aaron, Rick Remender, Dan Abnett, Howard Mackie and Marc Guggenheim also need to be credited for making this character deep and his stories worth contemplating as we shall see in Punisher’s upcoming TV series on Netflix (if it’s not delayed or postponed)

In the end, the words of his co-creator sum him up the best:

"He's a great Rorschach test. What's given him some sustainability is, you can put into him whatever you want, as opposed to Spider-Man, who truly is who he is and shouldn't be changed. The Punisher is a thin character on his own merits, but that allows for a lot of interpretations and different angles of approach."

- @gerryconway(Gerry Conway: Everything but the Gwen Stacy Sink)

Click below to BUY Punisher stories from Classic Marvel Era: