PC POST #58: The Incredible Hulk #8 Review "Stay Angry"

By @Neil4LOST

The Incredible Hulk #8 (Stay Angry Part 1)

WRITERS: Jason Aaron

ARTIST: Steve Dillon

COLOR ARTIST: Frank Martin

LETTERS: Chris Eliopulos

COVER: Michael Komarck

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Jake Thomas

EDITOR: Mark Paniccia

EDITOR IN CHIEF: Axel Alonso

CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER: Joe Quesada

PUBLISHER: Dan Buckley

EXEC. PRODUCER: Alan Fine

Release Date: May 30th, 2012

Published monthly by Marvel Worldwide, INC.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS:

Price – $3.99

(23 Pages, single-issue, color)

INTRODUCTION: (From page 1)

For years, Bruce Banner and the Hulk were linked by rage and anger. But when that link was broken and the Hulk split from Banner, the scientist went insane. Hulk hunted Banner to his secret island retreat where the monster and the man battled it out. In the midst of their fight one of Banner’s gamma bombs detonated. Hulk survived, but Banner…well…

The Hulk hoped to finally find peace, but he should know that things are never that simple. After the explosion, it is now Banner who is in Hulk’s head, and the tables have turned: when the Hulk calms down, he turns back into puny, criminally insane Banner. Now the only option for Hulk to keep control and defeat Banner is to…STAY ANGRY

WRITING:

Jason Aaron continues his run on “The Incredible Hulk” by launching the new story arc titled Stay Angry. It appears that the Stay Angry arc will play out somewhat like a Groundhog’s Day type of story in that Hulk goes through a series of events over and over again attempting to stay transformed into the green monster. Aaron’s writing in this issue feels different than the first seven issues of the series. It feels darker and much more like the guest character of the issue…The Punisher. It is no coincidence that Jason Aaron recently wrapped up with acclaimed work on Punisher MAX, telling a grittier and more violent story about Frank Castle.

Frank’s character seems to step into Hulk’s work very well but he disappears just as quickly and silently as he entered it, with very little explanation as to why Punisher was in the story in the first place. I am assuming that this will happen in a similar fashion over the course of the Stay Angry arc.

I personally like this type of story from Aaron. As a monthly reader to his Hulk series, I have felt that it lacked Aaron’s style. This issue definitely brings his style back.

Rating – “B+”

ARTWORK:

Steve Dillon re-teams with Jason Aaron once again to work on this cross-over issue with Punisher. Dillon worked with Aaron on the Punisher Max series and the two collaborated together very well.

Unfortunately for this issue, Dillon’s work doesn’t work out very well. Dillon does a very good job with Punisher and some of the small tertiary characters but he does a horrendous job at drawing super-heroes. It saddens me to think that the first time since of the end of Punisher MAX that Dillon and Aaron have worked together didn’t work out very well. Aaron delivers but Dillon doesn’t.

Rating – “C-“

STORY: (POTENTIAL SPOILERS)

This issue launches a new arc where Hulk wakes up in the middle of Mexico and he has no idea where he is and how he got there. He begins to realize that the only way that he can stop himself from transforming back into Banner is to smash anything he can get his hands on to.

Hulk randomly comes across Frank Castle, who is in Mexico hunting down a gang of men who look like wild dogs. Hulk tells Frank that he wants to come with him on Frank’s mission to be an agent of destruction.

It works out pretty well as the rest of the issue is Frank and Hulk taking out everything in their path until the two of our protagonists meets the leader of the gang. Hulk battles it out with the leader to uncover a puzzling twist about what Banner may be up to. Hulk begins to realize that the Banner inside of him may have more control then he originally thought.

Rating – “A-“

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE:

The issue is highly entertaining. It is intriguing the way that Aaron is setting up the Stay Angry series as to just what the readers may discover with Hulk throughout the Arc. There are pieces of the issue that lack believability but it is fun and it has the Punisher! We get a few great moments of dialogue between the two of them and an interrogation scene where Punisher tortures a Hispanic man J

Rating – “A”

OVERAL RATING OF ISSUE:  “B”

PC Post #57: Retro Review: Punisher War Journal # 1

WRITERS: Carl Potts

ARTIST: Carl Potts / Jim Lee

COLOR ARTIST: John Wellington

LETTERS: Jim Novak

COVER: Carl Potts/ Jim Lee

EDITOR: Don Daley

CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER: Tom Defalco

PUBLISHER: Marvel Comics

Release Date: November, 1988

Published monthly by Marvel Worldwide, INC.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS:

Price – $1.50

(32 Pages, single-issue, color)

INTRODUCTION:

This was the first issue of the Punisher’s spin-off series that ran from 1988 to 1995. The series features the Punisher War Journal entry text boxes, with narration by Frank Castle.

WRITING:

Carl Potts opens the series as head writer and also takes early penciling duties. In this issue there are several story arcs that are being set up for the series. The central story suffers slightly due to this and it feels rushed. On the other hand the retelling of Frank Castle’s origin through small panels at the bottom of each page was very well done. It allows new readers to get caught up without making long-time fans sit through a story they already know.

Rating – “B”

ARTWORK:

The pencils for this issue were by Carl Potts with finished art by Jim Lee. You can really see the early style that will become Jim Lee’s trademark. Each panel is detailed and full of color. On the negative it still carries the typical ’90s brightly colored style which takes away from the gritty nature of the content.

Rating – “A”

STORY:

The story opens with Frank Castle setting out on a very personal mission, to visit Central Park on the anniversary of his family’s death, but a Punisher’s job is never done and soon he is rescuing a young woman and her infant son from a group of mobsters. There is also a brief appearance by a mysterious old man and his daughter who own a small grocery store and apartment building. This is clearly setting up characters for future story arcs. The overall story of Castle trying to reach Central Park is well done and the side mission, though short, has plenty of twists and turns.

Rating – “B+”

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE:

The entertainment value of this issue does suffer due to all of the setups but the overall story is still fun and gets to the core of the Punisher and why he has taken on his one man war on crime.

Rating – “B”

OVERAL RATING OF ISSUE:  “B+”

PC POST #56: Documentary about the Punisher Origins.

Hi Punisher Fans !!

Im here to present this documentary i found on youtube while ago. This is a very interesting documentary about the origins of the Punisher, in my opinion its a good way to all the new Punisher fans to catch up with "source" of this character.

 I hope you like it, see you around.

PC POST #55: Retro Review: Amazing Spider-Man 129

Post by @Neil4LOST


Really this issue is about one major event in comic book history...the first appearance of Frank Castle (aka. The Punisher)!

This issue of the Amazing Spider-Man written by Gerry Conway back in February of 1974 is now a classic. The issue debuted to characters, The Jackal and Punisher. Most people however, have completely forgotten that the Jackal was a part of the story as well as the role he played in introducing the Marvel U. to Frank Castle.

Jackal obviously has a mission...to kill Spider-Man. He finds the perfect man for the job, a man who feels that Spider-Man is a killer and should be punished for the recent death of Norman Osborne. Jackal exploits the Punisher's motives and sets up a series of events, or cons, to convince Punisher that Spider-Man is a villain.

During the two main confrontations between Spidey and Punisher it is obvious that Punisher is no match for the abilities of Spider-Man. It is interesting how Frank has evolved over time to be extremely tactical, especially when he has had to deal with super-heroes the likes of Spider-Man, Daredevil and others. Punisher learns the hard way but eventually learns the truth that the Jackal is truly the villain that he should be after.

The book closes with Punisher and Spider-Man together realizing that they have been set up and something must be done about it.

One of the things that I do really love about this story is that it feels true to the Punisher that we have all become to know and love. Sure he is getting his feet wet and nobody knows him much at this point in time but his core as a character and his belief systems are in place from the beginning. It is fantastic to see that those things have not changed after so many years.

Punisher feels that his gifting of "killing" is only to be applied towards those who deserve it; to kill people who have degraded society by their actions. Jackal plays Frank to this extent and that is what sets up the confrontations between Frank and Spider-Man.

There are also many supporting characters that make an appearance in this issue. The likes of Mary Jane Watson, J. Jonah Jameson and Harry Osborne. You can begin to see the conflict arising between Peter Parker and his best friend during this issue. It is amazing just how much happens in this single issue. Comics today often feel like they are over before they have even begun but as I was re-reading this issue it stretched on and on. I really liked that.

For those of you who haven't read Amazing Spider-Man #129...you need to right away. There are basically three main ways you can do so. You can either drop some major cash on a near mint version on Ebay/Amazon to get the original single issue, which may be in a special collectors case, or you can pick up Punisher Essential or Spider-Man Essential.

If you are not familiar with Punisher Essential or Spider-Man Essential basically they are thick volumes of essential comics that Marvel has put out for readers to become familiar with older stories. This is great for readers that cannot drop loads of cash but the downside is that these books are not in color, they are entirely in black and white. If you can get past that issue then they are a steal.

Overall I feel that this introduction to Punisher was rich in character establishment and the set up for many future interactions that Frank Castle would have with Spider-Man.

PC POST #54: Punisher: the TV Show put on hold!

Post by @DorkJustinSaga



As most Punisher fans were probably well aware, back in October, ABC and Fox were all set to bring Frank Castle to the small screen. However, it now appears that those plans have been shelved. There doesn't appear to be any reason given for this, but The Punisher has now joined AKA Jessica Jones (based on Brian Michael Bendis' Alias) as a Marvel adaptation that fans won't see on the small screen.

For the full article from www.spinoffonline.com, please click on the following link:http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/2012/05/16/fox-passes-on-the-punisher/

Personally, I'm not that disappointed as the writers vision of Frank Castle appears to be entirely different to the Frank Castle that the fans know and love from the comics, but it would have been nice to see everyones favourite vigilante grace our television screens, after all; who doesn't love a little bit of punishment?