PC POST #276: TOP 8 Badass Moments of the Punisher in Thunderbolts!

Thunderbolts run is far from being memorable... The writers promised so much but the team itself didn't accomplished nothing relevant in the universe 616.

With an amazing cast with Red Hulk, Punisher, Deadpool, Elektra, Agent Venom and later on Ghost Rider.. This team had enough arguments to shake the Marvel universe but due to lack of ambition from editors and writers this run turn out to be almost absolete.

Although there are some few points in all these stories being the last arc my favorite "Punisher vs Thunderbolts", some dialogues are really bad, but the action is pretty good. At least it's the best we've seen in all this run.

The Punisher had a few "badass" moments and i will show you what were the best in my opinion...




8. Leader... a brief wake!
The Leader is a vilain from Hulk stories, he is probably one of the brilliant minds in the Marvel Universe.
Ross told Deadpool the advantages of using the Leader brain resources, but Deadpool warning that if the Punisher knew, he would put a bullet in him.

Deadpool behaves like a moron most of the time, but he is right most of the times too.

 
 

7. Punisher saves Elektra

Mercy was supposed to be a member of Thunderbolts but she had her own agenda. Despite she was tortured and imprisoned by Ross.

At some time she bring some troubles to the team. Ross, Deadpool and Ghost Rider went to Hell to get rid of her, while Punisher and Elektra went to do a mission together.
Mercy felt the presence of Ross and went looking for Punisher and Elektra and the fight started.

Soon we knew that Elektra and Punisher couldn't fight long against Mercy, when she was called to Hell both fighters fall from an high altitude, Frank gets most of the impact.

 

Frank is dying... Deadpool bring a feather from Hell after some angelic invasion and the surprise happened when the feather healed Frank and saved his life.
For those who read Punisher Vol.3 when he is doing some angelic stuff, will know why.

6. Punisher dismember Deadpool. 

Poor Deadpool... In the arc Punisher vs Thunderbolts not even him "get a pass" from Frank revenge. 

Most of this payback was totally unecessary but it was a good the dialogue from Deadpool while the Punisher dismembered him and put his various body parts in Vibranium jars.

5. Punisher vs Orestez Natchios.

Probably my favorite issue... Orestez Natchios is Elektra's brother, terrorist and an excelent martial artist. He said that he was better than his sister (which i doubt).

Elektra let her brother escape during the Crimson Dynamos arc, Frank knew this and we all know that he don't let loose ends. He ended him in hand to hand combat (so good to see Frank fighting in h2h again!).

4. Punisher eliminates a false Dr. Strange (Witch).

During the annual, the Thunderbolts got a mission to eliminate Dr.Strange, because he was spreading "joy" through the city and was gaining huge amounts of power.

Regular enemies that were affected were now almost best friends.
 

Thunderbolts equipped with various magical weaponry to face this threat, most of team members fall from this witch "joy" power, but not the Punisher.

3.Explosive Punisher against Madman.

Madman (Philip Sterns) is brother of Leader (Samuel Sterns) and he has some gamma power that turn himself into an Hulk.

Punisher and Deadpool were fighting him but without success. Punisher take almost a desperate action to get rid of him temporarily. He equipped a landmine in his chest and hug Madman.

With his Madman turned into his human form.

2. Punisher fights Red Hulk with a "Hulkbuster".

During the "Punisher vs Thunderbolts" arc, the Punisher surprised every one of us when he fought against Red Hulk with some sort of Hulkbuster.

It didn't last too long but he purpose was served, distracting Red Hulk from a weapon that shot a bullet that make him turn into his human form.

 1. Punisher vs Ghost Rider

And for the number one is... the fight against Ghost Rider! 

As a whole it was priceless... The Punisher had a contingency plan just in case Ghost Rider turned against him and this was what it makes it so cool.

The Punisher studied many ways to get rid of Ghost Rider, but he knew he couldn't beat him using human weapons and he visit a big bad villain called Zadkiel a powerful angel that was cast out to hell but he was operating on earth.

He add a sword of Mephisto that was of highly interest of Frank when he got a chance he took it and eliminate Zadkiel and his demonic minions with the sword. 

Who knew that Frank would use a sword to get rid of this big boy?

 After acquiring the sword and other items, Frank was "ready" to take out Ghost Rider... But things wasn't all that easy...

 

 I don't know much about Ghost Rider but the Penance Stare works for those who harm innocent lives, it doesn't work like "regrets". 

 

 

Maybe this fight was way overated for Frank's side but it was really fun to see him doing some prep work to take out Ghost Rider.

All the action since the prep work plus the fight itself and the way he resisted to Penance Stare make this the badass number one moment in this run.

Article by @Ivo Santos

 

PC POST #186: -REVIEW- Thunderbolts #20

posted by @Ivo

THUNDERBOLTS #20 

(MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS)

 

Thunderbolts found a new place to settle (After the sub got sink by Thanos forces), new member (Ghost Rider) and a new mission, give a new address to Mercy... In Hell!

In overal i liked this issue. Charles Soule gave us an entertaining reading keeping a good balance between humour, action and plot.

I really liked the arrival of Ghost Rider, since the beggining of this book i thought that GR should have earned a place in this team so this was a good surprise when they announce it.

What i liked the most is that, FINALLY Ross viewed Mercy as a  problem and someone he can't control (after she killed dozens of people and aliens in Infinity-tie in). I can foresee that Mercy will be the most difficult challenge that this team has ever faced. Personally in 19 issues i never found any difficult challenge that this team couldn't make it. 

This was a set up issue, but i believe this will be a starting point to something good.

Carlo Barberi artwork is amazing! I like his artwork and to me one of the best that we have ever seen in this book. I like his style, he draws beautifully every character. I have just one thing to point out as a "downside"... The face of Flash is very similar to Johnny.

I have to mention Israel Silva (Colorist) he did a wonderful job in setting this "dark tone" to the book. In past issues i always thought it were overly colorful... Great work by Israel Silva.

OVERAL RATING: 4 out of 5

PC POST #179: -REVIEW- THUNDERBOLTS #18

posted by @Ivo

REVIEW

THUNDERBOLTS #18

This is the best arc so far, Charles Soule gives us a really nice plot when we can find anything: action, comedy and even a sexy moment.

Punisher, Elektra and Venom are in the bunker wasting criminals and looking for the Paguros. When the Nobili's family was exposed by inhuman gas and transformed into real Inhumans. The two sons (Carmen and Joseph) both died the first one killed himself and the other got shot in the head by the Paguros criminals, the only inhuman remnant is the dad Gordon Nobili who probably will be after Punisher to avenge his sons deaths.

In this issue we discover how powerful Mercy is, while she pretty much handles most of Thanos forces by herself, finally we get some Mercy action and see what she is capable of. On the other side Ross can't control her which definetely she will become a threat in the future.

Deadpool is in the restaurant and he finally discovers why he was so obssessed by it, meanwhile the Paguros arrived to the restaurant and Deadpool kills them.

In the end Frank and Elektra goes to the battle van to "celebrate" together the successful mission.

OPINION

Charles Soule is doing a great job "recovering" this book after Daniel Way passed the mantle to him. He is portraying pretty well the characters in general and built a decent plot. Although i think the Thunderbolts just overpowered the Paguros, they didn't really pose a threat to the team in my view.

I was expecting some showdown between the task force and the inhumans but sadly that not happen but i'm looking forward to see more from Gordon "Inhuman" Nobili in the future.

Another that i found it kind of odd was Frank and Elektra "celebrate" together, i thought at the end of issue #12 the "relationship" of these two had vanished when Frank found out that she let Orestez escape.

I liked the touch of the name of the pizza restaurant P' Pizza with some note in latim " Nobis Est Domi" that means Us At Home, Us at home P'(aguros) Pizza. Really cool!

It's really a shame that the artwork didn't keep up the same quality as the writing, i have seen some works of Jefte Palo, he even was the artist in one-shot Punisher MAX: Little Black Book, and i loved his work in that story. Don't know why he pick this kind of art for this book, maybe it's because the humour... i don't know.

Tedesco (Covers) and GURU eFX have been really constant in terms of quality in this book.

OVERAL SCORE: 3.5 / 5

ARC SCORE: 3.5 / 5

 

PC POST #170: -REVIEW- THUNDERBOLTS #16

posted by @Ivo

-REVIEW-

THUNDERBOLTS #16

(W) Charles Soule (A) Jefte Palo (C) Julian Tedesco

Thunderbolts #16 comes out and this one is action packed! We got Red Hulk crackin' some aliens heads, Deadpool is hack n' slashing some aliens and looking for a slice of pizza, Punisher, Elektra and Venom finally arrive in the Paguros headquarters after beating a dozen of punks while the earth is being invaded and Supernova ( one of the lieutenants of Thanos) is trying to steal the Leader's secrets, and were blasted by Mercy, finally she has done something for the team ( or for herself?).

This issue has a whole is decent but i got a few concerns about the Punisher in this issue... First of all we finally know what were inside the box that the Punisher transported in the van... its a bomb. A really big one. The Paguros as soon as they find out about the invasion they hide themselfs in a bunker. Since Red Hulk were occupied, Frank tried to smoke them out of their hiding using the bomb, when he set the timer something went wrong and instead of marking ten minutes it were ten seconds.  Thanks to Venom he saved the team, sent the bomb to a ship, destroying it and opening a hole in the bunker of the Paguros.

This isn't Frank. To me he wouldn't mess with a bomb without some proper knowledge on how to use it. He put the team in danger and first of all the mission.

Frank in the last issues is behaving like some "junkie" that only cares about killing criminals no matter what. I know that his mission of life is killing them, but i rather prefer a cold Punisher than a Punisher almost drooling to kill. He is more than this, in my opinion.

The art improved a bit to and the action scenes are decent too, the colors of this issue are great thanks to GURU eFX. Besides the same problems i have with the bodies of the characters, there is one panel before when Supergiant is breaking the sub, the Leaders head are exaggeratedly tall.

Tedesco cover is fine, but he has done better in the past issues. It lacks a bit of color and detail.

OVERALL SCORE: 3/5

PC POST #159: -PREVIEW- THUNDERBOLTS #13

posted by @Ivo

-PREVIEW-

THUNDERBOLTS #13