Greg Rucka’s The Punisher: Volume 1 Review

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a month on geek cast radio Welcome to The Pull

Bag. Join us as we dig out our latest comics

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GCRN crew. So sit back and enjoy this week's

Pull Bag. Hello and welcome to The Pull Bag,

which has become the Punisher Bag. This is episode

45 and I am your host, TFG and Mike. Joining

me is Ryan the Uneven Flow. Hello, how are you?

Good, you? Good finally found a place to live.

Yay. That's not important. Just ask the people

in the street. Oh wait You ass and also joining

us once again is the Punisher body count crew

of Jake and Dane. Hey guys. Hey, man. How you

doing? Doing pretty good. Pretty good. Cool.

Nichiwa Yes Wow, we're international now. Yeah

No, it's Vietcong all over again. That was important.

Yeah, I know I know that's why I said it All

right, we are here to start Greg Rucka's run

which is the Punisher volumes one through three

and Enter war zone because that's what it says

in the damn cover. Technically. It's Punisher

volume three One to three, I believe if I remember

the full title, right? No, actually, I think

it's like volume five hundred and sixty. Yeah

Probably. No, the volumes are in the double digits

at this point for the Punisher for the straight

-up Punisher. No adjective or war zone title

this this is around volume nine or ten By the

way, I forgot to mention this to you guys as

Punisher fans, but I wanted to point this out.

We have an upcoming, there's two Comic -Cons

now in Ottawa, which is pretty awesome. The second

one is in December, called the Pop Expo. One

of the guest artists, noted Punisher artist extraordinaire

Howard Chaykin, everyone's favorite. Oh, dude,

you know, you know, what's amazing is I was getting

ready to be excited and then you said that to

me and I still said wow Like it was just it was

in the chamber and I feel like I just wasted

a while Me myself and the other like huge Punisher

fan here also named Ryan oddly enough. Anyway,

the two of us have agreed We're not going anywhere

near him because we're worried. We'll punch him

in the face Let's start some beef with him. Just

be like hey, you know the guys over a Punisher

body count They say your art shit man. What do

you got to say about that? I want to get like

a huge War going on between us and how I'm sure

he's got good art because you don't work as long

and on as on as many titles as he does but my

god like max issue 50 if you're gonna have somebody

do the 50th issue of Punisher max have Leonardo

Fernandez or Yeah, have anybody else. Well, to

me, Parlov or Fernandez are the perfect ones

because they're the ones that worked the most

and did the best work on it overall. But to have

your guest artist as Chaykin. Hey, I got an idea.

How about you get an artist that remembers how

many fingers the black guy has? The fucking villain.

To be fair, he looked more like a refrigerator

than anything Romita Senior ever drew. Yeah,

he's a big black refrigerator. Actually, the

only way they could have fucked that up worse

is if they would have had Rob Liefeld guest Who

was who was the amazing? I would I would enjoy

it Just for the novelty who was the artist on

fractions war journal run? The artist on fractions

war journal run. Um, oh by the way, this is how

much I hate that It was Oliver something. Um,

Olivetti. I don't know. Yeah, that's right. That

was pretty bad, too Not a fail. Yeah, yeah. Speaking

of good things, we're here to talk about Rucka's

run. Yeah, and speaking of great art, how about

that Marco Checchetto in that volume one of Rucka's

furniture? Yeah. How's that bringing it back

around? We'll start with some of the high points.

We'll certainly get to the low points. The low

point is going to be the summary, which is going

to be pretty easy. And yeah, listen, I mean,

I love this book, but yeah, not a lot happens

in it reads so much better in trades than it

did in individual issues. Yeah. I mean, they

were double shipping it the first like four issues

or something like that. And it still felt like

the story took forever to take off. Yeah. This

for the listeners at home, this is a comic book

series where in one issue. It's just about Punisher

fighting a flying birdman. And then the next

issue is him recovering for 90 days. The third

Vulture who was killed by Frank, which is awesome.

Yeah, they actually let them kill a guy. Very

nice of them. And actually, Rucka talked about

that with us. We actually got to interview the

writer of this. Oh, I know. Well, I know. But

yeah, maybe the other listeners don't. Sorry.

The other listeners might not know, Ryan. We

know. Speaking of the listeners not knowing things,

I think we're doing them a disservice if Dane

doesn't do his third vulture Smeagol impression.

Can you go and break them off some of that, Dane?

Oh, dude. What was funny is I was reading this

and it just came back to me while I was doing

it. I need my precious mob money, Punisher! My

skill! I can't do it right now. I lost the mob

money! So basically this third vulture is supposed

to be something out of Lord of the Rings. When

we reviewed this on the episode or one of our

previous shows, Dane was like, this vulture sounds

like Smeagol from Lord of the Rings. And he just

busted out this impression that was hilarious.

There's two things I can't stand it's hobbits

is and vigilantes All right, so you hate the

Punisher then right? Yes. No, he meant the carrot.

Never mind. Anyway, all right to summarize Very

quickly because this isn't gonna be tough Rachel

Cole Alves is Getting married her entire wedding

procession is killed on their wedding day gunned

down by a really kill Bill's style, too yeah

by a group called the exchange and they are then

in turn targeted by the Punisher and yeah they

send the vulture after Frank and that's really

about it there's a lot of side characters which

by the way it's one thing I want to wanted to

bring up and I know I've mentioned before but

more than anyone and I would say even Ennis Rocket

did a really good job of tying Frank into the

Marvel universe without him being a huge portion

of it to the point that The prop the problem

with the Punisher has always been he goes around

and he murders tons of people and a lot of people

have to ask Why wouldn't the Avengers or somebody

get involved at some point? In this rocket is

a good job of keeping keeping him low -key, but

he's still offing people like crazy Yeah, and

he's dealing with a threat that you could understand

why the why the Avengers aren't necessarily going

after them because the exchange the general gist

of the exchange is that it's basically the minions

of other terrorist groups even a few people from

shield getting tired of You know getting abused

by their superiors so they go and create their

own gang and it's gonna have blackjack and hookers

Yes. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, and I liked the use

of the different Spider -Man characters. I mean,

Nora Jones is still in Spectacular Spider -Man

pretty much. Nora Jones was amazing. I mean,

she was probably by far my favorite side character

in this whole run. And yeah, we've got this sort

of Gotham Central style of having two cops, Newsome

and Bolt or Morgan Freeman and Ozzy. Yeah. Yeah.

Detective Freeman. But. They their story if ruckus

run had concluded the way it was supposed to

I think their story would have been a lot better

But the fact that it was rushed and they ended

up like jams to the side Hurt overall. Yeah,

I did like the idea of Ozzy being an actual cop

who's competent unlike soap pairing up with Pairing

up with the Punisher I liked that idea. I really

liked the time sort of delay they did in rocketed

in having you know He we see what he told people

happened at the shooting where one of his original

partners was killed We see what he tells them

and then we see the actual panels of what actually

happened which was you know, Frank came in and

killed everyone precisely and quickly for him

at a school and I really like that because That

one worked on me on two levels because this was

almost kind of like a reboot comic You almost

see this as like a first appearance of the Punisher

even though they tend to back away from that

later on because yeah, you had detective bolt

who was working with a corrupt cop and You know

this thing's about to go down and then the Punisher

disappears out of nowhere takes the gun from

bolt and then Pops out of the corner guns a blazing

and he loses. Yeah, he gets shot in the hand

and just shrugs it off, too Oh, yeah, it was

great. It just got grazed. Yeah, but still most

guys, you know that actually hurts He just sort

of say fucking shake it off or something Yeah,

he he just puts the gun in the other hand and

just starts shooting them That was one other

thing that rocket did really well and there's

a really good reference to it in the 11th issue

of the comic that This Frank is way more calculating

and precise than the last group of six one six

punishers Yeah, remainder and fraction. I never

got the idea that he was a professional Yeah,

that's that's one. Yeah. He was often just a

very determined guy that would blow Yeah, and

he was all and he was always outclassed. They

never showed him, you know in control of things

Yeah This Punisher definitely is like they always

make it clear like it's not a matter of if he's

gonna come after you it's when and they make

that clear in issue one and two where in issue

one Frank lets a criminal go that murdered that

was at the scene of the crime of Rachel's wedding

and He lets that guy go just to simply track

the man and kill anyone that man meets and work

his way up the ladder Which works really well

It did. It very much did. I love the art in this.

I love the style of how the interrogation went

or the whole thing. The flashback scenes. I love

how that worked. I thought that was great. It

reminds me of what I liked about the Fraction

Hawkeye stuff. I liked how... Cold and yet, you

know, like I said in control he was I loved in

issue 11. There's the line, you know Bolt is

telling the story of how the Punisher started

gunning down these zombies that came back and

The cops are interrogating him saying like, you

know, what were you doing and bolt basically

says like well tired firing your weapon You know

in those sort of circumstances and they go the

Punisher They go. Oh, I bet the Punisher had

no problems right and bolt makes it clear that

the Punisher isn't shoot, you know, it doesn't

have problems shooting not because He doesn't

care about other people or casualties bolt makes

it clear to them that the Punisher is shooting

because he never misses and he's just That good

at everything Yeah, that's a very necessary element

to the Punisher that can be almost as out of

this world as a radioactive spider biting you

or some Scientist injecting you with roids and

you just stop aging and you grow really strong

like radiation turns you into a green monster

Yeah, whatever like As much as people like oh,

I like the Punisher cuz he doesn't have it in

that fantasy bullshit I go. Yeah, he just uses

c4 in a populated city and no one innocent ever

dies But like that's the that's the part as long

as they put it in a way that makes sense You're

often able to get you're often able to like,

you know suspend your disbelief and move on but

that is what they make very clear that in the

comic book especially during Rutgers run it's

almost like an investigation on how can a person

like this possibly exist and can this person

possibly be replicated like the Rachel who is

a fellow Marine and had a similar tragedy happen

in her life And I yeah, and I liked that part

of the run It's something that most authors haven't

taken a look at I feel like Aaron sort of did

Aaron tried to look at what creates a man like

the Punisher who can yes go out and just murder

and kill over and over again and Ruck is sort

of trying to do that But of course you got to

be a little nicer in this Marvel universe. I

should know too. Oh, I gotta disagree I don't

think he ever approaches the question of how

Frank can be the Punisher and he pretty much

said as much with our interview with him He doesn't

approach it with Frank, but he approaches it

with other people true, you know and for Frank

He's moved beyond that question and it's now

like how do you keep being the Punisher? Well,

there's there's the line that will be in the

third trade about you know Rachel telling him

I guess I couldn't be like you and he looks at

her and he's very Self -aware because he tells

her no one should be like me Now he knows what

he is and he knows what he can do, but he also

knows that that's not really for anyone else

Yeah, and in other comics I've gone on well before

this run ever started like a fun fact about Frank

Castle is that he was actually raised Catholic

and in under some runs He was before he joined

the military. He was a priest. Yeah. Yeah, he

printed up priest Castiglione Yeah, sorry. It

was father Castiglione. Yeah Yeah, he he stopped

he left seminary because he had massive problems

with the idea of forgiveness on Like the universal

forgiveness God can give out as long as people

really mean it and they give themselves over

to God It's like what all forgiveness. I don't

think so check, please. Well, sometimes he'd

like to get his hands on God Yeah, sometimes

I stubbed my toe today. I know that feeling But

yeah one of the art in this I love the way that

I mean The art is fantastic. There's a page.

I think it's it's still an issue one Where Where

they're coming after Liam? Yeah. Yeah, and it's

basically, you know Frank with The the gun blazing

and it's just it's just amazing art It's because

it's an all -red background and of course, he's

an all -black as usual And that's nothing I like

about this and we'll get to this next week I

like some of the costume changes that they do

in the run. It was painted on skull was kind

of neat. I Shouldn't say ruckus to cheddars.

Yeah, it was very Punisher 2004 but in a way

that no one was complaining the other thing is

since we keep coming back to the yard is that

Jake and I often had a running joke of saying

like oh god it we're handsome like we actually

Like a lot of us were laughing at how handsome

Marco Shishato drew Frank and all this like he

got 20 years older Got some guido style hair

gel and just looks so kawaii so kawaii But over

time we actually started and but then we actually

realized no everyone's kind of drawn kind of

beautiful But that doesn't lessen the violence

or the action or the composition of the pages.

It's done very well And yeah, I expect it's part

partially intentional, but who knows? Yeah No,

it's just part of Shosheto's style and what's

amazing is we've gone from making fun of that

to that Marco Shosheto's coming back on a superior

Spider -Man team -up issue and the Punisher's

teaming up with... Doctor octopus spider -man

or whatever and we're like, oh my god handsome

Frank's coming back. Like we're fucking psyched

about it now I mean, I'm really yeah. I mean,

I love Shoshado's work I especially the way love

the way he draws his women where he can make

them attractive without having to give them Torpedo

boobs or anything like that or you know those

high hip G strings that Jim Lee does Yeah, I

mean, I think it was kind of jarring at first

to see Frank look that handsome, but I don't

know, Shisheto's style really grew on me along

with, wasn't it Hollingsworth that did the colors?

His coloring is amazing and I don't know, to

make a long story short, I love Shisheto and

he is now on my list of artists that I want to

get some original art from. Could be noted too,

you mentioned women in the comic. I cannot. Nora

Winters was hot. That too, but I cannot remember

too. Is this one of the few, it's one of the

very few times I can remember 616 Frank gunning

down a woman. No, he's done it a couple times.

He has no problems Yeah, but it's rarely shown

sort of this much and I liked the fact that she

sort of thought like well You know, he won't

shoot a woman and then he shoots her in the back

when she's running away, too Well when you run

bit what amounts to a human slavery ring? I don't

think your gender plays much account of what's

gonna happen to you. I love her defense in a

foreign language Oh, I just I just shot him up

with cocaine, you know Although of course the

slavers showed what max version of frank does

so yeah, and you definitely get the feeling of

uh, the per the max frank at least his personality

Um in this because he's very much a force of

nature and a tornado doesn't give a shit what

jordan what? Gender you are the tornado is going

to do what it's gonna do. That was definitely

Frank's modus operandi in another Yeah, another

good thing I wanted to mention to briefly is

in the trade for this it should be noted I really

liked that they included ruckus spider -island

short story Yeah, that was a cool by the way.

I actually really liked or at least I thought

it was really funny That I've never seen this.

I've only read the comics You should definitely

pick up the trade. It's a short story. If you

don't know what Spider Island was, basically

everybody on the island of Manhattan got Spider

-Man's powers. And some of them did good, some

of them did bad. Well, this is a story about

a bunch of bad ones. It's a bunch of guys robbing

a bank in Spider -Man outfits. And they're all

robbing the bank. Everything's going well. They

web up everybody They're taking the money out

but everybody's in the vault and three of the

four start feeling this weird pain in their stomach

and They start discussing it like, you know,

it's this weird feeling. Yeah, you know like

when you know in your gut, you know, something's

going wrong the spider sense basically yeah and

so the one the fourth guy they ask him like hey

gordo are you feeling it and he just says no

as he pulls a gun out and he shoots the other

three in the head and as he's tearing off the

spider -man costume all it reveals is a white

skull underneath and all he says is it's called

spider sense idiots that's pretty good i like

that yeah it was very yeah he just calmly like

shoots each of them in the head Yeah, that is

pretty good. Give me a shuffle. So yeah, it's

a solid story. All five issues in volume one

were solid. I mean, I enjoyed all of it. Well,

how about we get to the bad then, which for me,

that last issue can just take a middle finger.

Well, before you get to that, I want to talk

one more good thing up real quick. My absolute

favorite issue in this first five issues in the

trade is issue two where he fights the vulture.

This is issue three. Oh, it's issue three. I'm

sorry. Yeah. That is fucking badass. Like that

just that issue is what Frank is all about. You

know, I like how he climbs up him with a knife,

basically. Yeah. Well, he's he never gives up.

He never resigns himself as like, all right,

I'm fucked, you know, time to make peace or whatever.

He's just like I am keeps going. Yeah, he's just

like fuck it. I got a K bar still I'm gonna climb

up this bitch and stab him to death Yeah, and

I don't care that I'm 500 feet above New York

City. Fuck it. Yeah He survives and he just goes

back to what he does Yeah, I mean not without

having a compound fracture of the knee, but you

know Yeah, he does the Dark Knight rises solution.

Just put a brace on it. It'll fix everything

I'm okay now to be fair. He does get help which

I really liked at the veterinary clinic that

a he manages to off some more people He's stitching

himself up, you know from this fight with the

vulture and here's some commotion outside and

apparently Pod dealers are arguing over whose

corner it is and this is great because the guy's

like this is our corner you got that you hear

me it's our corner and then frank's like five

by five and then shoots him in the face which

shows rukka's excellent military lingo because

oh five by five means like loud and clear Also

wanted to quickly comment on the good side the

awesome arts and the use of the flashback When

Nora is writing about the Punisher who survives,

you know, they fall and fight with the vulture

Yeah, but when she's writing about Rachel we

get this really cool sequence of first It's the

Punisher in like the classic garb with the white

gloves That is an awesome panel and then we get

the sort of military one where he's using, you

know a flamethrower and burning two people alive

I just like that. It wasn't a nice touch. It

was cool to see him in the classic outfits like

they hadn't forgotten about it at least Yes,

and that's the thing is that even though this

really did seem like a fresh start early spiritually

Yeah, and here's the thing what was even great

about it or I don't know bad depending on how

much you love continuity is that all the plot

threads and issues brought by remember are just

swept under the table because I Rockets aren't

the droids you're looking for. Yeah Rukka just

swept all these all this mess off the table because

one of the things in the remainder run that I

truly feel they were trying to deal with is is

this guy really Vietnam vet maybe we should deal

with that and here's the thing if you are a Punisher

fan the thing you don't like there's two things

you don't talk about and fight club one is you

don't talk about Frank's age two you don't fucking

talk about Frank's age because it's just this

mess of a situation so remember try to give it

like well what if we made a mad Like we killed

him we brought it back for magic and then his

age doesn't even fucking matter anymore And then

Rucka just said like how about he was just a

guy that maybe fought in Iraq like that once

again like Rucka does that he just takes out

any magical solution Yeah, and to his credit.

I mean Rucka never necessarily makes it a hundred

percent clear I mean yes, the uniforms are modern

and so therefore you would assume but having

said that he doesn't flat -out say it at least

which I think is fine I think what? They've needed

to do all the long and apparently there has been

talk of this is they just need to have this Defining

war in the Marvel universe something that they

can constantly fudge around what? What time period

it was in and then they can just say oh Tony

Stark got the shrapnel in that war and Punisher

was in that war and it was the onslaught saga

everyone loved that right I'm still scarred by

that The funniest thing for me and in the volume

one trade was actually I believe it's issue for

when Ben and Nora are meeting and Ryan I'm sure

and I'm sure the other guys can correct me if

I'm wrong as well because I don't read daredevil

i don't it's not that i don't want to i just

i never have look here's here's a daredevil issue

okay hold on hold on wait a second here's the

thing with daredevil the only thing i really

know is i know a lot of people hate this but

i know the movie and i know what yurik did in

the movie or what he didn't do so as soon as

i see this in this issue with him and norah in

the diner or wherever they are i'm like oh hell

that's awesome right there just referencing it

About not revealing who yeah, he knows who yeah,

Matt Murdock is although everybody sort of knows

I mean Frank Yeah, they make it clear in the

Omega fact effect Frank pretty much knows who

daredevil is as well. Yeah Like, the world knows

who he is, but then Daredevil... Matt Murdock

was able to kind of put that under wraps, but

most everyone believes, like, no, you're fucking

Daredevil. We just can't say it. It's kind of

like OJ Simpson. Everyone knows he killed his

wife, but it's not really official. And what

do you not like about the comic? I mean, that's

an awful analogy, but it works. Yeah, anyway.

For what I didn't like, the last issue for one

needs to get mentioned. If you're going to do

an issue of Frank recovering, then focus and

expand on everybody else a little more. The sort

of subplot with the stupid kid. That goes nowhere

it ends It ends with a period. Oh, you're no

soldier and the kid walks. Yeah, that was who

he is Yes, although it's pretty obvious who he

is. What was you know the skull? Yeah, well he

wasn't wearing it in the beginning Yeah, the

kid finds it but I mean it just it there was

no reason for it. It was not a It was not something

that was needed and in all honesty, you could

pretty much just take out the issue Yeah, I mean

I think what Rucka was trying to show there is

because he's mentioned this in interviews. He

mentioned it talking to us is that He really

wanted to highlight both Frank being a very tactical

person but still being a mortal human being in

the Marvel universe and what that means Like

just dealing with a fucking joke of a villain

like the like the vulture number three. He gets

his eye damaged He gets a glass in his shoulder.

He breaks his knee and he's out of commission

for a hundred days that he makes that very clear

and I think He was trying to use that comic to

show the passage of time though having that kid

there I don't know. It didn't bother me. But

yeah, probably could have used the real estate

there probably could have gotten as slow paced

as this comic was It really suffered by going

even slower. Yeah, I feel like that was the issue

that for a lot of people who We're on the fence

or we're already thought it was really slow I

think it's easy to point to that one as you know

the tipping point. Yeah No, are you guys saying

it was slow because of when it was in singles?

Yes, it was Okay Most stuff is is monthly release

anyway, but I gotta say reading which reading

the collected edition This read really fast.

It reads great in trades. Yeah, let me put it

this way Okay, I am one of the world's slowest

readers Okay Even the newest comics that come

out take me 20 to 30 minutes to read and I know

most people takes like 10 minutes tops Okay,

I read all 12 issues an hour and a half ago just

all the way straight through. And I'm seriously

one of the world's slowest readers. So what does

that tell you? How decompressed they are and

how fast? It tells you that I put a strict schedule

on you and that you were lazy enough to wait

to the last minute. That's what it says. Hey,

I'm just like you, Mike. I read all the comics

right before the show. Yeah, I know. What were

you gonna say, Dane? I read these days in advance.

No, I read my Punisher comics so much that I

don't have to. I've tried reading comics days

in advance of recording a show and I just I'll

go back for a refresh and I'm like, okay Yeah,

I know that I know that I know that why am I

looking at this again? And I just can't do that.

I have to read all the stuff day day of recording

Yeah, a little more fresh. I feel my commentary

is a little bit better. Yeah I pick like an extra

day or two, because I actually do try and pick

out like witty observations, even go far as write

out jokes for certain parts of it. But then I

do refresh the day before. I mean, the day of.

Yeah. The only sort of plot point to looking

back that I wanted to mention from this book

is at the end during that those days of recovery,

a bunch of the exchange are gunned down in cold

blood. Frank is still recovering we as the readers

know that but you know the people the people

in the universe don't don't and But even then

the cops immediately suspect Rachel who by the

way, we as the readers know it's her Yeah, actually,

you know they they don't suspect them. They just

like oh the Punisher is back That's right. Yeah

in this issue. They don't isn't thrown on her

until the next trade. It's the next trade Yes,

the start of that. Yeah, and the next one too

It opens with Frank killing somebody in broad

daylight in a restaurant, which by the way is

awesome I just like the comments from people

like oh my god, and some people are worried if

he's there for them Yeah The one thing that always

bugs me Is when Marvel, or because DC does it

too, um... Both sides do it. Everybody has to

have, at some point or another, a Nick Fury homage.

Okay. It really bugs me, because every time I

see someone with an eyepatch or bandages over

an eye... comics it makes me think of fury and

I'm sorry Punisher would never be in charge of

shield oh actually yeah you were yeah you were

here for that discussion actually he was eventually

sort of going to be have his own well we saw

that clearly came to pass yeah that was the idea

was that he sort of was going to be fury for

a while he was gonna have his own squad, led

by he and Rachel would sort of be the leader

of them. He would sort of take on the big cases.

But of course, that never happened. The Fury

thing was intentional, though. The other reason

for it, too, was to kind of ground him. Yeah,

but I you know, like Ryan said earlier about

about the spider island story. I love that Yeah,

that was a nice touch and it reads really well.

It was it's another one of those it shows the

strength of ruckus writing when he can Do stuff

like that. It's just unfortunate that there wasn't

more of it or there was too much throwaway stuff

in his run Although having said that I mean,

I still love this trade It reads so much better

than the individual issues did which I still

have every single issue I would recommend if

anyone wants to pick this up, you either got

to pick it up and trade or you need to pick up

like a bunch of the issues and read them all

in one sitting. No, pick it up and trade. It's

much cheaper to pick it up and trade. Well, I

mean, you could probably find a bunch of these

books like in the quarter box at comics. Yeah,

the bright side of comics right now is they're

all, unless it's a number one from an indie company,

they're all worthless so you can get them cheap.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And some people

just still... And some people still like individual

issues. So I'm just saying for those people I

would recommend getting a bunch of them and sitting

and reading them all in one sitting Don't try

to collect one here and there and try to read

it I would not recommend that so I guess overall

like our biggest complaint everyone's biggest

complaint here Especially really the three of

us who read the issue issues is that it was slow

Yeah, it was funny. Yeah, and the one guy who

didn't read the issues doesn't have that problem,

which I'm not saying that's a bad thing I'm just

saying that yeah, it's kind of proof that yeah

this reads so much better in trade And I am the

guy that gives the writer the benefit of the

doubt with decompression And I did it with rocket

too and overall it was a very satisfying experience

But it almost was like oh my god. They're still

on planet Namek. When is this gonna stop? And

no, I mean, it's a fair like I loved Rutgers

run overall to spoil my later thoughts. I love

his work. I loved this run of the Punisher, et

cetera, et cetera. But yeah, even I, you know,

to the people that say like it was too slow,

I don't have an argument for that. You know,

there's no real defense. It was. And I guess

the only defense would be to tell those same

people, you know what, take all your issues you

have of it and read them all at once and then

tell me how it reads. One thing Ryan didn't mention

about the spider island story is the title of

it your friendly neighborhood Punisher in tingling

Yeah, all right, we're gonna take a quick break

we'll come back with final thoughts and ratings

Thanks Punisher, we really appreciate this we're

nothing but white blood cells Hunting the infection

called crime, a sickness that sneaks in through

the cracks. The way that Brussels sprouts sneak

on to a plate of delicious macaroni and cheese.

Sure, the city looks safe. Just push the Brussels

sprouts to one side, right? Raw! No matter where

you put them, their vile vegetable juices corrupt

the whole plate. I'm out here to keep those stinking

sprouts off the mac and cheese. Keep them from

leaving the store in the first place! We are

back here in the pull bag. Alright, Greg Rucka's

The Punisher Volume 1. Ryan, what do you give

it? This is tough for me. I would probably normally

give this a 4 out of 5, but just having an issue

that's almost a throwaway hurts it. Being somebody

that read this in individual issues hurts it

a little too. So in the end I'm just gonna give

it the liked it which is three and a half out

of out of five Which is still a really good rating

obviously, but I don't know I just I Loved Rutgers

run, but this was a little slow What about you

Jake? I You know, I was originally gonna give

it a 4 .5 or four and a half stars. But then,

I don't know, Ryan talking about the throwaway

issue. Oh, great. I've talked everyone into lower

ratings. Well, I'm only going to give it a four.

It's awesome. True Punisher fans are going to

love it. It has a lot going for it. The art is

spectacular. The writing is great. Getting in

the trade makes up a little bit for the pacing.

But the pacing is taking it down half a star

for me. And I think Ryan's right. Having that

last issue in there really does kind of hurt

it. It makes a slow story even slower. So I think

that's going to depenalize it another half a

star. So I want to give it four out of five.

All right. What about you, Dane? Yeah, I feel

like I'm starting to get better at your rating

system the more I'm on this show. So I actually.

thought about this a little bit and i still can't

believe you're one star out of five for born

oh well i know i know it was a lot of people

uh the death threats are still coming in but

i'm thinking about getting a po box so that's

gonna solve itself but anyway i'm gonna give

it four out of five because honestly i felt like

rukka did an incredible job overall in the run

But if I have to make one part lower than the

other, I want to make this a four out of five.

Because the art is wonderful. It truly, it's

fitting and it's unique among the, even among

the various people you'd have under the quote

unquote Marvel house style, if there is such

a thing. And one of our friends, Arch Stanton,

thinks there isn't, but. It's wonderful art.

It has it's building on some great character

relationships and it's already asking some great

questions about Human nature and revenge and

how far would you go now like everyone else?

I do agree that there were some decompression

elements that or just I felt like The pacing

could have been set at a better pace At a better

rate. So yeah four out of five, but my score

will only go up from there I think for me, I'm

also gonna give it a four to five which is really

liked it because man. I had the little one Yeah,

you did The reason why is because now that I

look back on it. Yeah, the kid isn't important,

but the Kid wasn't that important in Iron Man

3 either. So I mean it doesn't really matter

That kid was great All right, so the reason why

for four point or four out of five for me it's

is because They're just some things that just

I don't know The art is great. The story is great

The only reason why it doesn't get a perfect

is because I just felt that it kind of went Like

like Ryan said the story with the kid really

went nowhere however Punisher's recovery quote

-unquote recovery time did feel like It very

much felt like hey, this is the Punisher on his

day off, which is much more interesting than

Hawkeye Okay Fair enough I don't know how to

reply reply to that. I mean, I know what he's

talking about. I enjoy the Hawkeye series Another

episode put to a grinding halt by our host. Shut

the hell up. Alright, so that's going to do it

for us. Join us next week when we continue with

volume 2 from Greg Rucka's Run of the Punisher.

Where more stuff happens. Yes, more stuff happens

and one of my favorite costume changes happens

in that trade. I know. Make your great escape

into comics and we will see you then. Like a

big Cuban cigar after sex. Yeah. Oh my God. That

is awesome. You just heard the latest episode

of the Pole Bag. GCRN's comic book review podcast.

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