Abandon Strip! Part Seven

The return of The Punisher and someone who resembles a more bad-ass Ellen Page - all in a day's work for Gallows drummer Lee Barratt and his weekly dose of comic book chat.

Posted Wednesday, 29 September 2010 by Lee Barratt in

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Hello again everyone, hope you've been enjoying the column so far. This week I've been getting my fair share of gratuitous violence courtesy of The Punisher. The Marvel MAX imprint really allowed the character of The Punisher to flourish during Garth Ennis' run and two recent one-shots by different writers have taken Frank Castle and given him their own spin.

Firstly, Punisher Max: Happy Ending (Marvel) revolves around Joe Bonner, a deadbeat accountant stuck in a mundane marriage whose trip to a local massage parlour places him in scenarios he would never have dreamed of. Writer Peter Milligan allows the characters of Joe and his "hostess" Gigi to take centre stage while The Punisher only appears on a few panels to do what he does best - take out the trash. If you're expecting to see a lot of The Punisher then you may be slightly disappointed but the action still comes thick and fast as Joseph transforms from number cruncher to action hero. Definitely worth picking up if you enjoy the Punisher or just a good old fashioned "zero to hero" story.

The second one-shot contains far more of Frank Castle and far more brutality, as you would expect! Punisher Max: Hot Rods Of Death by Charlie Huston sees the anti-hero Castle called to a small American town by an old war friend. The town has been overrun by marauders sent there by a crooked energy corporation to kill off citizens and only the Punisher with his trusty hot rod can save the day. Paying homage to a clutch of 70s movies including High Plains Drifter & Deathrace 2000, this is another short, enjoyable Punisher tale interlaced with some inventive, grisly deaths and sharp, black humour. Neither Happy Ending or Hot Rods Of Death will change your life but they're about as entertaining as a Punisher comic can get without being vital reading.

If you're going to pick up one creator-owned comic in the next couple of months then make sure it's Scarlet (Icon). The comics dream team of Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev are together again with Bendis developing what could be a ground breaking tale of American revolution. Our female lead, Scarlet, literally pulls the reader in from the first page as she's seen garroting a policeman and the whole first issue is mainly narrative with Scarlet describing how she come to be where she is today. I'm not going to elaborate too much on the story as if you're a fan of crime comics or Bendis' writing then you should be picking this up asap. Issue Number Two elaborates even more on Scarlet's background as she begins to fight back against everything she sees as corrupt or broken with the world. Although the whole idea behind the concept of Scarlet seems like it's been played out many times before, Bendis' writing and the truly amazing art from Maleev will be enough to keep you hooked. Lots of people have mentioned that this could be Maleev's best art yet and I can't disagree, his colour tone and attention to detail is absolutely incredible. As much as this is written as a comic first with Hollywood only a distant glimmer in Bendis' thoughts, I can honestly see this being turned in to a feature film at some point. Scarlet reminds me of a bad-ass Ellen Page and with the amount of comic book to film adaptations happening at the moment, this really would be a possibility. Scarlet is up there with Mark Millar's Nemesis as some of the best and most gripping comics i've read lately so try and get hold of it any way possible.

Thanks to Forbidden Planet, your one-stop shop for all things comic-related.

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