In one of our longest episodes ever, Kumar discusses at length Garth Ennis’s epic run on The Punisher, the greatest comic book series of the 2000s. Dana listens and nods politely.
How did Ennis define the character like no other writer? Is Punisher crazy? Should comics cover topics like human trafficking? All this and more.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Writer: Steve Gerber, Art: Phil Winslade, Glenn Fabry.
Marvel, 2001.
This six issue miniseries (collected into a single trade in 2002) was one of the first things to be published under the Marvel MAX imprint, which seems tailored both to writers like Steve Gerber and characters like Howard the Duck. The loosened restraints that come with being a MAX book allowed Gerber to expand beyond the already surreal concepts and plots that he developed in his “normal” Marvel work. It also gave him an opportunity to mix a little venom in his social criticism by allowing an embrace of adult themes, mainly nudity and profanity, since we seem to think graphic violence can deserve a pass these days, because we see it as far less dangerous to show an exploding head then a female’s nipple.
But I digress…
The series begins with Howard and Beverly living in a junkyard shack. Beverly lands a job at a marketing firm that is testing boy bands for their “arousal” factor on a group of gay men. It seems that the boy bands are not just being tested, but grown in cloning vats. When the firm is revealed to be run by Dr. Bong, who hired Beverly because he is still carrying a torch for her, conflict ensues and Howard is knocked into a vat of recombinant DNA protein when he comes to save Beverly.
