The second year of Punisher Max began with Garth Ennis revisiting one of the first Marvel characters he’d ever written about: Nick Fury.
Punisher parachutes into Russia to rescue a little girl, held in an old nuke silo, who is the host for the future of germ warfare.
Punisher is always all about the kids, man.
Yeah, it’s a Cold War story. And few people write about the mind and heart of a solder as well as Ennis. Maybe Kubert. Maybe Jason Aaron. Not many others.
This arc is a perfect demonstration of how Ennis paces his Punisher tales. It starts rolling slow and sinister and ends with an explosive finale. It’s perfect: One of my favorite comic book arcs of all time, probably, with realistic, tone-perfect art by Dougie Braithwaite.
Surprisingly, Punisher is out of his element, out of his country, and yet this is one of the greatest Punisher stories ever.
Best lines: “Make sure it’s important next time. The women I like charge by the hour.” –Nick Fury.
“I’m twisting his leg off like a drumstick when I realize I’m frightening the kid.” –Punisher.
I’m aware that this is not canon and therefore the Nick Fury and Frank Castle in this story are not 616, but I’m tagging them anyway because the Earth 616 versions should be as cool as these versions.
One thing I will say is that Punisher Max by Ennis take great lengths to be 616 canon.Like extremely great lengths. It’s a story that starts with a status quo for the punisher and ends with the same status quo for the Punisher. It doesn’t change any of the character that are introduced in prior stories in Punisher. The only characters who are killed are characters who are introduced by Ennis in this continuity, and microchip who was already presumed dead. Microchip in the beginging matches his characterization from Countdown where he was trying to tie the Punisher to a greater purpose. Very few to none prior Punisher stories are retconned out of continuity or contradicted ( For example, Punisher during in the begining doesn’t contradict year one) . It would so easy to tell a bunch of tales of Punisher in the 80’s and 90’s but max doesn’t do that as it treat past punisher stories as soft cannon. It also is street level enough to imagine, such that you can Suspend your disbelief that other heroes aren’t interfering and this all happens before Civil War. Honestly the greatest failure was that Punisher Max wasn’t just made canon adjacent
It was. punisher max is not canon.