We can all argue about whether Garth Ennis’ Punisher MAX was canon, and those questions continue here. I’m covering it nevertheless, despite this being an Earth-616 Universe blog.
This is a fairly straightforward attempt to tell a Garth Ennis story. Punisher goes to Mexico to hunt down a gang who kidnaps women, rents them out to be violently raped and abused, and then drops them back in the towns from where they were taken.
Enter Punisher who engages in all kinds of fun torture.
But it’s okay because it’s all in the name of justice.
Yeah, it’s hardcore evil sh!t. Punisher takes care of it. But it turns out to be a trap set by Jigsaw.
Punisher kills him. So, yeah, this is NOT canon. It’s also not that interesting and not that good. But not terrible, either. Garth Ennis has moved on. If you were completely addicted to his take on Punisher, like me, this story might be enough to help you withdraw safely.
I think my agrument is that Ennis’s run tries its darnest to try to not disrespect the past punisher writers while doing his own thing, and trying to make sure you can take the stakes of the universe seriously. There is a reason why he doesn’t use Jigsaw, because he wants you to take the stakes of the story seriously and not treat it as an alternative universe. The use of Jigsaw is just a gimmick ( also jigsaw sucks)
Totally agree!