Punisher and Wolverine meet for the first time. Obviously, Marvel promotes it with a house ad. When the 1990s arrive, one these two characters will appear in at least a dozen issues per month. (And the other issues published in those months will have Spider-Man or Ghost Rider.)
Why is Frank Castle in Africa? It was Microchip’s idea of a vacation.
Yes. Microchip sent Punisher on a snipe hunt. Or more precisely to hunt for a creature spotted in the Congo basin that locals believe is a living dinosaur. Now in the real world, this would be silly. But in the Marvel Universe, there are dinosaurs in the Savage Land, as well as characters like Devil Dinosaur and Fin Fang Foom who show up outside of the Savage Land.
This would have been a really cool way to have a Pun/Ka-Zar or Pun/Black Panther team-up. But instead, it’s Wolverine.
Wolverine is in Africa to stop cheetah poachers. (Why?)
And because Africa is such a small place, they hook up.
First, they fight because Wolverine thinks Punisher is a poacher but really Pun is shooting poachers.
Then they team up, shut down the poaching, and save the dinosaurs.
So, they like dinosaurs.
I do like that ending.
But Punisher still punches an alligator.
If you’re going to have these two bad-asses meet, why would you do it in Africa? This feels ponderous and pointless.
There’s ongoing plot development with the civilians who will ulitmately become the Shadow Masters.