Deadpool Killustrated 1, Punisher: Nightmare 4

OKAY, so I meant to write these for yesterday and I ended up just ranting about Deadpool and the state of comedy for a while instead. THEN I said I'd write them in a separate post later yesterday and I still didn't. SO HERE WE ARE. I haven't decided yet if I'll write this then throw up my picks for this week after or just do those tomorrow. We'll see, okay?

Deadpool Killustrated 1
Bunn (w) and Lolli (a)

I've said before on here that I tend not to like the "vs. the Marvel Universe" or the "Marvel Zombies" or whatever else fits in that kind of theoretical boat. Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe last summer was certainly in that boat and I found very few redeeming qualities to it. I do believe that Deadpool is a very talented mercenary and he might even be capable of taking out a few big guns in the Universe, but I could never buy that he'd be able to kill everyone. He's not Hulk, he's not a deranged Thor, he's not Sentry, he's not an omega level mutant. There is a limit to his abilities. So on top of the fact that I didn't like seeing all my dead heroes, it took me out a bit to think on the fact that he killed them all because I just couldn't buy it. There was also little by way of enticing story. Deadpool snapped, saw everything as a fiction (expounding a little more darkly on the old idea that Deadpool knows he's in a comic book), and decided to end it. It's okay, but it seemed pretty blatantly just a stepping stone to show Deadpool kill a bunch of people. It was the kind of unbelievable premise that a basic action movie has in order to be an action movie. Fine for what it was but it left too much aside for my elitist need for substance.

This book SEEMS a bit different so far. On top of the fact that I like the idea of him attacking great fictional characters (that I don't love as much as Captain America or Black Panther), it's a more interesting premise to the "how do I end this fiction?" question. For what it's worth, I also like the way the Mad Thinker and the other mad scientists were portrayed in this issue. They're scared of Deadpool and they think he's insane, but they're all driven by their brains and curiosity anyway so they do what he asks, even if they don't believe in it, because they're intrigued by the ideas. Mad Thinker gets more confident while he explains, though you figure he never totally buys Deadpool's theories. He's clearly more inclined to after he's killed so many multiverse characters but it's still outlandish but he's STILL willing to entertain it just to think about it. Anyway, that's a little off-topic. Just a nice touch. As Deadpool enters the fictional universes, the scientists send in some sort of warning mechanism to attract attention and the issue ends with Sherlock Holmes finding one. So there's a plot.

Deadpool kills Don Quixote and makes his way to Moby Dick and the rest of the cast. He ends up with Pinocchio on his sword as well, though he's not sure how that worked. As he looks at the wooden puppet, it briefly transforms into the Vision and back. So there are things happening here that Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe (where this story spawns from, by the way) didn't really delve into. It seems there's going to be more in the way of a plot. I'm also more inclined to believe that Deadpool could kill Don Quixote, Pinocchio, Moby Dick, Ahab, Ishmael, and the rest than I am to believe he could kill all the multiverse's superheroes so I'm willing to suspend disbelief longer. Hopefully this book proves me right and we're in for a fun book.

Punisher: Nightmare 4
Gimple (w) and Texeira (a)

There's a really interesting way to write Punisher, which I'm only just discovering because, as I've said time and time again, I've never really been interested in Punisher. But he's always had an interesting side to him. It's beyond the "I kill bad guys, not just put them in jail" side. It's the side that knows he's doing the alternative. It's the side that knows that the right thing might be to put them in jail but he's never needed to do the right thing. He needs to do the real thing, the permanent thing. It's that question about whether or not Batman should kill Joker. Yes it breaks his principles, yes it makes him an executioner, yes it might send him over the edge he so tenuously holds on to, but it probably saves lives. It almost definitely saves lives. It was an interesting piece of Daredevil's Shadowland story a couple years ago too. Daredevil kills Bullseye, a relentless, psychotic, very talented assassin. Something snaps inside of Daredevil, he lets the ninja group the Hand corrupt him, and he begins to attempt to bring Bullseye back, resurrecting him as the Hand has resurrected killers like Elektra and Mystique to lead them and serve them fully. The superhero community is aghast at what Matt's done and the fact he killed Bullseye. It breaks the code. But when Daredevil begins to try to bring him back, they know they have to stop him because, ultimately, they don't want Bullseye back. They didn't want Matt to kill him, but they sure aren't sad he's dead.

That's kind of Punisher ALL THE TIME, except that he's not possibly turning evil. He is what he is and he does what he does because it's the long-term smartest course of action. No one likes it because no one likes killing and because there are plenty of reformed villains leading great lives in the Marvel Universe. What if Punisher had killed Black Widow, or Hawkeye, or Spider-Woman, or any other villain-turned-hero? It's a scary prospect. Maybe he HAS killed someone like them, someone on the wrong team who was on the path to redemption. So do you frown at what he's done? Yes. Are you at least a little willing to turn a blind eye? Most likely. I think it doesn't hurt Castle that the most unambiguously moral character and leader the Universe has to offer, Captain America, is a soldier first and knows that there are times when killing is necessary. What Punisher: Nightmare has done really well is to illustrate Frank as the guy who does what he does because he's already walked this path. He's going to Hell, if such a place exists. He's the monster that the world needs. In Frank's own eyes, he feels that when he hesitates, "when I stop killing, the wrong people die." Does someone like me approve of that, someone who is anti-killing and would far prefer peace to war? Nope. But does it give me pause to wonder about Punisher? Absolutely. That's what this series has been really good at. It's also worth noting that Scott Gimple, the newly announced show-runner for The Walking Dead has written this series. We're seeing the kind of character pieces that he is interested in. I think that means good things for the show because this book has been pretty solid so far. Conclusion next week, I do believe.