SPIDER-MAN, PUNISHER, SABRETOOTH: DESIGNER GENES - June 1993

Credits:  Terry Kavanagh (writer), Scott McDaniel (penciler), Keith Williams (inks), Joe Rosen (letters), Tom Smith (colors)

Summary:  Peter Parker discovers that numerous lab animals at ESU have been slaughtered by a mystery creature.  Nearby, the Punisher faces a group of arsonists called the Scorchers.  After the Scorchers are neutralized, a homeless woman shows Punisher the mutilated bodies of several of her friends.  Spider-Man and the Punisher’s investigations lead to an underground lab, where they discover Sabretooth.  They mistake Sabretooth for the killer until he reveals that he’s hunting a former Weapon X scientist named Phil Chambers.  Sabretooth leaves Spider-Man and the Punisher to fight amongst themselves and heads to Roxxon’s headquarters.  Spider-Man and the Punisher eventually follow and meet Roxxon executive Brandon Chambers, who has hired his brother Phil to conduct genetic research.  Phil, from his lab, unleashes his genetically modified creature to kill the heroes.  Brandon is shocked to discover the monster is their brother Mitchell, who Phil was allegedly treating for cancer.  With Brandon’s help, Mitchell is restrained.  Sabretooth kills Phil and escapes.  Later, Brandon tries to make amends by using his brother’s altered DNA to advance cancer research.

Continuity Notes:  Sabretooth remarks that “my claws only kill for money...and revenge.”  At this point, Marvel tends to portray Sabretooth as a mercenary rather than a serial killer.

I Love the ‘90s:  Phil Chambers tries to escape with his floppy disc archive of scientific research.  Also, the very concept of “designer jeans” seems unique to the ‘80s and early ‘90s.

“Huh?” Moment:  The Punisher escapes the Roxxon building when Microchip arrives in a helicopter.  The Punisher has his own helicopter…and chubby computer hacker Microchip knows how to pilot one?

Creative Differences:  An added line of dialogue has Spider-Man confirm that one of Roxxon’s guards is still alive after the Punisher forced another guard to shoot him with a laser rifle.

Production Note:  I hesitate to call this a bookshelf format one-shot, because an argument can be made that it’s a full-fledged graphic novel.  It’s not oversized like Marvel’s earlier graphic novels, but it is sixty-four pages of original material at the whopping price of $8.95.  (And that’s in 1993 dollars!)  The cover also has foil effects and raised lettering.

Review:  Do you think Peter David was kicking himself when Terry Kavanagh got to the pun “Designer Genes” first?  If only Peter David had written this one; the silly title probably would’ve remained, but I’m sure he could’ve done something with a Spider-Man/Punisher/Sabretooth team-up story.  Terry Kavanagh does pretty much what you expect Terry Kavanagh to do, which is fill pages with words but never really say anything.  To be fair, there is an effort to give one of the Chambers brothers a character arc, but at no point does Kavanagh actually make him sympathetic or believable.  Instead, Brandon’s redemption is just tossed in during the final pages to create the impression that this comic has more to it than mindless violence.  The story mainly consists of the three lead characters, most likely chosen for marketing reasons, having brief fight scenes with one another that are interrupted by quickie plot points, which lead to more running and fighting until the sixty-four pages are mercifully over.  While the dialogue isn’t as bad as some of Kavanagh’s later work, there are quite a few groaners in here.  The Punisher specifically is saddled with some hideous one-liners, like “He's a killer who needs being dead” and this egregious one: “Just get me to the hurt on time.”  Get me to the hurt on time.  Yeesh.

The back cover plays up the idea that the one-shot contrasts the idea of the hero, the anti-hero, and the villain, but that’s kind of a joke.  Sabretooth and the Punisher are essentially the same character in this story, with Spider-Man playing the part of the overwhelmed hero who accomplishes nothing by the end of the comic.  I will say that Kavanagh writes Spidey pretty well for most of the story, and I was relieved to see Spider-Man make some effort to apprehend the Punisher.  Stories where Spider-Man just accepts what the Punisher does aren’t true to the character, so I have to give Kavanagh some credit for trying to stay loyal to Spider-Man’s values.  However, not only does Spidey fail to apprehend the Punisher, he fails to do anything in this one-shot.  The Punisher escapes.  Sabretooth escapes and kills the main villain.  And the secondary villain gets a redemption arc that Spider-Man has zero participation in.  It’s almost as if Spider-Man’s only here to sell comics or something…

I’m not sure why someone thought that Scott McDaniel at this stage could handle a nine-dollar prestige format book, but he’s clearly out of his depth here.  While his interpretation of Spider-Man is remarkably consistent (and not a bad variation on Ron Lim’s portrayal at the time in Spider-Man Unlimited), the rest of this art looks like any other subpar Jim Lee impersonation from the era.  I’m assuming this was penciled before McDaniel began experimenting with his style on Daredevil; I wasn’t a huge fan of that run, but there was something stylized and cool about it.  Designer Genes just looks like any random Wildstorm comic from 1993, without the fancy computer colors.  This is pretty bad stuff all around.  In Marvel’s quest to reprint everything, I wonder if this is something they’re just going to overlook.

WOLVERINE AND THE PUNISHER #3 - December 1993

Damaging Evidence - Part Three

Credits: Carl Potts (writer), Gary Erskine (artist), Garrahy/Javins/Matthys (colors), Richard Starkings w/John Gaushell (letters)

Summary: After their fight, the Sniper assumes Damage and Wolverine have killed each other. Soon, Sniper stakes out the funeral of one of the people allegedly murdered by the Punisher, correctly assuming the Punisher will also be there. Sniper picks off several of the mourners before he’s stopped by the Punisher. Following Sniper’s final words, Punisher travels to the chemical plant where Damage fought Wolverine. He helps Wolverine recover and they both promise to help the other if one goes over the edge. Later, Kingpin hires Donald Pierce to rebuild Damage.

Approved By The Comics Code Authority: Wolverine refers to Damage as a “bastard.” And this is before Damage drives a giant blade through his chest. Later, several heads explode during Sniper’s killing spree at the funeral.

Review: So, the Kingpin is taught humility, the Sniper dies (again), Wolverine is rescued, and in a tacked-on monologue on the final page, the Punisher questions if he’s done any good, then reminds himself once again to stop thinking so much. It’s perfectly okay, even if it reads like the standard ending of a Punisher War Journal arc, instead of a story so important it just had to be a miniseries. If this was drawn by one of PWJ’s better artists, I imagine the storyline would’ve had more impact. Instead, Gary Erskine’s awkward poses, ugly faces, and static storytelling drag a lot of the material down. I can’t imagine Jim Lee, or later artists like Ron Wagner, creating such a dull Wolverine vs. Cyborg Punisher fight. Sniper’s murder spree at the funeral is effectively conveyed, though. This scene is absolutely gruesome, reminding me of just how far Potts took the Punisher even back in the Code days. The rest of the comic just reads as an average Punisher story with a gratuitous Wolverine cameo, and the art’s not strong enough to sell the action. If you’re looking for more Carl Potts Punisher stories, it’s worth tracking down, but I imagine most people would be better off with a collection of the Carl Potts/Jim Lee run on Punisher War Journal.

WOLVERINE AND THE PUNISHER #2 - November 1993

Damaging Evidence - Part Two

Credits: Carl Potts (writer), Gary Erskine (artist), Marie Javins (colors), Richard Starkings w/John Gaushell (letters)

Summary: The Punisher investigates the crime scene, unaware Sniper’s spying on him. Later, Sniper learns that Damage has been assigned the Punisher hit, much to his annoyance. Wolverine also investigates the Punisher’s alleged shooting, and is soon tranquilized by Sniper. He awakes in time to track down the Punisher imposter, who is actually Damage. Sniper watches from a distance as Wolverine battles Damage. Meanwhile, the Punisher learns of another shooting he’s been framed for and begins to doubt his sanity.

Review: Ah, this is one of those “Did I really kill that bus full of nuns?” stories. Years later, Jeph Loeb will do virtually the same concept with Wolverine in the Victims miniseries. Wolverine and Punisher are the ideal Marvel heroes to do this story with, since it’s not a stretch to believe they’ll kill someone, the drama is simply who was killed. Potts, oddly, doesn’t play up the mystery, since it’s fairly obvious by the middle of the issue that Damage is actually the one impersonating the Punisher. Presumably, he guessed the readers will know that Punisher isn’t the true killer and instead focused on a different aspect of the story. The focus instead turns to the Punisher’s growing doubts about his mission. Could he have killed an innocent? Are any of his victims redeemable? Do they have families, like the hitman he killed in Mexico? He normally doesn’t allow himself to think about these things. Thinking, he declares, is an obstruction to his mission. Potts’ Punisher War Journal stories were also notable for humanizing Punisher just enough to make him a sympathetic figure, without wimping out on the concept.

And, oh yeah, Wolverine is in the comic, too. And that hair is still marvelous. Wolverine gets to fight the true villain of the miniseries, who’s physically a duplicate for the Punisher now, so I guess that’s one way to get the obligatory hero vs. hero fight out of the way. Potts doesn’t do much with Wolverine directly, but he has clearly put thought into how someone like the Kingpin would deal with a hairy, psychotic mutant. He knows Wolverine is virtually impossible to kill, and he doesn’t want to attract the X-Men’s attention, so Kingpin’s solution is to tranq him. He also doesn’t want Wolverine using his senses to trace his men back to the Kingpin’s organization, so he makes sure Sniper’s van has been disinfected and that the Sniper is wearing plenty of Old Spice to cover his scent (Old Spice because it's so common; Kingpin says half the men in Manhattan are wearing it). Potts’ stories used to be filled with little details like this, and it’s one of the things I miss from this era from Marvel Comics.

WOLVERINE AND THE PUNISHER #1 - October 1993

Damaging Evidence - Part One

Credits: Carl Potts (writer), Gary Erskine (artist), Marie Javins (colors), Richard Starkings w/John Gaushell (letters)

Summary: The Punisher kills one of the Kingpin’s hitmen, and is soon drawn into a larger firefight. During the fight, one of the gunmen is killed in front of his son, and the Punisher is hit by the Sniper. The Kingpin responds to the attack by hiring the Reavers to kill the Punisher. Wolverine overhears the assignment while fighting Reese in Hong Kong and decides to warn the Punisher. Meanwhile, the Kingpin’s cyborg Damage is repaired with technology provided by Donald Pierce. Later, the Punisher is framed for killing bystanders during an attack. He travels to the scene of the crime and discovers a mysterious van.

Continuity Notes: There’s no indication in this issue, but future chapters will note that this story takes place prior to Uncanny X-Men #248-281 (i.e. before the Reavers crucified Wolverine and the X-Men disbanded) and Daredevil #296-300 (i.e. before the fall of the Kingpin). This means the story’s set a good four years before the miniseries was actually published.

Approved By The Comics Code Authority: Numerous “damn”s and “hell”s in this issue, which was extremely rare for a mainstream Marvel comic at the time (although still considered tame enough for Code approval).

Review: This is an odd artifact. A Wolverine/Punisher team-up miniseries should’ve been a huge deal, especially in 1993, but I don’t recall any promotion for this title. In fact, I don’t think I knew it existed until I saw all three issues sealed together in a comic pack at Wal-Mart. And even at the height of my X-completism, I didn’t take the bait. Something about this miniseries just seemed off to me, even though I couldn’t quite pinpoint why. Reading it today for the first time, my suspicions were confirmed. I just don’t believe this went through the normal editorial channels of Marvel of this day. The minor profanity, the lettering, and the art make me wonder if this was initially produced as a Marvel UK book. The presence of Carl Potts, regular writer of Punisher War Journal and one-time Punisher editor, is a hole in that theory, though. My other hypothesis is that this began as a graphic novel, but was cut up into a three-part miniseries after Marvel abandoned the format. The extremely abrupt ending to this issue would seem to indicate this.

I knew none of this at the time, of course. I just knew that this book came out of seeming nowhere, and Wolverine looked utterly bizarre on the covers. Wolverine’s hair might be the lasting legacy of this book. We’ve seen some odd interpretations of Wolverine over the years, but only Gary Erskine seemed to think it was a good idea to portray Wolverine as if he just walked out of José Eber’s salon. “I’m the best there is at what I do…but even I need help in the battle against split ends,” Wolverine read awkwardly off of the cue card, still annoyed at Cher for stepping all over his lines in the first read-through.

Judging the issue on its own merits, it reads as an average Punisher comic from this era. I’ve read much better from Carl Potts, but a mediocre Punisher story from Potts is still pretty entertaining. The pacing of the issue is a little odd, as the subplot about the Punisher being framed for killing civilians comes out of nowhere in the final two pages, but I suspect that’s because the story wasn’t intended to be read in twenty-two page installments. Even though Wolverine has top billing here, it’s not surprising that the story’s biased toward the Punisher’s continuity, given Potts’ history with the character. I do remember the Sniper and Damage from the early issues of Punisher War Journal, but I don’t recall the Sniper working for Kingpin, nor do I remember Damage as a white cyborg (he was a black gang leader in the issues I remember). Using the Reavers as a connection between the two anti-heroes makes sense, given that they were always intended as Wolverine adversaries and ended up as minor members of the Punisher’s rogues gallery in the late ‘80s. Nothing feels forced so far, and aside from some reservations about Erskine’s art, this is at least a competent start for the miniseries.

WOLVERINE/PUNISHER: REVELATION #4 - September 1999

So This is Hell

Credits: Tom Sniegoski & Christopher Golden (writers), Pat Lee (pencils & colors), Alvin Lee (inks), Sigmund Torre (background assist), Angela Tsang (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: The Punisher finds Revelation and protects her from the robots. To stop her from reaching the surface, he reaches into his angelic arsenal and summons a weapon that can’t harm her -- a crystal that holds the essence of her slain parents. The warhead robot appears and, despite the efforts of Wolverine and Punisher, fatally injures Revelation. Punisher places the warhead inside the hole in his chest and absorbs the blast. The Council of Thrones arrives and takes Revelation to Heaven. Healed, the Punisher reflects with Lucy. Meanwhile, Wolverine ponders the afterlife.

Review: The last issue hinted that, perhaps, this mini could redeem itself a bit by giving the Punisher a meaningful moral dilemma -- killing Revelation for what could be his only chance of ever seeing his family again. This issue resolves that ethical quandary by giving the Punisher whatever magic powers he needs for a Get Out of the Plot Free card. Just a few pages after magically pulling out a “weapon” that works like a Hallmark card, he’s also able to fill up the hole in his chest with a bomb blast and walk away none the worse for it. It’s hard to imagine why this status quo didn’t last, isn’t it?

Meanwhile, Wolverine remains incredulous at the idea of an afterlife, even after a lengthy battle with angel-powers Punisher, and witnessing first hand a host of angels taking a young woman to Heaven. Oh, yeah, Wolverine also traveled to HELL with Punisher (and let’s not forget Ghost Rider) in one of the highest-selling prestige format comics of all time. He still can’t wrap his head around this stuff? If the writers wanted to explore Wolverine’s willingness to believe in Hell but his skepticism towards Heaven, that’s an interesting idea that could work as a legitimate character arc, but that’s not what we’re getting. Wolverine’s disbelief doesn’t offer any insights into his character, and none of the events of the story seems to impact him in any way. His skepticism about the afterlife has barely been mentioned in the previous chapters, so pulling it out now as an emotional hook for this issue just seems like an odd choice, anyway. The final page of the comic even has Wolverine wistfully staring at the night sky, fruitlessly looking for answers…probably the most banal conclusion you could execute in any “faith” story. All of the Photoshop tricks in the world can’t cover up writing (and art) this shoddy.

WOLVERINE/PUNISHER: REVELATION #3 - August 1999

One Shot at Heaven

Credits: Tom Sniegoski & Christopher Golden (writers), Pat Lee (pencils), Alvin Lee (inks), Sigmund Torre (background assist), Angelo Tsang (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: The Punisher is injured while fighting the robots, discovering that his angelic powers seem unable to heal the hole in his chest. He carries on with Wolverine, but both fail to apprehend Revelation. After she knocks the heroes down with an energy burst, the Punisher realizes he’s sick. Meanwhile, a failsafe bomb designed by Soteira is triggered. Elsewhere, the Council of Thrones watches the events, fearful that Revelation will reach the surface.

Continuity Notes: A series of narrative captions attempts to explain how exactly Soteira built a sci-fi lab inside the Morlock Tunnels. The explanation is that the Morlocks often stole the material she needed from the surface, and that the failsafe bomb was appropriated from the Dark Beast.

Review: Assuming you’re willing to go along with the angelic Punisher makeover, there are a few decent character moments this issue. The Punisher is close to dying, his redemption mission incomplete, which means he’s damned to Hell and will never see his family again. This is motivation enough for him to kill Revelation, leaving Wolverine (who just lost his girlfriend to Revelation) to be the unlikely advocate for mercy. This is just a brief scene that doesn’t characterize the issue, but it is adequately written and I have to admit that it’s a justifiable use of the characters. Plus, a few narrative captions are thrown in to rationalize the peculiar misuse of the Morlocks in the previous issue, so...they tried, at least. The idea that the Morlocks had a secret futuristic anime lab in one corner of the sewers while their general population lived like paupers (and easy targets for a group of mercenaries) is still too absurd to buy, though, even if you’re bringing in the Dark Beast to help sell the idea. While I’m handing out backhanded praise, I’ll also point out that the art has noticeably improved this issue, even if many of the pages still look wonky.

WOLVERINE/PUNISHER: REVELATION #2 - July 1999

Ascension

Credits: Tom Sniegoski & Christopher Golden (writers), Pat Lee (pencils & colors), Alvin Lee (inker), Angelo Tsang (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: In the sewers, Wolverine discovers a holographic message left by a Morlock scientist named Soteira. She tells the story of a girl named Revelation who emits an uncontrollable death aura. After Revelation’s parents died, Soteira tried to help her control her powers. When Soteira grew too sick, she placed Revelation in a cryogenic freeze and created robotic guards to prevent anyone from disturbing her body. Wolverine tracks down the adult Revelation but is nearly killed by her. Using his powers of psychometry, the Punisher reaches the scene and is attacked by Wolverine as he gains consciousness. The Punisher subdues Wolverine by shooting him in the head. Clear-headed, Wolverine agrees to team with the Punisher, as robotic guards suddenly emerge.

Continuity Notes: I’m sure ninety-eight percent of my readers already know this, but the Morlocks are not a hi-tech race of scientists with access to advanced robotic and cybernetic technology. They live like homeless people.

Review: I think this is obviously Not Very Good, but I’ll try to list the few highlights. The concept that Revelation was raised religious and can’t let go of the guilt she feels for accidentally killing her parents has potential. Sniegoski & Golden get some use out of the idea this issue by revealing that she imagined herself in Hell during her years in the cryogenic freeze, which is causing her to hallucinate Wolverine as a demon and motivate her desire to reach the surface, which she now perceives as Heaven. The idea could also work as a parallel to the Punisher’s new status quo, assuming you think the angelic Punisher deserves any attention in the first place.

But…c’mon. It’s rather obvious that the creators behind this comic don’t know what a Morlock is, yet feel oddly compelled to drag them into the story. This extremely vague knowledge of X-continuity, where writers seem to only be aware of a character’s name and perhaps a one-sentence description, will infiltrate the X-books once the Marvel Knights approach dominates Marvel. (I believe Geoff Johns will go on to write a Morlocks miniseries that places them in Chicago, living in a world where Sentinels openly kill mutants on sight.) In my opinion, it’s one of the main reasons why the X-books have collapsed in popularity since the dawn of the new millennium. That ongoing soap opera that continued to build and build and build on the past was gone, replaced by arbitrary characterizations and relentless shock value that only served to alienate even more fans. I’m not saying that someone writing Fantastic Four or Avengers has to be an expert on X-continuity, but if you want the sales bump that comes with Wolverine as a co-headliner, perhaps you should do ten minutes of research before using these characters so casually? (And, yes, I know the next issue has a throwaway rationalization that brings Dark Beast into the mix, but it's not enough to make the idea work.)

Ignoring the continuity complaints, the book still has problems. Any page that describes the Punisher’s angelic psychometric powers just feels wrong, and the obligatory fight scene between Wolverine and Punisher is a poorly executed waste of time. Pat Lee’s goofy interpretation of these characters also doesn’t suit the story, although I see the colorists have worked overtime to distract from the amateurish art.

WOLVERINE/PUNISHER: REVELATION #1 - June 1999

Ladies in Waiting

Credits: Tom Sniegoski & Christopher Golden (writers), Pat Lee (penciler), Alvin Lee (inker), Angelo Tsang & Pat Lee (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary: Wolverine goes on a date with his new girlfriend Caley Blair, while the Punisher escorts his friend’s sister Lucy home. After stopping a drive-by shooting with his new angelic powers, the Punisher is abruptly kidnapped by the Council of Thrones, a group of angels who demand he use his powers in their service. He refuses and returns home. During Wolverine’s date, Caley is called away on museum business. He follows her to the museum’s dig underneath New York’s subway tunnels. A mysterious force emerges from the tunnels and kills Caley. Simultaneously, a sickness infects the local citizens, including Lucy.

“Huh?” Moment: As he dons his costume on the final page, Wolverine reflects: “It ain’t been long enough since I had occasion to dress like this. It sure ain’t what I wanted. But Caley was somethin’ special.” Is there an implication here that Wolverine doesn’t wear his costume all of the time while fighting evil? In titles such as Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, and Wolverine?

I Love the ‘90s: Caley wears a beeper, and is even paged 9-1-1 when the excavation accident happens.

Review: I haven’t really discussed the Marvel Knights line yet; the line that seemed like such a good idea at the time, and has aged about as well as a Backstreet Boys album. The narrative that certain people like to advance is that Marvel was a creatively bankrupt storing house of old IPs in the late ‘90s, the House of Dull Bland Comics that apparently no one was buying. It took the vision of Joe Quesada (and, oh yeah, Jimmy Palmiotti) to create a line that rose above the banality to produce Smart Daring Comics that could reach a mainstream audience. I will politely call this revisionist history.

Bob Harras had his faults, and favoritism was certainly one of them. It’s obvious that certain creators of dubious talent were allowed to stay way too long on various X-Men and Spider-Man titles. It’s clear that too many X-titles were being published and the overall line was lacking focus, while the Spider-Man books were mired in an embarrassing attempt at forced nostalgia that seemed to be alienating both old and new readers. But the “core” Marvel Universe was doing just fine, and that’s not a minor accomplishment. A portion of the audience had turned on Dan Jurgens and Chris Claremont by this point, but the rest of the line was being written by Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern, and Mark Waid. These guys know superheroes. Young Turks like Joe Kelly, Brian K. Vaughn, Joe Casey, and Joseph Harris were starting to make a name for themselves on other titles. And what about the art? George Perez, John Romita, Jr., Andy Kubert, Ron Garney…nothing to sneeze at. For the first time in years, mainstays like Captain America and Thor were consistently outperforming the average X-spinoff.

So…X-titles in a rut, but still selling (comparatively) well. Spider-Man forced into a relaunch that commercially flames out within a year. Mainstream Marvel titles doing very well. Not a perfect track record, but Marvel is still selling more comics than anyone else, and there are really no problems that couldn’t be fixed with a little planning and a couple of new creative teams. That leaves the “edgier” Marvel books. The ones that once were literally called “Marvel Edge” (I swear.) Well, Marvel had mixed results farming four of its core titles out to Wildstorm and Extreme Studios during Heroes Reborn, but overall those books sold quite well and generated a lot of publicity for characters that had been ignored for years. Why not license a few of the street-level books, along with some of the more obscure titles that ordinarily can’t make it to issue twenty-five, to another studio? Only this time, the books will be firmly set in the Marvel Universe, no continuity is rebooted, and the people responsible for the books physically move into the Marvel offices. It’s almost as if they learned something from Heroes Reborn.

In the fall of 1998, Event Comics founders Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti moved to Marvel to create Marvel Knights. The idea was that only top-tier creators would be assigned these comics, and the art and production values would be impeccable. The first book announced was Daredevil by Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada. At the time, Joe Quesada wasn’t known as an artist with a penchant for chubby heroes with dopey faces, and Kevin Smith was viewed as a promising young screenwriter who happened to like comics. Really, someone from movies writing a comic? That’s crazy. Plus, everyone likes Daredevil, even if his book is rarely in the Top Ten. This was going to be a hit.

The other Marvel Knights titles included an Inhumans miniseries by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee (an unusual pairing that actually worked out, even if some people complained that the series was too slow), an ongoing Black Panther series by cult-favorite writer Christopher Priest and former Wolverine artist Mark Texeira (which debuts strong and receives great reviews), and a supernatural-themed Punisher miniseries by Tom Sniegoski & Christopher Golden and legendary horror artist Bernie Wrightson (umm…).

Marvel Knights was a massive hit, commercially and critically. These were intelligent, stylish superhero comics with production values that were previously reserved for overpriced prestige-format titles (slick paper was still something of a rarity on standard-line Marvel and DC comics of the era). I’m not sure if any of those books have aged well, with the exception of Black Panther, perhaps because it didn’t try to be so SERIOUS, but at the time, the consensus seemed to be that the Marvel Knights titles were the best mainstream superhero comics in years. Some fans began to demand a Marvel Knights takeover of the entire line. And yet, whenever the brilliance of Marvel Knights was discussed, everyone seemed to forget about that Punisher limited series…

The initial Punisher miniseries received scathing reviews; forget the Bernie Wrightson art…this thing was dumb. The Punisher should not be hanging out with angels. He should not be facing supernatural villains. His guns shouldn’t be glowing, and they should actually look like guns. Who the heck were the guys writing this thing, anyway? Because people liked the other MK titles so much, they were willing to dismiss this as a fluke. Surely if Joe Quesada (the more vocal of the duo, and clearly the one with the highest profile) was to take over Marvel, you wouldn’t have a series of no-name writers making arbitrary and shockingly misguided changes to established Marvel characters…right?

This leads us to 1999’s second wave of Marvel Knights titles. Wolverine/Punisher: Revelation is a follow-up to the previous year’s Punisher series, and it’s a sign that maybe someone at Marvel Knights can be slow to admit to a mistake. Perhaps it’s the same person who thinks adding Wolverine to everything makes it better. Aside from the addition of Wolverine, the commercial hook of the mini is allegedly Pat Lee’s colors and art. Pat Lee was already pretty unpopular with the hardcore internet comics fandom of the time, but Wizard magazine loved him. His status as a “hot” artist seemed to be based on his ability to mimic not just manga but more specifically anime. His pages looked like something out of Ghost in the Shell…until you actually looked at his art and realized that he can’t draw faces or anatomy or tell a coherent story to save his life. Credit to Lee for using technology to develop a new coloring style for comics, but everything Udon Studios publishes today puts this work to shame.

The story opens with Wolverine going on a date with a previously unknown girlfriend named Caley. It’s kind of a presumptuous idea for people who aren’t in charge of the character to be throwing into a miniseries, but in fairness, Wolverine’s love life has been virtually non-existent for around ten years at this point. I mean, he’s married to Viper, but everyone tried to forget that. I don’t necessarily mind the debut of a new girlfriend, and Sniegoski & Golden do have the decency to do a believable flashback that establishes how they met. My first thought upon seeing Caley was that she was going to be killed off in the final issue. She doesn’t even make it to the final page of the first issue. So much for being daring and unpredictable, Marvel Knights. Having Wolverine do a mental rundown of all of his other dead girlfriends just a few pages into the story doesn’t exactly make Caley’s ultimate fate too hard to figure out, either.

Wolverine’s story is intercut with scenes of the Punisher starting a new domestic life with his friend’s sister (I initially assumed this was his friend's daughter, since Punisher served with this guy in Vietnam and Lucy looks around twenty), using glowing supernatural cannons to non-lethally stop criminals, and later talking to angels. All things the Punisher should not be doing. His path begins to cross with Wolverine’s when the generic mystical plot device underneath New York is accidentally unleashed. Not that they actually meet in this issue, of course. “Sophisticated” comics take time. Doesn’t this sound exciting? Quesada and Palmiotti have been given creative freedom, huge budgets, high production values, and this is what they produce? If this is the Marvel Knights’ idea of “quality control,” it’s a bad omen for Marvel’s future.

GHOST RIDER, WOLVERINE, PUNISHER: HEARTS OF DARKNESS - December 1991

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), John Romita, Jr. (penciler), Klaus Janson (inker), John Wellington (colors), Joe Rosen (letters)

Summary: Blackheart manipulates Ghost Rider, Wolverine, and Punisher into traveling to the small town of Christ’s Crown in their civilian identities. They stay at Flo’s Boarding House and grow attached to Flo’s daughter Lucy. Blackheart appears to them in the night and makes his offer -- their greatest desires if they join him in assassinating his father, Mephisto. When they refuse, Blackheart steals Ghost Rider’s motorcycle and kidnaps Lucy. Ghost Rider finds another motorcycle and follows Wolverine and Punisher into Hell. They eviscerate Blackheart and take Lucy back home. Before Ghost Rider leaves, Mephisto hints that his origin will soon be revealed.

Continuity Notes: Ghost Rider’s ability to power up with a different motorcycle (one he steals from a local bike shop) is treated as a major revelation. Mephisto’s hints of more revelations apparently didn’t pan out since Howard Mackie left the Ghost Rider series before giving the Daniel Ketch version of the character a definitive origin.

Production Notes: This is a forty-eight page bookshelf format one-shot, retailing for $4.95. The front and back covers fold out to reveal a larger image.

Review: Hearts of Darkness was pretty much a license to print money in the early ‘90s. There are so many copies floating around now, it’s hard not to find one for less than a dollar. While this is shamelessly commercial, there is something to be said for a one-shot that pairs the hottest, grittiest stars of the day in one story and lets John Romita, Jr. go crazy with giant demonic images and manly action. But the story…well, is anyone shocked that the writing isn’t the selling point on this one?

The premise attempts to expand upon a storyline set up for Blackheart in Ann Nocenti’s Daredevil run; Blackheart admires man’s freewill above all else, but has none of his own so long as his father allows him to be worshiped as a demonic idol on earth. If you think that doesn’t make total sense, I agree. I don’t recall the concept working too well in Blackheart’s original appearances, even though Nocenti/Romita still used the character rather effectively. Mackie picks up the idea and creates a new scheme for Blackheart -- he’ll assemble three representatives of the new breed of hero, heroes “on the edge,” and mold them into his father’s assassins. There is some logic behind this, as it’s hard to imagine old Marvel stalwarts like Thor or Silver Surfer accepting a hit job on anyone, even Mephisto. And yet, if he’s looking for hired killers, why not hire villains? And why are two of the three heroes he’s assembled characters with no supernatural powers? And is the Ghost Rider of this era even supposed to be a killer? I thought he had a moral code against killing.

Assuming that you buy the premise that Blackheart’s plot needs heroes willing to live in “the gray area,” the execution still has problems. The little girl Lucy is clearly here as a cipher to be rescued; absolutely no effort is put into giving her or her mother any personality. We’re also never shown why any of the heroes have formed such a bond with the girl. It’s not hard to infer why each one would grow close to Lucy (Punisher lost a daughter near her age, Wolverine tends to form bonds with young girls, and I believe Ghost Rider lost his sister in his origin story), but the story keeps their relationship extremely superficial. There’s also a fundamental moral question relating to the basic plot that isn’t addressed. Why wouldn’t any of these heroes be even slightly tempted to kill Mephisto? He’s the Satan of the Marvel Universe, the cause of all evil and suffering. I get that they’re supposed to be heroic enough to reject a personal reward for killing, but aren’t they willing to consider the offer solely on a humanitarian level? I’m not saying Mackie should’ve had any of the heroes buy into the plot, but there is an opportunity to present the characters with a worthy moral conundrum. Just as John Byrne once justified Galactus’ existence in Fantastic Four, perhaps we could’ve even learned why exactly the Marvel Universe needs an entity like Mephisto.

Despite my gripes, I have to give Mackie his due for one scene. Mephisto has lured the heroes to Christ’s Crown with letters promising information on their pasts. Ghost Rider’s offers information on the mysterious “Soul Crystal,” the Punisher is promised the location of one of his family’s killers (which he knows is a lie, since he’s already killed them), and Wolverine is offered information about his adamantium skeleton. Wolverine’s casual dismissal, “As though I care.” sums his character up beautifully. Before Wolverine got dragged into story after story relating to his past, this was the extent of his concern. Wolverine didn’t allow his past to define him; he’d found redemption with the X-Men and that was the end of it. That’s the attitude that suits the character, and I can’t think of anything that’s been tacked on during the past ten or fifteen years of “revelations” that’s added anything of true value.

Anyway, the story’s an excuse for the three toughest vigilantes of the day to slash up demons together. It accomplishes that much. John Romita, Jr. and Klaus Janson are perfect for the material, the production values still hold up to this day, and it’s possible to follow the story without actually reading any of the words. The core audience got exactly what they wanted, assuming they didn’t try to recoup their five dollar investment.

ONSLAUGHT Crossovers Part Five – September 1996

Punisher #11 (Ostrander/Lyle/Jones/Starkings/Comicraft/Kalisz/American Color) – Another tie-in that has nothing to do with Onslaught. SHIELD investigates the arrival of Sentinels in Manhattan, which leads to their helicarrier getting shot out of the sky. The Punisher witnesses the event and reluctantly dives into the river to rescue the survivors. He aids G. W. Bridge against a street gang that’s jumped on board to loot the helicarrier, and then agrees to take down a mutant terrorist group while SHIELD deals with the situation in Manhattan. This is a straightforward action story, and it’s executed rather well. The actual effect of Onslaught’s electromagnetic pulse attack hasn’t been portrayed very consistently throughout the tie-ins, or internally within this issue (SHIELD agents are forced to use hang gliders, yet the helicarrier can remain in the air, and the gangleader’s jetski still works), but that’s a relatively minor nitpick. I’m not sure what exactly Marvel was doing with the Punisher during this period, but I seem to recall this series opened with him working (presumably undercover) as a mob boss. With a ponytail. It never seemed that promising to me, but Ostrander does show a strong handle on the character with this issue (and his hair is back to normal). The Punisher’s narration is often humorous and the action moves at a steady pace. I wasn’t expecting much, but it’s an inoffensive action story.

Spider-Man #72 (Mackie/Romita, Jr./Williamson/Starkings/Comicraft/Tinsley/Malibu) – Well, it’s an entire issue of Romita, Jr. drawing Spider-Man fighting Sentinels, so it can’t be all bad. At this point in Spider-Man’s continuity, Peter Parker believed that he was a clone and that Ben Reilly was the true Spider-Man. Peter scientifically removed his spider-powers, in the hopes that he could retire and have a normal life with his pregnant wife. Behind the scenes, Marvel decided that the story had gone too far and that Ben Reilly couldn’t remain as Spider-Man. So, shortly after Peter’s powers were gone, they began to sporadically reappear (I’m basing this on my memories of the Life of Reilly serial). Now that his powers are gradually coming back, Peter's a target for the Sentinels, while Ben Reilly tries to protect his cloned “brother”. The two spend the entire issue fighting Sentinels with each other, contributing essentially nothing to the Onslaught story, or any of the storylines in the Spider-titles. Mackie’s script has its share of clunky dialogue and corny jokes, but the story manages to keep moving and rarely feels repetitive, even though the plot’s razor-thin.