Astrokitty Comics & More

Here's a preview of the unfinished work: http://www.twitpic.com/psuk5

Still, as a fan of the character, particularly how he's been refined and sharpened into this ultimate human weapon...the Batman of the Marvel universe. He's been taken to a new level, in my opinion, almost single-handedly by Garth Ennis who has taken him through the paces, making him a great dark comedic entity on the one hand and then a truly ... See Morecathartic, no-holds-barred, shadowy reflection of all of the ills of society and true nature of obsession, revenge, and being defined by trauma. He became more than he was even during the mid-90s. He's not your Dad's Punisher. When the Marvel Max line was put out there, it elevated the character to the level of the ultimate crime fiction hero. It was a boon that he wasn't interacting with a world filled with superheroes that kept cramping his style. Having him brough back into the fold with Civil War was a risk, but one that seemed to work...even though the Punisher War Journal version was a little less hard-core than the MAX iteration. Sure, I understand that the two Punishers are seperate entities, living in different realities, but the popularity of the MAX version made the War Journal version possible, in a way. So, when Remender took over the new mainstream Punisher title, the follow-up to War Journal, I was kind of excited. I like End League. I dig Fear Agent. It seemed like a good fit. His primary storyline, prior to issue #11, followed Punisher living in a world Norman Osborn built...hunted by the B and C-list supervillains wanting to get revenge on Castle and being engineered by Osborn. It was okay. Not great, but okay. It sure as hell didn't herald the complete and utter bastardization of Frank Castle that FrankenCastle is. After over a decade of Punisher showing his total mastery of all things tactical and proving his superiority time and time again over opponents many and few, average and super...he was killed, cut apart like meat in a cartoon (nice, neat bologna slices) and his remains fell to the sewers. Killed, mind you, not by one of the greatest threats in the Marvel Universe but, instead, a tatooed, mohawk-wearing crap version of Wolverine. Yeah. Daken. So, that was pretty awful. A ridiculous end to an epic character and ended in such a way as to almost ignore every other story wherein Castle got the better of opponents in situations that were way worse than the one in which he died. That sucked, but the abomination that is FrankenCastle is an absolute rape of everything cool about the character in the first place. You've turned him into even more of a poorly-conceived and shallow joke than the "demon-hunter" iteration that Marvel Knights brought us in the late 90s. As amazing as Moore is, his ability to draw monsters is not well-served by Remender here when he's also asked to, presumably straight-faced, draw the Punisher like this: http://www.comicbookresources.com/images/solicits/marvelcomics/201001/76_PUNISHER_13.jpg
And serving the purpose of playing the "Frankenstein's Monster" in the Universal Monsters inspired pantheon that Marvel seems intent on riffing on until the end of time. Speaking of which, the version of Jack Russel and Morbius, not to mention Man-Thing, was so much more interesting and helped evolve the characters in a more nuanced way with Marvel Zombies 3 & 4. How did those badass agents of ARMOR end up being chased by cartoonish, Japanese monster hunters built on a campy stereotype. Blah. But, maybe I take comics too seriously.

It should be noted that when you get down to it... Frankencastle is still just a Zombie... Not the ravenous brain-seeking plauge zombie, but reanimated dead. Territory that has been well tread already. Marvel needs to take a hint. When even Uwe Boll stops making zombie related media, it's time to stop beating the bloody-mass that used to be a horse.

I try not to be that guy. You know, MY-VERSION-IS-BEST-AND-ALL-OTHERS-SUCK guy. Wally is my Flash, but I can deal. But this is not The Punisher. This is... I don't know what. They took everything interesting about the character and stripped it away. I'm honestly flabbergasted this made it to market.

Worth checking out if a fan of the noir/horror genre or if into either of these creators. Get in on the ground floor!

Creator Alan Martin is still onboard and seems to be keeping the crazy, campy, humorous tone going as per previous Tank Girl installments. The coloring is muddy and makes the artwork look like it was printed in Englad circa 1978. Is that intentional? Oh, the parts with Dee Dee Ramone are awesome, too.

That said, Garry Gastony isn't the worst of all Avatar artists. Not even close. He does a serviceable job of bringing to life Ellis' take on a wacky "what if" concept. What if the world's goverments made their own superheroes-cum-gods? Could those creations be controlled? Is this a metaphor for how religion has outstripped its originators or just a backdrop for complete and utter mayhem? Maybe both. Worth checking out, though, as all Ellis' work should be.

Garrie Gastony. Sorry.