The Punisher Armory; volume 2 is the weirdest fucking comic book.
I know what I’m talking about here. I’m an expert, and I’m telling you, this single issue is the weirdest fucking comic book. I’m sure there are other books out there that have tried to be bizarre, but that effort alone takes them down a notch. The Punisher Armory; volume 2 is trying to be good, shoots a few wisecracks fails, gets turned around, and ends with such a morbid gut punch that it no longer makes any sense at all.
The year is 1991. The Punisher is still a hot book, but this year also has Jim Lee on X-Men, Rob Liefeld on New Mutants and Todd McFarlane on Spider-Man. They are selling actual millions of books. The cover price for the average Marvel issue is 1$, US funds. The Punisher Armory; volume 2 is priced at 1,75$ and features no ads, publishers notes or letters pages, it’s just 32 pages of pictures of guns and Frank Castle’s musings.
Frank really tries to ham it up in his notes. He’s cracking jokes left and right.
Oh Punisher, you so funny.
And so it goes for 31 pages. A picture of a gun with some technical musings and a joke from the murder-man. Sometimes the guns are shown with breakfast, because The Punisher is always ready to kill someone, even if it’s before he’s had his coffee.
And then, page 32.
The darkest, most morose, bleakest page of a comic I’ve ever read. One without warning or resolution. The purest “what the actual fuck?” I’ve ever exclaimed, especially for a 1991 Marvel book.
That’s how the issue ends. Why? It’s such a downer, and the last line has me utterly confused.
What does that mean? Has he used his son’s toy to kill someone? It’s just a plastic cap gun.
That’s it, the issue is over, and for some reason, Marvel made 8 more issues of this title. This wasn’t even the big finish. It was just a horrible cliffhanger. Because this issue is the weirdest fucking book.
–Scott is a writer and founder at 9to5. He’s a host on The 9to5 Entertainment System and does a lot of the graphic design around these parts.
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