Using Mike Sterling’s recent comment as a springboard, blogger Tim O’Neil launches into an interesting examination of “the masterful way in which Marvel torpedoed the Punisher franchise back in the mid-90s”:
You can say what you will about the way the Spider-Man franchise imploded, but the Clone Saga at least began with the best of intentions before going entirely off the rails. It was pretty much the textbook example of a story getting away from every creator involved, as a succession of writers, artists, editors and even editors-in-chief tried and failed to right the damage done by a succession of progressively disastrous calls. Through it all, however, it’s vital to remember that people still wanted to like Spider-Man.
[snip]
Spider-Man eventually recovered. He had enough fans and strong enough support from retailers that it was only a matter of time. The Punisher, on the other hand, was hurt so badly by four or five solid years of horrible stories that the character’s entire fan base was demolished. A character who had no problem sustaining three solo titles and a raft of spin-off projects in the boom years of the 90s was soon reduced to no regular titles. Relaunches were attempted, and failed. The character was positioned as a lynchpin for a new publishing initiative – Marvel “Edge”, courtesy of the editorial reshuffling brought about by corporate downsizing and bankruptcy – the initiative failed. The character was again resurrected in the early days of Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti’s Marvel Knights line – and the relaunch again failed.
There was a “demon bounty hunter” version of The Punisher? Really? I’ve rarely been so glad that I didn’t read comics during most of the ’90s.
Related: Chris Sims looks at The Punisher #60-62 (1992)
July 18th, 2007 at 10:19 am
Yeah, those stories pretty much killed all interest I had in the Punisher. I can’t stand the character anymore.
And they are right about Spider-Man. I was close to dropping the titles, and by all rights should have, but I kept hoping the titles would get better and they eventually did. It took JMS’s Sins Past story to kill my love for the franchise.
July 18th, 2007 at 11:24 am
It’s sad that the good stuff before Suicide Run and its ilk ends up smeared with the same reputation, because the some of the Mike Baron and Chuck Dixon stuff of the time were my favorite comics.
July 18th, 2007 at 11:30 am
MAX’s Punisher restored my faith in the character. It’s the best he’ve ever been.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Ostrander writing a demon bounty hunter Punisher seems like a great idea on paper to me.
Ah well.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
I’m probably one of the only people who kind of liked the Suicide Run and the idea of Lynn Michaels taking up the mantle (I actually thought that was her on the cover of the last ish of the MAX Punisher but ’twas not to be) – but the execution was horrible.
The Punisher Edge crossover was terriblem but the Ostrander/Lyle book that followed had promise.
But Christopher Golden’s zombie/angel Punisher…yeesh.
Thank god for Garth Ennis!
July 18th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
The Demon Bounty Hunter Punisher was in the first wave of Marvel Knights titles overseen by Joey Q before he became EIC. He had this weird symbol on his forehead that glowed.
July 18th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Oh man. You’ve never read Angel Punisher? Oh man.
July 19th, 2007 at 9:32 am
I make a point of picking up Mike Baron’s early Punisher stuff whenever I can. The single-issue stories still managed to fully flesh out the villains as characters with sinister motives worthy of their fate. As much as I enjoy the new War Journal, the current/recent story arc has been moving at a glacial pace.