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Title: "The Punisher Vs. the Thunderbolts", Part 3
Writers: Ben Acker & Ben Blacker
Artist: Kim Jacinto
Letterer: VC's Joe Sabino
Colorist: Isreal Silva
Editor: Jordan D. White
Editor-In-Chief: Axel Alonso
SYNOPSIS
Artist: Kim Jacinto
Letterer: VC's Joe Sabino
Colorist: Isreal Silva
Editor: Jordan D. White
Editor-In-Chief: Axel Alonso
SYNOPSIS
After surviving the bomb placed inside his safe house, the Punisher begins his war on the Thunderbolts. He starts with Deadpool, who he cuts into several pieces and seals inside vibranium canisters to keep him from regenerating. At Thunderbolts headquarters, Elektra argues with Ross and Johnny Blaze about the attempted murder of the Punisher, which Ross neither admits or denies culpability. Elektra disappears, quitting the team, and Ross orders the Ghost Rider to go get the Punisher. Unbeknownst to her, however, Hawkeye has placed a tracking device on Elektra, and he has used SHIELD resources to determine that the Red Hulk has been with her.
Ghost Rider's search for the Punisher does not take long, as he finds Castle waiting for him in the middle of the street. Months ago, when Blaze joined the team, the Punisher went to great lengths to work up a contingency plan to kill the Ghost Rider. Visits to Dr. Strange and Elsa Bloodstone led Castle to a satanic church, where he met the fallen angel Zadkiel, who Blaze had sent to Hell. Due to Blaze angering Mephisto, Zadkiel was sent back to Earth to kill the Ghost Rider with Mephisto's mystical sword, stating that only a weapon "forged in the beyond" can remove the Spirit of Vengeance from its host. Castle grabbed the sword and killed Zadkiel, and now has the weapon for his face-off with Ghost Rider.
The battle between the two vigilantes does not go well for the Punisher, who uses "uru shivs" provided by Elsa Bloodstone and Carter Slade's "spirit guns", neither of which have any effect on Ghost Rider. While the Rider whips him through the air with his chains, Castle throws Mephisto's sword at him, but Ghost Rider catches it and pulls Castle in to hit him with the Penance Stare. To Ghost Rider's surprise, the Penance Stare has no effect on the Punisher, who feels no regret for anything he's done. Castle attempts to use the sword again, but Ghost Rider shatters it and wrestles Punisher to the ground. Realizing that the Spirit of Vengeance can "only be felled by weapons forged in the beyond", Castle chokes the Rider with his own chains, which somehow removes the demon from Blaze's body. Blaze is overjoyed that he is freed from being the Rider's host, prompting him to thank Castle and wander away to live his life. Frank is then approached by Elektra, who attempts to make peace, but Castle merely smiles and tells her that she too is on his list.
Ghost Rider's search for the Punisher does not take long, as he finds Castle waiting for him in the middle of the street. Months ago, when Blaze joined the team, the Punisher went to great lengths to work up a contingency plan to kill the Ghost Rider. Visits to Dr. Strange and Elsa Bloodstone led Castle to a satanic church, where he met the fallen angel Zadkiel, who Blaze had sent to Hell. Due to Blaze angering Mephisto, Zadkiel was sent back to Earth to kill the Ghost Rider with Mephisto's mystical sword, stating that only a weapon "forged in the beyond" can remove the Spirit of Vengeance from its host. Castle grabbed the sword and killed Zadkiel, and now has the weapon for his face-off with Ghost Rider.
The battle between the two vigilantes does not go well for the Punisher, who uses "uru shivs" provided by Elsa Bloodstone and Carter Slade's "spirit guns", neither of which have any effect on Ghost Rider. While the Rider whips him through the air with his chains, Castle throws Mephisto's sword at him, but Ghost Rider catches it and pulls Castle in to hit him with the Penance Stare. To Ghost Rider's surprise, the Penance Stare has no effect on the Punisher, who feels no regret for anything he's done. Castle attempts to use the sword again, but Ghost Rider shatters it and wrestles Punisher to the ground. Realizing that the Spirit of Vengeance can "only be felled by weapons forged in the beyond", Castle chokes the Rider with his own chains, which somehow removes the demon from Blaze's body. Blaze is overjoyed that he is freed from being the Rider's host, prompting him to thank Castle and wander away to live his life. Frank is then approached by Elektra, who attempts to make peace, but Castle merely smiles and tells her that she too is on his list.
ANNOTATIONS
Zadkiel was defeated and sent to hell by Johnny Blaze (and a whole bunch of other former Ghost Riders) in Ghost Riders: Heaven's On Fire # 6.
Blaze angered Mephisto in Thunderbolts (2013) # 22, when he helped the Thunderbolts journey to Hell to imprison their former teammate Mercy.
Carter Slade's "spirit guns", which the Punisher states he "bought off eBay", were last seen in the possession of Jamie Slade, the latest Phantom Rider, in Hawkeye and Mockingbird (2010) # 5.
REVIEW
"Punisher versus the Thunderbolts" continues with an issue-long throw-down between Frank Castle and Johnny Blaze, a fight so uneven that the writers have to do some serious plot gymnastics to make it work (and no, they're still not successful).
I am a huge fan of the Punisher, he ranks just below Ghost Rider and John Constantine in my list of favorite characters. Like Batman, the Punisher is a character that has long been shown as capable of taking out just about any opponent, provided he has time to plan and set up traps ahead of time. I'm not one of those fans who thinks that they're favorite character is unbeatable, it's potentially possible for the Punisher to actually take out Ghost Rider if there's an inventive creator handling the fight. Acker and Blacker, I'm sorry to say, are not creators of that caliber, and they're solution for having the Punisher win is ludicrous in the extreme. This goes back to the inherent problem of having Ghost Rider on a team at all, because he's so much more powerful than the other members he makes them superfluous. Placing him up against the Punisher means that Castle had to go to ridiculous means to reach that power-set, and while again it can be done, the way Acker and Blacker set it up in this issue requires way too much hand-waving.
I did appreciate the return of Zadkiel, who has been loosed on Earth by Mephisto to return Ghost Rider to Hell. It's a good use of past continuity, though again, having the Punisher kill a fallen archangel with a "plot sword" goes into some shifty territory. I love the Punisher, but this arc is making him unstoppable to the point of overkill. Let's look at the fight itself, which is the real meat of this issue, and I do think Acker and Blacker approach it in the right way. Castle has all of these contingency weapons, and all of them fail to the point where he's just getting whipped through the air by Ghost Rider's chains. Then it all falls apart with the now-clichéd failure of the Penance Stare (second time this has happened since Ghost Rider joined the team, the first time against Venom), though with the Punisher I can almost buy it. The "plot sword" gets destroyed, which was a nice swerve that went against expectations, but then we get hit with THAT SCENE. Punisher chokes Ghost Rider with his chains, which somehow exorcises the demon from Johnny Blaze? It's unclear how it works, because the art certainly doesn't convey anything other than Ghost Rider falling down and Johnny Blaze being human on the next page. Not only does it make not a lick of sense, even given the "weapon from beyond" gibberish stated earlier in the issue, but it chumps out Ghost Rider in favor of making the Punisher look unstoppable.
I mentioned the artwork, which for this issue was by Kim Jacinto, who had filled-in previously back during Charles Soule run on the book. It's troublesome, I think, that we're now three issues into a six-issue arc, and each issue has been drawn by a different person. The visual consistency is at least maintained, because Jacinto is another in the line of cartoonishly-inclined artists that included Carlo Barberi and Gerardo Sandoval. I still don't understand why a book with as dark a premise as Thunderbolts keeps getting not only this style of artist, but why it has such a bright color palate. Everything about the artwork in this series screams "generic superhero comic", when a darker tone would benefit it much more appropriately. Jacinto does, at least, draw an interesting interpretation of Ghost Rider, with flames billowing out almost uncontrollably.
This is an arc that is trying desperately to justify its premise and is failing at every attempt. The imminent cancelation of this series is going to be a mercy killing at this point, and at least Ghost Rider's absence means I won't have to review the next two issues. Only one issue left, then!
Grade: C-
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