Friday, March 15, 2024

It doesn't seem sporting to put "End of the Line" on part 2 of 3.

From 1993, Punisher War Zone #18, "The Jericho Syndrome, part 2 of 3" Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, pencils by Hugh Haynes, inks by Rodney Ramos.
Frank, Microchip, and Inuit corporate troubleshooter Jack Oonuk are trying to stop blackmailer and saboteur "the Architect," who targets dams and bridges with engineering know-how. He had been targeting the "Pan Allied" corporation, which was caving and going to pay a four billion dollar ransom, to keep him from destroying a suspension bridge: Frank knows they think that will get him out of their hair, but it would only encourage more extortion. While Frank had intended to just plant a tracer and follow the Architect, he's spotted, and the whole thing goes south: Jack gets shot a couple times, albeit saved by Kevlar. The thugs get away with the bearer bonds, while Frank, Micro, and Jack have to stop "vibrational units" from shaking the bridge apart, which is a bit sci-fi for the title but probably the only way to do that thing without a lot of explosives.
While his crew is pleased with their haul, the Architect doesn't give a crap: he really, really wanted to blow that bridge; and takes out his frustration by stabbing one of his own guys with...I thought it was a compass, but it appeared to be pointy on both ends? An architect tool I don't recognize. He quickly finds a new target, that would get back at both Pan Allied and Jack: an oil rig, in the Northwestern Territories. 

I had to go back and look over War Zone covers, since while this was perfectly cromulent Punisher stuff, I would've fallen off the book just a couple months prior; with the conclusion of the "Psychoville" brainwashing storyline in #16. Even with Mike McKone art, that was five issues and a bit long; but I absolutely loved the Rosalie Carbone/seven hitmen in #7-11, which was mostly Chuck Dixon/John Romita Jr, and I wanna say came out on a six-week schedule? Every time we got a new issue, some friends and I would read it, but had to say "Previously, on Punisher War Zone..." before we started reading. It was fun at the time!

2 comments:

  1. Mr. Morbid5:06 PM

    He killed that guy with a protractor Goo & now I’m suddenly wondering why that isn’t a more common & cheap way of killing someone.

    Also I think you & your friends almost discovered/created a drinking game by saying “Previously on Punisher: War Journal” out loud before reading an entire issue.


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  2. Part of it is, I swear there's an old episode of X-Men that opens with "Previously, on X-Men..." and then 30 seconds of explosions before the theme music.

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