From 1994,
Punisher War Zone Annual #2, "Hurt So Good" Written by Chuck Dixon, pencils by Dale Eaglesham, inks by Al Williamson.
I had to look part of this up, since it's been forever since I've read the first few issues of
Punisher War Zone, although you can probably picture that cover there! Mickey Fandozzi and "Johnny Tower" were supposed to "take care of" Carbone family second-in-command Sal, but lost him: Sal tried to escape across a frozen river but fell in, and Mickey and "Johnny" figured he was done for. (Johnny was of course really the Punisher, infiltrating the crime family.) Sal survived but maybe wasn't living his best life: he managed to get out of the ice, but lost his memory from oxygen starvation. He remembered the faces of the guys that brought him to that, but not a ton else. This issue opens with the amnesiac "Thorn" interrupting a gun deal, killing everyone there and helping himself to their stuff and ride, as he makes his way to this place he vaguely recalls, "New York." Which kind of seems like it would be a nightmare to deal with, in his condition? A lot going on and moving fast, while Thorn seemed to move like a zombie with frostbite.
Seemingly by instinct, Thorn drives around the streets that no longer mean anything to him, until he happens to hear Mickey's voice talking to a worker. Before he can circle back to get him, he gets accosted by the gunrunner's crew, and coolly guns them down. The shooting should have given Mickey a head's up, but he's like yeah, I know, tough neighborhood, whatever; until Thorn starts shooting up his place. Mickey barely escapes, but that's all part of Thorn's plan: he could follow him, to the other one, "the one with the face of stone." Sure enough, Mickey runs crying to Frank; and a long shootout ensues: the gunrunners try to take Thorn in the middle of it, and get chewed up by both sides. Frank plays dead at one point, which leaves Thorn wondering, what was left for him? While he's mulling that over, Frank throws his ass off of an overpass, but Thorn lands on the roof of a semi, virtually unscathed; but he sees Frank looking down on him again, like before beneath the ice. Thorn ends up on the streets of Newark, seemingly without much left in the tank.
Also this issue: some two-fisted action in "Second Chance," as Frank faces an old foe, Roc, again. Their fight had been interrupted before, but Frank thinks he can take him hand-to-hand: eventually, sure, but it wasn't a picnic. (Written by Ralph Macchio, pencils by David Ross, inks by Tim Dzon.) Then, in "Domino Theory" a gangster's girl plots to take over, and it goes really well! Right up to the point where Frank shoots her. (Written by Steven Grant, art by Alberto Saichann.)
2 comments:
So there’s no explanation for exactly how Sal survived the fall? I know it’s comics and all, but usually mob guys Frank targets aren’t as incredibly lucky or as hard to kill as this guy apparently was. Is? Is he still alive?
I wanna say I either saw Buster Keaton, or the Clock King, escape like that once...Sal/Thorn falls forward, turns so he can see the Punisher, but lands on the back of a passing semi rather than in front of it or in the road. He's a homeless wreck at the end, because it seemed unlikely he'd get a second chance at Frank, and his brain/nerve damage may have settled in.
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