This year I'll be storytiming Punisher comics at least once per week, with a primary focus on pre-Ennis stories, and maybe the occasional Ennis story or even post-Ennis story.
I've been covering the late 80s era so far, and have gotten up to about when the spin-off title War Journal started, but haven't covered any actual issues of that book yet, so this week we're gonna read the first few issues of it.
The writer on this ongoing was originally Carl Potts, who had been the editor on the early Punisher comics, and wrote about half of the Alien Legion series for Marvel's Epic Comics imprint (the rest were written by Chuck Dixon, who would later go on to write the second best Punisher run ever).
But the series is mostly famous for giving Jim Lee his "big break" in comics. And it's not hard to see why: Even if you don't normally like Jim Lee's art, this is almost undoubtedly his best work, due to the fact that he actually only did finishes, which kept his more extreme "XTREME!" qualities in check, with the actual breakdowns and layouts being done by writer/editor Carl Potts himself.
As a series, The Punisher War Journal differentiated itself from The Punisher mostly through a less "grounded" focus. The main book mostly stuck to stories about Frank fighting murderers, thieves, and the mafia, and rarely had crossovers/team-ups with other Marvel characters. By comparison, War Journal had team-ups with other superheroes usually multiple times per year, and consequently the tone of the series arguably felt very slightly less realistic and more over-the-top overall as a result. So expect to see some other superheroes appear in these issues.
IF YOU'RE READING THEN KEEP THE THREAD BUMPED BECAUSE IF I HAVE TO BREAK EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE TO BUMP THE THREAD THEN THIS'LL TAKE FOREVER
Ryder Anderson
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Luis Lopez
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Evan Watson
>this is almost undoubtedly his best work His best work was ASBAR, pleb.
Owen Rodriguez
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Henry Thomas
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Jaxon Wilson
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Henry Ward
This arc was pretty weird for me as someone who backtracked from Ennis. The primary antagonist wasn't a flat out monster, and the storytelling was rather dense in regards to words. I enjoyed it overall, and Daredevil always makes for solid dialogue.
Jaxson Williams
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Nolan Thomas
Carl Potts' run wasn't as awesome as Dixon's, or even Mike Baron's, but it was still pretty entertaining.
Blake Price
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Evan King
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Chase Jenkins
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Noah Rodriguez
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Isaiah Foster
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Connor Nelson
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Nolan Thomas
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Chase Lewis
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Chase Sanchez
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Samuel Kelly
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Isaiah Perry
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Adrian Torres
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Benjamin King
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Gabriel Thompson
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Andrew Nelson
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Thomas Young
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Hudson Price
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Joseph Morgan
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Camden Hill
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Daniel Powell
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Jason Jenkins
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Juan Butler
ISSUE #2
Zachary Anderson
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Asher Myers
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Gabriel Nelson
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Liam Bennett
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Noah Baker
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Julian Parker
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Joshua White
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Easton Davis
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Cameron Wright
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Owen Nelson
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Brayden King
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Dylan Hughes
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Parker Evans
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Jose Taylor
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Leo Murphy
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Tyler Campbell
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Hudson Ward
will do
Jaxon Carter
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Carson Butler
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James Adams
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Caleb Diaz
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Parker Rodriguez
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Parker Cook
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John Ward
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Christian Collins
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Jordan Gonzalez
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Sebastian Evans
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Chase Williams
The very first ever Punisher Armory page, originally called "Punisher War Journal Equipment Page".
