The Punisher Annual #4 (1991) - Review

The Punisher. While not one of my absolute favorite Marvel characters, I will admit, he's had some good stories here and there, and I did enjoy the Thomas Jane movie.

The Punisher Annual #4...is...not what I'd consider one of his classic tales. It's no Circle of Blood or Welcome Back, Frank.

I will admit, though, I don't think the main story of the Annual is actually that bad, to be honest. It's just...it's part of a multi-annual story. Back in the 1980s, Marvel would use their Annual issues of their comics to tell a big-time story, like Atlantis Attacks, or The Evolutionary War. However, as Marvel transitioned into the 1990s, they started taking a different approach.

They would tell stories using two or three annuals instead of one big story using all the titles' annual issues. Stories such as Lifeform, Kings of Pain, and The System Bytes came from this. This Annual was part of a three-Annual story called The Von Strucker Gambit. It crossed over with the 1991 Captain America and Daredevil annuals. I don't have the Daredevil Annual for that year, but I do have the 1991 Captain America annual, thanks to my owning the Epic Collection Streets of Poison.

Comic book companies don't really do Annual issues much anymore, due to the speculator collapse. They do them on occasion, but hardly yearly.

First, the cover. The cover doesn't tie into any of the stories inside the comic, it just shows Captain America, Daredevil, and Punisher posing. However, there is one thing on the cover I do find a little clever: The captions. The captions do hint at the order of the stories, starting in the Daredevil Annual, continuing in the Punisher Annual, and concluding in the Captain America Annual.

Since this is an Annual, there are multiple stories, but the bulk of this review will concentrate on the main story. I will talk about the other stories, though.

The first story is a retelling of Punisher's origin tale, by Mike Baron and featuring art by Tom Morgan, does its job. It's a simple couple-page retelling of the Punisher's origin, and the art also does its job. Not much else to say about it, really. On to the main story! And please forgive the quality of the scans. I'm using a scanner app on my iPad on a over twenty-year-old comic book.
 
"The Cutting Edge"
Writers: Greg Wright, Dan Chichester
Penciler: John Hebert
Inkers: Jimmy Palmiotti, Don Hudson, Jim Reddington
Letterer: Jade Moede
Colorists: Greg Wright, Ed Lazellari, Sarra Mossoff

This story is...okay. It's not a classic, iconic Punisher story. It's the story of a disgraced Yakuza boss who seeks to take over the entire heroin trade of New York City so he can show his bosses in Tokyo that he is not a failure.

The boss, Nori Okun, has a bit of a secret weapon in taking over the trade: a superpowered enforcer...who is awesome. I love this guy. If I ever get to write a story for Marvel, I will use this guy. He is called...Guillotine.



"Surprise, Mothertruckers!"

He is really cool. I love this guy. He can sprout blades from his body, he looks like an evil Beldar Conehead, and he calls his boss "Mr. O." He is awesome.



"Gonna take the boys out drinking to celebrate, Mr. O!"

Guillotine slaughters the rival gangsters for Okun. Meanwhile, two Hydra assassins known as Takimoto and Dakini are tracking Guillotine, revealing he is an escaped Hydra experiment like two others they were huntering, which led to a previous encounter with Daredevil.



"Are you pondering what I'm pondering, Dakini?" "I think so, Takimoto. But where are we going to find 50 pigs for Von Strucker's birthday celebration to slaughter in the Arctic?"

Takimoto, who looks like he could be the evil relative of the GI Joe Quick-Kick...

...yeah. Anyway, he suggests the two work together to find the other experiments, especially with SHIELD looking for them. Dakini decides to instead track down one on her own, which I think will lead up to the Captain America annual.

Meanwhile, we cut to the Punisher, who is doing what he does best: making criminals' lives miserable and short, while wrecking everything in the process.

"You maniac! You blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell!"

Frank continues to be the Implacable Man, the criminal he's chasing trying to shoot the big skull on his costume. Frank explains the costume's skull is a bit of psychology usage, tricking crooks into shooting that instead of his unprotected head.

Frank's skull symbol really hates him because he makes it take all the bullets for him.

Frank pins the crook to the table with a pair of big knives, and demands to know who is in charge of the heroin coming into the streets. Frank explains that the morgue has been filling up with corpses of the previous distributors, but the hustler is defiant, saying he'll die whether he talks or not.

Frank explains that he's going to burn the place down, and offers to give the crook a mercy bullet. The crook explains the he only knows the next step up, a hotel called the Sloat Plaza. Satisfied with the info he has, Frank reassures the thug that he is a man of his word, and administers his mercy bullet.

Page 14, Panels 4-7

The Punisher makes his way into the hotel, somehow avoiding any security systems this place may have. He decides to burst into a room with his gun a-blazin', because how cool is that entrance? When he discovers his targets are already dead. And their killer is chillin' relaxin' all cool at the table.

"Nyeaaaah, what's up Frank?"

Takimoto killed those men because he wanted to show the Punisher they were on the same side. He explains that all the deaths Frank is investigating are caused by Guillotine. How did he know Frank was looking into those deaths? I guess it could be surmised that Frank had a well-known rep by that point. Other superheroes certainly were aware of him. Anyway, Quick-Kick, I mean, Takimoto explains that he is after Guillotine, too. He offers an alliance, stating that working together, the two men could find Guillotine much faster, and prevent more bloodshed. Frank explains that he's only after justice, not bloodshed for its own sake. But then, Nick Fury shows up. Alongside Alexander Pierce and some other guy.

Fury explains that Takimoto is a HYDRA man, and has managed to somehow kill 1500 SHIELD agents...SHIELD has a lot of people.

"Hey, Frank! What do you think of our new funny-looking guns?"

Meanwhile, back in a warehouse, Okun is berating Guillotine for messing with his heroin business behind his back, and Beldar Conehead, I mean, Guillotine, is telling him he needs to switch to decaf.

"Remember what the doctor said, Mr. O? All that Jolt Cola is going to destroy your heart. Also, I came from France. To KILL YOU."

Not finding Guillotine funny, which shows that Okun has no sense of humor, nor any appreciation for Guillotine's awesomeness, orders his men to kill him. However, in a twist, Okun's men all side with Guillotine! Guillotine slashes off a bunch of his remaining fingers, and his new men all kill him, Guillotine explaining that he offered the men a bigger piece of the pie, as it were.

"Nori Okun, YOUUUUUUUU'RE FIRRRRRED!"

Back with Frank, SHIELD explains they were tracking Takimoto thanks to a bug in his neck, and want to know who is running HYDRA now. Takimoto doesn't answer, and he and Punisher make their escape.

"Aw, crud! I forgot I can't fly!"

Guillotine and his men are loading a chopper, ready to deliver some heroin to a customer, when Punsher's Battle Van drives up, but his men manage to destroy it. However, it's a trick! Frank and Taki used it to distract Guillotine and his men, and they make their ambush!

"WOLVERINES!"

The two split up, Punisher going after Guillotine himself, and Takimoto taking on the other men. Guillotine makes an offer to Frank to join him, but the Punisher can't be bought. Frank tries to blast Guillotine, but further showing how awesome he is, goes Wonder Woman on Frank's bullets, showing how fast he is, and how strong his blades are.

"Why do I hear bongos and trumpets and a choir singing about Wonder Woman?"

Guillotine tries to finish Frank off, after cutting up his guns, and slashing open his chest (His Kevlar saves him, but he is still wounded), Takimoto attacks Guillotine. Taki is DESTROYED by Guillotine, though.

"Slice and dice! Slice and Dice!"

With his dying words, Takimoto explains that he is a man of his word, much like the Punisher himself. He also admits he is a HYDRA agent, and tries to explain that Frank was being tested, but he dies before he can say what the test was for. I want to say it was potential recruitment for HYDRA, but you'd think they'd know that Frank Castle can't be bought at this point.

Frank vows to make Guillotine pay for Takimoto's death. He notices that Guillotine is trying to get away by helicopter, so Frank does a Tarzan homage by swinging onto the helicopter's struts by crane.

"Obligatory Tarzan. Airwolf."

Despite being injured, Frank hangs on to the helicopter, determined to get his hands on Guillotine. The ex-HYDRA agent climbs out (being careful to engage the autopilot), and tells Frank they an make a deal. But Frank doesn't make deals with criminals, and the two have their final battle on the helicopter's landing struts.

Guillotine tries to slash at Frank, but Frank is able to trick him into slicing his own arm off, which makes me wonder. You'd think HYDRA's genetic manipulation of the man would allow him to sprout blades from his body, but also make him be unable to be cut by those same blades. Ah well, comics.

"WHY CAN I BE CUT BY MY OWN BLAAAAAAAADES?!"

Guillotine hits the water hard, and doesn't come back up. Punisher is satisfied, thinking he is dead. Fury tries to find him, but is unaware that HYDRA has rescued Guillotine.

He finds himself in front of Baron Von Strucker himself, who compliments Guillotine on his escape and his taking over a large area of the drug trade in New York, and is confident he can do it again for HYDRA. Guillotine is left to sulk about the whole thing.

"Say Baron, what'll we do tonight? Same thing we do every night, Guillotine. Try to take over the world!"

The big strength of this story? Well, there's Guillotine, and the fact is the Punisher is in his element: dealing with the gangster scum of New York City. Honestly, I love Guillotine. He's someone I want to see brought back. He's got a recognizable look, and his powers are cool. He survived Frank Castle, his blades can do the Wonder Woman deflecting bullets thing, I want to see this guy fight Spider-Man or Daredevil one day. And I want him to get a new bionic arm that can sprout blades and spin around like a drill. That would be so cool. If I ever got to write for Marvel, I will bring this guy back.

The one major weakness for this story is that I feel the Von Strucker storyline kind of feels tacked on to me. Guillotine could've just been an independent guy doing his own thing. On the other hand, the tie-in to a HYDRA storyline does allow it some significance beyond it being just a typical Punisher tale. The art is serviceable and does its job. It's perfectly fine.

There are two other stories in this annual that I may look at in closer detail in the future. One is "Fat Farm", a story focusing on the original Microchip, Linus Lieberman Sr. In an attempt to get his weight under control, Linus goes to a weight loss clinic but stumbles into a drug-smuggling operation. It's a bit of a lighter story by Mike Baron with art by Tom Morgan. It's a neat little story, Morgan's art being slightly cartoonier for the story, which I think fits.

The last story is called "A Public Service Message, written by George Caragonne and drawn by Mike Harris. It's what the title says, a Punisher-style PSA. Basically, Frank Castle illustrates the importance of buckling up...by causing a car accident that makes a criminal fly through the windshield. Nothing worth taking about much, really.

It's not a critical Punisher story, but it's not a really bad story, if you can get past the Hydra parts. If you can find the Annual for cheap, pick it up. I got it for a dollar at an antique fair, so money well spent. Guillotine was a pretty cool supervillain, though. I'd love to see someone like Al Ewing bring him back for a story.