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Crossover Celebration Part 3: Archie Meets the Punisher

October 24th, 2012 Posted by Gavok

When I talk to non-comic reading friends about comics, one thing I like to mention to mess with them is that Archie Meets the Punisher is a thing that happened. That always seems to get a little bit of a reaction out of them, but not as much as my claims that it was actually quite good! The usual follow-up to that is, “How could that possibly be good?” and it hits me as a loaded question. There are different reasons why it works so well, but it wasn’t for years until I found out the perfect way to explain it to the uninitiated.

Archie Meets the Punisher came out in 1994, just prior to the explosion of Marvel/DC crossovers that we’d see throughout the era. The Archie and Marvel camps were friendly with each other and there was a joke going back and forth that there should be a crossover where Riverdale becomes a darker and more violent place and Archie becomes a vigilante after his family is killed. Obviously, that didn’t happen, but writer Batton Lash came up with an outline that pleasantly surprised everyone involved and they moved forward with it.

Many crossovers are meant to be a look at the similarities and differences between the two parties involved. This book is less about the former and very much about the latter. On one hand, we have Archie Andrews, the optimistic and corny lead character in a town where the sun is always shining and the biggest tragedy is the decision over which hot girlfriend he’s going to ask out on any given night. Then you have Frank Castle, the dead-inside Vietnam veteran whose family was murdered by the mob, leading him to dedicate his entire being to showing no mercy to the criminal element. Granted, these are still the days when Marvel and DC weren’t overly violent, even in murderer anti-hero comics, and the only blood you’d see was a shadowy spray of black with no shot of the wound, but it’s still entirely messed up to do a story that mixes these two very, very different characters.

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This Week in Panels: Week 158

September 30th, 2012 Posted by Gavok

Hey kids. I’m helped out this week by Jody, Gaijin Dan and Space Jawa. Jawa wanted me to note, what with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles issue having come out this week, that the new cartoon is worth checking out based on the first episode.

I should note in the upcoming images that the gentleman in the Space Punisher panels is none other than Jarvis the Butler. Yes, in this reality where everybody is reimagined as a futuristic dude from space, the biggest badass on the block is none other than Jarvis. It’s rad.

Speaking of rad, the panels between me and Jody perfectly explain why FF was such a great issue this month.

All-Star Western #0
Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Moritat

Aquaman #0
Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis

Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Promise, Part 3
Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru

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This Week in Panels: Week 155

September 9th, 2012 Posted by Gavok

Ahoy! I was going to name this ThWiP #0, but that would involve going into the origin of this nearly 3-year-old weekly segment. Ah, what the hell, here’s the origin:

“Hey, David. I have an idea for a weekly bit every Sunday. I’d call it Panels of the Week and I’d–”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Do whatever. I’m BUSY with writing for Comics Alliance and sleeping with all these models so I don’t care about what you do with your time.”

“Oh. Thanks. …Can I maybe have–”

“No. Get your own.”

“Shucks.”

My helpers are Jody, Gaijin Dan, Was Taters and Space Jawa.

Action Comics #0
Grant Morrison, Ben Oliver, Sholly Fisch and CAFU

Age of Apocalypse #7
David Lapham and Renato Arlem

Animal Man #0
Jeff Lemire and Steve Pugh

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This Week in Panels: Week 153

August 26th, 2012 Posted by Gavok

Heyo. It’s time for that panel thing that I do every Sunday. My contributors are Gaijin Dan, Jody, Space Jawa and Was Taters with the weather.

Jody didn’t send me Amazing Spider-Man this time around, which only goes with what I’ve been hearing that the latest issue was all kinds of terrible. Meanwhile, I, Vampire is great fun this week with an awkward team-up with Stormwatch as they face the unique threat of “zombie vampire vampire-hunters”.

All-Star Western #12
Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, Moritat and Scott Kolins

Barrage #12
Kouhei Horikoshi

Flash #12
Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato

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This Week in Panels: Week 146

July 9th, 2012 Posted by Gavok

So just a little bit late this update, but I’ve had an incredibly busy day and I’m half-dead. I went to NYC to check out a friend’s improv show, went and saw Ted, went home to watch TNA’s Destination X PPV and then watched the last couple hours of the Evo 2012 tournaments. All that plus the Lakers beat the Supersonics. It was a good day.

Ted is very much worth checking out, even if you’re jaded by the last ten years of Family Guy. And if you do see it, chances are very good that you’ll want to watch Flash Gordon ASAP.

But enough about my exploits. I’m joined by Jody, Gaijin Dan, Was Taters, Space Jawa and VersasoVantare.

Action Comics #11
Grant Morrison, Rags Morales, Brad Walker, Sholly Fisch and CAFU

Age of Apocalypse #5
David Lapham and Davide Gianfelice

Amazing Spider-Man #689
Dan Slott and Giuseppe Camuncoli

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This Week in Panels: Week 144

June 24th, 2012 Posted by Gavok

Hey, folks! It’s time for ThWiP, the weekly segment where we take all the new stuff we’ve read in the last week and whittle it down into an essential panel. I got a lot of people helping me out this week, including Was Taters, Jody, Gaijin Dan, Space Jawa, Brobe, luis and VersasoVantare.

Highly recommend this week’s Avengers Academy. Fantastic issue. Wonder Woman is a close second.

Astonishing X-men #51
Marjorie Liu, Mike Perkins

Avengers Academy #32
Christos Gage and Timothy Green II

Avengers vs. X-Men #6
Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman and Olivier Coipel

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The Many Deaths of Frank Castle

February 14th, 2012 Posted by Gavok

Last week, we lost one hell of an ongoing series with Punisher MAX #22 by Jason Aaron and Steve Dillon. A lot of the time, when a series is canceled, the writer will claim that it isn’t true and that they insisted it end at this point. Sometimes it smells like bullshit, but here it’s legit as Aaron takes the MAX incarnation of the character to the logical conclusion. Frank Castle of Earth-200111 (yes, I looked it up), is dead. After taking on MAX incarnations of some of his usual punching bags, Frank’s body has finally given out and he collapses after being the last man standing one last time.

But so what? So he’s dead. Big deal. Frank Castle dies all the time, doesn’t he? Sure. I’ve seen it so many times I decided to take a trip down memory lane. As far as I can tell, here is the master list of all the times Frank has kicked the bucket. Now, of course, I’m not counting any “Earth blows up” scenarios because that goes without saying. I don’t need to mention every single time the Phoenix devours the universe. It has to be specifically about Frank buying the farm. I’ll also pass on the really vague mentions, like how he died somewhere along the line prior to Punisher 2099.

Despite debuting in 1974, it would take 17 years for any version of Frank to die. Not only did he die in 1991, but he died a lot. In the second volume of Marvel’s What If, Frank died three issues in a row! Let’s begin with that.

Comic: What If #24 (What If Wolverine Was Lord of the Vampires?)
Year: 1991
Writer: Roy Thomas and R.J.M. Lofficier
Artist: Tom Morgan
Background: The world of this issue is based on the time the X-Men fought Dracula. Rather than be defeated, Dracula turns the team to his side. Wolverine, being so awesome, has enough willpower to challenge Dracula. He ends up killing the Count and takes over his throne. While these days, a supernatural outbreak needs to take over the entire world to show that shit’s gotten real, Wolverine is happy enough taking over Manhattan and using it as his vampire nest. With no real reason given, some heroes and villains are turned to slaves while others are ordered by Wolverine to be killed completely. I feel the need to mention that artist Tom Morgan decided to include Frog-Man of all people into that latter group. Anyway, the whole city is in chaos and in that chaos is Frank Castle with a headband and a whole lot of silver bullets.

In regular continuity, Dr. Strange would read a spell that would wipe out all vampires. Vampire Wolverine gets wind of this and has Vampire Juggernaut take down Strange. Strange possesses the bitching cape and the Eye of Agamotto, then joins it with the Punisher to make the ultimate vampire-killing machine. Because nobody cared about Blade back then.

Punisher killing superhero vampires is a thing to see. He melts Colossus with holy water and fries Juggernaut with the Eye of Agamotto. That leads him to a one-on-one fight with Wolverine.

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This Week in Panels: Week 125

February 12th, 2012 Posted by Gavok

The This Week in Panels concept is easy. Me and some other comic readers (and this includes you if you’re ever interested) take every new comic we’ve read from the week and cut out 99% of it, leaving only a lone panel. This panel is meant to illustrate what the comic’s all about. Sell what you’re reading without giving too much away. Catch someone’s eye. Explain it with one image.

125 is a nice round number that feels like something important should happen. We have a full crew this week in me, David Brothers, Was Taters, Space Jawa and Jody, so that works out. Taters supplied the Brave and the Bold panel, which is astounding. She’s just sad that this has to be the final issue of the series.

Batman and Robin #6
Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #16
Sholly Fisch, Rick Burchett and Dan Davis

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This Week in Panels: Week 108

October 16th, 2011 Posted by Gavok

It’s Sunday, New York Comic Con is over and I am completely exhausted. Wait, shit. It’s Sunday, which means I have to go home to doing a ThWiP update? Ughhhhhhh… All right, let’s get to it.

I’m joined by David Brothers, Was Taters and brand new contributor Solenna. Space Jawa is currently on location in Turkey, filming the next Agent Cody Banks installment. I wish him well.

American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest #5
Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy

Batman and Robin #2
Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason

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This Year in Panels: Year 2

September 21st, 2011 Posted by Gavok

I can’t believe I’ve been doing this crap for two years. I just did the 100th installment of This Week in Panels a month ago, so this is less of a big deal, but whatever. This Week in Panels has been about me and people who read this for whatever reason picking out panels that best represent the comics we read. What is the comic? Sell it with one panel without the context. Let the readers figure it out.

Going with what I did a year ago, I decided to do a little look back at the past 52 weeks. The challenge is to showcase a panel from each week without double-dipping on the same series. Let’s see what the last year have given us.

Amazing Spider-Man #664
Dan Slott, Christos Gage, Giuseppe Camuncoli and Max Fiumara

Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine #5
Jason Aaron and Adam Kubert

Axe Cop: Bad Guy Earth #2
Malachai Nicolle and Ethan Nicolle

Batman and Robin #15
Grant Morrison and Frazer Irving

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