Showing posts with label Tim Bradstreet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tim Bradstreet. Show all posts

Monday, January 11, 2010

who dares punishes

drive-by readings

Punisher Max: Get Castle one shot (Marvel)
"Get Castle!"
Rob Williams
Laurence Campbell
Lee Loughridge
Cory Petit
Tim Bradstreet (cover)
a harrowing tale of betrayal, greed and honor, Get Castle! is loosely patterned after, of course, the classic British gangster film Get Carter starring Michael Caine (not Sylvester Stallone, for those born in the '90s). in the movie, hitman Jack Carter unleashes unholy lead hell on his hometown after he finds out his brother is murdered.

this time around, Frank follows up a lead from his recently-deceased pal Yorkie, a former SAS soldier who suspects an SAS squadron under Major Tommy Bresslaw has gone corrupt and even puts his own son in to pass SAS selection. unfortunately, Yorkie dies before he gets to the end of his investigation, and doubly so, not knowing his son dies at the hands of Bresslaw. enter Frank Castle.

not in his stomping grounds, and not knowing whom to trust, Frank goes right into the heart of the matter and doesn't make it hard for the SAS to find him. on the negative side, Frank has a nagging issue of thinking hard about losing his edge. on the bright side, the SAS keep walking into his traps like amateurs. mirroring its source material, Frank figures out a local dealer's game and uses him to draw attention to Bresslaw's not-so-sterling operation. in the final showdown with Bresslaw in a Chinook, Frank's prep work pays off. and in the final scene, his concerns about his edge are invalidated as he presumably kills the junkie woman who helps him the first time, and set up the whole thing for heroin - with no hesitation.

taking Frank out of his regular concrete jungle habitats make for some interesting stories (teaming with Nick Fury in Russia, going hand to hand with the IRA, that business with Gen. Kriegkopf in the Grand Nixon Island). this one in particular, is quite excellent, even if the material isn't that original.

Friday, September 18, 2009

the dying years

drive-by readings

Punisher: Noir #2 (Marvel)
"Punisher & Son"
Frank Tieri
Paul Azaceta
Nick Filardi
Joe Sabino
Tim Bradstreet (cover)
Dennis Calero (variant cover)
the Noir flavor of Marvel is getting a good push, and its probably a good thing not to overload the market with Noir titles just to capitalize on sales numbers (if ever) - but you never know with these marketing geniuses. Punisher is the perfect candidate for the Noir treatment, and let's hope they keep delivering interesting yarns.

last issue was the setup - Frank Castelione doesn't want to pay protection money so he gets on the bad side of legendary mobster Dutch Schultz. Schultz' men either get killed by the Punisher or get their fingers chopped off by Schultz. hmmmmm, not much choice there. so he calls in the big guys (gleefully, its Barracuda and Jigsaw), and ends up with a dead Frank Castle on the floor. oh, wait, i know what's gonna happen next - he'll be resurrected by angels and appointed a demon killer. no? really??

Frank Tieri packs a lot of stuff in here, although its not wholly original as Detective Soap makes an appearance - a slight changeup with him being able to figure out Castle immediately - and the Russian. the latter is not as funny as Garth Ennis' creation, and i was thinking he'd appear as in Coney Island later down the line. but apparently he's also dead at this point. bummer.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

drive-by readings: Punisher: Noir #1


Punisher: Noir #1 (Marvel)
"Home is Where the War Is"
Frank Tieri
Paul Azaceta
Nick Filardi
Joe Sabino
Tim Bradstreet (cover)
Dennis Calero (variant cover)
the Punisher finally gets the Noir treatment, and it makes a lot more sense because he's not really a superhero being retrofitted to the '20s. this time, he's a WWI veteran/widower who's trying to raise a son and run his grocery in the Bronx (oy, there's a Mr. Bumpo sighting). who else rears its ugly head but the Mafia? Dutch Schultz, come on down! this looks to be the return to the pure version of the Punisher, the concept of what he was, in the proper original context. bring the popcorn.

Monday, December 1, 2008

guilty

do we really need another Punisher movie?



well, let's see:
The Punisher (1989) - Dolph Lundgren? no skull? ehhh. the product was so bad it took 15 years for someone to pick up the pieces.
The Punisher (2004) - i had high hopes for that one, spinning off Garth Ennis' fantastic reboot with the memorable characters (Joan, Spacker Dave, Mr Bumpo). but then again - his family is killed in Puerto Rico? who the hell is Howard Saint? blowing up specific cars in the parking lot so the resulting flaming wreckage would be in the shape of a skull - WTF?

Thomas Jane (who wasn't so bad in that) bailed out on the sequel because they took too long to make it. now its 2008, its not a sequel anymore, Rome's Ray Stevenson dons the skull shirt, and someone is betting the farm it will be a hit.

so maybe we fans didn't (yet) get the Punisher movie we deserve.

cheers: Jigsaw, back to Mafia roots, Detective Soap (Dash Mihok seems to be a casting coup)
jeers: Microchip. unless Frank blows his head off just like in the comics.

by the way, in the interactive site, we see a BradStreet Hotel ...


... which is a nod to long-time Punisher cover artist Tim Bradstreet, whose cool covers are always a treat.


Punisher: War Zone opens this Friday. no, i wasn't paid to write this. a free ticket would be nice.