The Punisher isn't Safe.

I went on a drive with my mom down to our local waterfront the other day. It was my idea, trying to get out more. We took our dog out for a walk and got coffee; it was a nice more "adult" day.

She's an older woman, in her 60s, Baptist, she likes to do crafts, watch whatever on her phone in the evenings, and spending time with our Toy Poodle, Ozzy.

Cute little guy.

I remember her mentioning that evening she wanted to stay in, take a nap and watch a "safe" movie on Hallmark. Bleh.

A "safe" movie, something that kind of got stuck in my head over the past few days. What exactly is "Safe"? Safety in media? Something easy on the eyes and senses. You don't necessarily have to engage with it as the answers are obvious and easily readable, unlike life where we see many horrors on the day-to-day basis, and how that affects media, the portrayal of such events.

Is it escapism? A kind of longing for that "nostalgia" (I will write a whole essay on this once I feel ready to continue with my own Immortal Hulk retrospective) where things didn't seem to bad because you were younger and didn't know too much. Now because of media it's not hard to see what lies beyond your own societal bounds, information spreads immediately. Someone from China could know near immediately what is happening all the way down in a place like South America.

This leads me to what are the things I engage with. Movies, Shows, Video Games, Comic Books, anything meant to be engaged with. The majority media and art I consume she would consider "unsafe".

Recently I talked about Garth Ennis', "Welcome Back Frank", a story written to be this crude, immature, hyper-violent off the wall story, but still deals with its own humanity very organically. When do the things happening stop being about "revenge", and just become unhealthy obsession?

I've been reading more Punisher if it wasn't obvious and Ennis was given an ongoing with the character after his successful Maxi-series. We go from this cynical, goofy, but heartfelt take on the character in the Maxi to this near self-parody, pure Itchy & Scratchy storyline that deals with Punisher taking on a terrorist organization and re-battling The Russian, now with a new busty female body, something that's very of its time. The tone here feels very Adult Swims "Venture Brothers", self aware, overtly macho, more meant for laughs in the long run of things. A little throwaway line of dialogue by Russian comes back as a plan and motivation to rematch his new arch nemesis. It's taken to an extreme yet natural continuation of what came before. Detective Soap is back on the bottom of things, and things look worse as now his character subplot has been relegated to a joke, getting into an accidental incestuous relationship and much more, in Ennis fashion of course.

It's mean, obviously. It's plain offensive at points especially as the series barrels into 2000, we get other little arcs like "Punisher gets involved with stereotypical Columbian cartel" or "Punisher and Wolverine team up to fight a mob of midgets". For an issue he is strapped to a hotheaded reporter by handcuffs, forced to have this asshole strapped to him during his night out. The book hardly let's up on any of the throttle, (Ennis ends up taking about a 6 issues break off the series but the tone remains consistent while he's gone).

The 2000s, both pre and post 9/11 had a lot of "edge" to it. Director and founder of Troma Entertainment, Lloyd Kaufman's own Toxic Avenger IV: Citizen Toxie released throughout film festivals and events from 2000-2001 and opened up with a mass shooting from the "Diaper Mafia" at a school for the mentally disabled, all played for laughs. TV shows like Family Guy and South Park started to see mainstream popularity. The popular live action show, Jackass, would introduce the mainstream world to the likes of Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, and Bam Margera.

Once 9/11 happened we really saw a rise in this edge. DC's Identity Crisis, Marvel's Civil War and original Ultimate Universe helmed by major up and comer Mark Millar, who would go on to take a lot of this "edge" in other works like Nemesis and Kick-Ass. 9/11 was the catalyst for a lot of what our modern world is today both in our day to day and media as a whole. The works that were created eventually spiraled into even crazier things because the world itself already had. Marvel published "The Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #36, Spider-Mans own experience after the events and it's effects on New York City. Marvel branded their books around this time with a logo of remembrance for those lost, and so too did Ennis' Punisher.

The Punisher's first issue after 9/11 #6 isn't about any of its events nor is it about some insanely stereotypical terrorist group. South Park would release its Season 5 mid-season premiere on November 7th, 2001, its first episode since the attack, "Osama Bin Laden has Farty Pants", a crude, humorous parody of world, specifically US, living at the time which is something I almost would've expected Punisher to do as well. (At the time of writing this I'm 20 issues deep so who knows what the future will bring with Ennis on this book ha-ha)

I don't know if this story was intentionally written as a post 9/11 piece, but Punisher's doesn't fully. It's a one-shot story about Frank hunting down an old Vietnam mate of his who ended up killing his entire family out of hysteria. It's a long monologue while Frank walks, talks about his experience with the man in 'Nam and how he doesn't want the media to get their hands on this story. If they do, his entire life, the things he did during the war, will be put up for media to profit. Book deals, documentaries, new stories, Frank wants none of it. It's a story about how you can be on top and end up at your lowest with no one to catch you. Ennis doesn't shy away on the man's actions. As he loses his grip on reality while on the run, we still see him commit more murderous acts, explaining he doesn't know what's going on, clearly PTSD and trauma taking its toll. By the end of the story, he throws his gun away before causing more harm and Frank puts him out of his misery, catching the man as his body falls with a tragic final panel of a man who is already on the bottom. Ennis writes about the horrors these combat veterans face, both on the battlefield and after. Once the "War on Terror" became a major world focus, Ennis would take a look at the veterans.

In-between the goofier plotlines, Ennis takes time to reflect on things. An entire issue dedicated to his home of Ireland, and the political stranglehold of conservative gangs and those who wish to remain with Britain. We see the return of Joan from the Maxiseries. Her seeing Frank again and her emotional feelings towards him and wanting to finally give him a place of peace, which he turns away from. Around 2004, Ennis would create a new ongoing with a new imprint for Marvel, MAX. Which would be its own standalone, grittier world without all the super heroics and allow him to explore Frank as a character more. I'm still working through Knights, but those ideas are starting to shine through. Ennis started this whole Punisher era as "who cares, let's just have some fun", but the writer in him, I can see wants to do more.

Ennis' run isn't a "safe" read. It's excruciatingly edgy, immature, even downright racist. It's sadly how our real world is and that's something that speaks to me in some way.