The Four Color Media Monitor

And wouldn't you know it, they're all very recent items, written mainly by far leftists, with little or no mention of the conservative-leaning contributors. First comes this line about his creator:

Originally appearing in The Amazing Spider-Man in 1974, the Punisher is the brainchild of Gerry Conway, who didn’t think much of his character until fans embraced him with wide-open arms. [...]

And he still doesn't think much of his creation, if his conduct of recent is any suggestion. In fact, it's not impossible there's leftist "fans" out there who don't think much of Frank Castle either, because of the perceived "right-wing" vision the character goes by.

When they turn to their list, starting with Punisher: Year One from 2009, they say:

...Abnett and Lanning’s Year One is all over the new Netflix series just as much as Garth Ennis, who arguably left the biggest bootprint in 21st century Punisher lore.

See, that's the problem. Ennis is one big leftist, and as such it figures these liberal sites would cherish him, because of the bizarre anti-war stance he injected in one of the MAX books he wrote. And on the Welcome Back, Frank story Ennis first wrote in 2000, they say:

...Released in 2000, the new series set the tone for the Punisher for the next two decades as it pretty much salvaged the Punisher after his popularity waned in the ‘90s.

Whose books they otherwise don't recommend, although, when they get around to the later volume of War Journal that was published at the time of Civil War, they do mention some of the writers of yesteryear:

Though Punisher had long inhabited a more “realistic” world than the rest of the Marvel Universe, War Journal put Frank in the middle of Civil War, where he shared panel space with none other than Captain America. War Journal does one bold thing with Frank, painting him in a relatively new light as a Captain America fanboy who maybe learned the wrong lessons of crime-fighting.

The title, War Journal, is lifted from another, equally influential 1988 series, The Punisher: War Journal, which ran for a whopping 80 issues and featured talents like Mike Baron, Carl Potts, Roger Salick, John Wellington, and even Jim Lee.

I notice they didn't cite Chuck Dixon, who'd been one of the writers during the latter end of the whole run. And if they couldn't list the original War Journal spinoff series per se, then they're not really recommending it, even though it's a lot better than what came later.

They also don't stress how offensive it was to depict Frank as a Cap fan who dresses up in his costume to dole out his own approach to crimefighting, making Frank look more like what today's liberals want him to be: a lunatic.

None of the books on the list are what I'd consider recommendable material. I'd rather recommend the books of the late 80s-mid-90s than what Inverse is pushing here. In fact, I'd figure them to be much better than watching the TV show.

Labels: marvel comics, msm propaganda, politics, Punisher