Comic review: The Punisher #16- Shocking moments of truth in a mainstream comic book

Writer: Nathan Edmondson
Artist: Mitch Gerads
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 18th March 2015


I can’t quite believe it, but I’ve actually read a Marvel (Disney) comic book where the villains are politicians who control drug gangs, propagandise the public through the mainstream media, and use soldiers and police as order following enforcers to violently suppress any public dissent.

The hero of the story is a war veteran (I’m not sure which war, or in what time period this is set) who is fighting against high level corruption. This hero (The Punisher) is being demonised as a villain by the compliant government propaganda machine known as the mainstream media. The Punisher is not fighting against unconvincing and anachronistic Nazi’s or petty drug dealers like he usually does, but real life criminals. He’s fighting against the political puppet criminals that exist in the real world of 2015.

Shocking.

What’s even more shocking is that when the Punisher captures one of these high ranking political puppets and asks him, 'Who else is behind it?' the answer is ‘More than you can get to before a drone takes you out.’

That’s so refreshing to hear, not just that there are powers above the puppet politicians, we all know that by now, right?  No, what’s so refreshing is to see drones being mentioned in a mainstream comic book, and put into their proper context as the unrestrained evil that they actually are. Drones are the perfect corporate soldiers because they kill without any risk to the brave order following ‘hero’ who pilots them a 10000 miles away in a US military base. Drones are the future of warfare, and as we mess around on our isurveilance devices and waste time posting selfies this hellish reality and threat to the future of mankind continues to grow by the hour.

Punisher #16 is a case study that shows how government actually works. It shows how government uses the media, the police, the military, drug gangs and drug laws to further their hidden agenda of consolidation of private wealth for the rich and powerful, and slavery for everybody else. It shows what government actually is, and that's extremely rare in a mainstream comic book. I don't know what's happening in Marvel this week, but this is the one book that you cannot afford to miss.

Before I finish off this review I just want to acknowledge that this current portrayal of the political realities of life in contemporary America CANNOT last in a mainstream comic book. I’m not stupid, and I’m not naïve. I already know how it’s going to end.

The Punisher is going to get rid of a few rotten apples and business will continue as usual, the moral of the story being that the system is not broken, it’s just that it had a few bad people in it. It has to finish that way, because if it doesn’t that means that writer Nathan Edmondson is actually telling the truth about the world, and doing so in a mainstream comic book. Do you think that he will be allowed to get away with this? I certainly don’t. Do you really think that he’ll be allowed to conclude a story with the truth?

You might think that I’m incredibly arrogant when I talk about truth, and that truth doesn’t even exist? You might think that I’m deluded, that truth can never be known. I disagree, and yes call me arrogant if you like, but truth is truth, whether you accept it or not. Here’s the truth about politics in the US as of March 18th 2015.

US political power elites are bought and paid for career obsessed sociopaths who will do anything to enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of humanity. Morality is not a concern to them; the only concern is for themselves and the party that has put them into a position of power. They serve rich people, not poor people. They serve the 1%, and the other 99% are there to be duped, used, abused, controlled and discarded when no longer useful. Government is a criminal gang that has given itself a monopoly on the use of violence. That is what it is, that is reality, that is the truth.

If you admit this truth in a mainstream comic book then you are lifting the blinkers from the eyes of a blinded public, and calling for a revolution. You are admitting that government is a lie and advocating an over-throw of the current political status quo where two identical globalist parties serve the interests of private banks and corporations, and not the American people that are duped into voting for their own enslavement.

I don’t see how this message will be allowed in a mainstream comic book, I just don’t. What I do envision happening is that a cartoon villain will be blamed for all the evils that are taking place within this comic book, he will be unmasked by the Punisher who will give him a good kicking, and then it’s all back to normal again.

The Punisher will then probably go into space, or time travel back to 1970 where he can safely battle Nazi’s, communists or zombie aliens just like he usually does. That is what I expect to happen at the conclusion of this story arc, but for the time being this is a must buy book as what you are getting here is a rare glimpse of truth in a mainstream comic book.

I applaud writer Nathan Edmonds and wish him all the best as he tries to wrap up this story in a way that won’t harm his future career and will leave a few grains of truth before the Punisher is inevitably moved on to safer comic book waters where he won’t be shining such a devastatingly accurate spot-light on the way that real world criminals are operating out of Washington DC today.


Rating: 9/10 (Shockingly realistic portrayal of real-world reality in a mainstream comic book)