Defender (CBLDF)- Spring 2015: You don’t need a censor when writers are already censoring themselves.

Produced by: The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
Released: April 1st 2015
Facebook page: 
https://www.facebook.com/CBLDF/timeline



Free speech in a 2015 western context is not about complaining that books that feature gross acts of torture are not available at your local primary school. It’s not about the Comics Code problems of the 1950’s, and it’s not about individual (rare) examples of censorship in New Mexico either. No, in my far from humble opinion, free speech in a 2015 western context is about fighting back against the fascist, communist, Marxist, liberal drip left and their insidious mind control tactic called POLITICAL CORRECTNESS.

This debut issue of ‘Defender’ features an interview with Neil Gaiman, a man with one single example of his work being censored by government. The example is from Sweden, and happened to this great champion of free speech TWENTY-SIX YEARS AGO. In the end nothing happened, nobody went to jail, nobody got fined, nobody got censored. That’s it, that’s his battle with censors, well, that and one teacher in New Mexico not liking one of his books. That issue was easily solved without any censorship or prosecutions either.

Why are they interviewing this man? I’ve read his stuff, and he’s about as safe as you can get. His work is neither edgy nor controversial in the slightest. He says nothing about the world, nothing about politics and nothing that anybody could possibly get even slightly upset about. That one teacher in New Mexico that didn’t like his Goth teenager stuff didn’t have anything valid to complain about, and that’s why her complaints were dismissed. Seriously, if I were publishing my own pamphlet about comic book censorship then the last person in the world that I would want to interview would be Neil bloody Gaiman.

So who would I interview then? How about somebody who is actually fighting against political correctness (real censorship) in comic books today, or at least somebody who is putting some real world analysis into his comic books?

Here’s the problem. It’s very difficult to think of any individual working in mainstream comic books today that actually fits that bill. The closest you would get is Sergio Aragones, and his work in ‘Groo- The Hogs of Horder’ where he talks about things that other comic books wouldn’t even dare to mention. But he’s rare, very rare.

There’s always Frank Miller and his excellent work in ‘Holy Terror’ of course. Why not interview him? You might not agree with his views, but he put his neck out and went somewhere that everybody else working in mainstream comic books today still refuses to go. What did he do that was so controversial? He criticised Islam, an act that is completely absent in mainstream comic books today, even as suicide bombs and school massacres now become a daily occurrence all over the world. Criticise Christians as much as you like in your comic books, but never, ever, ever criticise Muslims. Well, you can do, just don’t bother coming into work the next morning. That’s censorship. That’s real censorship, and that’s exactly how it works. You have certain ‘topics’ that you cannot discuss, and if you do discuss them, career over.

‘Defender #1’ does discuss the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, but there’s only one short paragraph that briefly touches on the real issue that is at the heart of what happened there. The issue is not censorship, or free speech when it comes to discussing issues related to religion. No, the ONLY issue is whether or not Islam can be discussed without some nutjob threatening to murder everybody who dared to mention his satanic death cult. That’s the issue in 2015, not free speech, but ISLAM, the violent religion with legions of cult members who will threaten to chop your head off or machine gun your children if you dare even question ANYTHING about it.

Liberal comic book writers will do somersaults to make excuses for this death cult, and go out of their way to not offend them. Suicide bombings and massacres don’t appear to matter at all as they preach ‘tolerance’ and respect, protecting the very people who would gladly massacre every single last (tolerant) one of them. This is not tolerance, it’s cowardice, and the murdered cartoonists that worked for Charlie Hebdo are the inevitable price we are currently paying for our liberal tolerance/cowardice in the west.

When one person says something that needs to be said he becomes a target, but if everybody is saying it then the truth of what is being said can be properly understood and acted upon. I read so many comic books, and whenever religion comes up it always has a Christian slant. 99% of the time that slant is negative, with the Christians portrayed as a mad/dangerous cult with a crazy leader and brainwashed followers. That’s the norm in my comic books, but what isn’t the norm is the actually truth of what is happening today in the religion of Islam with violent psychopaths murdering non-believers all of the time, and with the PC liberal prat crowd too bloody cowardly to say anything about it. Well, I’m sticking my own head up here and saying it loud. If you want to portray violent extremist religious cults in my comic books then get with reality and start making them Muslim, not Christian. Be like Charlie. Stop being cowardly. Stop self-censoring.

Mainstream comic books in 2015 are extremely tame, and you’d be hard pressed to find anything controversial in ANY of them. The writers are so liberal, so drippy, and so politically correct, that they are actually censoring themselves. Here’s a true statement:

MAINSTREAM WESTERN COMIC BOOKS DO NOT NEED TO BE CENSORED BECAUSE THEY ARE ALREADY CENSORING THEMSELVES.

I buy a lot of comic books, too many actually, I need to cut down. Do you know how many of them say something that I would consider genuinely controversial? Hardly any of them, and that’s why I’m well known for slagging them all off. I have to. I’m not good at keeping quiet. I have a big mouth, and when I’m confronted with wave after wave of nonsense I have to say something about it.

There are so many ‘controversial’ topics that you won’t find being discussed in contemporary, mainstream comic books. DC and Marvel are the worst, they don’t discuss anything that’s not corporate approved, but don’t expect anything revolutionary or genuinely rebellious coming from the rest of the comic book publishers either. Expect a tonne of nostalgia and a million variant covers, but truth? That’s a depressing rarity in comic books today.

Here’s just a few of the subjects that the mainstream comic book genre is terrified of discussing:

1- The problems with Israel.
2- Mainstream media manipulation.
3- The problems with Islam.
4- The men’s rights movement.
5- Third wave feminism and how it has been used to destroy families and make females more dependent upon government as a substitute ‘Daddy’ figure in the lives of their children.
6- Saudi Arabia, and the west’s ties to this murderous regime.
7- China owning US debt, and having all of it’s ‘outsourced’ jobs.
8- US wars of aggression based on acknowledged lies.
9- Late stage democracy, and how your vote no longer even matters.
10- Anarchy or freedom from centralised control systems (Government).
11- The poisons in your food and water.
12- The poisons in vaccines.
13- Big pharma, suicide pills and the pink ribbon cancer con.
14- Guns, and how an unarmed population is an enslaved population.
15- Muslim suicide bombers (they never appear in comics).
16- Sunni/Shiaa, what is the difference between the two? You’ll never know if you keep on reading comics.
17- False flag attacks like 9/11 and the London tube bombing and how they are used to justify the Police state.
18- How the ‘race’ ‘gender’ and ‘sexuality’ cards are manipulated by the powers that shouldn’t be (government) in a process of thought control and censorship wrapped up as ‘tolerance.’
19- Public schooling as government indoctrination camps, turning children into order following slaves to the corporate/fascist state.
20- International privately owned banking, including the concept of fractional reserve lending, designed to enslave the masses under waves of unpayable debt.


This list could go on and on, and on. Seriously, I could get to 100 without even thinking about it, and if I gave it some serious thought the list would probably get closer to 500. So when I read a book like this one (Defender) I react in the only way that I can. I go to my computer, write up some truth, and stick it on my blog. That truth is simple. I said it earlier on in this article, but it needs to be repeated ad nauseum:

MAINSTREAM WESTERN COMIC BOOKS DO NOT NEED TO BE CENSORED BECAUSE THEY ARE ALREADY CENSORING THEMSELVES.

That’s a sad state of affairs, but that’s what’s happening right now, and that’s why I continue to write my ‘controversial’ reviews here on my blog. I applaud SOME of the work being done by the 'Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’ (not the stuff where they try to get sick books put in school libraries) but they need to look a bit closer to home.

Censorship in liberal fantasyland works not by having censors, but by having the politically correct, feminist liberal ‘tolerant’writers subconsciously censoring themselves. They can talk about gay rights or women’s rights as much as they like, but genuinely controversial subject matters like Islamic terrorism are a no-go area.

Defender Issue #1 has the laudable goal of standing up for free speech, but what it is really about is protecting PC liberal free speech. The freedoms we really need to protect are the freedoms to say what is NOT politically correct, and I don’t see that debate being raised in this comic book. I’m not enjoying writing up this article where I’m criticising a comic book that has been designed to protect free speech, but the fact of the matter right now is that mainstream western comic books don’t even need to be censored, as the writers are already censoring themselves.

Comic review: Black Science #13- Kill everybody and start again

Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Matteo Scalera
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 1st April 2015


It looks like Rick Remender is going old testament on his Black science creation, realising that things have got a bit messy he’s deciding to change things up, and changing things up means lots of death and lots of nastiness.

It had to be done. The book was getting far too convoluted with various versions of the same characters popping up from different dimensions, and with these different characters interacting with different dimensional versions of themselves, their friends and families it was getting almost impossible to follow, or care about what was going on.

Issue # 13 is a recognition that the book went off the rails, and as the issue concludes Rick even admits that he’s going to start killing people off. He doesn’t admit that his book was becoming a convoluted, confusing mess, but he’s not exactly going to do that in his own book, is he?

Issue #14 is going to be the interesting one, which unfortunately means that issue #13 is in a nowhere land of reversing mid-stream, setting the stage for what is to come, but not really being an essential book in and of itself.

There are telling moments in the book where the writer acknowledges within the text that he is peddling clichés. The first is when a character acknowledges that he is a ‘The cliched breadwinning, middle-aged workaholic.’ You sure are mate, blame the writer. The second moment is when a character acknowledges the weakness of his own dialogue by stating that he's just saying it because, ‘I read it in a comic'. That’s not funny, it's just very poor, very lazy writing that is attempting to cover itself with a knowing joke.

It doesn’t work. Lazy writing is lazy writing, and covering it up with moments of Kevin Smith over analysis of everything that is happening as it bloody happens, doesn’t cover up your lack of creativity, imagination and inspiration.

There’s also the Kevin Smith swearing thing going on in this book as well, using creative (and disgusting) swearing to try to convince people that what they are reading is ‘adult.’ I find it painfully, depressingly tiresome, and it’s another pointer that the writer is running out of narrative ideas. Swearing isn’t big, or clever. I thought we all knew that? We do, it’s just that some fanboys put their ‘cool’ goggles on for certain writers, and forgive them when they really should be demanding better writing from them.

I’m going to finish off this review by neatly summing up the issue, as you’re supposed to do in a review, so who says I’m completely out of control in my writing? Okay, so I usually am, but I’ll contain myself here.

Black Science #13 is a smash and burn book. It’s the moment in a series where a writer begins to realise that he’s lost control of his project, and even though people are still reading it, the ideas are running thin and it’s starting to go a bit off the rails. The book is lazily written and focussed on family drama issues that verge on the cliché, thus removing any emotional resonance or connectivity the reader would feel to any of the characters. Added to this the fact that the characters have multiple versions of themselves, so death doesn’t even appear to matter anymore, and you’re getting a situation where you stop caring because nothing that happens seems to matter.

The book needs a re-boot, and that’s what they are going to do, but not in this issue. You’ll have to wait until issue #14 for that reboot, which means that issue #13 is just filler, not very good filler, and a book that isn’t really worthy of a purchase.



Rating: 3/10 (I’m finding it difficult to care about anything that happens right now, so a reboot of the book is absolutely vital)

Graphic novel review: Sergio Aragones’ Groo: ‘The Hogs of Horder’- It’s the end of the world, and I feel fine

By: Sergio Aragones
Wordsmith: Mark Evanier
Letterer: Stan Sakai
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Released: August 2010


On the surface this book is about a big old twit of a man (Groo) and his funny little dog (Rufferto) as they travel around the world causing chaos and mayhem whether they go, having fights, destroying factories (or wherever they work) and sinking every ship that they sail on. That’s the surface, but what this big old twit of a man actually represents is random chaos and the likelihood that what can go wrong will go wrong. It’s the reaction of the people around them to these disasters that’s telling. The catastrophes that befall them in ‘The Hogs Of Horder’ sound very familiar to me. Here’s what I spotted.

- USA entering a period of truce with China after the civil war and eventual victory of Mao Zedong’s Communist party in October 1949.
- USA beginning to outsource it’s manufacturing base to China, in order to cut costs of wages.
- USA seeing beginning of mass unemployment caused by this policy of outsourcing.
- The idiocy of the US car industry, insisting on making big cars that nobody wants, or can even afford as the jobs have now all been outsourced.
- Managers and executives of US corporations caring only about their own inflated salaries, and not thinking about their workers.
- US industry thinking they can solve problems caused by their outsourcing policies by borrowing money from bankers.
- Business owners deliberately destroying their businesses in order to apply for loans.
- US going to war in order to protect the business interests of their wealthy elite. Justifying it by calling the dictator that they themselves installed, a ‘Despicable Madman,’ even though he was a valuable ally just a week previously.
- Ridiculous propaganda used to justify these wars for the rich.
- The continued idiocy of the US car manufacturing industry, insisting that customers want something that they neither want, nor can afford.
- Products flooding western markets cannot even be purchased as nobody has any money to buy them.
- Bankers stop giving out loans, as they are not being repaid.
- US industry destroyed by outsourcing, with the knock-on affect of unemployment and businesses not being able to repay their loans to the banks.
- Banks go belly up, and get bailed out by US government.
- Big businesses also go belly up, and are bailed out by US government.
- US government backs itself up with wars for resources.
- US wars cause tribal battles between competing religious factions (Sunni/Shiaa) in the countries that have been liberated/destroyed.

- US war propaganda makes less and less sense as reality kicks in.

- Price of oil for normal people does not go down, despite all of the wars that were based on oil.
- US begins to borrow money from China.
- Refugees from war-zones start to flee to US in order to escape from the tribal conflicts stirred up by the US invasions.
- Huge problems in US, the public looks for scapegoats, and immigrants are blamed.
- Banks are charging huge interest rates for loans, and average people are still broke despite government bailouts of banks and industry.
- People can’t afford homes.
- Or anything really.
- There are no jobs.
- Wages are going down because of immigration and influx of cheap labour.
- Army/Police is sent in to beat up the people, ‘I am only following orders Mother.’
- Sports and theatre are used as distractions in order to pacify an angry population.
- US goes to China asking for loans.
- China, scared of the US war machine, and eager to get Americans to buy their goods, agrees to loan US the money.
- Loaned money goes to the people who caused all of the problems, not the suffering people.
- Average US people still broke.
- Wealth inequality grows.
- China buys up everything of value in the US.
- China now owns the US.
- The end of the United States.
- Centralised control system of wealthy elite’s operating out of China own everything and everybody.
- A New World Order?

That sounds pretty depressing doesn’t it? It’s the tale of the decline of an entire country, and we’re not just talking about the US here, we’re talking about all of Europe as well. An entire western civilisation collapsing because of stupidity, greed, war and debt. All to be replaced by a Chinese system of centralised control system slavery. That’s not the future, it’s what’s happening right now, but this book ends on an optimistic note. It leaves the reader with a final message that, yes we are collapsing, but just because we are coming to the end, that doesn’t mean that we can’t begin to start again. And how do we start again? We do things on a local level, we start our own businesses, learn skills, and trade with each other on a local level.

It’s a great way to finish the book, giving real solutions to the mess that the world is currently in. It’s not the end of the world, it’s the beginning of a new one, so let’s do a better job this time. You don’t have to join the armies of this collapsing system, you don’t have to join their control systems, and you don’t have to go to them with a begging bowl, like a servant, like a slave. You can do things for yourself. Stop being reliant, and start being independent and self-sufficient.

That’s what I took from this daft comic book about a big old twit of a man and his funny little dog. It’s a fantastic achievement to have so much content and real world analysis in what is ostensibly a silly little comic book. This book really is outstanding. Funny, silly, ridiculous ‘The Hogs of Horder’ is as good an analysis of the causes for the impending collapse of western civilisation as you’re likely find not just in a comic book, but in any book.

Rating: 10/10 (The decline, decline and fall of western civilisation)

Comic review: Millennium (X-Files) #3- 90’s nostalgia for my useless generation

Writer: Joe Harris
Artist: Colin Lorimer
Colourist: Joana Lafuente
Publisher: IDW Comics
Released: 1st April 2015



Millennium has been a very enjoyable series so far. The art is great, the colouring’s superb, the script is interesting and the construction of the narrative itself has a screenplay element to it that makes the entire experience feel like you are watching an old episode of the X-Files television show.

That screenplay element is in use again at the beginning of issue #3 with a plot device that is usually used in television dramas. A moment of high (spooky) drama opens the narrative, before the story flashes back 24 hours so the viewer can see the prelude to the dramatic scenes that are now unfolding.

I enjoy that technique, it brings you straight into the narrative with a monument of adrenaline, hooking you into the story with drama, and having you hang around for an explanation about the context behind that drama.

As with all ‘conspiracy’ shows the game here is to hint at what is to come, revealing slowly, drip by drip, tantalising clues about the bigger ‘conspiracy’ picture behind surface events. Throw in some interesting characters, have a daughter kidnapping (that always works) and you have a show.

It sounds like, from what I’ve just been underlying here, that this ‘Millennium’ book isn’t exactly busting with originality, and that’s a pretty fair accusation to lay on the project. It’s not original, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not any good. Yeah the references are a bit old (The Millennium Bug and the Pixies) but for people over the age of forty (that’s me) there’s still fun to be had here.

If you pick up this title you’ll get a mixture of X-Files nostalgia (like the returning show) good art and a well-paced and competently executed script. I’m enjoying it, but bear in mind that I am a 41 (almost 42) year-old guy who grew up with this stuff on his television during my prime (they weren’t really prime, I was terribly depressed back then) twenties years.

This book transports me back to the days when the X-Files was the coolest, newest, edgiest show on television. That’s not really the case anymore, and if you expect the upcoming new shows to be anything other than nostalgia I fear you are in for some disappointing viewing.

The X-Files was of it’s time, and as I read ‘new’ versions of it today I come away with the feeling that it’s not connecting with anything that has happened post 9/11.

All of the usual globalist, New World order, failing democracy, surveillance and illegal, never-ending war stuff that I always talk about in my reviews, and want to see reflected in my comic books isn’t really happening in this book, or any of the other X-Files titles coming from IDW Comics.

That’s okay. If you want to talk about new stuff you have to update the vehicle, and the X-Files wagon is a bit rusty these days. It’s become a nostalgia thing, and when it’s done well it still has something to offer, at least to blokes like me who grew up with this stuff during our late teens or twenties.

I like this book, but I’m being realistic about it here. I’m not going to pretend that something game-changing is happening.

It’s a nostalgia book, done well, that is centred on a conspiracy group that was designed to cash-in on the silly (and it always was silly, this is not hindsight) Millennium bug fears of the late 1990’s. Get Millennium if you miss the X-Files and are looking forward to the new television shows. The book looks great, the story is interesting and the entire project has been carefully and thoughtfully constructed.

Rating: 7/10 (Nostalgic fun for the 35+ generation)

Comic review: Kanan- The Last Padawan #1: Departing One Direction member pops up in Star Wars

Writer: Greg Weisman
Artist: Pepe Larraz
Publisher: Marvel (Disney)
Released: 1st April 2015

I’m not going to get too upset with this one. I had the feeling that it would be bad, but you have to give things a chance, right?

You can’t stop yourself from trying out new things, because then you’d never be surprised when things are actually decent. Marvel is pretty bad these days, but that doesn’t mean that they will always be bad. They might be a part of the dehumanising corporate new world order machine, but they have individuals working for them, and my hope in the power of the individual hasn’t completely eroded yet.

I picked up this book for a number of reasons. Firstly, it’s Star Wars, and I used to like Star Wars, when it was good. Secondly, I didn’t know the writer (I’m always interested in checking out new writers), and thirdly, I’d never heard of the Kanan character.

So who is this Kanan bloke? He’s a pretty boy Jedi who is flying around the galaxy with his cool team of hipsters. He has a ponytail, douche bag goatee beard and he doesn’t appear to own a T-shirt. Actually, looking at him again he kind of reminds me of that bloke who quit One Direction last week. Okay, so that kind of sucks so far.

What is his story about? It’s mainly a flashback sequence to the days where his Mum was training him to be a Jedi. She’s not really his Mum, she’s actually a Jedi master, but let’s face it, she’s his Mum. The story is a bit dull and appears to be about discovering who this Kanan pretty boy is as a character, what makes him tick and all of that other back-story stuff that is really intriguing, just as long as you don’t know too much about it.

This title is going to follow Kanan’s very recent past (He looks about seventeen years old), and milk it until every ounce of mystique (he doesn’t have much anyway) is completely drained from the character. We’ll see the tragic death of his Mommy/Jedi, and other cliché stuff that will helpfully rid the narrative of any boring old people and leave the schoolboy superstar free to roam the galaxy having adventures with his buddies whilst acting like a cool, interesting and tortured young hipster.

Are you interested in any of that? If you are, then buy the book. I’d think that (and this is just a guess) this story MIGHT appeal to very young girls who like boybands. That could be the audience, not that young girls read comic books in huge numbers though, so that could be a problem. Perhaps it could appeal to soft comic book readers types who don’t like to think, and instead prefer to have detailed character portrayals of third string Star Wars poseurs who fly around the galaxy showing off their abs and tribal tats to all of the pretty alien girls out there?

That can’t be a big audience, can it? Aggghhh, what do I know? Somebody out there must be enjoying this soft, testosterone free ride into irrelevance. I don’t get bent out of shape when I read a book like this. It’s just Marvel comics pushing out another 'Star Wars' product. It's neither inspired, nor interesting. It has no connection to anything real, and the story is formulaic, flat and pedestrian, that’s all.

I get a bit confused about who is actually reading and enjoying something as tame as this, but that doesn’t mean that there’s not somebody out there who loves every page of it. If we met we wouldn’t have anything to talk about, that’s for sure. She would say something like; ‘It was really cool.’ I’d be nice, and wouldn’t even bother trying to explain why it isn’t. It’s just another boring Marvel comic book, and not worthy of my time.


Rating: 3/10 (Dull book about a Star Wars boy-band character) 

Comic Review: Neverboy #2- There’s something magical about this one

Writer: Shaun Simon
Artist: Tyler Jenkins
Colours: Kelly Fitzpatrick
Cover: Conor Nolan
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Released: 1st April 2015


The first issue of Neverboy was such a joy, bringing forth a new idea into the comic book sphere, and doing it so very well. But so often in the comic book world a good start flatters to deceive and that one initial idea is pretty much all that the comic has to offer. Bearing all of that in mind, let’s get the following question answered as quickly as possible:

Is Neverboy #2 any good?

In short, it’s excellent. It brings new elements into the narrative and is just as exciting, enjoyable and creative as that tremendous opening. Did I ever have any doubts that this second issue wouldn’t be as good as the first? Not really, strange though that may seem, I just knew that this one would be good before I even read it.

Something is going on with the writing here, as it’s absolutely inspired. The main protagonist of the story doesn’t even make an appearance until the half-way point of the book, with the first half spent introducing a down on his luck, out of work and out of inspiration artist. It’s quite ironic really as writer Shaun Simon has introduced his complete opposite here, an artist running out of ideas, when he himself is very apparently overflowing with them.

The technique of introducing this character (and even featuring him on the front cover) works so well, and there is a gentle, slow, pondering sadness to the pacing in this first half that creates an impression of going nowhere, of having stopped. As the book reaches the half-way point it absolutely explodes with life as the manic, drug hunting, trying to cling to this reality, yet bristling with energy and inspiration Neverboy arrives on the scene, injecting new life into the suicidal artist.

There’s something special happening here, and it’s difficult to fully describe it. Like a really good magic show this book is just something that you have to experience for yourself. A review can attempt to capture what is going on, but you need to experience it yourself to fully appreciate and understand the context and subtle texture of the experience.

I’m not sure if other reviewers have mentioned this before, but the writing here reminds me of Neil Gaiman, when he was young, when he was new, and when he was bristling with energy and creativity that leapt of the pages of those early Sandman comic books. And just like those books, it’s the art being in perfect synch with the writing that really kicks Neverboy into another level. 

There’s a connection between writer and artist here. They understand what their world is all about, they both get it, and their vision is combining quite beautifully to create a book about art, about creativity, about inspiration that is overflowing with all of these qualities itself. 

Neverboy is a portal, much like Sandman. Something hugely exciting is beginning here. It’s overflowing with that elusive, much sought after, yet rarely found element of new life that is birthed within superior works of creative art. It’s rare, very rare, and I run the risk of going overboard here, but there’s something magical about this one.


Rating: 10/10 (Absolutely superb second issue, with so much promise for what is still to come)

Comic review: Punisher #17- The inevitable come-down after a rare moment of truth in Marvel comics

Writer: Nathan Edmondson
Artists: Mitch Gerads & Brent Schoonover
Publisher: Marvel (Disney)
Released: 1st April 2015


If you kidnap a top US politician, get him to confess that he’s a criminal, and then run around Washington DC with every uniformed order follower in the city hot on your trail, how do you get away? How do you make your escape when you have helicopters featuring the very latest in high tech thermal, night vision equipment tracking your every move?

Easy, you throw a Dictaphone (circa 1986) at the nearest soldier, tell him that it will prove you are innocent, then hide in a bush for half a minute and wait for everybody to fly off. You can then calmly stroll out and have a moment to yourself, right in the open, sitting alongside the Washington Monument and all of that other creepy occult architecture that is in the middle of Washington DC. Don’t worry about CCTV or anything like that, and don’t worry about security guards, soldiers, cops or any of the other people who are looking for you. They’ve flown away now, so take your time and enjoy the scenery.

Next scene it’s daytime and you are in a small town meeting your old army buddy. How did you get there when the entire military and police forces of the USA are looking for you and would have put up roadblocks all over town? Don’t worry about it, you just got there, let’s not get bogged down in details, okay?

From there you can saunter off to Mexico and beat up a top drug lord, blowing up his car and somehow tracking him and getting past all of the special forces trained security guards that would be protecting him 24/7 night and day.

Ahh, it’s easy being the Puinisher in 2015, isn’t it? Don’t worry about the high tech Police state of 2015 that has been exposed by numerous whistle-blowers recently. Just do your thing; pretend that it’s 1980 and that all of the new spy technology doesn’t exist. Oh, and if you are ever in big trouble just remember those two special weapons in your arsenal, the Dictaphone and the bush.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. What the Hell happened to this book? It was pretty decent last month, but it’s fallen apart now and what I’ve just read is so completely stooopid that I’m almost lost for words in describing it. It even had one panel with a US superhero criticising the Punisher because he killed somebody without ‘Due process,’ like that’s even a thing in the US today where they kill people all of the time with no regards to due process whatsoever. What the Hell do you think those drones in Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan are doing every day? Perhaps they are just looking for evidence for an upcoming trial, and accidentally killing women and children because of some design fault?

Goddamn it, this is too stupid for me to take in. Punisher #16 hinted at some kind of connection to reality in 2015, but Punisher #17 has just gone and reigned itself in by being as wilfully ignorant and as stupid as possible. Perhaps the last issue was a bit too radical, a bit too dangerous, a bit too close to the truth?  We can’t have that in Marvel comics now, can we? Punisher #17 has rectified that problem, and has promised to be a good boy, promised to be just another silly little comic, and promised not to reflect reality in a way that would be uncomfortable for anybody with power and/or money.

Writer Nathan Edmondson has kissed corporate ass this week, and put out a comic that will please his masters very much indeed. Don’t worry boss, issue #16 was just a one off. Issue #17 will be a good little boy, and I’ll get back to talking about rotten apples, Mexican drug cartels and how there is nothing wrong with the actual system itself. No, there’s no problem there. Land of the free and all that. Well, free as long as you can pay, obviously. Now get back to voting, back to serving the system, back to the rat-race, back to striving for that movie contract, back to the greasy corporate career pole, back to statist slavery and back to a comic book fantasy land that still acts like it’s 1986.


Rating: 2/10 (Just for the comedy value of seeing a US superhero talk about ‘Due Process’ in 2015 with no sense of irony whatsoever).











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