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Punisher and Marv by Katie Henderson

Please welcome Katie Henderson to the PB v2 fold! Here's what she has to say about her subject:

Marv vs Punisher - Heart versus... the other throbbing love muscle.

The more I thought of it, the more I realized how similar my most and least favorite comic characters were. But what was it that polarized me so?

Basically, Marv's is a mission with the human element. Who can't identify with having someone or something they loved or cherished taken from them? He wants answers (don't we all?) and it just happens he has to kill his way across the dark underbelly to reach the answer at the mouth of one of Ba(Sin) City's power-hungry heads, then crushing it like a grape. You follow his story and cheer him on the whole way, even if he does turn out to be a psycho killer. He even stops to consider this, proving some semblance of sanity. When all is said and done, this romantic bad lug with a good heart finds his peace and everything else is trivial by comparison.

Punisher, on the other hand, just makes dead bodies. He's reading material for violence fappers. It's not even like he does it for his family. He's an insatiable, testosteroned, maniac. Even superheros take breaks. There's no doubt in your mind that he's going to win the day, no twists, and worst of all, no conclusion. Don't get me wrong, I asked my roommate to explain him to me. "He fights because the justice system doesn't work." That's pretty boner-ish of him to think he's the total solution to the problem. I mean, at least the mob just runs drugs and casinos, most of the time they kill their own. Then one day, Frank comes along and just lays the place to waste just because he can. Then what? Those mobsters might have families too, then the kids grow up to be mobsters who hate the Punisher, and the cycle continues. It's like he's fighting the hydra, but just hasn't figured out there's a trick to it, and probably never will.

Next week: Rick Jones by Shawn Atkins!