The Punisher: Welcome Back Frank (#1-12) PART TWO

"I should have gone a long time ago" - Frank Castle

Welcome to part two of my look at Garth Ennis's first crack at The Punisher which managed to rescue a character from the laughing stock he'd been turned into by an ill-advised reinvention as a supernatural agent of Heaven redeeming himself by killing for God and which resulted in Ennis not only writing the character in the mainstream Marvel Universe but also writing the much acclaimed MAX run as covered by me previously.  After rejecting Heaven and picking up his guns to focus upon taking out the Gnucci Mafia family in New York, we closed out part one on cliffhanger where he'd been tracked down to the address he was living anonymously at as "John Smith" and although he'd taken out his attackers he passed out in a nearby alley after taking several bullets to the torso. Living in the same place are hyperactive "Spacker" Dave, the meek Joan and the obese Mr. Bumpo.  There is also a plotline with two cops, Lieutenant Molly Richtofen who has been tasked with taking down the Gnucci family and detective Martin Soap who has been tasked with catching The Punisher joining forces to wait until they take each other out before moving in and "arresting what's left".  There are also three men following Franks examples as vigilante killers, the snobbish "Elite", the class warrior "Payback" and the crazy priest "The Holy". On art duties are his Preacher collaborator Steve Dillon as penciller and Jimmy Palmiotti inking.  Time for the conclusion as the grotesque Ma Gnucci goes all out with her intentions to destroy The Punisher before he destroys her.

A somewhat inconvenienced Frank.

Frank comes to bleeding heavily, by sheer force of iron will he manages to rise to his feet and get back to the house.  We cut to the aftermant outside with several bodybags laid out and Molly and Soap at the scene.  Soap says to Molly they should have followed the Gnucci soldiers and been lead right to The Punisher.  Molly points out that he wouldn't have wanted to be around for this carnage.  The captain has also called to check out the vigilante killings uptown even though they aren't The Punisher's M.O.

We cut to Ma Gnucci who is mad that the men reporting to her didn't check The Punisher actually died.   She orders them to get back down there and find out which apartment is The Punisher's and if they stay alive and get it right she can call the other families and arrange for reinforcements.  We see Frank having reached his flat and says to himself all he has to do now is dig the bullets out, "how hard can that be" as he pitches forwards onto the floor.

We rejoin Molly and Soap at the church where The Holy in the guise of Catholic priest Hector Redondo has been killing criminals after they confess their sins.  They tell him that he's the one thing the men had in common which Hector agrees is a strange thing.  He tells them that he took their confessions regularly and he knew all five men.  "Four men" corrects Molly.  Hector says he can't break the seal of confession and we see inside the confession booth another man dead with an axe buried in his chest.

At the apartment building, Joan sees a trail of blood going into Frank's flat, she follows it querously asking if Mr. Smith (he's going by the name of "John Smith" here) is OK and he rises up behind her. We then cut to Elite who is telling a hot dog seller he doesn't want him in his neighbourhood and he puts a grenade inside his cart and blows it up.

Back with Frank, Joan pops her head round Dave's place and asks him to come help as Frank has passed out again.   When he sees "John Smith" is really The Punisher he is really excited.  Joan hasn't heard of The Punisher, she doesn't watch the news because it scares her.  He tells her what The Punisher does and she asks if they should call an ambulance.

Joan and Dave to the rescue.

Dave says that's not a good idea, they don't want him turned over to the cops. He decides they have to look after him themselves.  He took a first aid course so he thinks he can do it and also bad guys will probably come looking for him so they have to be careful, "anyone strange comes asking questions... we haven't seen anything okay?"  Joan agrees.  Between them they pick him up and set him on the bed.   Frank starts to come around and Dave excitedly says his secret's safe with them and he and Joan will look after him. "What?" thinks Frank.

We then see a woman interviewing the chairman of the Wall Street Investors about the antics of Payback.  But while he is talking Payback comes up and shoots him in the head then rants down the camera which is still broadcasting about his mission to take on corporate crime and defending the rights of the workers.  He then scarpers before the cops show up.

The two men Ma Gnucci tasked to find The Punisher walk to the house. One notes that now would be a good time to send "The Russian" which the other agrees is someone who would stand a chance against The Punisher.  They reach the house and Joan opens the door, they flash fake N.Y.P.D credentials but she says she lives alone in her flat, while we see Frank lying on her bed behind her.  They knock on Dave's door and he panics:

Dave: "Aaah!  You're not the cops!  I know who you are"  You're here for him, but, but I'm not saying anything! I'm not betraying The Punisher to punks like you!  So you can get lost you hear!"

One of the men responds with, "really".  We then return to Joan and the prone but concious Frank.  She asks him "why do you kill them?" Frank says he hates them   She says the thought it might be because he wanted to make the world a better place. As he lies there he thinks that of all the ways he could have checked out, "this has to be the dumbest."

The two men who spoke to Dave call Ma Gnucci saying they have a man who knows where The Punisher is.   They have him tied up and one of them has a pair of pliers.  They hang up and Ma Gnucci tells her goon to look for the contact details they have for The Russian.

In a local bar Soap is telling Molly the sorry story of his career so far.  She asks what's eating him and he says it's The Punisher being the latest in a string of disasters.  Molly reassures him that nothing will go wrong, The Punisher will come after Ma Gnucci, they just have to be patient.  The barman hits on her but she rejects his advances saying he's definitely not her type, which makes Soap smile.

FRank can still do the business even when seriously wounded.

Joan tells Frank that Dave is screaming, so Frank asks her to help him up. They stagger to Dave's flat where the two goons are pulling the piercings out of his face.  But he hasn't given Frank up.  Frank gets out his knife and when he knocks on the door and one of the men answers, he sticks him with the knife.  He falls to the floor with the now dead man, the other turns and Franks knife flies into his chest, "ballistic knife.  Spring loaded.  Old favourite of mine" thinks Frank. Poor Dave has had all his rings ripped out.

Back in the bar with Soap and Molly he asks how someone as young as her gets to be a lieutenant.  She says it was by being better than most people around her which wasn't difficult considering the rest of the department.  She says the rank and file are good people doing an impossible job, but the brass are all in bed with the scum they are supposed to be taking down.   Soap then starts to hit on her and she curtly tells him she's a lesbian.   He quickly changes the subject and then somewhat crushed orders some more drinks.

Frank is lying on the kitchen table.  He has called an alcoholic doctor who specialises in patching up wiseguys no questions asked.  He found his contact details in a dead man's wallet.  "Wanted to do this myself" he thinks, "but the boy's involved and he deserves the chance to keep his face".  The doctor downs some booze and asks if Frank wants anesthetic.  Frank says no and holds a pistol in one hand and a bullet between his teeth.  The doctor gets to work and Frank digs into a lifetime of blood and fire to keep him going.

Frank gets ready for surgery.

The doctor finishes patching up both Frank and Dave.  Frank pays him over double what they agreed and the doctor leaves. Frank asks Joan to walk Dave back to his apartment when he comes round.  He also tells Joan to call him Frank and she smiles to herself at that.

We cut to Kazakhstan.  A team of Green Beret's are about to take on The Russian in the house they tracked him down to.  We then get a sequence of panels showing the house as noise and gunshots ring out finally ending with one surviving Green Beret running out stark naked with a rifle bent round his neck calling for his mommy.  Inside the house we see the shadow of The Russian pick up the phone and it's Ma Gnucci, he says he'll be on the next plane to the U.S. "for you Ma.. anything".

It's now three weeks later.  Ma Gnucci is trying to get the other families to help with reinforcements.  But she is having no luck, none of them want to face The Punisher.  Angrily she calls them worthless cowardly scum.  But then some good news for her, "oh my dear, sweet Russian. I had almost lost all hope."

The Russian.

Frank has survived and now able to walk he's moving his armoury to a safehouse.  He leaves the flat and passes Mr. Bumpo carrying a stack of hot pizzas.  Mr. Bumpo tells him to "keep on punishing".  This makes Frank stop and asks what he means.  Mr. Bumpo says he knows all about him being The Punisher, somewhat annoyed Frank guesses that Dave told him.

Back with Ma Gnucci and The Russian, she asks why it took him three weeks to get here. He says he forgot he was wanted in forty-eight states, so when the plane was five miles above Canada he made the plane crash and he ended up confused for a while.  But he remembered, crossed the border and now he is here.   Ma Gnucci tells him she wants him to kill The Punisher and gives him a photo. She will give him ten million to do it.  He says it's a deal and she tells two reluctant goons to drive him to the apartment building in Manhattan The Punisher is holed up in.  He hugs one of them, crushing him to death leaving one to escort him.

Frank confronts Dave saying he told Mr. Bumpo who he really was.  Dave said he couldn't resist, the whole thing is just too cool. Also he says that Mr. Bumpo deserved to know it's dangeround for him too.  Frank says he's leaving.  Dave says he can't, having him here is awesome.  But Frank sternly says that if he's not out of here before Ma. Gnucci's boys come after him he, Mr. Bumpo and Joan will die in the crossfire.  Because of the pain Dave took for him he won't threaten him with death, he's going to trust him to stay quiet "and call it even, okay?"

A TV report on the vigilantes of New York.

Molly and Soap are still on stake-out duty at Ma Gnucci's and they spot The Russian being driven away.  Molly says they need to go to the lab.  On the news is a story about the various vigilantes.  All three are watching it and it gives them all the same idea.  Frank merely says, "uh-huh".

In the bar Molly has The Russian's dossier.  She says he's "a walking death camp". They look over photos of the various atrocities he's committed, and Molly says everyone wants him - the Feds, the D.E.A, every state force and sheriff's department, Interpol and so on.  He first shows up in Afghanistan on holiday during the Russian invasion. Then he just goes everywhere there's trouble, Lebanon, Iraq, East Timor, Chechnya, Balkans, Belfast and that's not counting his normal criminal activity.

Molly: "Sometimes he does it for money.  Sometimes just for fun.  Pretty much everyone wants to kill him... and now he's our problem."

Ma Gnucci's brought him in to deal with The Punisher. Now they have two choices.  They can call in tactical and immediately lose their case as well as triggering an enormous bloodbath. Or they can leave The Punisher to The Russian and "then we step in and arrest what's left: right? Why me lord?" groans Soap.   Molly says give it twenty-four hours.  Soap orders more alcohol.

Joan confesses to Frank.

Joan comes to see Frank saying she heard he was leaving.   He tells her he doesn't want to put them in danger.  She says she doesn't feel like she is in danger "ever since I found out who you really are I've felt safe for the first time in my life."  She says she doesn't like the city, it's dark and frightening and she doesn't feel safe walking to the end of the street.

He asks why she doesn't leave.  She says she'd love to have a house in the country with a pond and ducks and a dog to throw sticks for.

Frank: "Then you should just go.  You're right about this city, Joan.  It is a bad place.  Bad things do happen  Just go."

She says she's scared to. She doesn't have enough money and she is scared to think about changing her life.  Why does Frank stay?  "Because I like it" he replies.  "This is a terrible world" says Joan. And as we see The Russian approach the house Frank says "Yes Joan. It's a nightmare."

The next chapter starts with Frank taking a punch to the face after answering his door without checking who was calling.   He is knocked face down and The Russian treads on the back of his head before picking him up and smashing him through a wooden panel.

Frank Vs Russian round one.

Elsewhere Ma Gnucci is on the phone to the Mayor and tells him that as the cops did nothing about The Punisher she's had to bring in some outside help.  Now a certain building is going to become a charnel house and there better be no interference.  And "not a whisper of my name in the ensuing investigation".  If they have a problem with that they better remember she has photos of him and the commissioner on their fact finding tour of Vegas.  She tells the Mayor to stop whimpering and hangs up.

The Russian goes to jump on Frank who puts a boot up which smashes into The Russian's groin.   This makes him pause for a moment, then he helps Frank up who grabs a chair and smashes it over The Russian's head.  The Russian leaves for a moment then comes back with the toilet which he smashes a dazed Frank in the face with.

Soap and Molly are back staking out Ma Gnucci's place.  Soap is having a bit of a tearful breakdown.  He says her plan was stupid and they are doomed, Ma Gnucci and The Russian are going to cause havoc and it'll be his fault and he'll get fired and jailed and they'll do terrible things to him in prison and also his partner is a lesbian and she'll never falll in love with him.

She tells him, "now stop whing, you loser."  She says they are both losers, he's the unluckiest cop on the force and she refuses to sleep her way to the top. They are expected to fail, they have no back-up and no support only what they can do themselves, "and if that means doing something crazy... so be it."  Soap looks at her in awe, "you're... you're so decisive." She tells him to shut up and watch the house.

Back at the fight.  Frank pulls out his boot knife and stabs The Russian, which doesn't faze him at all.  Meanwhile Elite is executing a drug dealer on his turf and is being watched by Payback in his car.  Frank has had his head jammed in the fridge and The Russian is banging the door repeatedly on him. 

Ah the old head in firdge door gag.

Payback meanwhile speaks with Elite saying that they should team-up.  Elite isn't sure as they focus on such different targets, but Payback points out they both do what the cops can't or won't.  Elite takes the poin and gets in the car.  They head for Spanish Harlem to try and find the axeman, and then find the big man himself - The Punisher.

Who is being soundly thrashed.  The Russian bangs his head on the cooker and Frank lights up a ring burning The Russian's hand and making him howl in pain.  Frank makes a note to remember he doesn't like heat.  Elite and Payback are crusing around arguing about their differing ideals when an injured man comes out of the church chased by Hector with a bloody axe.  Elite shoots the man dead.  Hector is pleased to see them, and they make a pact to work together and also find The Punisher to lead them.

Frank lies on the kitchen floor, The Russian says "end of round one".  He starts singing the praises of American superheroes and that when he is done here he'll go looking for autographs.  Frank spots a gun under the cooker and crawls over to get it.  But as he picks it up, The Russian takes it off him and snaps it in half, then says "Okey-dokey, big boy.  Seconds away.  Round two."

Uh oh.

He throws Frank through the apartement door and out into the corridor. Joan and Dave come to see and The Russian comes out and sees them:

The Russian: "Ah!  These are your little friends, yes? When The Russian gets through with you, imagine the terrible things that will happen to them!"

Frank yells for them to go, and then gets punched through Mr. Bumpo's door where he is feasting on fresh pizza.  Landing by Mr. Bumpo Frank asks if it is hot?  Mr. Bumpo says yes and as The Russian bears down on him he slings a pizza in his face causing him to react in great pain.

Frank trips him up as he claws the burning melted cheese of his face and as The Russian lays face up on the floor, Frank pushes Mr. Bumpo on top of him and suffocates him.  He asks how long it's been and Mr. Bumpo says about twenty mintes.  "We'll give it another ten" says the tired Frank.

A very American way to go.

In the church Payback and Elite are having major ideological differences.  Elite says Payback is a "whining commie" and Payback says Elite is a "spoiled, rich creep". Hector tells them to cut it out and gets furious:

Hector: "You two idiots had better start shaping up before the wrath of God descends!  I'm not kidding!  We've got to get this together! Because right now, if we ask The Punisher to join this little band, the our particular battle for justice will be over before it's begun!"

Speaking of The Punisher, The Russian is dead and Frank says "he got me mad."  He tells Mr. Bumpo, Joan and Dave to go inside and lock their doors and not come out until he is gone.   "How do you do it Frank?" asks Joan.  He says it's a simple as her desire to live in the country.

Frank then throttles the goon who drove The Russian there and with something in a bag, takes the wheel and starts to drive to the Gnucci HQ.  Ma Gnucci is convinced The Russian will be back soon with The Punisher's head.   Outside Soap and Molly are still watching, Soap says the hunt for The Punisher is being called off, which Molly realises means the Gnucci's know he's dead  But the "dead" Punisher drives past them at that moment and Molly is gleeful, "go Punisher! Go Punisher! I knew he wouldn't let us down."

In the church Hector tells the other two they need to confront evil, every monster every piece of scum, "we have to go out and kill it."  He puts out his hand saying it's the judgement of The Holy.  Payback puts his hand on saying they need The Punisher's weapons and expertise.  Elite adds his hand saying he'll be their leader.  Hector says he'll lead a crusade to cleanse the city of its sin as well as casting the moneylenders from their temples, "he will lead The Vigilante Squad".

Frank goes to confront Ma Gnucci.

Ma Gnucci is getting antsy waiting for The Russian, he should have been finished hours ago.   One of her men carries her to the window and she looks out to see Frank holding The Russian's head and a sub-machine gun and he yells, "is this all you've got?!!"  At that all the goons stationed outside drop their weapons and walk away as do the ones inside, leaving a ranting Ma Gnucci completely helpless to do anything but scream in impotent rage.

Inside her room Frank starts pouring petrol all over the floor.   She wants to know why he is burning the place down, "talk to me, you pig!"

Frank: "Because I want you gone from the face of this Earth".

Ma Gnucci: "You scum! You vicious evil scum!  You're no better than I am, Punisher!"

She keeps ranting at him saying he isn't on the side of justice, he's a serial killer and insane.  He's a mass murderer and he should put a bullet in his own head to get peace for himself.  "You are damned!" she shouts.  "Tell me something I don't know" says Frank, now outside the house and he tosses a grenade through a window and the place starts to burn.

The end of the Gnucci family.

Ma Gnucci manages to force herself out of the window and crawls to Frank and bites his ankles, but he boots her hard back into the flaming inferno and she burns to death.   Soap and Molly sneak up to find their big arrest has gone up in flames.  A vexed Soap says he shouldn't have listened to her, "gaze on our triumph" he says sarcastically.

Frank appears behind them, Soap whimpers that he doesn't want to die. Frank tells him not to do anything stupid then.  He asks for any information they have on the copycat vigilantes. They say they don't have much.   Frank tells him he blew open Ma. Gnucci's safe. He found a million dollars which he is keeping, and also found some photographs. When Molly asks what kind he says "The career-making kinds".   In exchange for all they have on Elite, Payback and the axeman they'll get the photos.

He then departs as more cops arrive. As the fire is brought under control they look at the photos he gave them.   And it's the incriminating ones of the Mayor and the Commisioner doing something extremely blackmailable.  Molly and Soap both exchange broad grins upon this discovery.

Our intrepid cops get their happy ending.

We jump forward a month.  In Franks old apartment building Joan ventures out thinking she heard Frank.  Mr. Bumpo walks up and points out his door is open.  They go inside but find the place empty, Joan says sadly he won't ever be back and she'll always be trapped here and scared.  Then Mr. Bumpo spots a table and piled on it is massive amounts of cash with their names on top.  The card ontop of Joan's pile read "Joan.  Just go.  Frank". And she smiles happily while Mr. Bumpo and Dave celebrate loudly.  Outside listening is Frank

Frank. "Best I can do Joan. Dave.  Mr. Bumpo.  Maybe I am damned.  But I'm not dragging you good people down with me".

And he walks away.  Meanwhile, thanks to the photos Soap is the new commisioner.  He is looking at a photo of a beautiful woman and Molly has written on the back "Might stay an extra couple of weeks".  She is running for mayor herself and Soap sets up future meetings between them.

He asks the receptionist where the previous commissioner kept his cigars.  She says that he took his after he left in a hurry, but she took the liberty of leaving a new box for him.  He lights up and goes and stands on the balcony.

Soap: "I love this city.  Heck, even a loser like me can blackmail his way to the top. And now I'm going to give this place the N.Y.P.D it's always deserved".

At that moment a bird craps on his face.  As shit runs down his cheeks he just smiles and says, "...man.  I love this town."

Frank is dealing with the vigilante killers as loose ends.  Elite seems to have quit his patch and Payback could hit anywhere.  So that leaves The Axeman.  He finds the church they all went for confession to with Hector Redondo.  The three of them are still arguing, with Elite and Payback still at ideological odds and Hector caught in the middle.  Then suddenly Frank appears and Hector says "I knew you'd come.  It was inevitable".  Frank scowls, saying "It certainly was".

They say that he inspired them and now he can lead them.  This bemuses Frank who points out that Hector is a "lunatic".  Elite is a "Nazi" and Payback, does the name Maria Lopez mean anything to him?  She was a cleaner at World Wide investments and was killed when one of his bullets went through a wall.  She's one of four innocents who have been caught in Payback's crossfire because he couldn't be bothered to plan properly.

Payback mumbles that there have to be sacrifices in war.  Frank readies his gun.  The three of them say they thought he'd be with them.  They have it all worked out, The Vigilante Squad with secret plans and codewords and passwords and things.  They can punish the guilty, clean up the city once and for all.  Hector yells, "In heaven's name man! Isn't this exactly what you wanted?"  Frank opens fire on them saying just "No".  And that brings this storyline to an end.

Frank is the only vigilante the city needs.

A great ending to this revitalisation of good old Frank Castle, doing what he does best.  Although there is a grotesque aspect to elements of the story, like Ma Gnucci's being just a torso and the indestructability of The Russin taken out by an obese New Yorker, there is also a sweetness here as well.  His dealings with his neighbours are lovely, especially Joan and giving them the money to realise their dreams at the end was a gorgeous gesture.  As he said himself, people like that, who looked after him, refused to give up his name under torture and helped kill the unkillable man deserve to have a chance to live the lives they want and not live in danger thanks to him. The final fate of Ma Gnucci was quite reminsicent of what happened to a bad guy in Preacher, but she totally deserved it.  The two other plot threads running through the story were fun,  poor Soap seeing what he is tasked to do being dragged into Molly's cunning plans.  And yet it did pay off with the deal for the photos and now the N.Y.P.D and Mayor's office might just be a little less corrupt now the tainted people have gone and the Gnucci family influence destroyed. Elite, Payback and The Holy trying to form a sort of Superfriends team of vigilantes was always going to come to a sticky end when Frank tracked them down.  He might be dedicated to wiping out criminal scum, but he needs no help and no people who will allow the deaths of innocents or people guilty of lesser crimes.  All-in-all this was a triumph for Garth Ennis, with his trademark balance of The Punisher's killer side and more human side makng the character eminently readable.  Artwise it's great as well, Palmiotti appears to be a light touch inker as the art is recgonisably the late Steve Dillon's.  So if you're a fan of the Punisher this is well worth a read as a salutory lesson in how to take a character who'd become a joke and make him viable again.  Superb stuff.

The Punisher: Welcome Back Frank (#1-12) PART ONE

"Nothing stops me.  Nothing" - Frank Castle.

Time for more Garth Ennis I think, we haven't had him on here in a while.  Now regular readers of this blog will know I covered Ennis's seminal Punisher run on the mature readers label MAX.  However that was not the first time he wrote for good old Frank Castle, he was actually hired to write a reboot of the character in the mainstream Marvelverse in the year 2000 coming off the back of his acclaimed DC Vertigo series Preacher.  The reason it's called "Welcome Back Frank" was that the Punisher had fallen into a notorious Dork Age. Frank had killed himself then an angel had brought him back to kill villains and earn his way back into Heaven using his supernatural guns.  Unlike the awesome "Franken-Castle" storyline, Angel Punisher was desgined to be a permanant change for the character but was so derided by fandom that Marvel quickly decided a rethink was needed and Ennis was brought in to return the character to his roots and make him a viable character again.  And he did this with aplomb, dealing with Frank's rejection of his Angel self and God-given mission in a few pages and then threw him into a storyline in which he takes on the worst of the New York Mafia that won back the crowd for the character and lead to Ennis being allowed free reign during the rest of his run and on Punisher MAX as well. The artists for this story are his Preacher collaborator Steve Dillon on pencils and Jimmy Palmiotti on inking duty.  As this storyline is twelve issues long I have split it into two posts. Let's crack on shall we?

We begin with Frank at a drug deal where he has killed all but one of the particpants who he holds a gun to and says "and get a haircut" too.  Then he leaves and the man excitedly recounts what happened to someone over his mobile phone which was that Frank came in all guns blazing and he's been left alive and oh he now has a tonne of money and all of the drugs enough to set them up for the rest of their lives! Then he senses Frank behind him and realizing what's about to happen, says farewell.  Frank breaks his neck, doses the cash and guns in petrol and sets it all ablaze and walkes away.

Spacker Dave and Mr. Bumpo.

Later he returns in his civilian wear to where he is living.  A small set of flats each one inhabited by a different person.  There's the massively facially pierced "Spacker Dave" who sits out on the stoop all day.  The very obese "Mr. Bumpo" and "Joan" a very timid young woman.  He says hello to all of them and returns to his rooms thinking he uses the alias John Smith"whatever works."

He ruminates that he's back to acting alone, no "Microchip" no fancy ammo, no battle-vans, no surveillance, "just the basics".  He been gone a while, "the scum in the city need a wake-up call and here it comes."  And we cut to the local morgue where the bullet ridden burned corpse of Frank's victim is having revenge sworn over him by his brother "Bobby Gnucci".  Frank enters the morgue and the coroner asks him for one hundred bucks to see the body too.  Frank stuffs him in a locker.

He enters the room and the mobsters tell him to get lost, but Frank goes for his guns, "first they do is freeze.  Like always.  So number one's a freebie."  He opens fire with his shotgun saying the rest he "pays full price for".  The bullets fly and he takes them all down finishing them off with a grenade.  He tells them he has a message, "listen".

Walking away from the scene he thinks they need to remember the terror every time they picked up the phone "because you knew I was out there".  The message is one for all scum but the Gnucci's are a good place to start.  He queues to get into the Empire State Buiding as he reflects that Sticky Eddie was the dealer who liked to choke rivals in their own blood.  Brother Bobbie was a date-rapist.  And Carlo is "Ma Gnucci's number one son."

He's been tailing him since he left a club, he can't have heard about Bobbie yet.  He's taking a woman to the one-hundreth and fourth floor, deck closed tonight apart from a select few.  Carlo slips the manager an envelope and takes a woman up there, he disables the manager and follows them.  He sneaks in telling the woman to shush.

Welcome Back Frank indeed.

Carlo turns and she's gone but the window is open. Confused he leans out and the Punisher grabs him from above  and ties him up before holding him above his head.

Frank: "I caught a glimpse of Heaven once.  The angels showed me.  The idea was I'd kill for them.  Clean up their mistakes on Earth. Eventually redeem myself.  Tried it.  Didn't like it."

And we see him pitch Carlo off the building.  He then thinks that he was taken up to see his wife and daughter and son all finally at peace.  "Then I was cast down", back into a world where rapists, psychos, perverts a brand new evil every minute spewed out as fasts as men can think them up.  The world where pitching a criminal dwarf of a skyscraper to tell the criminal scum was a sane and rational act, "the angels thought it would be Hell for me.  But they were WRONG.  Welcome back Frank says New York City".

We begin the next chapter with the police commissioner on the phone to the mayor as he demands the police turn up the heat on the Punisher reminding him that incriminating photos exist of him and the commissioner on a fact finding tour in Las Vegas.  After he signs of one of the cops says "Gnucci's must be turning up the heat."  The commissioner grumbles that putting his best men on the case will get laughed in his face, then he suddenly says "wait a minute.  Get me Soap."

Then a man called Joe, cousin to Ma Gnucci goes to a meeting in Little Italy to inform the men there that the N.Y.P.D. has been enlisted to do all they can to find the Punisher and when the cuffs go on, "one of you gentlemen will cancel The Punisher's ticket."  Listening to them discretely is Frank, having a meal with a sex worker as cover. He hands out envelopes of cash and then tells them to come back tonight and they'll have all the weapons they need.  Frank gets up to leave and tells the sex-worker to forget this ever happened.

Detective Martin Soap.

Back at the police station a down trodden looking man called Martin Soap is beng told by the Captain that his run of bad luck with cases is about to run out as he's going to be put in charge of finding and arresting The Punisher.   After the meeting he mopes about how the hell he is supposed to find The Punisher when "every cop in the department loves him."  He shown to his office by the Lieutenant whic is jammed full of files in boxes, he's told he's heading up a task force who are going to be meeting him at the crime scene.

Frank stalks his prey, which are the men handed those envelopes.  The first to die is " Harry 'Neck' Thorton".  It is said he outshot four State Troopers, "dodged a bullet.  But not thirty" as he opens up on him with his machine gun.  Then there is "Eddie Lau", expert martial artist, Frank knows a little, but his favourite is "splat fu" as he pushes Lau in front of an underground train. Then there is "Tall Joe Small".  Sniper who capped fifty guys in Desert Storm.   As he runs him over he thinks that the trouble with that was was that it wasn't Vietnam a war where "you don't fight dirty. You do things that make dirty look good."

Soap arrives at the scene of Carlo's death and meets a nervous looking man called "Buddy Plug. Most people call me Bud.  I'm the rest of the taskforce."  Soap tells him they got given the case because they don't have a hope in solvng it.  It's the Captains way of the Captain saying "you got it boss and drop dead to the commissioner simultaneously".  He says well it can't get any worse.  Then Bud reveals he's not a cop he's a "Behavioural Psychologist."

Joan.

Back at Frank's place, Joan presents him with a plate of cookies saying she baked too many and didn't want them to go to waste.  Frank thinks if he takes them she might come back and want to talk.  He doesn't take them and she has a nervous breakdown on the spot.  So he takes them.   As he sits sharpening his knife he eats one and thinks they are actually pretty good cookies.  He leaves going past Mr. Bumpo getting several pizza's delivered and Spacker Dave out on the stoop.

It's ten-thirty and Joe is waiting for the three now deceased hitmen to come.  Joe looks out his side windown grumbling about how unproffesional they are as Frank dispatches the man in the driver's seat next to him.  Joe looks back round and is rendered speechless on seeing him sat there.  He tells Joe to lose the piece and to put his boss on speaker phone.  Ma Gnucci picks up and asks who the hell it is and Joe stutters it's him and The Punisher.

Frank tells her that he thought he let her know his plan so she could plan her funeral in advance, "I got your sons.  I got your killers.  Now I've got your "man-behind-the-man".  Or the "man-behind-the-hag in your case". Then he tells Joe to get out of the car currently speeding down the freeway.  Joe wails that he will die, he's got to gve him a chance.  Frank points a gun at his head so Joe tumbles out of the car, survives the initial impact on the road, but is then run over by an eighteen-wheeler.

Frank notes that Ma Gnucci is screaming blue murder now.  He'll take the guns for himself and ditch the limo in the Hudson river, "almost the end of a rich, full day."  We then cut to a young Catholic priest taking a confession from a gangbanger who tells him all sorts of sordid things.  In a rage he grabs an axe and chops the gangbanger to bits in the Confessional yelling that he'll absolve him all right. When he is done he snaps out of it and says "Oh God forgive me.  I've done it again".

Hector Redondo does his thing.

Next chapter begins with Frank deciding he needs to thin out the army Ma Gnucci has around her.  He goes to a wiseguy bar and shoots the cars parked outside.  When the Gnucci soldiers come rushing out they get what's left in the belt of his assault rifle. Then he unleashes a flame thrower and burns some more.  He then runs saying the flamer is lousy for a prolonged firefight, to much of  a risk in it taking a bullet to the tank.  But he runs into a building and those following see the lift go down.  They race down the stairs to catch The Punisher and open fire as the lift opens, which only has the flamer in it and the die in a firey explosion.  "That's my boys" thinks The Punisher.

Back with Soap, he is reading Bud's psychological profile of The Punisher which is full of the usual psychobabble.  Soap says to him,"don't take this the wrong way Bud... but what does all this actually mean?"  Bud says he thought it would help understand his motives.  Soap says they know his motives, "he kills criminals because he hates them. It's not exactly brain surgery"  He wants more on his methods so Bud should look into that in finding where he'll strike next.  And he leaves the office with an upset Bud left behind.

Cut to the priest.  His name is Hector Redondo and a daft old woman with poor eyesight comes in to clean the church even though it's the wrong say.  She sees the blood and thinks Hector spilled the communion wine and despite Hector telling her she's here on the wrong day she is mostly deaf too and gets to work cleaning up.

Frank returns him, greets Spacker Dave, see's Mr. Bumpo getting a new toilet delivered and tells Joan he liked the cookies.  Inside his rooms he thinks about Ma Gnucci's brother standing trial tommorrow, this time for a crime he didn't do.  He has the slickest defence lawyers in the city and we see a newspaper telling us it's Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson on his case.  He wants Dino dead before Ma Gnucci because Dino would "bathe New York in blood."  So his real problem now is Matt Murdock and "the Guardian Angel that follows him everywhere".

Back with Soap, he returns to his office and finds Bud has committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling using his tie. The Punisher is waiting on a roof close to the jail. Apparently Murdock made mincemeat of the prosecution.  Dino is on his way back to the jail in an unmarked car.  He arrives in seven minutes and dies in ten.  He realises as one of Daredevil's billy clubs bounces off the wall next to him that he'll need every second.

heh heh heh "fap".

Daredevil asks if he ever stops.  He knows Dino Gnucci is a monster but he should fall according to the law and not shot down like a street dog.  Frank says he knows these speeches of his by heart. So Daredevil jumps down and starts pummeling him.  Frank thinks that he's giving him the first round which is easy because in a straight fight he never stands a chance against him.

He thinks that Daredevil is not the enemy but he's sick of his self righteousness and he deserves "a wake up call".  He rigged an ultrasonic device an hour ago and it goes off overwhelming Daredevil's supersenses.  Frank then punches him out.  Daredevil wakes chained securely to a post and a gun taped to his hand.

Frank: "One bullet.  One shot.  Once chance to stop me killing Dino Gnucci. It's time for that choice you were telling me about."

He's got his back to him and he's wearing kevlar, so it'll have to be a headshot.  If he doesn't shoot he has a death he could have prevented on his conscience.  If he does shoot he's a killer. 

Daredevil asks what kind of choice is that?  Frank says "the one I make every time I pull the trigger." Dardevil says he won't kill him.  Dino Gnucci is a dead man then says Frank.  Daredevil begs him saying Dino deserves to be taken off the street for something he's done.  We have laws otherwise the society they have built is completely worthless. "The thought of Dino living one more minute is enough to drive me insane" responds Frank.  Daredevil cocks the hammer, "that's the spirit" says Frank.

Daredevil given an impossible choice for him.

Daredevil keeps begging Frank to not put him in this position but Frank starts commentating on Dino getting out of the car. Finally Daredevil says "God forgive me" and pulls the trigger  But the firing pin had been removed.  Frank assassinates Dino then punches Daredevil out saying the chains will be gone when he wakes up.  The chapter ends with Hector praying to God for guidance to help him with his psycotic episodes.  Then another gangbanger walks in saying he has some "real bad sins" he wants to confesss to and Hector's face contorts in rage saying "of course my son.  For I am The Holy."

The next chapter starts with Soap's captain reading out Buds suicide note that all his life he felt rejection all his life in many forms and Soap's was the last straw.  "Jeez Soap" laughs the Captain, "what did you say to this guy?"

Cut to Frank taking a bullet to the side, ribs and shoulder thinking "that's the sound of my luck running out".  He was scoping out Ma Gnucci, getting a look at her security teams, he wasn't even going to hit her tonight.   But he was discovered and he only has a forty-five and the man who saw him had a sub-machine gun, "my night goes downhill from there."

Ma Gnucci.

Ma Gnucci gets out of her car and orders her men to kill him, "he killed my sons!  he killed my brother!  I want his head!". Three armed men follow the trail of blood into the closed Central Park zoo. Frank hides thinkng the shot to his ribs is the killer.  He realises he's going to have to use what's to hand to kill them and it's the one who made him who walks through the door.  Frank leaps out quickly grabs him and upends him into a tank full of pirahnas. Who start to tuck in.

When the other two men come in first thing they see is the stripped, bloody skeleton of their comrade.  Frank goes deeper into the zoo and finds a snake which he gets to squeeze the life out of one of the other men.  Ma Gnucci catches up demanding to know what they are up to.

Back at the precinct a Lieutenant called Molly Richthofen pokes her head around Soap's door telling him to call her Molly, "I'm the first piece of luck you've had all day."  She lights a cigarette and says he's the departments biggest loser and she's it's biggest embarrassment, "want to prove everybody wrong, crack both cases and then take over the world?" 

Molly, meet Soap.

Soap asks about the whole "biggest embarressment" thing.  She says she refused to sleep with the commissioner which she said at a press conference when the mic was still on.  As a special thankyou he's assigned her to take down the Gnucci family. Which is a farce as half of city hall and the department are in bed with them.  She is a taskforce of one.  And as the Punisher is working his way through them, they should team up.

We return to Frank, he thinks that he has to close this down soon as he's lost too much blood and the cops will be here soon.   He climbs into the polar bear enclosure taking another hit as he does so.  He looks around at something he can use as a weapon and spies the bears themselves.  One wakes up and he punches it hard in the face then quickly climbs out to escape the now enraged bear.  Ma Gnucci and the final goon have climbed in after him and the bears turn on them.  Frank looks back to enjoy the sight of them getting ripped apart, "oh yes.  It's one of the greats."  Then he scarpers as he hears sirens in the distance.

Hector is burying another murdered gangbanger and prays to God again saying God has forsaken him, he could have fought ths madness with His strength but He ignored him and now several people are dead by his hand. Hector asks for anything that could be taken as a sign of what to do now.  A newspaper then blows in his face with a headline about The Punisher and Hector takes that as the sign he needs, "now I see.  I am no longer alone."

The chapter ends with Molly and Soap arriving at the Central Park carnage site.  Molly thinks that it looks like her problems are all over. "So much for the titanic team-up" says Soap.  But then they see someone being taken away in an ambulance.  The cop there says the three creeps are dead, "Ma Gnucci is still alive."

The somewhat diminished Ma Gnucci.

We cut to ten days later.  Ma Gnucci is back home minus arm and legs and hair.  One cousin asks how she is doing and she orders him shot in the head for asking a stupid question.  When the man queries this she asks a second man to shoot both of them in the head. When they won't she demands a third man to kill all of them, and despite their pleas, he does so.

Ma Gnucci: "Ten days ago I was fed to a pack of polar bears.  Anyone doubting I mean what I say would do well to remember that.  Clean up this mess and let's get down to business."

Her goons tell her that finding The Punisher has always been impossible.  So she puts a ten million dollar bounty on his head.

Back at Frank's home, Mr. Bumpo is being taken to hospital via a hole in the wall as he had a coronary and they couldn't get him out through the door.  He tells Bumpo to take it easy and returns to his rooms.  He's been recovering from the bullets that hit him.  But tonight he's going looking for trouble.  Ma Gnucci living was a shock, "old witch is blessed by the devil himself."  Then there is a knock on the door.  He holds a gun behind his back but it's only Joan saying she baked too many pies.

Molly and Soap go to a bar called "Lucky's".  He says it's nice and quiet and the food's cheap. Molly says that her guess will be that Ma Gnucci will hole up while her people hunt The Punisher.  She'll be hoping they get to him before he gets to her.  So if the stake out her place they can be there on the spot when The Punisher shows.  They sit back, watch the massacre and step in and rest whatever is leftover.  She asks if Soap is in or out with this plan?

Before we see his answer we're back with Hector murdering another confessor.  The mostly blind and deaf old woman comes to do the cleaning and Hector tells her outright he killed the man for beating his wife and taking cocaine.  She doesn't register that and goes to clean up. Hector smiles and thanks God for showing him The Punisher, "for showing me I'm not alone."

Elsewhere in a corporate boardroom meeting for Worldwide Investment Corporation, a rough looking man with a mask appears and tells them his name is "Payback".  He accuses them of having millions of gallons of blood on their hands and when one protests he shoots him.   He say they invested in a company that built substandard aircraft and many people dies in a plane crash as a result.  A lawsuit closed down a Kentucky factory cost a thousand people their jobs, and the town became a crime ridden slum.

Another vigilante, Payback.

They set up shop in Taiwan with some of the lowest standards on the planet and colluded with local authorities in the murder of over a hundred union organizers killed by death squads. They are criminal scum, "lower than the filthiest hood on the street!  You are guilty! And now it's time for Payback".  And he fires on them with a submachine gun.

Somewhere else in a nice neighbourhood a masked vigilante called "Elite" is patrolling the street.  He sees some drug dealers sitting in a car saying perhaps they could find somewhere else to deal drugs. They tell him to drop dead.  He responds that crime is minimal here, property values are very high, he won't let them conduct their business within a ten clock radius. "I want you trash to leave because you lower the tone." 

Then he shoots them all in the face with a silenced pistol and walks off thinking "peasants". He bumps into a woman whose dog is urinating on the pavement. He introduce himself to her as Elite and then he shoots the dog saying it's a nice neighbourhood so lets keep it that way.

And Elite.

Back with Frank, he's been walking the streets all night but all is quiet. He says Guiliani has a lot to answer for in bringing the crime rates down.   Then a mugger appears, Frank deals with him by jamming him head first into a garbage can and decides he's as healed as he's going to get.

Frank: "Tomorrow I finish the job I started.  Here I come, Ma.  Ready or not."

We then cut to Ma Gnucci and the first bit of good news for her.  A stuttering man has be brought to her saying he's got information on The Punisher, "he lives right across the road from me."

The weasely man goes onto say he was coming home from his job at an adult bookstore and it was late because they close at midnight.  And he glances up to see a dude staggering down the street, he see's the Skull shirt and the blood and realises that it really is The Punisher, "an' I just about wet myself."

The weasely man then carries on saying he say him cross the street, fall down a few times then go into the building opposite his.  He watched him come and go for a week wondering what to do about it and then heard of the ten million bucks reward.  She says the ten million is for killing him, if his information is true it's worth ten thousand.  She sends Billy and Benny with him to check it out, if he's wrong "make it a messy one."

There is now a double page spread of the news broadcasting a report on the killers who have cropped up since The Punisher came back in the scene.   It reports on Payback and Elite's murders as well as the mysterious deaths of all the Catholic criminals marked on their foreheads with the sign of the cross.  Vox pops seem to show support for the killers, The Punisher most of all except for one who says they are a "bunch of fascist lunatics!  The Punisher's the worst of the lot."

Inside a helicopter are two executives from the company Payback is targetting.   The C.E.O admits that everything Payback said was true and they need to stop him before people start looking into their company more closely.  But as they fly they see Payback with a rocket launcher and he fires on the helicopter, destroying it.

More gang members arrive on Elite's patch intending to show him "what time it is." But using a sniper rifle out of his bedroom windown he headshots all three of them.   He then stashes the rifle in a secret compartment in his bathroom while conversing through the door with his kids.

Billy and Benny and the weasly guy are parked up outside his home. Inside Frank has packed up a bag full of guns saying it's the night he closes the Gnucci family down for good.  His car is parked a block over and he thinks this is a good time to leave as he is getting to well known here. He leaves the house and the two goons confirm it is The Punisher.  They call Ma and she says to follow while back-up arrives, the weasly man gets his money and goes.

Soap and Molly on stake-out start playing a game where one says a film title and the other has to give a film that starts with the final letter and so on. They see the Gnucci's start to leave and Soap wants to follow them.  Molly says that they are unlikely to get him, so best to stay fixed on Ma Gnucci and anyway they can't do what even a bunch of tactical units can do.  So the sit and carry on with the game.

Punisher giving as good as he gets.

The Punisher is under heavy fire, thinking that they came out of nowhere.  He tosses a brick of plastique at them to clear out some in the resultant explosion.   Then he starts with the automatic weapons.  He thinks of the song of the 'sixty as one he remembers from a long time ago.

Frank: "Of fireteams dug in on the breaks between the paddy field tracer lasering the jungle night.  Of hueys screaming through the void... of Lieutenant Castle getting short and hating it, wanting 'Nam to last forever.  A lullaby come all the way to New York City".

His shots find their targets, but one fires a rpg at him and forces him down an alley. He only has his forty-five pistol left now.  He notes a bullet to the chest the kevlar took.  The rest of the goons still left standing come after him he punches the first in the throat and gets out his knife and stabs him.  He takes another to the chest that goes through his kevlar.  He approaches the final man standing and as he fires on Frank just walks towards him and breaks his neck.  Then he collapses next to him and blacks out, prone in the alley.

Frank passes out.

Cliffhanger! So it's a different take on Frank than we've seen from Ennis before in Punisher and Fury MAX.  There's much more of an element of humour and the grotesque more like you would find in Preacher and The Boys.  Sometimes you want an in-depth look at Frank's psychological motivations and sometimes you want to see him punch a polar bear in the face. The resolution of Franks Angel Punisher era is beautifully dealt with.  Some writers would spin that out to a whole arc, but Ennis in his no nonsense manner dimisses it in a couple of pages.  Hell on Earth is actually the Heaven the Punisher wants to do his work in, and he really does get to work in this storyline.  Given Ennis's distate for most heroes who aren't Frank or Superman, Daredevil was treated very fairly in his appearance, with Frank admitting he doesn't stand a chance against him in a straight fight and only wins by using his brains and cheating.  Having Daredevil pull the trigger was probably quite a controversial move back when the comic was first published as he's another hero with a "thou-shalt-not-kill" reputation.  But Frank put him in that position to prove a point and saying that he can't live if Dino isn't killed is pretty much his whole mindset laid out right there.  Soap and Molly are fun characters, Soap rather meekly goes along with her cunning plans to let The Punisher and the Gnucci's war it out until they can step in at the end.  We'll see how this plan plays out in the Part Two of this storyline up in a few days time.

Prophet Book 5: Earth War (#1-6)

"Now follow me, brothers.  We are nearly there" - FreeJohn

And so finally we come to the end of the acclaimed Prophet reboot, which took a bunch of uninspired Rob Liefeld characters created in the 90's and spun them into a wildly imaginative sci-fi storyline.  I've covered the four preceeding volumes and it's too complicated  a plotline with many different branches to fully rehash in this intro but basically the war in space had finished with the conclusion on the main series and the Earth War miniseries we're looking at here ties up various loose ends on well, Earth.  A huge army of aliens opposed to the Empire Brain Mothers and their reawakening of the millions of clone Prophets that they telepathically control seeded across thousands of worlds, has gathered on Earth for the final battle.  Our main characters are Old Man Prophet the man who commanded the army who beat the Empire first time around and his comrades the techno-organic robot Jaxson, immortal android Diehard, the tree-like being Hiyonhoiagn and the female reptilian assassin Rein-East.  They hooked up with several other Johns who had found their own ways to resist the mind control of the Brain Mothers at the end of the series thanks to some alien spores they were beneficially infected by, this included the gay male assassin John-Greenknife, the female scout John-Ka and a warrior FreeJohn grown on a world that required him to have a tail.  At the end of the main series the Empire stole the nucleus egg of something called "The Red Pain" which will also be making an appearance in this miniseries.  So time to wrap up Prophet for good it seems.

We start with "Jung Brother Hiyonhoiagn" flying across the remains of an Imperial Fortress which has been laid waste by an unknown foe. He communicates telepathically with Old Man Prophet saying whatever it was it has come and gone.  Inside a bubble of "shipskin" Old Man Prophet tells him that his mind is open if he finds anything. As he floats the skin shields his mind as he links his thoughts to his "crew-brothers".

Old Man Prophet.

He reaches out mentally across the vast homeworld of mankind, he wants to locate the nucleus egg of the Red Pain that an Empire Prophet seized a month ago.  The power would be disastrous in the hands of the enemy Empire, "a power capable of enslaving the myriad intelligent races that now call this system home."

He senses a chill and the distant sound of cracking like ice.  He feels minds, strong and alien, pushing through his defences. Through all his shields they speak to him, "human. We can help in what you seek.  Expect us. Soon".  Old Man Prophet pulls himself back and leaves the shipskin.

He returns to his parked ship, it was taken from the Pirate Lords of The Body City and "flown to the green hills of Earth".   He walks crouched through corridors made for shorter beings.  He sees "new friends in a new home."  It's the first time he has lived with other Prophets since the last war and he is having to learn not to see them as just the enemy.

FreeJohn contemplates Earth.

He climbs to the top of the ship and sitting on the roof is FreeJohn, who says "strange. To know this world and yet be so unsure if it is new to my eyes."  FreeJohn asks why Old Man Prophet is still wearing his helmet aren't the "Basidian spores" enough to guard his mind?  Old Man Prophet says he has little trust and the last time he unmasked he thought the war was over.

FreeJohn: " I see those around, this world and all I've seen of space corrupted by the Empire that grew us. If war is the only tool we are given to turn the tides. Then war we must."

Old Man Prophet sees his own ideals reflected back at him with clarity.  He looks down and sees John-Ka sparring with Rein-East.  He mentions that they should expect the visitors he made contact with soon. "Friend or foe?" asks FreeJohn. Old Man Prophet says it remains to be seen.

He says he doesn't like the idea of putting more faith in God-beings "but what other choices are mortals given?"  The armies are counting on them to lead so lead they must. The armies have gathered in a huge tent city, today there is going to be a competition between champions for the honour of their clans and entertainment of their comrades.

John-Greenknife gathers wood to feed their living starship.  He feels more at home in the tent city than amongst his own clones. Suddenly he comes across a strange scene, "blind monks chanting to a poly crystalline child".  John-Greenknife runs to alert Old Man Prophet and FreeJohn. It seems their allies have arrived, "crystal priests from the far west".  They have come to talk of war but have found revelry and have their own champion for the arena competition the mass group of waiting aliens have decided to have..

The Crystal beings prove their strength.

So the contest begins and the Crystal Priest's champion defeats all, there are no deaths as it did not need to spill blood to show its power.  Afterwards they have a summit with the Crystal-Blessed inside a "Qid-Pid" Starship.   To defeat the Man-Empire they must take the communication towers, but the Priest-King notes they have too few in their army to achieve that.  They want to get rid of the Man-Empire too and they also know where it keeps its secrets, the Red Nucleus.

FreeJohn asks what they want in trade? The Priest-King says their goals are one.  But they need the King's brother "High Kumandan Osmeka" killing as his hatred for humans has blinded him.  In order for their armies to join theirs he needs to be got rid of to clear the way. They put all the information in a crystal ring.  Old Man Prophet says Diehard will go, but the King says a human is needed for a mission so delicate.  So John-Ka volunteers.  She is handed the crystal ring and asks if she will kill him with this or her blade which delights the King.

John Ka accepts the misson.

She climbs aboard Hiyanhoiagn and they fly off. Waiting outside the camp are the "pilgrim-cities of the Crystal-Blessed" marching to the crystal's call.  The King watches them. They seek the freedom of the tower to better commune with the All-Crystal, the Empire is enemy to all.

We then see inside one of the towers.  A lone Star Prophet carries a precious cargo.  It is "the nucleus-heart of the Red pain's living nebula."  The Brain Mothers there say it must be kept secret.   Elsewhere the four-armed "World Raper, High Arc Lord Multi-Muitox" is finishing off some resistance to the Imperial Sword.  He appeared briefly in an earlier episode, Old Man Prophet cut off one of his arms which he replaced with a steel one to remind himself who did it.

John-Strykhnos arrives, his most trusted eye.  They go inside Muitox's ship to be safe from prying minds.  The John tells him that something passed through the towers that the All-Mother's would keep for themselves.  Muitox shows him repurposed clone tanks, growing Prophets of his own that will be free of Brain Mother control.

Moitox asks where the item is now?  John tells him they have taken it to "Mentis-Keep".  He consults with his tank grown psychics which are strong enough to hide his ships lower rooms from Imperial minds.  They tell him to strike now, "on your word we will open the way".  Muitox tells them to do so and their minds push out as one.  He finds a lone Brain Mother and kills her and takes her crown shield and puts it on.  Hours later his ship reaches Mentis-Keep, a sanctuary for Earthbound Brain-Mothers.

World Raper, High Arc Lord Multi-Muitox

He gets out of his ship along with his own Prophets.  He is greeted by a Brain Mother's projection of her young girl self and he tells her she has no power here.  The Wolf-Rayet traitor (Old Man Prophet) was the only one who grew his own soldiers he says.  He is taking control of the Empire:

Muitox: "Our Empire.  You parasites will no longer be needed."

Then a fight breaks out between Johns who are on the Brain Mother's side and Moitox's FreeJohns.  Muitox's clones cut a swathe through the Empire Johns, "the Brain Mothers are no match for cold steel." He is drawn to the nucleus and he alone reaches the room it is in, "calling him to it.  It is a pain that hurts to not be part of. With a touch.  It consumes him".
We then return to Exmere, the psychic self of a long gone Brain Mother who has been cut off from the communal mind and has been journeying through the system alone.  But suddenly she feels something, Imperial minds united in pain, "a cry from Earth".  As she gets closer she sees a red mass made up of a "multitude of torn minds, screaming in unison.  Screaming with unfocused red rage".

It sees her and she blasts her way through it to find one mind in the middle stronger than the others, which interests her. She travels deeper and finds Muitox lost within the nucleus' power.   Her mind form touches his and pulls it into focus, "it is an all consuming focus that devours the weaker minds surrounding it.  The red rage quiets into a calm."  And the thing that was once Multi-Moitox opens his thoughts to the Red Mother Exmere.

Muitox and Exmere meet in the Red Pain.

Hiyonhoiagn flies west through the cool midday air, then drops his cargo, John-Ka in a cocoon of pink shipskin. Her destination is "Yuinaika" the stronghold of the southern anti-human armies.  Behind the walls is the target High Kumandan Osmeka.  There is an unguarded entry point just as the Crystal Priest promised.  The shipskin can't go further with her and she climbs into the tunnel alone.

Inside she finds Diehard, and Rein-East too.  They flew in before sunrise and Rein is asleep right now.  John-Ka asks is Old Man Prophet didn't trust her? Diehard says "you he trusts.  You wouldn't be here otherwise.  It's the Crystal Priest he has far less faith in."  John-Ka takes out a brand new "brainfly" she grew for this, they act as scouts for her.  They then check the crystal ring and see that in a day's time the target will be out in the open.

Checking the plan.

He sits back and tells her the whole mission stinks as bad as John suspected.  The place they are in now was emptied out for them, he can see blood on the floor.  He nibbles some food and when John-Ka says she didn't think he ate, he says he took on some new parts, "long ago I had my own tongue".  He notes that the Prophets' taste things differently from how old humans do.  She says the rations taste fine to her.

Later Rein-East wakes up.  She looks around for Diehard who she has a bit of a crush on, John-Ka says he went out a few hours ago.   He is walking the streets leaving bits of him behind as sentries.  He sees some Crystal-Blessed walking past towing a huge crystal.  The air becomes heavy with the psychic weight of the shard, "this mission is a spark in an already combustible situation".

He returns to John-Ka and Rein now somewhat skinny of body, his body parts will stay in contact with him and he hands them each a body part to hear through.  John-Ka gets into position as a crowd gather for the High Kumandan Osmeka.  Diehard through his bodyparts watches the armed Crystal-Blessed move towards the tower.   His arm tells John-Ka to pull off his finger, she does so and his hand goes walking off on its fingers.  She sees through her drone-fly's eyes. Finally the target comes into view.

Diehard uses his body to link them up.

He has a line of captured Prophets and a being armed with an executioner's axe.  His voice is just gutteral screams to her vat-grown ears.  She says she can end this now, it's "no way for Prophets to die."  Diehard tells her to wait.  Through th drone-fly's eyes she sees the first John get his head cut off.   Then Diehard's finger says she must get out of the tunnel now.  She brings the drone-fly back but also sees Kumandan Osmeka's head explode in gore. "That wasn't me!" she shouts.

She clambers onto the tunnel's outside roof with not a moment to spare as armed guards arrive.  Diehard against his better judgement frees the Empire clones.  He asks if they are ready to fight their way out and they say yes.  He tells Rein to get out quietly too, they'll all meet up at sundown.  John-Ka drops some gas bombs and Diehard and the Prophets battle their way through.

He sees Rein fighting too and joins her along with John-Ka who jumps down to where they both are.  A crystal warrior appears and slices up the Prophets.  Diehard, Rein and John-Ka manage to escape though.  They re-enter a tunnel underground and travel out of the city.  They sit and wait for all of Diehard's body parts to make their way back to him. He says to Rein as soon as he is whole they will travel back and warn John, "the priest's betrayal bodes ill for this war."  John-Ka sits apart with her brain-fly examining the crystal ring she was given.

Old Man Prophet chats with the treacherous Crystal-Priest.

We return to Old Man Prophet and the army, bolstered by the Crystal-Blessed, is on the march to war at "Thailli Vah".  Old Man Prophet is wearing a blue gelatinous thing round his neck called a "dolmantle".  It belonged to John-Greenknife's lover, the John Prophet who was first awakened on Earth and who activated the revival of all the Prophets everywhere, but who was killed at the end of the previous book after gaining self will.  John-Greenknife has given it to his "new father".

The towers come into view. The Crystal-Priest says that before the Man-Empire returned, generations of the Crystal-Blessed devoted their lives to rebuilding these towers.  Repairing centuries of damage and preparing the world for the All-Crystal. But the Empire slayed many, only some survived in the southern mountains. There is a loud humming sound the Crystal-Priests chant round the Crystal-Beasts until suddenly they metamorphosise into Crystal Titans.

Elsewhere far from the caravan, great hives of creatures are being upset and they are devouring one another.  They are being overridden by an outside mind.  The Red Pain nucleus with Exmere and Muitox is responsible, he says these animal minds are not enough to dull the pain.  Then he feels something calling and it must be heeded.  "Lead on Muitox" says Exmere.

The army assaults the towers.  Beneath the combined might of the Crystal-Blessed and the Free Armies, "the defences of the Earth Empire crumble."  Muitox and Exmere pass unconcerned over the battle, but they don't go unnoticed as Old Man Prophet senses a familiar Red Pain. The pain draws Muitox towards the towers focus, the entry to "bleed space".   His physical body is consumed to fuel the massive telekinetic output that drives them on, "only the power of Multi-Muitox and Red Exmere's will keeps their physical forms intact."

Ur-space.

They reach the tower's apex and break into bleed-space.  The Red Egg pushes farther, farther than living flesh can survive.  In a final desperate act they reach out with their minds to retain their link to the Red Shard and pass beyond the bleed.  The Red Egg returns to its birth dimension, "an ur-space beyond reality.  Where physical forms cannot follow".  Muitox and Exmere's psychic selves float in the both with their hands on the Red Shard.

Back on Earth, Diehard, John-Ka and Rein-East have made the rendezvous with Hiyonhoiagn but he's been injured by the Crystal-Blessed.  He tells Diehard to fly back and warn Old Man Prophet of the deceit.  So he leaves.  Hiyonhoiagn then says more are coming, they are tracking them via the crystal ring they gave John-Ka.  So he uses some shipskin to attach to the ring and float it away to divert those following it.

They will have to take the long way back to avoid their pursuers and John-Ka's brainfly shows her the Crystal-Blessed have found their trail.  The only option is to cross what looks like a sandy expanse but which is actually a creature grown by the Hoxiplotl as feeding temples for their cult.  John-Ka and Rein must lie on his back and make no noise while they quietly cross.

A stressful crossing for two of them.

Hiyonhoiagn makes his way silently across while John-Ka and Rein relax and enjoy the ride.  Suddenly John-Ka's stomach makes a loud rumble. And Hiyonhoiagn has to quietly side-step an appendage that shoots out to feel around for them.  Thankfully it doesn't find them.  The pursuing Crystal beings are not as subtle and the tentacles rip them apart.  Finally they make it across safely, "I would wish to never do that again" says Hiyonhoiagn.  But now they should keep moving.

We return to Muitox and Exmere suspended in blackness holding onto the Red Pain nucleus.  They discover form which appears around them and a giant female figure appears and says "few transcend Earth space" to them. She is Glory, another one of Rob Liefeld's creations.  She is a half demon demi-God who was conceived as a Wonder Woman rip-off and got a reinvention of her own a few year ago which I covered here and here.

Glory.

She holds out her hand to them, taking the Red Pain shard back. She says that here "I create new universes of my own". 

Narration: "Atop Glory's true titanic form, minds open.  They perceive beyond Glory into the vastness of ur-space.  They see the All-Crystal.  Vast, filling the void between universes.  Its power - and hunger - is overhwelming."

Back with Hiyonhoiagn, he is air-bourne again with Rein and John-Ka sleeping on him.  But they come under attack from a Xoan Vercia which launches missles at them.  John-Ka's brainfly deal with it but it was just a scout.

Down below the Xoan Krliah are feeding their Empire prisoners to Pit Larva.   John-Ka is angered at this sight and has to fight her anger to recall her brain fly.   Rein says to her that change is hard.  John-Ka says in the past she would have gone to war for those Empire lives.  Rein says she was prepared to die for revenge when she met this new family, "I think this life is better." They fly on.

In ur-space Exmere says she senses the crystals hunger for something.  Glory says they are massing where the membrane between ur-space and their world is thinnest.  Soon they wil break through and remake the world in their own image.   Muitox says "Bah! They will fail! The Earth is timeless!"

Exmere pleads with Glory says she knows she has left the Earth behind but she should consider what would be lost to the crystals now.  Glory tells her the Earth once meant much to her, "I would allow it if only for nostalgia."  She and Exmere open their minds to each other.  We see Glory's arrival on Earth a very long time ago.  Exmere born with the love of Earth "imbued through the song of her sisters." And we a montage of panels covering both their histories with Earth as Exmere takes over Glory's mind.

Red Exmere takes over.

Meanwhile on Earth now, the army have carved their way up to Thailli Vah. Old Man Prophet leads the assault on the tower and at the top they find the tether holding the "G.O.D satellite" in place.  But suddenly it transforms into "The Eye of All - gatekeeper to the Imperial afterlife". A legend now real and deadly. FreeJohn says if it can kill it can die.

But the Crystal-Priests start up a chant and the apparition ends up trapped and it's vessel destroyed as the "chant shakes the air like hammer against steel."   Old Man Prophet says it was just a psychic projection of a war-mother that he was too superstitious to see through.  FreeJohn says they all were and now it is time to attack the satellite itself, the shipskin surrounding them allowing them to fly up to it.

FreeJohn and Old Man Prophet reach the inside and fight off the Prophets in there.  Old Man Prophet honouring his side of the bargain as the crystal worshippers honoured theirs teleports the Crystal Host inside.  The Crystal Host walks with them to the war room and tells them that finally they will cut open the Bleed and welcome the All-Crystal into this universe.

FreeJohn saves Old Man Prophet.

Old Man Prophet says this was not what they agreed.  So the Crystal Host stabs him through the arm telling him "do not struggle against the inevitable".  FreeJohn grabs the sword hanging close by that was believed to belong to the original Prophet and cuts off Old Man Prophet's arm which was turning to crystal.  Elsewhere Diehard is racing back to them.

FreeJohn attacks the Crystal Host but it sends out a wave of projectiles.  Old Man Prophet manages to deflect them but FreeJohn isn't so fast and he dies, stabbed through the throat.  Old Man Prophet says he deserved better.  The Crystal Host says his matter like Old Man Prophet's will be transmuted as it can feel the All-Crystal passing into this space.

Glory SMASH!

Diehard cuts his way inside and blasts the Crystal Host. Hiyonhoiagn also speeds back with Rein-East and John Ka as the Bleed opens to ur-space and the All-Crystal within.  But something else comes through.

Narrator: "After thousands of years, the Amazon and demon-born super-being Glory returns to Earth, slave to Red Exmere's control. As the towers shatter, so too breaks the All-Crystal's portal to Earth-Space."

Diehard grabs Old Man Prophet and flies him to safety, they feel the Red Pain as they fly down.  Glory gains control of her mind again, catching the Red Pain shard that gave Exmere her power of control.  And with that, the Pain is and she is gone.

Afew days later everyone has gathered on the starship "Insulam Reverti".  Old Man Prophet and Diehard sit together and Old Man Prophet asks Diehard if he thinks of Earth as his home.  Diehard says the place he knew hasn't existed for a long time, "and where I felt most at home was not even that."

They invite Rein-East to come sit with them because they are talking like "old men" and Old Man Prophet begins to talk of what he remembers of the Scale homeworld. And with that the story comes to an end.  There are several pages of flashbacks and flashfowards but otherwise we have finished this series off.

Time to reminisce, it's an ending for now.

I'm truly sad this series has come to an end.  It was a slice of truly original and imginative hard SF pulp science-fiction and there was and is nothing quite like it in the rest of comicdom.  The main writer Brandon Graham and the team of artists have created a story where it doesn't matter if you don't follow it 100% you just get carried along anyway as the weird and wonderful unfurls before you.  I could have read about the exploits of Old Man Prophet, Diehard, Rein-East, Hiyonhoiagn and John-Ka for a long time.  As it is we do get a slight Deus Ex Machina with Glory's intervention destroying the Crystal threat, but it was nice to see her again and I am happy that she took the form of her reboot self, not the awful Rob Liefeld look.  I'm not sure why this exists as a seperate miniseries and not as the culmination of the main series, but there we are. I've spoken of the art and I'll say again that I love it for it's unusual look and it suits the content of the series completely, kudos to the art team of Brandon Graham, Simon Roy, Giannis Milogannis Ron Atkins, Grim Wilkins and Sandra Lanz.  Overall I'll say this is a series you'll want to keep coming back to, it is a densely written story that never talks down to the reader and expects you to accept everything it throws at you as it world builds even as the series comes to an end.  This was truly an object lesson in how to take a lot of embarrassing characters created during Image's first few years and reimagine them to show how Image has moved on in the years since.  Wonderful stuff and I am sorry to say goodbye to it and all the characters as they are now.