Customer Reviews

Punisher: Born

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

An engaging take on the brutal origins of Frank Castle aka The Punisher. Darrick Robertson's art of the Vietnam firefight scenes and throughout this short 4 story read, is more than explosive to the eyes. Truly, once again, Garth Ennis has proven to the World that the bar he raised with his run on the Punisher is now so high it is almost unattainable. The one-shot 'Born' practically belongs as a beginning to Ennis' Punisher Max run (Highly Recommended). Once again, IF you can find the HC version, get it.

Let me just say that I really got into collecting punisher comics after the 2004 The Punisher movie. Now this is funny because the movie definitely wasn't a huge hit but being 13 I didn't care then. I started simple by buying just random punisher comics. I got to know his backstory in a matter of weeks and then I saw it. In my local comic store I saw issue #1 of the unlimited series. Quickly I spent the $15 that it cost. After I read it I looked for the newest series of punisher comics. It was the MAX series. So I bought the first volume. Then I heard about BORN. I bought it without thinking twice. I got to say this was impressive.The book had everything , and allowed you to share the pain with all these excellent and diverse characters. The book is broken up into four days. The story is told by an enlisted man named Stevie Goodwin, he is part of Frank Castle's platoon. THe story is set in 1971 at a place FireBase Valley Forge. It is the last outpost watching the Cambodian border during Vietnam. Through great story telling by Garth Ennis (my alltimne favourite punisher storyteller)and a great art to match. This is a must for Punisher fans and a great starting point for people new to graphic novels.

This is the series that actually turned me into a huge fan of the Punisher, a character who I previously considered to be juvenile, one-note, macho, ridiculous, etc. But after Garth Ennis' internsely compelling 'Born', no more!

In Born, Ennis has realized and fleshed out the terrifying possibilities that the deceptively simple character of the Punisher represents. This story reveals like few have before that Frank Castle is in fact a monster. A tragic, sympathetic, and fascinating monster perhaps, but a terrifying monster nonetheless. He is no mere vigilante, and certainly no hero. He is a character who embraces and revels in violence and death as few humans can even begin to understand, and this is what makes him an interesting character. Frank Castle has no real appreciation or understanding of life, and ironically is only closest to feeling 'alive' when he is totally immersed in death. For the first time, in Born, this simple truth of the character was finally explored without any moral, 'heroic', or even comedic limitations which plagued so much of the earlier representations of the Punisher, and it is scripted to utter perfection by Ennis.

The final moments of this miniseries, where Frank finally makes his 'choice,' has got to be one of the most creepy and devastating moments in mainstream comic book history. It may be counter-intuitive to any normal person, but makes all too much sense given what we already should know about the character. Needless to say, to any reader with a taste for the macabre and an interest in the nature of Humanity's darker impulses, a story told as well as this one is is bound to fascinate and entertain. And as a bonus to Punisher fans, Born is the perfect tie-in and intro to the direction Ennis wisely took the series when it was bumped to the Max imprint. For proof, just see how Ennis was courageous enough to take his grim vision of the character and his world to the only logical conclusion in Punisher: the End.

Despite having heard good things about this, I waited until a week before the Punisher movie release to pick this up. I'm a tough critic so for me to give something 5 stars, it has to be special. This one is. I've been a fan of Ennis's work on the Punisher and think that its the best Marvel currently offers. And this is among the best of that lot. From all that I heard about this before reading, I must say that I expected to be shocked, floored and left with my jaw open. I was all of those things and one very unexpected thing. The end gave me the CREEPS! I totally did not see that coming. After you read it you will understand.
I place this alongside "Welcome Back Frank" as Ennis's finest moment on Punisher. But be warned. This is extremely graphic and made for adults that enjoy being shocked and disturbed. That's what Ennis does best.

The war brings the worst in people. War is the failure of civilization. It is the fall of humanity's and the great inadequacy of the human mind. It is a regression to the basic simplicity of animals. It is the loss of the divine power in each and every one of us.

In Garth Ennis's rendition and retelling of what might have been the driving force of the Punisher. War is the main driving force that makes the character who he is and not a certain aspect of his life. The Punisher is born when his family is gunned down by the mob, but the character was truly born when he was in Vietnam, living through the horrors of death and survival. Ennis is able to bring that into mind that the death of Frank Castle's family simply triggers what he has always been, a hellbent, murdering soldier. An aftereffct of the war. A survivor.

The story is very well done and actually makes the character more believable. If your family were gunned down, would you just exact revenge or go on a rampage against each and every killer in the world? You would definitely have your revenge and call it quits, but if you've been at war and tasted death and killed. Only then, would you want to generalize and start killing all the murderers and drug traffickers.

Garth Ennis has grabbed the essence of the character and knows what makes him tick. He makes him more believable. And in the story, he does just that.

An amazing look at how Frank Castle evolves from man to soldier of fortune during the Vietnam conflict.
Worth at least two readings for anyone that enjoys war stories or especially the Punisher

In the tradition of the smash hit Origin: The True Story of Wolverine, Punisher scribe Garth Ennis has crafted Born; telling the never before seen story of a pre-Punisher Frank Castle during his third tour of Vietnam. While Born may start out as average, it quickly evolves into one of the bloodiest, most shocking, and expertly written stories that has ever come from the pen of Garth Ennis. This is by far Ennis' best work since his acclaimed Preacher saga, and he is without a doubt the best writer to ever pen the Punisher. The art by Darick Robertson illustrates all the graphic and gritty detail as he and Ennis both strike gold again as they did earlier with the Fury mini-series. The twist ending will actually make you look at the character of the Punisher much differently than before, and the unexpected impact will leave your jaw on the floor. Born is nothing short of brilliant, and deserves to be in every comic fan's library, even if you aren't a fan of the super hero genre of comics.

Amazing story. Great art. Garth Ennis. Need I say more? A touching and great look into the mind of Frank Castle like only Garth Ennis can provide. The book also has really cool "special features" at the back including a storyline overview written by Garth Ennis, thoughts about the story by Darick Robertson, Vietnam photo references, page layouts, and character designs.

Get this book!

I must admit that I always thought that Ennis' take on Marvel's most serious character(he's a serial killer for f*#&s sake,) was a bit cartoonish and over-the-top. Not here! This is definately the best Punisher story that I have ever read. It's not just an origin story but a character study and it has a lot to say about violence, both psychological and physical without ever glorifying it, as Ennis and other Tarantino-ites tend to do. This is a strong story, a heartbreaking story, and one that seems to have been made with the utmost care on the part of everyone involved. Don't get me wrong I like Garth Ennis as much as the next guy and I love Preacher, but this, this so far is his crowning achievemnet in my opinion. I can't wait to see how the whole MAX line pans out without all that wackiness. Peace, killers.

This disturbing, yet masterfully written and beautifully drawn comic book (or "graphic novel" for those in denial) chronicles Frank Castle during his third tour of Vietnam, which is before he even thought about declaring war on mobsters and calling himself the Punisher, and showcases how the violence and gore surrounding him didn't turn him into what he is today, but rather how the war he was willingly a part of released his true, warped sense of morality and justice all those years before his family was slaughtered in Central Park, which was thought to be the original event that gave birth to the Punisher. Castle searched within his mind for the answer to the question of what he truly is and over the span of the four chapters it is so incredibly interesting to see how Castle comes to understand -- and accept -- that he is a monster and that he was born with this murderous yearning.

A combination of beautiful art and powerful story, "Born" is without doubt the greatest mini-series of 2003. If you are a Punisher fan, you will forever cherish this as a part of your collection. If you are at least adept with the basic knowledge of the Punisher's history, you will find this mini-series as pure literary genius. Ladies and gentlemen, mini-series do not get much better than this.