Man, I loved this run. I thought it was even more over-the-top than his original. The Vietnam beginning was so solid. The last story was relentless, just showing that core of Castle that makes him the Punisher (that is completely lacking in the TV series, tho I still enjoy the show). And Barracuda? Loved that character. Now I'm going to reread it.
you're right, this is a great run. i have all 3 Gart Ennis Punisher Omni's. i love the humour in the Marvel Knights omni, but the max Run is simply the best. Whoever says that they expected more from Garth on this run are just wrong. every story-arc develops nicely and has an epic ending. Frankly, i prefer this over 'Preacher', just because Garth made the Punisher exactly who i imagined him to be ...
Great review 👍🏽. I like how these are dark, it puts you in the world setting of the Punisher where everything is messed up. Barracuda reminds me of Nate “Boone” Craft
"General Zakharov...sir, you were right. You were right about everything, all along." "In every detail but one. That was no American. It was a Russian who was born there by mistake."
Yooo hold up i haven’t had a chance to watch the Captain America review yet! Too much content brother! Lol. Back to back bangers though, i love both Punisher and Cap!!
I just got, here issued as THIRD book, Up is Down, Black is White. Looks good so far. The same style like two books before, Born and Mother Russia. Hard for digestion, but brutal as the Punisher should be. Thanks for the review.
Good honest review bro really enjoyed it plus 8 like the over the top review when looming through the book It funny I had the opposite view to you I never read anything Ennis and I read max runs first and loved it so much I went and read marvel knight as well looked at preacher and the writing was good i just didn't like the cartoonist ruchy art and theme, I like the realistic tone of the max run compared to Ennis earlier work
Hey Gem, how was the Dark Tower omnibus you got behind you? Please review that one if you haven’t already. BTW I believe Punisher first appeared in ‘73/‘74, not ‘76.
i havnt read Dark Tower yet... Manimal has read multiple time and the novel too i believe... i think i kept think 76 b/c thats the date they used in this story
A compilation I have has a misprint listing Born as a 6 issue arc, when there's clearly only 4. Weird thing is that it is a third printing and never got changed.
Best story from the Max run in my opinion is the mob story I forgot what it’s called but reading it showed me how balls to wall insane punisher the comic can get
I was debating on buying this set, but compared to the 6 volume oversized hardcovers these two omnibus are lackluster. Since 2010, I had almost every oversized hardcover except volume 4 (which was always OOP and expensive) and figured I would sell those and put them towards the omnibus as I expected omnibus one to cover the first 3 oversized hardcovers (issues 1-36) and the second one to vol. 4-6 (issues 37-74). However, these two omnibus take us through issues 1-60, while the 6 volume hardcovers take us through through issues 1-74. To be fair, Ennis didn't write issues 61-74 so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised about their exclusion, but still Marvel had an opportunity to put the entire 2004 Max run of Punisher in two huge volumes. So what I did, instead of buying the two omnibus, I just went to ebay and looked for the long sought Vol. 4 OSHC and low and behold there were quite a few listings, so I grabbed a near mint copy for $55 and now I have the complete arc in OSHC. This was a very good run, but IMO it's got nothing on Ennis' Marvel Knights (MK) Punisher. I missed the dark humor of the MK run and that run grabbed my attention.
I've got all three Punisher Omnis from Ennis but haven't started reading them yet. Even though the Marvel Knights Omni is more PG-13, story-wise how does it compare to the Max Omnis? When I begin reading these volumes I'm not sure which one to start out with.
Gem Mint Collectibles Good to know! It looks like the Max series was a great starting point to get acquainted with the Punisher. Anyway, I've always loved your reviews and did a comic book haul myself too! Have you seen the Punisher Netflix series?
Gem Mint Collectibles I still need to see it. Although I'm a bit hesitant because the film/TV is usually different from the book. Anyway did you like the Jason Aaron run? Thanks again!
These books or the marvel knights ennis run would both be good...dont really need any prior knowledge. The Back to the War omnibus has more classic material.
Are the omnibuses missing a lot of content? They only have 1,800 pages across 2 volumes, but the complete collection has 2,800 pages across 7 volumes? Someone please answer. Thanks.
i have a question man , i would like to know if these 2 omnibuses contain the stories that are in the 6 small hardcovers you had in your video with all the punisher omnibuses, because i want to buy punisher max by garth enis and i dont know if these omnibuses have all the punisher stories by garth enis..
I’m trying to figure this out, there’s these 3 omnibuses. 2 punisher max omnibuses which I’ve just bought (the ones in the video) and then there’s another by the same author that comes before (marvel knights one). I think you have to read marvel knights first but you don’t have to
Punisher born and barricuda were great, but generally I prreferred Punisher warr zone. But to be fair, that could just be nostalgia. I got the first book of warzone with a punisher action figure when I was like 10 and I didn't start reading the max titles until I was 19 or something.
Thanks for the review man, this was gonna be my next purchase but knowing now a bit more, I might drop it a bit in my list of priorities. Still gonna get them eventually!
I agree with you Stephen, Preacher is better. Punisher Max is just ok. Sold all my trades of Punisher Max so I could buy The Batman Grant Morisson Omni and the Grayson Omni :)
I kinda think Ennis is way over hyped when it comes to the Punisher stories. I liked the more serious tone he took this time but Born absolutely pissed me off. Turned Punisher into a nut job who just needs to kill rather than a guy with a strong sense of justice who also wanted revenge and to keep what happened to his family from happening to anyone else. If I go with the narrative Ennis put out in Born then Frank Castle is to blame for his family dying because he made a deal to keep killing which followed him home to his family. Its all his fault which totally messes up the character for me. If that was who I thought the Punisher was I'd have never been a Punisher fan. I didn't like the Ennis humor in the other Punisher stories before MAX so I appreciated the serious tone. My favorite Punisher stories are older ones.....Probably with Suicide Run being my favorite, but the Cell and the Slavers were cool stories also Mother Russia and the one with the girl who was abused by her mob husband til Punisher killed him (Widowmaker). Great honest review Gem! Damn we missed the shot of Micro taking a shotgun blast to the face.
