By Eric Drumm
Frank Castle is usually a fairly composed man. He carries out his mission objectives with complete control and mastery. That is, until a re-emerged
Hate-Monger starts ethnically cleansing a small village in Mexico. Then Frank Castle--
The Punisher--gets really ticked off.
Frank's usual no nonsense attitude might make him a little grumpy, but writer Matt Fraction is having a blast getting his frustrations out with his book. "He's the best stress reliever of all time," says the writer who's also rocking out on IMMORTAL IRON FIST. "Whenever something gets me worked up and angry, I just come up for some way for Frank to shoot it in the face. I'm a much happier and healthier guy since making The
Punisher my personal avatar of violent and fantastic revenge..."
Meanwhile, Frank Castle has his own trouble. Still on the run from GW Bridge and
S.H.I.E.L.D., Frank decides to drop everything and head West to give the Hate-Monger a hot lead hello. However, before he can he has to lose those pesky Pro-Registration hunters. This might put a speed bump in the Punisher's killing spree. "Part of the fallout from our first five issues is Frank coming to grips with the fact that his cavalier attitude will not serve him or his mission in the long run--he might think these weirdos in their rhinoceros costumes and jetpacks are ridiculous, but this is THEIR world he's living in now, and he can't afford to disrespect the threats to him on both sides of the law," says Fraction.
While Frank is dodging nets, trouble is still a'brewing out West. Sporting a new costume similar to Captain America's, the Hate-Monger and his troops are marching on migrant Mexican workers, swastikas blazing. Burning the poor folks to the ground, the Hate-Monger justifies his actions by claiming that "America is for Americans."
Although maybe a little unhinged, the Punisher knows genocide when he sees it. In PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #7, we will see Frank take out the trash. However Fraction tells us that things are going to get much worse before they get better. "In #7, things get bad. In #8, they get worse. And then, in #9, the darkest, blackest, meanest and most shocking scene I've ever written corkscrews the whole book and everything about it for our second year...and then the story still has to resolve itself in #10. Let's just say that the Frank Castle that comes out of the desert is wildly different than the one that went in..."
See the bullets fly and the bodies drop in PUNISHER WAR JOUNRAL #7 by Matt Fraction and Ariel Olivetti on sale May 9.
PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #7 (MAR072107)
Written by MATT FRACTION
Pencils and 50/50 Covers by ARIEL OLIVETTI
BLOOD AND SAND, PART 2
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$2.99
FOC- 4/19/07, On Sale- 5/09/07
