As in: Comics , Hobarthy

When I was in high school, my knowledge bowl team often traveled to "away" tournaments, sometimes hours away or even far enough that we had to stay overnight. When we did, I always enjoyed buying cheesy "men's action" novels from gas stations along the way. One of the cheesiest was the Mack Bolan: Executioner series. Needless to say, it was fun to find an Executioner comic.

When I started reading the comic, though, I was appalled. Not only trite and cliche, the comic was downright offensive. It fulfills the worst stereotypes at every opportunity.

The storyline is also libelously close to that of Frank Castle's (The Punisher). Namely, both are vietnam vets with special forces training who came home to find their family dead. In The Punisher's case, his family was killed in cross-fire, I believe. In The Executioner's case, his father got in debt to a loan shark, who captured Mack's sister in some bizarre prostitution scheme. Both go on murderous rampages designed to clean up the mafia because the police can't or won't.

Here are a few more panels:

The worst-dressed gangsters ever: This looks a bit like the villains are dancing as he shoots at them. Alas, every woman in Don Pendleton's world is sexxed up: I can't resist a bit more commentary, so read below the fold for more panels and grousing.

The Punisher is one of Marvel's least interesting heroes. He kills pretty much everyone he thinks is a villain. In the past few years, though, Garth Ennis has added a bit of depth by giving him some self-conscious bile. As at the end of Unforgiven, Ennis' Punisher knows his soul is gone, knows his killing does little, but he does it anyway.

All that said, The Punisher has his own code of violence. While he will murder thieves or drug-dealers for being themselves, he will never kill a police officer. In recent issues, he's even stepped up to defend children and victims of slavery-prostitution rings. Here's where he parts company with Mack Bolan. In the short flashbacks of the comic, we learn that Mack's sister had a promising college career until her father got in debt to loan sharks. To help (and thus prevent her father from having a fatal heart attack under the stress), she starts working as a prostitute for the gangsters. When her father finds out, he goes crazy and shoots his whole family and kills himself. Mack's little brother survives to tell the story. Not surprisingly, Mack decides to murder the people responsible.

Oddly, though, he does so by infiltrating their organization. Rather than just killing everyone, as The Punisher does, he meets with them and gets a job. In order to get their confidence, he hangs out at their pool and gets himself in this jam:

And he sleeps with the prostitute. While he does hesitate for a moment, his libido wins out over his ethics. He seems to show no remorse about his situation, unaware, perhaps, that his seductress was likely just as coerced as his sister. So goes the uber-masculine world of Mack Bolan.

Alas, I won't learn how the story ends. I don't plan to buy the next issue.

Bonus gripe: Why are there quote marks around his thought in the last panel? Don't quote marks imply he's remembering an aphorism from somewhere or something? I don't think that phrase is in Barlett's quotables.

Posted by briley at December 9, 2005 3:40 PM