Heroes Never Rust #65: Feed the Beast

29 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Heroes Never Rust, War

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Born #4, Darick Robertson, Frank Castle, Garth Ennis, sean ironman, The Punisher, Tom Palmer

Heroes Never Rust #65 by Sean Ironman

Feed the Beast: What a Man Must Become to Survive Vietnam

Many of the Marvel Comics characters created in the 1960s have their origin tied to war. The Fantastic Four tried to beat the Russians to Mars during the Cold War. The Incredible Hulk was born during a gamma bomb test. The Punisher didn’t make his first appearance until 1974, but maybe he’s lasted so long because his origin is tied to war, like the others. Characters like the Fantastic Four and the Hulk were created, were scarred, because of some deeply human trait. They are parables to show us mankind’s flaws. They are comics that want peace, not warmongering—no matter how many battles those heroes find themselves in. The Punisher fits into that idea. Some readers prefer stories where the protagonist is a good person. I am not one of those readers. I don’t have to agree with the protagonist’s actions. I don’t agree with what the Punisher does, but I can understand it. That’s enough for me. In the final issue of Born, Frank Castle gets the closest he will get to becoming the Punisher until his family dies. And it’s in the midst of battle.

The issue opens with the greatest panel sequence in the miniseries. A close-up of an American soldier holding his face in both hands. Blood is on his hands. It’s raining. More blood flows and drips down his hands. He removes them from his face and he has no eyes and half his nose is gone. His mouth is filled with blood. In the final panel, he falls face first into a puddle and dies. “There is a Great Beast loose in the world of men,” the narration over the first panelr reads. “It awoke in dark times, to fight a terrible enemy. It stormed through Europe, across the far Pacific, and crushed the evil that it found there underfoot.” According to the narration, this “Great Beast” came to destroy evil. It was good at one point. But now that evil has been defeated, there is no putting away the Great Beast. “So the Great Beast must be fed: and every generation, our country goes to war to do just that.” The second and third page is a shot of the Vietnamese overpowering American troops. Castle and a few others fire from behind sandbags. Grenades are thrown. Pieces of heads are blown apart. There’s a severed arm off to the side. mid-air. The narration reads, “Today is the day we feed the Beast.”

It’s not long before Castle, Goodwin, and Angel, along with many more make a run for it. Angel stops to fire at the enemy. Goodwin tries to get him to keep running. Angel manages a few words before his head is blown clear off. “There ain’t no God, fool! Look around you! there ain’t no muthafuckin’ God!”

Anti-aircraft guns are used on the Vietnamese. Some are blown away. But there are just too many enemy soldiers. American jets fly overhead and drop bombs. “I was so certain I would make it,” Goodwin says in narration. “The big freedom bird. Thirty-six and a wake-up. I am out of here. In the end I can do no more than follow on a killer’s heels, rushing with him to his Alamo.” A soldier aflame runs at Goodwin with a bayonette ready to strike. Goodwin is grabbed and pulled into a plane. Beautiful flight attendants call his name. One says, “You made it, you silly son of a bitch.” He smiles with tears in his eyes and the plane flies off into the white of the background. He’s dead.

As Castle blows away Vietnamese soldiers, and actually stabs one in the stomach with the rifle when the barrel burns out, a voice tempts him. The voice says it can help him. Castle just needs to accept the help. Like I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I don’t believe the voice to be of supernatural origin. I believe it’s inside Castle. I believe Castle accepts the beast within himself. He becomes a savage. He lets go of his humanity to fight his order. And he lives. He should have died in that battle, but against all odds, he pulled through.

Goodwin couldn’t give up his humanity. He couldn’t give up on his hope to return home to the good America. Castle gave up everything he had and he survived. He fed the Great Beast inside. He returns to America. The last shot of Vietnam is of Goodwin, blood soaking his shirt where his heart would be. His corpse is left behind. Maybe that’s what happens in war. There’s no humanity left by the end. Castle goes home, but he’ll never be the same. The Fantastic Four and the Incredible Hulk turn into something inhuman, but are still able to hold onto their humanity underneath. A lot happened in the world in the 1960s. The Punisher still looks human, but he’s not complete. Vietnam has created that hole in him.

_______

Photo by John King

Sean Ironman (Episode 102) earned his MFA at the University of Central Florida. Currently, he teaches creative nonfiction and digital media at the University of Central Arkansas as a visiting professor. His work can be read in The Writer’s Chronicle, Redivider, and Breakers: A Comics Anthology, among others.

Heroes Never Rust #64: Surrender in Vietnam and the Loss of the Real America

22 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Heroes Never Rust

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Born, Garth Ennis, The Punisher, Vietnam War

Heroes Never Rust #64 by Sean Ironman

Surrender in Vietnam and the Loss of the Real America

The beginning of issue three of Born shows various images from the Vietnam War: bombs falling from planes, a bridge filled with pedestrians blown sky high, American soldiers setting a Vietnamese village on fire, Vietnamese men and women dead in a ditch, and children burning at planes drop napalm. An unseen narrator comments on America being unable to give up just because America must show the world that they can’t be messed with. “Though we make the world despise us…Though we do things that will stain our souls forever…Though America eats its own intestines over this, cities riven with unrest, leaders inspiring loathing and distrust…We cannot lose.”

The war has been lost. Readers have seen that in the previous two issues. Frank Castle is the only one left at Valley Forge who cares to strike out at the enemy. The other soldiers wait out whatever days they have left getting high. It’s unclear who is speaking in the opening. It could be Castle, but it could be Goodwin or just a nameless narrator. I don’t think it matters. The opening does a its job—it presents the idea that there really is no reason why America doesn’t just call it quits. It’s all chest pounding. Just a bunch of men refusing to give up to show their strength, even though they no longer know why they are fighting.

Both of the main characters of Born, Goodwin and Castle, are forced to challenge their reasons for their actions. The first line of dialogue in the issue belongs to Goodwin. “Why can’t we stay out of the rest of the world?” Goodwin wants to keep his head low and get home. He doesn’t care for the war, but understands a man like Castle is needed. He spends most of this issue with his friend, Angel, who has given in and is constantly found in the drug den of Valley Forge. An hour before dawn, the two friends watch the rain. Goodwin lays into Angel about getting high. Goodwin tells him, “We shouldn’t have gotten involved here; all we’re doing is making an even bigger mess of the place than it was already. And we’re screwing up our own country. We’ve been tearing ourselves apart over this for the last five years.” Goodwin wants to focus on what he calls “the real America.”

This isolationist idea has been around forever. I hear it from time to time in today’s world when U.S. soldiers are sent overseas. Recently, I watched HBO’s John Adams miniseries and the same idea was discussed when England and France were at war. In Born, Angel shuts Goodwin up. “I keep hearin’ you talkin’ ‘bout this idea you got—this real America? It’s a fuckin’ dream, man. It belongs in the thirties. The twenties. Fuck, the Wild muthafuckin’ West. That’s the real America right there: back when you was shootin’ each other, rapin’ red Indians an’ callin’ me nigga…”

I wrote about this idea recently in a post about Captain America. The past is viewed as a simpler time. It seems like everyone throughout history is trying to make things like they were in the past, even if the past wasn’t so great. Maybe as children we see the love and goodness the world has to offer, and then we become adults and have to make concessions to our beliefs. The past, then, is viewed as pure and wholesome, but as children, we only see one side. Angel wants Goodwin to wake up, not to accept the reality of their situation in Vietnam, but to accept that this perfect America Goodwin dreamed up never existed.

Castle is in a similar situation. He comes close to tossing a grenade into a latrine that his commanding officer is using. The officer had just told Castle that he stopped requesting supplies and just wants to wait out the rest of the war and not draw anyone’s attention. He stops himself, but later he questions that decision. Castle has been changed by his three tours in Vietnam. Some readers have raised the idea that the voice talking to Castle is supernatural, like Satan, but I don’t buy it. There’s no other supernatural element. I believe it’s his conscience. He questions how he could “kill at the drop of a hat.” At first, he tells himself that it’s about the other men at the base. But he throws that idea away. The war has made him a killing machine. “That’s what’s got you worried? That urge you have, to give every motherfucker in the world exactly what they deserve?”

He seeks out Goodwin, and their talk quickly becomes personal. Castle tells Goodwin about his family. He has a four-year-old daughter and son on the way. “I sometimes think they might be my last chance.” Castle is afraid of himself. This scene comes directly after he questions his motivations for wanting to frag his commanding officer. I spoke in my first post about Born that this comic is supposed to be the real origin of the Punisher. That he was the Punisher long before his family was killed in a gangwar. But maybe Castle was always the Punisher. Maybe he just never had the means to kill. Just going to Vietnam doesn’t make a person the Punisher. We’d have a lot of Punishers on the street if that were true. Maybe Vietnam is just one of many events in his life that pushed Castle over the top. Maybe like Angel tells Goodwin, there never was this perfect time in Castle’s life. Vietnam didn’t destroy the good America, and it didn’t turn Castle into the Punisher. Do we really change so much from one event? Or do we just reveal more of ourselves? I believe that one event is not enough to completely change who a person is, but a series of events can. Like waves splashing against rock will, over time, corrode the rock. The issue ends with a Vietnamese army attacking Valley Forge. One more event they have to survive, and if they do, will they think one day that everything was so perfect before this battle, that they had no problems? I think they’d just be lying to themselves.

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Heroes Never Rust #63: Lost in Vietnam (The Punisher’s Platoon)

15 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Heroes Never Rust

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Born, sean ironman, The Punisher, Vietnam

Heroes Never Rust #63 by Sean Ironman

Lost in Vietnam: The Punisher’s Platoon

In the first issue of Born, readers were given two points of view: Stevie Goodwin and Frank Castle. Readers only get Goodwin’s viewpoint in the second issue. Frank Castle remains as the main character. By showing him through Goodwin’s eyes, the reader can be guided into the difficult story.The first act has Goodwin attempting to keep his friend, Angel, off drugs. Many soldiers at Valley Forge have given up. Castle and his platoon are the only ones who still patrol. When Goodwin drags Angel out of a drug bunker, Castle approaches and asks if Angel is clean. Goodwin says yes and Castle walks off. Many readers might view Castle as a hard commander, but I don’t. He doesn’t reprimand Angel. He doesn’t argue with the men still in the bunker sitting around high. What soldiers do doesn’t matter to him. If they can shoot, then they can shoot. If they can’t, then they are no good to Castle.

Goodwin and Angel go out on patrol with Castle. Goodwin tells readers that he doesn’t have to go out with Castle’s platoon. He says he’s only there for Angel, but that doesn’t make much sense. If he let Angel get high, Angel wouldn’t be out on patrol. Goodwin wouldn’t have to look after him. “Some of us are here for our brothers, some of us for our horror stories. Some of us even still believe in duty. Americans through the looking-glass, lost in Vietnam.”

Goodwin is lost. There’s no right or wrong in Vietnam. Neither side are angels. No one is a war hero in Born. When the platoon comes under attack, snipers shoot down American soldiers. Goodwin and the rest of the platoon hide. Castle is the only fighter. He stands tall in the wide open and fires a sixty into the trees, taking out the snipers. As the enemy is killed, Castle doesn’t smile. He takes no joy in this. He’s shot in the arm, and to take a line from Predator, he doesn’t have time to bleed. He’s emotionless. When the Vietnamese are dead, Castle stands over their corpses. Goodwin thinks, “The black pig-iron in his hands falls silent. Try as it might, the world cannot exhale.”

American soldiers find a Vietnamese soldier, a woman, bleeding out but still alive. Goodwin and the rest stand in a circle as one American pushes the dying woman onto her stomach and rapes her. Where is the good America that Goodwin spoke of in the first issue? The American solider who rapes the woman is unimportant. A minor character introduced just for this scene. He could be any one of those soldiers. Any person who has lost their sense of morality.

Castle shoots the Vietnamese woman in the head and tells the American, “No rape. We’re here to kill the enemy. That’s all.” Then, he walks off. When no one is looking—well, except Goodwin—Castle drowns the rapist. Castle, in his own mind, has not lost his sense of morality. He only sees the world in black and white and will never see the gray. At the end of the issue, Goodwin states that he is scared of Castle. “Because this place is hell and we need a man like him to lead us through it, and what that says about us in unthinkable.”

Goodwin stays quiet, instead of telling the other soldiers. He might not like Castle, but he needs Castle. In that last scene, Castle is only shown in shadows. When he says he wanted to punish the rapist, he has no eyes. Only darkness. The cover of the second issue shows an American solder’s skull in a cracked helmet. Worms and plants cover the head. If Goodwin wants to get out of Vietnam, he needs to stick close to Castle. That’s why he goes out on the patrols. That’s why he stays quiet. Americans in Vietnam need a leader who is willing to damn himself so that right can be right and wrong can be wrong and those that do wrong can be punished. Goodwin needs to believe that right and wrong still count for somebody.

_______

Heroes Never Rust #62: Vietnam, the Good America, and the Real Origin of the Punisher

08 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Heroes Never Rust, War

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Garth Ennis, The Punisher

Heroes Never Rust #62 by Sean Ironman

Vietnam, the Good America, and the Real Origin of the Punisher

I’ve written about my love for the Punisher before. To me, Frank Castle is one of the most interesting fictional characters. And I do mean fictional characters, not just comic book characters. He is the only character that causes me to argue with myself every week about whether or not to write a story or a screenplay even though without the rights I’ll never be able to publish it. The greatest Punisher writer is Garth Ennis. He wrote for The Punisher Marvel Knights series, which was a dark comedy take on the character, and he wrote The Punisher Marvel Max series, which was a violent, serious drama. Both work and both are fantastic. One of his best Punisher stories is Born, a four-issue mini-series about Frank Castle before he becomes the Punisher, when Frank is a soldier on his third tour in Vietnam in 1971.

For those of you who don’t know who the Punisher is (and shame on you):

Frank Castle is a Vietnam vet. One day, he goes to Central Park with his wife and young daughter and son. Two rival gangs get into a gunfight, and the Castle family is killed. Frank survives. Then, he decides to wage a war on crime. He spends the rest of his life killing gangsters and other criminals. That’s basically all you need to know to enjoy Born.

Every story requires a suspension of disbelief on the reader’s end. Whether it’s a huge jump the reader has to make, or a small one. The reader may not react a certain way to an event, but they must be willing to believe the character in the story would. The writer is not totally “off the hook,” however. The writer must provide a consistent fictional world. By consistent, I mean a fictional world that may operate by its own rules but rules nonetheless. George R.R. Martin’s The Song of Ice and Fire novel series, which forms the basis of HBO’s Game of Thrones, has dragons and magic, but there are still rules for those fantasy elements.

The Punisher is no different. Even though, he exists in a world that is somewhat close to our world, he is still fictional. The problem that has always plagued the Punisher is that he continues to kill criminals long after those who killed his family were punished. Why would he continue? This question is also what separates him from other vigilantes going after bad guys who hurt or killed someone they loved. Born provides the answer.

Vietnam is especially important for the characterization of the Punisher. Captain America fought against the greatest evils of the world during World War II. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Americans came together as a country. Vietnam divided America. World War II vets were treated as heroes, while Vietnam vets neglected and resented. Regardless of facts, World War II is viewed as good men standing up to evil. Vietnam is viewed as a mistake, something America should have never gotten involved with. Good and evil, right and wrong, doesn’t seem to have a place in Vietnam. Soldiers went through hell and for what?

The Punisher, to me, is a romantic. Stevie Goodwin, one of the main characters in Born, says, “I will not fall in love with war like Captain Castle.” But, I don’t think Castle loves war. There is no joy when he’s gunning down Viet Kong. There is no joy when he allows a superior officer to go out on a hill where there is a known enemy sniper. I don’t think the Punisher feels joy. If the Punisher loved war, he would show emotion. He would show bloodlust. Stevie also states about Frank Castle that “his dedication to his men is total…Since he arrived, six months ago, not one patrol that he has led has suffered K.I.A.” Frank Castle doesn’t take risks just to fight the enemy. He is a man who refuses to accept that good and evil doesn’t exist, that there is no set right and wrong. He sees the world in black and white and will never see the grays. I believe that the Punisher believes he is sacrificing his own soul to fight for what is right. America is still good and right to him and the enemy must be stopped. After Vietnam, when his family is gunned down randomly on a picnic, he snaps. His mind can’t handle the idea of randomness. The good triumph and the bad are punished. Vietnam is the perfect backdrop for him. It’s what’s been missing from the film adaptations.

At the end of the first issue of Born, Frank Castle sits alone as the sun sets. It’s the first time we get interiority from him. “You got your war a stay of execution. But it won’t last. You know that.” Some readers have put forth the idea that these are not Castle’s thoughts, but a supernatural being such as the devil or Mephisto. I don’t buy it, though it could be interesting. There’s no other supernatural element to the series so it wouldn’t quite fit. I believe these narration boxes are Frank Castle talking to himself, being honest with himself. While I don’t think the Punisher loves war, I think he needs war. I don’t think he needs war to be happy. I don’t think he can be happy, even with his family. I think he is fulfilled by war. Vietnam has killed him. He has no purpose without war. Refusing to see the world as shades of gray, war allows him a clear enemy. As long as there is war, he can raise his rifle, he can shoot, he can stop those that would do harm to him and his men. He knows how to do those things. He can protect the American dream that no longer exists, maybe never did.

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The Curator of Schlock #24: The Punisher

17 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Film, The Curator of Schlock

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Dolph Lungren, Jeffrey Shuster, The Curator of Schlock, The Punisher

The Curator of Schlock #24 by Jeffrey Shuster

The Punisher: Send in the Yakuza!

If any vigilante can give Paul Kersey a run for his money, it’s Frank Castle, AKA The Punisher. Based on the Marvel comic book of the same name, 1989’s The Punisher from director Mark Goldblatt is an exercise in excess, but we could use a dose of excess after last week’s snoozefest.

Dolf Lundgren plays Frank Castle, an ex-cop whose wife and two daughters were murdered by the Franco crime family. Castle retaliates by becoming the vigilante known as The Punisher. At the beginning of the movie, The Punisher has killed over 125 organized crime members. To have that body count when we’re not even five minutes into the movie is a good sign.

Now The Punisher doesn’t just use guns to kill people. Knives, bombs, nooses. All are employed in his quest for vengeance or punishment as he calls it. Don’t worry. He prays to God naked in the sewer everyday to get the okay. He’s also friends with a homeless, alcoholic thespian with a penchant for speaking in rhymes so his life isn’t all doom and gloom. Of course, hot on his trail is Detective Jake Berkowitz (Lois Gossett, Jr.) who wants to catch The Punisher.

Gianni Franco flies in from overseas in an effort to unite all of the Mafia families under one roof. Seems as though The Punisher has taken a toll on their organizations and consolidation is the only way they can maintain power. So it looks as though we’re headed for an all out dust up between every Mafia family there is and The Punisher. And then the Yakuza show up…with ninjas…and throwing stars…and they start to attack the Mafia.

The ruthless Lady Tanaka heads the Yakuza and she has decided that the Yakuza need to take over organized crime in America. When Gianni Franco refuses to submit to the Yakuza’s demands of being their loyal lapdog, Lady Tanaka orders the kidnapping of all the little children of the Mafia families. Even after the Mafia families pay the ransom, she still plans to sell the children into slavery. And when the captains go to meet with her to negotiate, she poisons them. So yeah, Lady Tanaka is extra evil!

Still, never let it be said that The Punisher didn’t have a soft spot for children. He brings down a rain of holy terror on the Yakuza blowing up their casino and telling them he’ll cost them money everyday the children are held captive.

The Punisher goes to investigate further and uncovers a nest of Yakuza ninjas. They capture The Punisher and attach him to an electric rack. Will the Punisher escape and attached the Yakuza torturer to the electric rack? Will the Punisher rescue the kids only to be arrested by the police? Will Gianni Franco break The Punisher out of prison so he can rescue Franco’s son from the Yakuza? I’m not going to tell you. You’ll have to watch the movie.

Ten Things I Learned from The Punisher

Ninjas use machine guns as well as throwing stars. Whatever works.
You can’t negotiate with Yakuza.
You can negotiate with The Punisher, but keep in mind that he’ll kill you once the deal is done.
Don’t bring a katana to a gunfight.
Don’t poison the champaign. Poison the glasses.
Don’t threaten The Punisher. He’ll blow up your mansion with you in it.
Speaking in rhyme loses its charm real quick.
Shooting scenes in black and red makes your movie look like a Virtual Boy game.
Praying to God naked in a sewer is…strange.
The Punisher doesn’t need to wear the skull t-shirt. Wait a minute! Yes, he does!

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