Rocket Raccoon: Guardian of the Keystone Quadrant

Another look at a series that is not touched by the Essentials.

Rocket Raccoon: Guardian of the Keystone Quadrant is a Panini pocket book that reprints the four part Rocket Raccoon limited series from the 1980s plus the story introducing Groot from Tales to Astonish #13, Rocket's first appearance from Marvel Preview #7 and another Rocket tale from Incredible Hulk #271. Everything is written by Bill Mantlo bar the Tales to Astonish story, which is written by Larry Lieber. The limited series is drawn by Mike Mignola, the Tales to Astonish story by Jack Kirby, the Marvel Preview tale by Keith Giffen and the Incredible Hulk issue by Sal Buscema.

I first encountered the limited series as a back-up strip in back issus of Marvel UK's Transformers. There it suffered the fate of a lot of strips that when broken down into five or six pages an issue the flow can be jarring and I dismissed it as a piece of silliness. Reading it altogether brings a very different perspective. It's quite a good take on one of the traditional themes of science fiction - the long isolated planet that has evolved from its mission without really understanding it. Halfworld in the Keystone Quadrant is a strange planet, half a lush paradise occupied by anthropomorphic animals looking after the mentally ill, half a technological dystopia occupied by robots who manufacture toys the aforesaid mentally ill whilst also perpetually building a giant spaceship to breach the "Galacian Wall" barrier surrounding the system.

How this state of affairs came about is a mystery that is only slowly resolved when the inventor and scholar Pyko steals and deciphers the Halfworld Bible. In the meantime Ranger Rocket Raccoon gets caught in a power struggle between rival toy manufacturers Lord Dyvyne and Judson Jakes, the latter being the guardian of Rocket's girlfriend Lylla and proprietor of her firm, Mayhem Mekaniks. Dyvyne seeks to kidnap and marry Lylla as part of a hostile take-over, but his agent Blackjack O'Hare proves uncontrollable with ideas of his own. Rocket and his first mate Wal Russ, who is also Lylla's uncle, set out to rescue her aboard the ship Rakk 'N Ruin.

This is a tale that works well on two very different levels. On one, it's a simple adventure tale that uses animals instead of humans as its characters but otherwise presents a classic story of rescuing the girl and saving the world with Rocket himself as the hero. On another, it's a strong piece of social commentary, both about the intense rivalry and take-over business culture but also a plea for the plight of the mentally ill. Here they have been abandoned and left to be indulged for many generations, yet it's thanks to Rocket and Pyko that a true cure is found. The use of the term "loonies" may now seem insensitive but otherwise this is a strong plea for understanding the mentally ill and not writing them off. All in all this is quite a good little tale that would have been overlooked but for Rocket's later incorporation into the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Three additional stories are included as well. Groot's first appearance is a simple monster tale of its era where the hero is an intellectual who shows to his wife there's more to being a hero than being physically strong. Groot himself is just a strange alien that grows his body by absorbing wood and the main mystery is why a monarch is personally collecting specimens for examination. Rocket’s own debut in the pages of Marvel Preview is equally unmemorable bar for the very different location from what is to come. This black and white tale of Prince Wayfinder, "a modern Ulysses", sees a space wanderer come to Witch-World, a forest planet of wild trees and strange creatures, ruled by its own Kirke. On the planet he encounters a hunter in the form of Rocket, a talking racoon. It's very hard to fit this appearance with what's revealed in the limited series.

Also difficult to fit is Incredible Hulk #271, which sees the Hulk land on Halfworld and meet many of the characters in their first appearance but it's a slightly different set-up from the later limited series. There are no mentally ill on the planet and many of the item and company names are different. As a one-off tale of a strange planet visited by the Hulk it works but it's easy to see why more had to be added for the limited series to tell a mini-epic.

Despite exposing the continuity differences, this is a nice little collection that was released to tie in with the sudden new popularity of Rocket Raccoon and Groot when the Guardians of the Galaxy movie came out. It's a nice showcase of their early adventures and nearly thirty years after Marvel UK's split printing it's nice to see the limited series now reprinted here in one go.

Essential Moon Knight volume 1

Essential Moon Knight volume 1 collects a mixture of the character's earliest appearances, tryout spots, backup strips in other titles and then the start of his first series. Included here are Werewolf by Night #32-33, Marvel Spotlight #28-29, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #22-23, Marvel Two-in-One #52, The Hulk! magazine #11-15, #17-18 & #20, Marvel Preview #21 and Moon Knight #1-10, plus Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entries for Moon Knight, his helicopter and his mansion, plus also the covers of the reprint series Moon Knight Special Edition #1-3. (Contrary to some early reports and many online listings, Marvel Team-Up Annual #4 is not included.) That's a lot of material but amazingly almost all of it is written by Doug Moench except for the Spectacular Spider-Man issues by Bill Mantlo and the Marvel Two-in-One issue by Steven Grant. The main artist is Bill Sienkiewicz, who draws everything on the above list from The Hulk! magazine #13 onwards. Don Perlin draws the Werewolf by Night and Marvel Spotlight issues, Mike Zeck and Jim Mooney the Spectacular Spider-Man issues, Jim Craig the Marvel Two-in-One issue, and Gene Colan and Keith Pollard the first two The Hulk! magazine issues. With a lot of titles and many creators I've once again had to resort to a separate labels post.

The concept of the back-up strip featuring a different character or genre altogether is familiar to many but rare in Marvel US comics with title characters save for occasions when storylines are formally split in two or supporting characters and/or background events are given a special focus. But the idea of featuring a totally different character in a different genre is more unusual there, so to see Moon Knight get his first ongoing feature in the back of The Hulk! magazine must have been quite a surprise to readers. The two characters' paths cross just once when twin stories are set during a lunar eclipse but the Hulk and Moon Knight only literally bump into each other in the darkness without realising who each is, and otherwise they separately handle thieves who came to steal from an astronomer's lonely country house.

Reading through the stories all at once, rather than over a period of six years as at publication, it transpires that a lot about the character was developed on the hoof and the result is some pretty fundamental elements are only introduced midway through the volume. Just like the character, the Moon Knight series doesn't really know what it wants to be. It has a vague aim at being a hard edged crime-fighting series and it's hard to avoid assuming Moon Knight was moulded to allow Marvel creators to do Batman-esque stories. Initially Marc Spector is a mercenary for hire brought in by a criminal organisation known only as "the Committee" to capture the Werewolf and given the initial costume; however upon discovering the reasons for the capture are to use the man as a trained killing animal he turns and allies with the Werewolf instead. It's a short tale that establishes Moon Knight as an mercenary anti-hero with honour, but it also clashes with the way the character would subsequently be portrayed and the origin given in the first issue of his own series. Issue #4 explains how this was all a ruse to infiltrate and bring down the Committee, with Frenchie posing as a industrialist, but it's a very awkward retcon to explain away a tricky first appearance. We don't get the character's new origin until issue #1 of the series and it's convoluted by the need to explain his history with both Frenchie and Marlene, plus it adds a mystical element to the series by showing how Marc Spector apparently died in Egypt but came back to life in front of a statue of the moon god Khonshu and was apparently now filled with the spirit of Khonshu, something that feels totally at odds with the tone of the rest of the series.

Then there's the multiple identities adopted by Moon Knight. Marc Spector, a mercenary, appears to be the original but this isn't explicitly confirmed until an encounter with his brother. Steven Grant (named after the writer?) is a millionaire (using the money Spector secured in his activities) living outside of the city in a mansion that has secret passages leading to his helicopter launchpad. Jake Lockley is a New York cab driver who roams the streets and frequents diners in search of information. But rather than just maintaining permanent aliases to cover different aspects of information gathering, Moon Knight at times speaks and thinks as though the identities are separate individuals sharing a body. And just to add to the mess of it all, every one of his non-costumed identities has the same face, at least until Jake Lockley adds a false moustache towards the end of the volume, and he's not taking strong steps to hide the connections between the two, to the point that several in the underworld are aware of the connection between them all.

But adding to the problem is the limited attention given to some of the more mystical of Moon Knight's powers. Occasional mention is made of his enhanced strength under moonlight, and even less to his having obtained it as a consequence of his fight with the Werewolf. By the end of the volume it seems as though the power is fading away. It would be hard to miss such an obscure power but the last couple of issues in the volume seem to be tidying up some of the more awkward points about the character. The story also tackles the question of whether there ever was a possession by Khonshu or not, and whilst it's not decisively confirmed if this ever did happen, the strong impression is given that by the end Moon Knight certainly isn't possessed now. The statue of Khonshu is stolen and destroyed, contributing to a nervous breakdown as Moon Knight reflects upon his apparent failure and the chaos of his multiple identities, but Marlene stated the destroyed statue was just a public fake and unveils what she says is the real one. Moon Knight recovers his confidence and takes down the Bushman, but wonders at the end if the surviving statue is real or a copy made afterwards. Doubt is also cast upon whether Marc Spector ever did die in the desert and get resurrected, or if in fact he just imagined it. Whatever the state of affairs, Moon Knight is no longer dependent upon a supposed spirit of an Egyptian god within him, and some of the baggage has been cleared out, leaving the character more viable for future adventures.

However he retains his supporting cast and they're quite a mix. Most prominent is Marlene, the daughter of an Egyptologist killed by Bushman in the incident that made Marc turn on him. Marlene serves as secretary and girlfriend to the Steven Grant identity, and shows a strong willingness to help Moon Knight in tackling crime, whether by going into action with a gun or disguising herself as a nurse to walk the streets and serve as bait for a serial killer. She sticks by Moon Knight even when she gets seriously wounded on one occasion, and she finds his multiple identities highly confusing. The identities are less of a problem for Moon Knight's helicopter pilot and aide, "Frenchie". Just in case anyone has any doubts as to what nationality he is, he has zees outrageous accent. Frenchie has been with Moon Knight since their days as mercenaries in Egypt, and also debuts alongside him in Werewolf by Night, and is highly resourceful. Back at the mansion Moon Knight also has the support of Samuels the butler and Nedda the cook, both loyal and understanding servants but neither is particularly developed. Perhaps it's fortunate that Frenchie first appeared before the introduction of the manor and the Steven Grant identity, as it means the butler never ends up playing an "Alfred" role and reinforcing the Batman influence. The Jake Lockley identity works at street level and builds up various contacts for information, particularly at a diner where he befriends waitress Gena, and later her two sons, and the destitute Bertrand Crawley who sets new records for making an individual tea-bag last on endless rounds of free refills of hot water.

Throughout the stories Moon Knight takes on a variety of foes but invariably they're at the down to earth criminal end of things. In his debut he first works for and then fights "the Committee", a crime syndicate who appear again when they hire several hit-men who soon turn on both their contractors and each other. Later on Moon Knight runs up against the equally imaginatively named "the Company", who are seeking to produce a perfect super soldier dubbed the Cobra (no relation to the better known Marvel villain.) Elsewhere Moon Knight clashes with the Conquer-Lord, a crime lord trying to install his puppet as Mayor by discrediting the incumbent though setting up a Watergate style burglary. The theft of the statue of Khonshu leads to a chain of criminals from insane museum curator Fenton Crane to Alphonse Leroux, the ambassador from Chile (during the Pinochet era) to the United Nations, to the terrorist Lupinar. Then there's the Hatchet Man, a serial killer stalking the streets of New York murdering nurses as revenge for a facial wound, who turns out to be Marc's brother, Randall Spector. Another serial killer is the Skid-Row Slasher, hunting the down and outs for his father for revenge for the treatment of his mother. Eventually the killer is revealed to be Crawley's son in a complex tale of personal and family breakdown. There's a further tale of a serial killer when the son of one tries to recover his inheritance with two other criminals and Moon Knight following; only to discover things are not quite what they seem. The art thief Midnight Man offers some more conventional action against a foe similar to the hero, whilst a trip to the Caribbean brings an encounter with the "White Angel" and his walking skeletons and "zuvembies" (the Comics Code Authority then didn't allow the word "zombie" to be used). In fact it's a plantation owner with thugs in costumes using slave labour to farm drugs. There are also many more generic thieves and thugs and a gang who try to extort Chicago by poisoning the water supply. Moon Knight's team-up with Spider-Man brings a clash with the Maggia, led from the shadows by the Masked Marauder, whose ranks include the Cyclone. Meanwhile the team-up with the Thing sees the two take down Crossfire, an ex-CIA brainwasher who now seeks to wipe out the entire superhero community.

But the most significant foe is Bushman. Once the head of the group of mercenaries Marc and Frenchie were part of, Bushman is fearsome to look at, with steel teeth and a death mask tattooed upon his face, and ruthless. Marc and Frenchie desert over Bushman's methods in ruthlessly killing innocents in Sudan. In revenge Bushman captures Marc and has him dumped in the desert to die of heat exhaustion, but Marc survives and becomes Moon Knight. In the present day Bushman resurfaces and clashes with Moon Knight twice in New York. Unlike several other foes, Bushman survives and so becomes the recurring arch nemesis.

Overall, Moon Knight is a rather confused strip. Breakout characters are far from unknown but usually they have some basics about their background and origin sketched from the start. Here we get a mess as a thug for hire in a fancy costume becomes a cross between Batman, as a millionaire fighting crime from a special mansion, and the Golden Age Hawkman, as a supposed reincarnation of an Egyptian deity. And we get awkward retcons to sort out the different elements (a good decade before Hawkman's continuity became near impossible to understand) with the result that the series is at times as confused as the lead character itself. Some of this would normally be down to a multitude of different writers and the lengthy time between appearances but here almost everything is written by Doug Moench who seems to have kept changing his mind on the character. This results in a confused, convoluted mess of a background to the series even if the individual stories are quite gripping and the magazine stories show more grittiness than could be done in the Code approved comics. There's strong potential here but it's not until the end of the volume that some of the problems are untangled to make the character more viable for the future.

Essential Marvel Horror volume 1

It's Halloween so it's time for a look at some of Marvel's horror output...

Essential Marvel Horror volume 1 is a rare example of the anthology Essential, collecting the adventures of particular characters from multiple titles in order, rather than the more conventional approach of collecting individual series in order. Here the focus is upon Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan, and his sister Satana. In theory this volume could have been called Essential Children of Satan but it's much harder to use that name in this day and age than in the 1970s. (It was originally solicited as "Essential Son of Satan", forgetting about the daughter, but several big sellers refused to carry a book with that title.) The stories collected are from a mixture of preview series, black and white magazines, the Son of Satan's own series and guest titles. Included is material from Ghost Rider #1-2, Marvel Spotlight #12-24, Son of Satan #1-8, Marvel Two-in-One #14, Marvel Team-Up #32 & #80-81, Vampire Tales #2-3, Haunt of Horror #2 & #4-5, Marvel Premiere #27 and Marvel Preview #7. Bonus material includes an original page from Son of Satan #8 that was rejected by the Comics Code Authority; a replacement was written by Archie Goodwin and drawn by John Romita.

With a lot of issues there's a lot of creators. So here goes... Gary Friedrich writes the Ghost Rider and early Marvel Spotlight issues, being succeeded on the latter by Steve Gerber who co-writes one with Mike Friedrich, then the final one is by Chris Claremont. Most of the Son of Satan series is by John Warner bar the final issue by Bill Mantlo who also writes the Marvel Two-in-One issue. The first Marvel Team-Up is by Gerry Conway who also writes the second Vampire Tales and first Haunt of Horror issues. The second Vampire Tales is by Roy Thomas and the rest of Haunt of Horror are by Claremont and Tony Isabella. Claremont then writes the Marvel Premiere and Marvel Preview issues and the last two Marvel Team-Ups. The art is by Tom Sutton and Jim Mooney on Ghost Rider, Mooney, Herb Trimpe and Sal Buscema on Marvel Spotlight, then Mooney, Sonny Trinidad, P. Craig Russell, Ed Hannigan and Russ Heath on Son of Satan. Trimpe draws the Marvel Two-in-One issue and Buscema and Mike Vosburg draw the Marvel Team-Ups. The Vampire Tales stories are drawn by John Romita and Esteban Maroto. The Haunt of Horror material is drawn by Pablo Marcos, Enrique Romero, Pat Broderick and George Evans. The Marvel Premiere issue is drawn by "The Tribe", presumably a group emergency effort, and the Marvel Preview is drawn by Vincente Alcazar. Whew. It will come as no surprise that two separate posts are needed to carry some of the creator labels, one for writers, one for artists.

The contents were originally published in two rather different formats - comics, and thus subject to the regulation of the Comics Code Authority, and larger black and white magazines aimed at an older marker and without such regulation. The magazines also contained some text stories and features and included here are a couple of contemporary behind the scenes pieces which explore the process of Satana's creation and development, hampered by deadlines not being met and publications getting cancelled. It's clear that many in the Marvel Bullpen had high hopes for her but ultimately found themselves unable to develop her much, and it's unsurprising that her last solo writer, Chris Claremont, opted to give her story closure and save her from a long run of mediocre and inconsistent guest appearances by killing her off when he later got the chance.

The contrast between the tone of the two publication formats is pretty stark with Satana, although the Marvel Team-Up issues were published a few years later and it seems either the Code had been relaxed or was less rigorously enforced. Satana's regular costume is very daring, ranging from her open chest and exposed cleavage to her fur boots with distinctive toes that from the right angle make it look as though she has cloven hooves. When she appears in both Marvel Premiere and in the flesh in Marvel Spotlight (though not when she pops up in her brother's dreams) the costume is different, with no exposed cleavage or hooves. Satana's actions also vary a bit - in the magazines there's no holding back from calling her a succubus or showing her stealing the souls, although even then she's shown taking them only with a kiss rather than the full on sexual intercourse traditionally associated with succubuses, but once again under the Code this racier side of things is overlooked. Her introduction doesn't pull punches as it shows her disguised on city streets and being chased by a rapist whose soul she steals and later she's shown street walking and seducing a passing man.

Unfortunately this volume suffers from some problems of order. Marvel Team-Up #32 was published the same month as Marvel Spotlight #21 and matches the status quo around then. However it's placed right at the end of the Son of Satan part of the volume, coming after Marvel Two-in-One #14 even though that issue references Team-Up #32. Both issues are set around the New Year, just adding to the discrepancy. Even more confusion stems from the basic decision to place all the son's stories before the daughter's, despite the two having first appeared almost at the same time and despite Satana appearing a few times in her brother's stories at a point towards the end of her own.

Despite this the volume presents two sagas of siblings tortured by their half-human, half-demonic natures. Separated early in life when their mother discovered the truth about her husband, there's a strong contrast between the would-be priest turned exorcist who struggles to control his demonic side as he seeks to oppose his father, and the woman who has embraced her demonic nature and spends most of her early appearances seeking to break the spells that prevent her from being reunited with her father. The actual struggles don't get the strongest of portrayals and over time both move beyond their initial portrayals in different ways, but by the time of Marvel Spotlight #24 the two siblings have been separately established to the point that the clash between them feels like a real conflict of philosophies.

The changes themselves are mixed. In his initial appearances in Ghost Rider, Daimon Hellstrom appears to be another in a line of two entities sharing a single body, a mild mannered exorcist and a demon in human form. Even the transformations come at dawn and dusk, much like the original changes for both Ghost Rider and the Hulk. However there isn't a great deal of distinction between the two forms of Daimon Hellstrom, Son of Satan with clear continuity of identity and memory, so it's of little surprise that as early as Marvel Spotlight #15 the arrangement is altered by Satan and from then on the two natures are merged into a single being. There's a few points after this when the two identities are shown separately though the most notable case here is in Marvel Team-Up #32, which suggests updated information on the character did not reach Gerry Conway in time. (Another one comes in a later appearance in Howard the Duck where Steve Gerber had less of an excuse.) Satana's struggle is more drawn out, with the character starting as an out and out succubus but steadily finds her human side affecting her more and more, especially when she meets a defrocked Catholic priest who saves her life from a group of paramilitary religious fanatics. Later she discovers her father was behind sealing her off from Hell as a way of testing her (yet another Marvel ruler with an inability to simply tell their offspring the basics) but at a crucial point she refuses to take the ex-priest's soul and is banished forever. Her soul has been bonded with a spirit called the Basilisk and she continues to struggle against this whilst seeking redemption. The final story in the volume is a two-parter from Marvel Team-Up in which she gives her life to save Doctor Strange, achieving victory over the Basilisk and redemption in the process.

By and large these stories are somewhat isolated from the wider Marvel universe with appearances by other heroes confined to the various team-up comics and Hellstrom's initial appearance in the pages of Ghost Rider. Instead the two siblings face new situations and foes. Appearing from the outset is "Satan", who, unsurprisingly given where the story starts, is initially presented here as the same being with whom Johnny Blaze made his deal with the Devil. It would be several years before Marvel would cause no end of confusion in its attempts to row away from presenting the actual Devil as a character and instead turn the various (and often inconsistent) portrayals by various names into separate entities such as Mephisto or Lucifer. But as far as the stories in this volume are concerned, there is only one entity and he is the actual thing. Most of the other foes Hellstrom encounters are other lesser demons, some of whom are pawns of Satan but others are independent operatives. Reading through I thought many of the names seemed familiar, but the only one lifted directly from writings on Satanism is Baphomet. Curiously the lead foe in the later issues also has a pre-existing name but comes instead from Egyptian mythology - Anubis, the god of funerals who empowers an estate agent into becoming his pawn Mindstar. The rest of the demons seen are all Marvel creations including Ikthalon, Kometes, Spyros, Allatou, Kthara and Proffet, also known as the Celestial Fool. Closer to the more mortal level are foes such as the cult known as the Legion of Nihilists and their powerful leader, Father Darklyte, or Madame Swabada, a Tarot reader and fortune teller embittered by negative press which gave her a heart attack. Despite having died her spirit is still seeking revenge until she is exorcised. The Possessor is an illusionist whom two demons tried to use as a host but instead wound up under his control, along with Nightfire, a Native American transformed by his master. The two team-up issues bring their own foes - Marvel Two-in-One features 19th century criminal Jedadiah Ravenstorm possessed by Kthara and Marvel Team-Up brings conflict with Dryminextes, another demon.

Satana's small number of adventures see her face off against a few foes, the most prominent of whom are the mysterious group called "the Four", demons who seem to be the ones who erect a barrier preventing her from returning to hell, but ultimately it's revealed to be Satan behind it. There are a mixture of other demons, mystics and mortal crusaders, but virtually all die in the process. So too do Satana's few friends and allies such as Exiter, her black cat familiar, Zennarth, an incubus, and Michael Heron, the defrocked priest turned medic. Daimon's supporting cast have a better survival rate but it is also limited and comes in two distinct phases of Hellstrom's career. The most prominent character is Kathy Reynolds, a lecturer in parapsychology at Gateway University who calls in Hellstrom to investigate reported haunting at the university and who steadily falls for him but it never really gets anywhere. Also caught up in some of Hellstrom's adventures around Gateway University is Byron Hyatt, a divinity student training for the ministry. Both characters disappear at the end of the Marvel Spotlight run when Hellstrom leaves to return to the house he grew up in. Later Hellstrom takes a position at the University of the District of Columbia, where he meets Saripha Thames, who tuns out to be a Wiccan witch. By the end of the series the two are an item but there's no time left to explore their relationship further.

It was very daring of Marvel just to feature the Devil as a character in their comics, even if they were tapping into a wider trend of interest in the occult. But to go a step further and introduce characters who were unambiguously (at least until later retcons came along) the children of Satan and named as such in the titles of their features was an incredible move and from today's perspective it's amazing that it didn't provoke any outcry or boycotts. Maybe the 1970s distributors and retailers had thicker skins than the 21st century book sellers who forced a title change on this volume, or maybe there just weren't well organised groups back then who could kick up enough fuss to cause either publishers, distributors or retailers to back away from titles with "Satan" in them. But the result is an interesting set of stories. The tales of Daimon Hellstrom, Son of Satan are pretty good, if a little repetitive, and still hold up well. However it's the lesser known tales of Satana that really stand out, probably because most of them were published outside the Comics Code Authority and were thus able to take really bold steps. The precise order of the issues in this volume could do with a little rethink, but overall this is a very solid collection.

Essential Punisher volume 1

As a little side step I'll now turn to Essential Punisher volume 1. This is one of the most unusual of all the Essential volumes as it is made up of many of the Punisher's appearances across multiple Marvel titles prior to getting his own ongoing series. Since over half the issues in this volume come from the various Spider-Man titles I've decided to include it in this series as another special. For what it's worth the volume originally came out before any of the issues in it had been reached by the other Essentials (and whilst all the Spider-Man issues have now been caught up with, at the time of writing the Captain America and Daredevil issues are still later than the most recent Essential volumes).

The issues contained here are:

• Amazing Spider-Man #129, #134-135, written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Ross Andru
• Giant-Size Spider-Man #4, written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Ross Andru
• Marvel Preview #2, written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Tony Dezuniga
• Marvel Super-Action #1, written by Archie Goodwin and drawn by Tony Dezuniga
• Amazing Spider-Man #161-162, #174-175, written by Len Wein and drawn by Ross Andru
• Captain America #241, written by Mike W. Barr and drawn by Frank Springer
• Amazing Spider-Man #201-202, written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Keith Pollard, & Annual #15, written by Denny O'Neil and drawn by Frank Miller
• Daredevil #182 (part) & 183-184, written by Frank Miller & Roger McKenzie, drawn by Frank Miller
• Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #81-82, written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by Al Milgrom, and #83, written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by Greg LaRocque
• The Punisher (limited series) #1-4, written by Steven Grant and drawn by Mike Zeck, & #5, plotted by Steven Grant, written by Jo Duffy and drawn by Mike Vosburg

Also included is the Punisher's entry from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. This appears to be from the Deluxe Edition. Because there are so many creators, some of the labels have been placed in a separate post.

This is a very different approach from the standard Essentials. Whereas most of the other volumes focus on a particular series and present an absolutely sequential run, only including issues from other series if they constitute the build up for the series or carry a crossover, this one is closer to a more conventional tradepaperback drawing together appearances from multiple titles, and also willing to present only the pages relevant to a character or storyline from a particular issue. It's a style that doesn't seem to have been repeated, probably because it steps a bit too far from the normal Essential approach. Nevertheless it's an interesting one-off, showing the Punisher over the years before he got his own ongoing series. (By all accounts for a long time a lot in Marvel had severe reservations about an ongoing series featuring a gun wielding protagonist who kills his opponents, despite having printed many Western comics in earlier years. But then that was a different age.)

In terms of continuity, reading this on its own can be a little confusing as it jumps through some ten years worth of Spider-Man developments. Some of them are mentioned in passing, such as taking a leave of absence from graduate school, or Jonah's breakdown, or twice we see people about to become the Green Goblin, but without the wider context it may confuse at first. Similarly the Daredevil issues overlap on Matt Murdock proposing to Heather Glenn whilst there are dark developments in her company, and the Captain America issue comes from a now forgotten period with Steve Rogers was working as a commercial artist. But this is par the course for crossovers and it's to the volume's credit that it (generally) didn't follow the pattern of early trade paperbacks that sought to cut out subplots and even rearrange the artwork in order to focus just on the reason for being collected. Instead it's nice to see the whole issues altogether, which better suits the collector that the Essential line appeals to. There is an exception with Daredevil #182 which only has the eight pages featuring the Punisher. This may have been part of a bigger Daredevil storyline but on their own the pages stand out. Still they are necessary for explaining the Punisher's escape after his previous capture.

But what about the Punisher himself? Well reading through these issues altogether it's clear that he was at times a victim of the Comics Code Authority rules, forcing Marvel to present a rather tamer version of the character than he could be, seen most notably with his use of "mercy bullets" that merely stun. The contrast is starkest between his 1970s appearances in the Spider-Man titles, printed with CCA approval, and those in Marvel Preview & Marvel Super-Action, both of which were part of Marvel's non-CCA approved magazine line aimed at somewhat older readers. Going into the 1980s issues, which start with Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15 there are signs that suggest the CCA rules were relaxed with the Punisher becoming harsher in his appearances, culminating in his first limited series where the character is more brutal and the violence more graphic than in anything previously seen with the CCA symbol on it.

This is also a sign of changing values in comics. The earliest superhero comics, and indeed the pulps that preceded them, emerged during a simpler era. Authority was good. Corrupt politicians, police officers and the like were rogues, not part of wider systemic failings. Heroes caught criminals but it was down to the system to deal with them. And the system invariably did, with many a villain's return mentioning either they had been released or they had escaped. Although it took a few years, heroes usually had a clear relationship with the law-enforcement community that gave their actions a stamp of legitimacy. And above all heroes were noble crusaders for the "right" values. Sometimes they even led the way - the first issue of Captain America had a cover showing him punching Hitler, months before the US entered the Second World War. The Silver Age broadly stuck to these conventions - Spider-Man might have been an outsider with a poor relationship with authority but there was never any doubt that he was on the side of right.

And then came the shocks of the late 1960s. American public opinion turned against the war in Vietnam. At home social changes and a backlash against them were causing ever more confrontation. And corruption was exposed at the very top of the system. Many of the old certainties fell away and the world was now a confused places. What was "right" now?

It was in this environment that both the Punisher, and his near contemporary Wolverine, were created. Both characters had an approach that was very different from the older generation of noble crusading heroes. Both took a much more dubious approach. Both characters enjoyed an early surge in popularity but also presented Marvel with a challenge given their nature. Consequently neither received an ongoing title until the late 1980s. But whereas Wolverine was in constant use due to his membership of the X-Men, the Punisher was used more sparingly.

Fundamentally the Punisher is a vigilante who serves as judge, jury and executioner. A soldier gone rogue, he perhaps reflected the 1970s belief that not all soldiers were noble crusaders and instead the military had produced monstrous killers who chose for themselves who would live and who would die. The Punisher might commit his atrocities on the streets of America rather than in the jungles of Vietnam, but he is a brutal killer never the less. His methods are such that at one stage he is shooting at any breach of the law no matter how minor - in one scene he shoots at a man merely for throwing aside a newspaper and missing a bin, and then when a taxi driver panics and jumps the lights he too is shot at. This particular storyline (Spectacular Spider-Man #81-83) focuses on the Punisher being apparently mad and ends with him being ruled insane. Later in the limited series it's revealed that he was in fact reacting to drugs he'd been unknowingly doped with, and once his system flushes them he reverts to normal - well for him that is.

Or perhaps not. The Punisher is an agent of justice, attacking only those who break the law. The law itself is not infallible - in the Daredevil issues we see Matt Murdock successfully get a man off a murder charge, only for his client to then calmly confess to the crime (Matt hadn't detected the lying because a pacemaker prevented a leap in the man's heart beat). As shown in his origin, the gangsters who killed the Punisher's family for witnessing an execution were able to evade prosecution by producing alibis, but weren't able to evade him. In such an environment the Punisher is a latter day cowboy, enforcing the law in places where the authorities fail and bringing justice to those who would otherwise be denied it. His victims have only themselves to blame for their fates and he is bringing those fats about efficiently. He is willing to work with other heroes and adapt to their values by using mercy bullets, and fundamentally is on their side.

Such are the two interpretations of the character. There are many wider issues flying around relating to the death penalty, to whether or not the police should be armed, to the efficiency of the legal system, to what rights law-breakers are still entitled, to the nature of a civilised society and so forth. Most of those questions are beyond the scope of this post but they do show how difficult the character can be to handle, especially when guest-starring in other titles. He can be a difficult ally of the lead hero or he can come into direct conflict over their values or somewhere in between. The conflict side is best shown in his encounter with Daredevil, whilst his alliance with Spider-Man is at its strongest in Giant-Size Spider-Man #4 when they work together to take down an arms dealer. With Captain America there's a curious reaction on each side. The Punisher admires Cap and finds he cannot bring himself to let Cap die, even if it means not blowing up a meeting of top mobsters. However Captain America is true to the traditional noble values including that even criminals have rights and is firmly opposed to the Punisher's methods, though stopping other criminals prevents him from taking the Punisher down. In many ways I think Cap and Daredevil make for the best characters to interact with the Punisher because they bring such a clash of outlooks and force it to the forefront.

That's not to say that Spider-Man has flawed values, far from it. But whereas Cap and Daredevil are both ultimately wedded to the system of enforcing both order and law, Spider-Man is wedded more to the responsibility to protect people and has always had a tense relationship with that system. He may never have resorted to the Punisher's methods, but he doesn't really serve as the best advocate for the system in this debate of contrasts. And so instead his encounters with the Punisher tend to downplay some of the harsher aspects of the latter, particularly with the widespread use of mercy bullets, and instead focus more on the adventures. In their early encounters the Punisher is willing to believe the word of criminals about Spider-Man's activities, but slowly he comes to accept the wallcrawler is seeking the same ends, if not quite the same means, and the two become reluctant allies in most of their 1970s stories. But two things change with the 1980s - there's both an increase in the bloodiness of the Punisher and also Spider-Man is now far condemning of his methods. A further contrast comes in the Spectacular issues which also involve Cloak and Dagger and contrast between their focused targeting of the drug scene and the Punisher's broad ranging approach to all crime.

When the Punisher gets his own solo slots the focus is invariably different. Curiously there's no attempt made to develop a supporting cast even though this could have helped to ground the character further. Perhaps all involved doubted there'd ever be an ongoing Punisher series (let alone the period when he had three!) and so didn't want to take up time building up things that would have no payoff. At the end of the Marvel Preview issue an FBI agent called Dave Hamilton does publicly declare a determination to bring down the Punisher but it's not followed up on in later appearances. The magazines do bring a personal edge to the Punisher, with the first one seeing him tracking down those responsible for turning ex-Marines into assassins and destroying them, whilst the second has a showdown with the gangsters who murdered his family. Whilst there's no clear chronology, the delay in the showdown is justified by the gangsters being inaccessible until they're moved, supposedly for protection from internal revenge killings for spawning the Punisher. Once that story is told the Punisher feels he hasn't had enough revenge as he didn't kill them all, so his mission continues.

The first solo series was a limited series in 1985-1986. On the face of it, it displays signs of changes midflow. Issues #1, 3 & 4 proclaim on the cover they are "in a four issue limited series", but #2 & 5 state "five issue". And the last issue has a change of creative team plus a caption on the first page thanking the new writer, artist and inker. Many wondered if this was a sign of a late in the day change of plans. However in researching this post it was apparently a combination of the printing department messing up, assuming the series would be the standard four issue length and requests for corrections were implemented then forgotten, and good old fashioned deadline problems. (Comic Book Resource: Comic Book Legends Revealed #196)

The story starts off with the Punisher (now given a name - Frank Castle - for the first time) escaping from jail and being offered help from a shadowy organisation known as "the Trust" which seeks to brainwash criminals into vigilantes modelled on the Punisher, even using his uniform. The Punisher initially goes solo but finds his plans spiralling out of control when he attempts to cause a gang war to make criminals wipe each other out. Eventually the Trust manipulate him into coming to them, in the hope of brainwashing him into their ultimate killer, but the Punisher manages to avoid the techniques and get Alaric, the leader in charge of the operation to leak all the information about the organisation. The ending is a surprise as the Punisher declines to kill Alaric, knowing that he's destroyed the organisation anyway, and sometimes it's best to walk away without killing. Then when he confronts Alaric's girlfriend, who had been using and manipulating him, and her car goes over the edge of a bridge the Punisher decides once again to walk away and do nothing. He also confronts the son of one his past kills who has been urged to take revenge and talks him out of it. It's an interesting ending suggesting that the Punisher is refining and reconsidering his methods beyond simply killing all criminals in sight, perhaps setting up the character to be a little more acceptable for an ongoing series. The limited series also brings back Jigsaw, the villain from Amazing Spider-Man #161-162 as the Punisher's first recurring adversary. Jigsaw survives largely because the Punisher has bigger fish to fry in each encounter, but does offer prospects of an ongoing conflict.

Overall the issues collected in this volume don't have a clear coherent direction, with multiple writers each doing their own thing with the character and some trying to undo previous developments. I doubt the Punisher was expected to be so popular when he was introduced - indeed I've read that co-creator Gerry Conway has said when he was writing Amazing Spider-Man he doubted the comics industry would last even a few more years - so there was never really a grand plan from the outset. As a result the character can oscillate between positions, pushed more by the Comics Code Authority rules than almost any other, but the limited series makes a good effort to find a happy medium between the extreme positions and make the character viable for further solo stories.

The decision to do the volume this way was a curious one, as it would have been far more conventional to lump together the two magazines, the limited series and the early issues of the ongoing series and not bother too much with the guest appearances. But instead an experiment was done in showing the development of the character, and it makes for an intriguing volume. I doubt they could have repeated this format too many times as it would lead to too many issues appearing multiple times, when many people buy multiple Essential volumes to build up an overall collection of classic Marvel runs and wouldn't react too favourably to being asked to keep buying the same material in new combinations. But as a one-off it's a nice approach.

Given this blog's primary focus it's fair to say that this volume's usefulness for the Spider-Man stories has rather diminished over time. When it came out it was the first time any of these issues had been Essentialised and so it offered an opportunity to get an advanced glimpse at them. Whilst this still applies for the Captain America and Daredevil issues, the volume now serves as a general sample of Spider-Man across ten years. The stories are generally good but the lack of the wider context to the many changes over the course of the decade means they can be confusing if one isn't familiar with the wider runs. However as an addition to those runs it serves as a good dip in and out.