Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe is, not to belabor a point, not good. It's a hackneyed mess with weak character work and a nonsense plot, and one of the worst comics Ennis has ever written (certainly his worst Punisher comic, which makes sense as the good stuff was way later). But it had a few moments of black comedy that worked, and it made sense as a Punisher pitch (what if he hated superheroes instead of criminals?).
And then there's this, which decides to take an already bad concept and make it longer.
Where Frank Castle declaring war on superheroes at least sort of works as an extension of his character, Deadpool doing the same thing is nonsense. Surely, Deadpool's original appeal was that he was a put-upon everyman by the standards of regenerating mercenaries, a laidback jokester trying to pay the bills. Giving him genocidal motives is profoundly out-of-character, even given the absurd meta-reasoning, and so he is tortured into further madness, turning him into a character unrecognizable as Deadpool. It's the worst excesses of the Way era taken to new heights; the only thing this Deadpool has in common with any take is cracking one-liners. The best alt-universe stories are the ones that provide deeper insights into how a character works, but DKTMU has no interest in that.
So having replaced Deadpool with Freddy Krueger, surely the story could at least have decent fight scenes? Seems like the point, after all; showing a dedicated street-level fighter fighting gods. Turns out, not so much. Of the kills in the comic, when the story can't put them offpanel, only a handful seem plausible, and many rely on characters either forgetting about their powers or being incredibly stupid.
Some cite Spider-Man forgetting his senses, or Thor forgetting he can control Mjolnir, or a handful of bombs killing half the Avengers. For me, it's the first issue, when the Watcher, who is defined by his ability to see everything, somehow gets sneak-attacked and killed by Deadpool, who found a cosmic-entity-killing weapon in Reed's lab and figured how to use it in seconds - because Reed has guns that can kill a guy who could smash a galaxy, but not something that can handle a guy with quick healing.
Then maybe it can be funny? Nope. Part of slapstick is knocking people off their pillar, but no such luck. There's no setup, no comeuppance, they just sob and beg and try to run away. It's like the scene in American Psycho where Patrick Bateman curbstomps a homeless man, but four issues long. Any humor to be found in Deadpool's one-liners is on the level of a school bully punching you in the face with his own hand while shouting "Stop hitting yourself!"
All in all, it's a spiritually bankrupt, perplexingly boring, creatively void, and entirely worthless monument to the worst parts of the character's fandom. While rereading it for this review, I discovered it's also a strong seller in trade. Make of that what you will.
Inexcusable. (first series)
What a baffling story.
Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe is, not to belabor a point, not good. It's a hackneyed mess with weak character work and a nonsense plot, and one of the worst comics Ennis has ever written (certainly his worst Punisher comic, which makes sense as the good stuff was way later). But it had a few moments of black comedy that worked, and it made sense as a Punisher pitch (what if he hated superheroes instead of criminals?).
And then there's this, which decides to take an already bad concept and make it longer.
Where Frank Castle declaring war on superheroes at least sort of works as an extension of his character, Deadpool doing the same thing is nonsense. Surely, Deadpool's original appeal was that he was a put-upon everyman by the standards of regenerating mercenaries, a laidback jokester trying to pay the bills. Giving him genocidal motives is profoundly out-of-character, even given the absurd meta-reasoning, and so he is tortured into further madness, turning him into a character unrecognizable as Deadpool. It's the worst excesses of the Way era taken to new heights; the only thing this Deadpool has in common with any take is cracking one-liners. The best alt-universe stories are the ones that provide deeper insights into how a character works, but DKTMU has no interest in that.
So having replaced Deadpool with Freddy Krueger, surely the story could at least have decent fight scenes? Seems like the point, after all; showing a dedicated street-level fighter fighting gods. Turns out, not so much. Of the kills in the comic, when the story can't put them offpanel, only a handful seem plausible, and many rely on characters either forgetting about their powers or being incredibly stupid.
Some cite Spider-Man forgetting his senses, or Thor forgetting he can control Mjolnir, or a handful of bombs killing half the Avengers. For me, it's the first issue, when the Watcher, who is defined by his ability to see everything, somehow gets sneak-attacked and killed by Deadpool, who found a cosmic-entity-killing weapon in Reed's lab and figured how to use it in seconds - because Reed has guns that can kill a guy who could smash a galaxy, but not something that can handle a guy with quick healing.
Then maybe it can be funny? Nope. Part of slapstick is knocking people off their pillar, but no such luck. There's no setup, no comeuppance, they just sob and beg and try to run away. It's like the scene in American Psycho where Patrick Bateman curbstomps a homeless man, but four issues long. Any humor to be found in Deadpool's one-liners is on the level of a school bully punching you in the face with his own hand while shouting "Stop hitting yourself!"
All in all, it's a spiritually bankrupt, perplexingly boring, creatively void, and entirely worthless monument to the worst parts of the character's fandom. While rereading it for this review, I discovered it's also a strong seller in trade. Make of that what you will.