Monday, May 13, 2013

Punisher 2099 #1

 photo Punisher-2099-1-Thumbnail_zps300aba39.jpg

Just in case you ever thought the Punisher needed more shoulderpads.



88 comments:

LucasChad said...

I love the Power Bat! It's so bad!

There! Best comment I can come up with for this video!

Anonymous said...

Hey, Linkara?

I've noticed some odd patterns with Nimue. Probleably nothing but check with me later.

- Dr. Linksano

MarioJPC said...

I think that the armour is the upper middle of the body... including the head... i think.
But awfull comic anyway.

Adam Burchfield said...

Well, that was pretty bad. Although, I have to admit, that costume was still better than his actual 90s costume Castle wore for a while. If anyone watched the 90s spiderman costume u probably know what I am talking about. Also looking forward to DOOM 2099. I hear a lot of actually good things about that one.

Mitchell Martinez said...

The review didn't get consistently funny until about 9 minutes in, but that has happened before in one of your videos. I think the main problem was that you felt too passive towards this comic, and the way you teased it in the last video made it sound like it was going to be a lot worse than what it actually was.

Also, I can't believe that with such a 90s character, that you didn't have 2090s Kid mention anything about Rob Leifeld being cloned in the future or something like that. It seems like he should have been praising this book a lot more and mentioned that non-artist.

Also, one of these days, I think you should reference the character "Big Shot" from The Tick. Heck, if this thing really was supposed to be a parody, than you could have used that clip to show how a Proper Punisher Parody is Portrayed.

Unknown said...

I'm not really that interested in the Punisher so I would have stayed away from this anyway, but now I'm even more convinced to stay away from it. Same goes for most 90's comics. By the way, thanks for getting me into comics in the first place.

A Simple Point of View said...

This comic didn't seem too bad, especially based on others you've reviewed, but yeah still not very good.

Also, since you didn't say it, I will. I love the Power Bat, it's so bad.

Konsolero said...

That was indeed pretty horrible. Kind of reminded me of Youngblood probably because of the artwork.

I love 2090´s Kid btw, you should get Brad so do a 2080´s Dan that would be hilarious.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe you didn't make a reference to A Bit of Fry and Laurie when talking about paying to have crimes accounted for.

"By any chance did you miss the privatization of the police force"

Doresh said...

So Future Punisher thinks it's better to have a scrambler device to fool cameras instead of just wearing a mask or helmet? How is that gonna help if one of his fellow cops sees him with his own eyes O_o ?!

Boy, the 90's weren't particularly kind to this incarnation. I hope the original wasn't like that during this period...

And you know, this 2099-stuff got me thinking: what if Marvel and DC would do something similar to their main continuity? What if every superhero only had a limited run (like 5 years or so), after which a new incarnation takes his place?

I'm sadly not sure how to pull this of with such a large cast as the Marvel and DC Universe without major headaches, but it does have its merits:

- It gives much-deserved closure to characters that would otherwise suffer from editorial mandate (I'm sure a lot of people would rather see Peter Parker retire and raise a family with MJ, instead of him being this editorial slave who's never allowed to do or have anything that would make him "too old")

- "Continuity is evil"-editors will be appeased because a new incarnation doesn't really have to have anything to do with its predecessor.

- Unlike a reboot, the past hero and his events still exist, allowing for crossovers and special one-shots. It allows to honor the old stories, instead of pretending they never happened (or happened in some way, even though it wouldn't really make sense in the rebooted setting).

- Retcons wouldn't really be necessary anymore.

- Stupid editorial mandates become more harmless because they only affect the current incarnation.

- It allows for more experiments with a character. If it doesn't work out, you can always have a more conservative approach with the next incarnation.

What I'm basically asking is: Could storytelling in superhero comics benefit from being more like Doctor Who or Super Sentai?

Metallavery said...

The Punisher needs more shoulder pads, and guns, and shoulder pads with guns!

Anonymous said...

So an over the top creep obsessed with the Punisher goes around killing people he thinks violate his brand of justice.

I get it now. This is Garth Ennis 2099!

Rob Green, MN said...

Looking back at this comic I agree with everything you've mentioned about the comic. I still like the series as it was one of my first comics to read. It's still 90's artwork, but to 9 year old kid reading his dad's comics you don't care, and just think about how cool it would be to have nerf gun or bat that looked like some of his weapons. On another note the Punisher 2099 series to me has one of the creepiest front covers which would be the last issue number 34. Now it's time to get back to my paper, and then plan out my deck Yugioh deck for Animinneapolis.

thorondragon said...

the heat sink thing could work like an energy shiled you see in games like mass effect and borderlands. a shield that covers your body in a kinetic barrier bubble. admitably, especialyl in mass effect, that barrier is not full on replacement for armor, or need to compensate with a big old shiled generator you wearing on your hip in borderlands, but it sounds like a very similar concept.

strangely though a heat sink in mass effect is in fact the games form of ammunition. while the ammo is semi infinite; it does have an internal source but it would take a while to wear it out, heat build up is the worse part, so they eject the cartridge.
they do have particle beam technology, but apparrently the rail gun ssytem in their guns is more efficient, as the particle beam would have that overheat problem without the benefit of a heat sink.

Lizard-Man said...

This isn't directed at you, so don't take any offence at it. The comic says "Heat Sink" armour. Seriously? Heat Sink Armour? As an avid player of Mass Effect, I know Heat Sinks are used to absorb massive amounts of heat, bleeding it off from the generator of the heat.

Now today we use them for computer and such, in Mass Effect they used them to fire guns, because they don't really use bullets they use a giant block of lead that shaves off a grain of sand from every time you pull the trigger and the gun then propels that tiny speck really super fast with mass effect field, or they use heat sinks to disguise their ships heat output, rendering they invisible to sensors.

Heat Sink armour implies that the armour absorbs lasers or something. Which is dumb on so many levels because you can't have armour that works like a heat sink. Besides, lasers are more than just intense heat, they're concussive focused beams of light. Microwaves are even stupider, because microwaves that could do that people are not just heat but radiation and heat sinks don't protect against radiation.

This comic is just stuffing words together to sound futuristic! I hate it when they do that!

Also, now I'm wondering where Future 90s kid's third hand was... ugh.

Timzor said...

Nice hacking job he did on those security cameras. I guess the Punisher was pretending he was one of those deaf-mutes before it was cool.

Solomon said...

The thing with the Punisher is that the concept itself can not really be updated

Think about it
If you put the Punisher into the Wild West, Ancient Rome, Victorian England, Feudal Japan, Carolingian Empire, or pre-revolution Russia, he'd still be the same character

The Punisher is truly timeless
as long as there are crooks getting away with their crimes, vigilante justice will remain popular
whether preformed with a gun or sword

Unknown said...

Hey Linkara loved the review, I never really cared for the punisher (aside from the fact that he had a crossover with Archie), what is the name of the comic hope Frankencastle somehow makes it on Lonbox of the Damn. where Punisher is african american ?

Anonymous said...

So the Punisher has a hacking program that changes his face so it can't be recognized.

Oh god he's the Laughing Man from the Ghost in The Shell Series!

Tyrell Rock said...

Did a comic book fan who reviews comic books for a living just called the villains too over-the-top and cartoonish?

Aren't superhero comics supposed to have garish, over-the-top villains? How are the Street Surgeons and Scorpion 2099 (yes, Kron Stone eventually becomes the 2099 version of Scorpion, it was him in the "Shattered Dimensions" game) any different from villains such as the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Trickster, the Prankster, Stilt-Man, Mighty Endowed, The Fiddler, The Mole Man or Mister Twister?

Jesse said...

This being the 90s and all, why didn't they have caption boxes to EXPLAIN what the hell was up with the guns? Could have put in "author notes" to tell readers to look at the back for the explanation.

At the very least this would have ATTEMPTED to reason the nonsense.

Unknown said...

I am liking this special month more and more. Can't wait for Doom 2099. I actually found that comic at a school fair. Ever think of having Vincent E.L. do a futuristic version of the theme song?

Shanethefilmmaker said...

Huh, I just realized, a police force dedicated to who pays them? Oh my god it's Kuffs!!!! Also I might as well ask 2090s kid this while he's still there. Is porcelain bunny and slinky the new recreational drugs of the 2090s?

PopCultureOtaku said...

There are parts of this country were you have to pay extra money to get fire fighters to put fire in your area. If you don't they will show up and watch your house burn. It happen. So paying cops business isn't to far off. Yes I understand it was cause of cost and that has to do with towns that doesn't have their fire department. Still stupid.
Could they face wise made him any more look like Frank Castle/Punisher of modern times. Seriously doesn't look like they were trying.
By god I knew I remember that scramble face idea from somewhere when I saw Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex season 1. I can't believe the idea was used here too.
How the hell does that guy still have head after that image?
You think frankencastle or black guy stuff was bad? Anyone remember when Punisher was an angel?

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

KLEENEX

Symthic said...

Lemonade blood? The future sounds awesome! wait, what if that's not lemonade? What if he got hit in the bladder? ...the future is icky.

Those gun designs are just atrocious. They look like they were designed by an 8 year-old who has no idea how guns work, but just wanted to make something look cool. That is, look cool from a first-grader perspective.

I knew about Frankencastle, but... what about this black guy thing? That sounds hilariously bad.

Can't wait for next week's episode! Will you ever go over the DC reboot?

RanmaFan85 said...

Entertaining as always, though you had two good jokes you could've made that you didn't.

"I love the Power Bat... it's so bad..." of course. No other comments to see if anyone else mentions this.

Then what the thugs at the beginning are doing can easily be related to Repo! The Genetic Opera.

Anonymous said...

This is a really good episode, excited to see you do Jake Gallows. So in the 90's future, F90K has an extra arm that he carry's with him? thats so sewing machine.

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised you didn't make a joke about Rorschach's Journal.
Still, good review as always, looking forward to Doom 2099

Anonymous said...

Did you read Frankencastle? I thought it was good, far better than Punisher Angel of Death. Yes that happened too,google it xD

NetAccess98 said...

The digital scrambler maybe like the Laughing Man from Ghost in the Shell.

Anonymous said...

Fun review; man was this some classic '90's crap! This is unrelated, and you'd have to get a hold of it, but I wonder if you'd take a stab at Cerebus 186, and possibly 265. Since you've made it clear that you have feminist views, I'd love to see you tear apart some of the most awful and insane misogynistic propaganda I've ever seen.

Anonymous said...

Dear Linkara:

I have talked things with Tobinsano and Yumemi, and we both agreed on that is something odd about Nimue. At first, I thought about the McGee Virus, but then I reasoned "How can a computer be affected by a biomchemical virus?". I know that The Impostor is dead again, so I know she didn't tamper with it. The Gunsliger keeps insisting that it's the work of Mureas, but given his past actions, I'm wary of fully trusting him. In any case, I think you should give Nimue a check, and then give me a call to see what was it.

Your friend,

-Nitori Kawashiro

Unknown said...

The review was good, loving 2090's Kid more and more.

Though I have to ask, have you been sleeping enough recently? You sounded really tired in the opening.

Chronix said...

Cool review linkara cant wait for Doom2099, He's my second favorite 2099 character after Spiderman!

I do have to disagree with you on the "it's the same origin" thing. Yes his family was killed but the main point of Jake's "mission" wasn't just about killing criminals, it was more about inflicting punishment on those who could simply escape the system simply because they had money. it was an attack against the system more than killing bad guys.

The artwork does leave much to be desired but the story does get better in some places. in future story lines we see Jake pretty much become the Judge Dredd of 2099 with him in charge of the new law system. And then we see it go completely off the rails when he goes too far and starts to have arguments with himself like he has multiple personalities or something.

I found that one of the strong points of the series was the supporting cast that develop. a self aware robotic cop that not only has his own quest for "true justice" but steals gold from the criminals to create armour for himself. Then there is Vendetta, a former sex slave who breaks free and becomes a female punisher.

Its not the best but its not the worst of 2099!

also the chain ammo pistol kinda reminds me of the pimped up revolver from Bioshock.

Lostshadows said...

I thought it looked like he'd just padded his crotch.

Though, if your wielding guns, you really don't have to worry too much about enemies getting close enough to kick you there, so its probably just for the ego boost.

Anonymous said...

actually, if it has been going on for...let's say...15 years, i could see people having come to accept the privatized police. and the police basically forgetting what their work was abut.
In an unrelated note. robocop actually had the police privatized and, in what i think is the only good scene in robocop 3, the entire police department turn their badges when the company has gone too fa rin their eyes.

Breno Ranyere said...

Linkara, i have a personal request to make. In 2012 Marvel released a comic series called Scarlet Spider wich followed Kane as a spiderman living in huston. However after avengers vs xmen and during the wave of the new 52, the book became forgotten a is know not doing very well on sales... i fear that marvel may consider to cancel the title if the low sales continue... to help the book marvel teamed up scarlet spider with venom in a crossover called minimum carnage, a book that got very low reception by critics and fans... i ask you to consider one day reviewing minimum carnage, so you can help to put scarlet spider on the map.
i don't know if you an reiew a book so recent but all i ask is that you consider the idea for a future review...
thank you for your time.

Nero Angelo said...

I'm sad. The punisher was like THE most realistic hero . . . until he became Frankenstein's creation X(

ellindsey said...

Titanium actually isn't all that dense. It's a lightweight metal. If the bat could go from rubber to, say, lead, or even steel it would be a lot more impressive. Although I'm not sure how something goes about changing its density on command, seems to me that would require it to be able to somehow gain or loose mass on command. Meh, comic book science.

Scott Tibbs said...

Street Surgeons, huh? Man, we talk about anti-smoking "Nazis" now, but it looks like in the future things will get much worse.

If you're caught smoking a cigarette or drinking a Big Gulp of sugary soda, you will be cut to ribbons. Saves on health care costs for smoking and obesity related illnesses, too.

Hugo Robberts Larivière said...

In defense to Frankencastle, I thought it was pretty good. Such a weird concept with excellent art by Tony Moore really did create something very enjoyable, even if it was very different in terms of Punisher stories.

Anonymous said...

Seeing that cover makes me wonder if 2099 Punisher was trained by 90's Kid especially with him shooting the air, all that's missing is him yelling, "Dude!"

If this guy is afraid of the roving gang of surgeons...I'd hate to see his reaction to a roving gangs of dentists.

Wow...this guy really likes Punishment, and wait he stole the Laughing Man's shtick with cameras! Man somebody should punish him for that!

Isn't that like the fourth time you've used the Pollo commercial? Not complaining just seems like its one of the ones you use more often.

Guns that fire roast beef...can meat vision be far behind?

Well obviously they aren't aiming for the head because shooting the head is illegal, and all of these fine upstanding citizens wouldn't want to break the law.

Maybe Jake should've started singing the Barney song...make the guy think everybody's family, really mess with his head.

Did they ever explain how Jake got the Punisher's...War Journal?

So, how long is this list of comics you're going to get to?

InsertAuthorHere said...

One of the most baffling things about Punisher 2099 isn't that it exists, but how it ends. Spoilers obviously, but seriously, Gallows has three different fates:

- His main series ends with him blasting off into space, abandoning Earth so he can spread "punishment" to the stars.

- The one-shot Apocalypse (basically the Ultimatum of 2099) has him killed by giant robot bugs. (I think, it's been a while.)

- The final story in the original 2099 continuity, Manifest Destiny, has him suddenly alive and well, and joining every single other surviving hero in the final battle. He even gets a line of dialogue.

So...yeah, just what happened to the guy?

Leor said...

Schway review Lewis, too bad the comic was total schwarbage!

@Tyrell Rock: In Punisher 2099, Kron Stone was supposedly murdered and dumped in a sewer by Jake Gallows. There Kron bonded with an alien symbiote and became Venom 2099, not Scorpion 2099. Which makes sense, because, SPOILERS:



Tyler Stone is Miguel O'Hara's biological father, making Kron Miggy's half-brother. Peter David retroactively worked Kron into Miggy's backstory, as a bully Miguel had to put up with in elementary school and high school. Tyler knew that Miguel was his son, and was disappointed in Kron's poor achievements (while gleefully preparing Miguel for a career in Alchemax). So retroactively, that's why Kron stone became the over-the-top psycho in today's comic: because Tyler Stone didn't love him. I'm sure Miguel could tell him that Tyler Stone's attentions are not a good thing.

Leor said...

@Breno Ranyere: You are confusing DC's New52 reboot with MarvelNow, a relaunching of titles with new numbers. Lewis has been quite vocal in his dislike for Spidey comics since 2007, which is a shame since I think Dan Slott and Rick Remender have done some great writing on Amazing Spider-Man and Venom respectively.

As far as Scarlet Spider, maybe Linkara will devote a month to looking at the Clone Saga and its aftermath? That way he can look at Spider-Island and the Scarlet Spider series?

andrei ouro said...

Hey linkara, im really enjoying 2099 month, and was wandering if you are planning to do another one next year.

Also this comic was apparently written by pat mils, which explains the 2000 A.D feel that in this comic.

Zander said...

What is that Gun u have?

FugueforFrog said...

I'm sort of shocked there would be anyone in this so-called future who even wants to be like the Surgeon General. What, did Alchamax look through all the old villains and realize that she was a role model?

Funny episode, ridiculous comic. It was just a 90s comic in the future with an idiot Punisher and even stupider villains. I think it was just at a point he was just one of the big characters and they had to have him because he was popular and had big guns...that and with how convoluted Cable was, he wasn't worth it.

And surprised you didn't say "it's so awesome" about that Power Bat.

Bluecho said...

I think the corrupt cops were referring to old school corporal punishment, like execution or the like. Which means the future moved away from actually punishing violent criminals and instead has them paying blood reparations. Except not even to the family, apparently, since there was no indication Gallows got any of the cash.

I found the part at the beginning to be very infuriating. Sure, it's all well and good to have corrupt corporations owning private security, but the idea of leaving a customer to their fate because they can't pay seems asinine. Ignoring the bad press or political sanctions that would come down (we'll assume they just buy them off), these private cops were ready to let their customer die. As a result, they are losing money in the long run. If they did save him, they could have charged him with a further bill for taking their services while behind on payments. Instead, he'd be dead if not for the Punisher, and they'd never get any money from the guy again.

I'm just saying, for no other reason, you'd think the corrupt cops would intervene if only for the bottom line. After all, THAT'S WHAT CORPORATIONS ARE ALL ABOUT.

Unknown said...

Great review as always good sir. I have honestly never liked the Punisher. He just always feels so one note and uninteresting.

Also It's great to see you exorcising your blue humor again at the very end. Strange no one else has commented on it yet. If anyone reading this doesn't know what I'm talking about just check out the last few seconds of the video after the Inked Reality logo.

Micro4 said...

Linkara you missed a poor literacy is cool joke with the computer terminal used by the guy in the into. It was named an Identiti Terminal "Because Poor Literacy... is KOOWEL!... In the Future!"

Xavier said...

I'm sorry Lewis but everytime you said "why not in the head" I got a little mad, police officers and soldiers are taught to shoot a man in the chest instead of the head because the head is a small, mobile and very hard to hit target, and this were small time criminals and gangbangers that probably never had good training with it, people that have never used a gun don't understand how dificult it is to aim for the head during a firefight WHEN SOMEONE ELSE IS SHOOTING AT YOU, only expert marksmen with a big control over stressful situations are capable of that.
Also one of the reasons Jake is not preocupied for them to shoot him in the head is because the simbol, in any version of the punisher the skull is a way to scare them into shooting his very protected and armored chest instead of his more vulnerable head or limbs, like how in the earlier versions batman had his bat-symbol made of kevlar and the rest of the suit was more flexible.
I agree about everything else you said though, as a punisher fan I didn't like this comic very much and Jake is a very crazy protagonist, specially later on where he captures people and keeps them on his basement, some of the next issues are better and some are actually good, but "good for the 90's" is not that much of a compliment.
Still, nice review, I really liked it and I can't wait to see the rest of the 2099 reviews.
PD: Could you add "Punisher: Purgatory" (the one where Frank becomes an avenging angel) to your waiting list of punisher titles to review? I understand if you don't have the time but thanks for being awesome anyway.

Anonymous said...

@Tyrell Rock: "Aren't superhero comics supposed to have garish, over-the-top villains?"

...Nnnnno? Not always. It depends on the comic and the tone that they're going for. Considering how dark this particular story is, I would argue that the cartoonish villains are inappropriate.

Paul S. said...

I think this is one of your funnier reviews. Your voice for Jake Gallows is perfect and the comic itself is kinda stupid awesome. I hope you review some more Punisher 2099 issues down the line.

Patrick Carlock said...

Ah, so this IS going to somehow tie into the story arc. Thanks Linksano! Can't wait to find out what happens. Really loving 2090s Kid. The slang is absolutely ridiculous. But it's fun. If only the same could be said for the comic.

Ramnesis said...

First thought I had when the scene came up:

"I love the Powerbat, it's so glove."

Anonymous said...

@Bluecho

actually, if you pay attention to how most corporation work nowadays, you'd realize that they indeed are this stupid

most corporations today don't seem to give a damn about long-time income (or at least don't think that far ahead), which is also the reason why the economy is in such a sorry state

Unknown said...

He carries a human arm wit him?! In all honesty, the Future 90s Kid is starting to scare me a little. But I am starting to wonder how our 90's Kid is doing right now.

Anyway, the comic! I definitely agree with you about the guns. It doesn't make sense that so many gunshots need to be fired in the first place. If anything, it only raises the possibility that one of those bullets can hit someone who happens to either walk past that area or sit in their apartment/house via the window or door. Luckily that didn't happen or we'd see issues of vigilante heroes being hated by the people and hunted by authorities for doing becoming the same as the criminals that they hunt while coming to terms with the consequences of their actions.

Actually, that would probably be interesting in the right hands...

Jay Kidd said...

Just thought you'd like to know that the members of the "Church of Thor" wearing a hammer instead of a crucifix isn't just a cute nod. Many Norse Pagans today (especially those who follow Thor as a patron deity) wear upside down hammers as necklaces.

Doresh said...

@Lizard-Man:

"This isn't directed at you, so don't take any offence at it. The comic says "Heat Sink" armour. Seriously? Heat Sink Armour? As an avid player of Mass Effect, I know Heat Sinks are used to absorb massive amounts of heat, bleeding it off from the generator of the heat.

Now today we use them for computer and such, in Mass Effect they used them to fire guns, because they don't really use bullets they use a giant block of lead that shaves off a grain of sand from every time you pull the trigger and the gun then propels that tiny speck really super fast with mass effect field, or they use heat sinks to disguise their ships heat output, rendering they invisible to sensors."

No offense, but are you seriously criticising a piece of fiction because its "heat sinks" don't work exactly like the "heat sinks" in a different (and most notably totally unrelated) piece of fiction?

And using heat sinks as cloaking devices only works as long as you can actually store the heat.

"Heat Sink armour implies that the armour absorbs lasers or something. Which is dumb on so many levels because you can't have armour that works like a heat sink. Besides, lasers are more than just intense heat, they're concussive focused beams of light. Microwaves are even stupider, because microwaves that could do that people are not just heat but radiation and heat sinks don't protect against radiation."

Lasers are light. Light has no mass. No mass means no kinetic force whatsoever. No kinetic force means that lasers are NOT concussive beams.

This is not saying heat sink armor makes sense. It does not, but it does so for different reasons.

See, a MUCH easier, cheaper and reliable solution is REFLECTIVE armor. As I mentioned above, lasers are light, and the right kind of coating on the armor would reflect light and therefore the laser.
Microwaves are whole different matter, but if every microwave door can block it off, so can the underlying armor with the right mesh.

Dehumanizer said...

I have to agree with Chronix and others: this comic isn't exactly "good", but I don't think it's as bad as you claim. It's actually less "90s" than many other comics at the time. And it gets better in time (before eventually getting worse, but that's another story). One thing you already commented in your Spider-Man 2099 review is that they tend to take the first 3-4 issues to tell the character's origin, instead of doing it just in the first issue, and it's the case here too (and with Doom, and Ravage, and...)

Also, the costume can't be "the Punisher as if designed by Rob Liefeld". For one thing, not nearly enough pouches. :)

Anonymous said...

Okay, from the top.

Street gangs of surgeons and the only law is corporate police. And here I thought the Spider-Man comic was boringly generic in its cyberpunk themes.

A Punisher who wears should pads so large and wide that he shouldn't be able to move his head to look around him.

Have to notice that the first fight seems to miss one of the main points of the Punisher. He's supposed to be professional. Why wouldn't he just shoot the criminals in the legs (from a safe distance in hiding) and then beat them up.

After that, what's stopping the police from just getting a description of his face from the criminals? If he has the tech to hide his face from cameras, other people will too so obviously witness descriptions are still used.

As for shooting heads, I will note that it's incredibly difficult to actually hit a person's head (which is why soldiers and police are taught to shoot at the center of mass)... but then it falls apart because apparently these psycho criminals are good enough to hit his legs.

And then the story falls apart even more. So we're in a dystopian future where the police are brutal and apathetic, but at the same time outright say how they can give 'brutal punishment'.
Also it's incredibly stupid to pretend that someone who horribly murdered a cop's family would be allowed to live. Word of advice, corrupt elites tend to do their best in nations like the one depicted here to keep the police happy. Want to know why? Because the police are the ones with guns. The ones who can shoot up the corrupt elites if they ever get angry. So yeah, what would happen in reality? In reality that psycho would probably be dead.

And if the system actually has brain surgery that CAN make people not want to commit crimes, then why the hell don't they use it? Even corrupt idiots who aren't scared of angry cops would want to end violent crime that costs them money.

GoldenKing said...

You know that the Thor Hammer (Mjolnir) necklace is actually a real symbol that Viking sailors used to protect themselves from harm at sea.

Anonymous said...

Hey Linkara, I have a quick question about your videos. I watch your videos on the blip.tv iPhone app. Do you get revenue from video views from the iPhone app?

Ozaline said...

The street surgeons remind me of Repo: The Genetic Opera.


Which MST episode is that with the "Falling at a 60 degree angle" clip? I think I need to give that one a watch.

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"Which MST episode is that with the "Falling at a 60 degree angle" clip? I think I need to give that one a watch."

PUMAMAN! =3

Fionordequester said...

You know Lewis, not that I don't think this comic is bad...but I actually unironically liked the character design of the "Dragon Ball Z Man", even if the execution is lacking.

Because really, when you think about it, what better archrival for the Chaotic Good character than the Chaotic Evil character, you know? Kind of like how in Dexter, one of the main villains was a seriel killer just like Dexter, except evil.

Basically, paint the dude as this absolute, unstoppable monster, and you've even got a very effective motivation for Punisher wanting to become stronger. He's desperate enough to gain strength and skill, because he's paranoid that the day will come when, once again, another monster comes into his life to take everything away from him, a monster who can't be stopped by any red tape, or any law...

So, in that way, I actually thought DBZ Man's character design was a good idea, just not used well at all.

Unknown said...

To everyone pissing on the "heat sink armor", especially Lizerd-guy...

Yeah, the American military is actually experimenting with superconductive armor to absorb and dissipate the heat of a directed laser.

See, according to physics, energy cannot be destroyed, only changed, so when the photon particles of a laser hit something at the speed of light, the kinetic energy is laughably small, but then when it comes to that sudden stop, it turns to heat, which builds up as trillions more particles collide with the same spot. By bleeding the heat away, you can make it so the laser takes much longer to burn something, like a missile that would be destroyed in the few seconds it was in flight. Body armor is remotely possible, given a hundred years, and would probably reduce the damage from a regular photon laser significantly. Also, the radiation? Yeah, there are many forms of "radiation". One of them is heat, which any laser can generate, unless you're talking about an X-Ray laser, which is a lot easier to make in space, and required a nuclear explosion to work.

So there you have it, the most realistic, Hell, the ONLY realistic part of the comic is a major target of fan snark.

Science, people, learn it.

Unknown said...

Oh yeah, I also have to mention that Punisher 2099 came out in 1993, while Ghost in the Shell SaC didn't air in Japan until 2002 (and no, there was no "Laughing Man" in the manga, and the sequel "Man Machine Interface" didn't hit until 2001).

So yeah, there are a lot of reasons to hate this comic without making crap up whole-cloth.

If anything, it was full of good ideas and horrible executions (see what I did there?! I'M CLEVER!!!).

Anonymous said...

"PUMAMAN! =3"

at some point in time you have to do a top 10 list for superheroes which names, costumes and powers have nothing to do with each other- like pumaman's main power is flight... because... you know.. puma?! *shrug*

Gareth said...

I think the diary is something that should have been visited and revisited over the course of the book i.e. on first reading he ignores Castle and thinks he is crazy but when he loses his family he feels like Castle would have known what he was going to and start to open up to the ideas in the diary, ending with him taking up the mantle of Punisher.

Anonymous said...

For the love of every good, Scribblenauts Unmasked better have Snowflame in it. Especially after the developers said that the game has every character from the DC Universe no matter how obscure.

DaveWire said...

It's nice to know that Kron's surgery stuck. Considering he's Venom 2099 and all.

Actually, there's a very logical reason for why nobody aims at his head. It's too small to be a proper target for those enormous guns. They'd never hit it. Better to aim for the bigger targets: chest, legs, etc.

Anonymous said...

You pointed out early on that when he first appears, his shirt doesn't have that skull thing on.
What you didn't point out is, it appeared on his shirt a couple of panels later.
What, did he stop to get changed in the middle of a firefight?
Or is it some kind of special future shirt, that has a logo that appears and disappears? Was this about the time hypercolour shirts were in fashion?

~ Mik

Luis Francisco Angulo Andrade said...

I'd just like to say that I was very, very dissapointed by this series when I read it, but unlike you Lewis, I'm actually a fan of the punisher. Also, I am a gun nut, and really into science (as a hobby, my major is in psychology). So for me this failed on soooo many levels it was painful to read.

Also, I'm finally getting ads on blip for your show (In Spanish, by latin American companies no less). I'd also point out that sometimes U.S. companies pay for advertisements outside the U.S. anyway because their products have cross-border appeal. For example there were ads for Blackberry when I used to watch The Daily Show about 4, 5 years ago.

Personally I am AGAINST advertisements. I am aware however that this being your main source of income, you should be getting your fair share for your work, and quite simply donating directly or buying shirts and other stuff is somewhat impractical for me because of the peso-dolar exchange rate. And although the ad revenue is probably much lower proportionally, this is what I can do right now, emphasis on right now.

I hope you can get enough revenue to keep producing AT4W for many years to come.

Anonymous said...

Frankencastle was an awesome Punisher run. Good crazy comic fun.

Darth Revan said...

To be fair to the comic, I think that the offer to psychoanalyze the psycho guy is something plausible to do if you're in danger and not thinking straight. She's trying to save herself by, essentially, appealing to the criminal's emotions.

However, there is something very stupid at work here in the comic. I refer to the radiation thing. Others here have aptly pointed out that resistance to heat would not provide resistance to radiation. There is a reason why radiation is harmful... and yet the use of microwaves is idiotic to the EXTREME.

Radiation is defined by it's frequency and wave length, both values which are related to one an other and the sped of light (which is the speed of all electromagnetic waves actually, making it kind of a misnomer). The higher the frequency, the shorter the wave length, and the more energy the wave contains. The frequency of microwaves is BARELY higher than that of the visible spectrum, the radiation that our eyes take in and use to form images, which is completely harmless.

The reason radiation of high frequency is dangerous, such as gamma rays, is because these radiations are of high frequency. Without getting too deep into it, they cause chemical reactions in every cell of our bodies, which cause necrosis and a variety of other effects. Microwaves? Those would MAYBE cause such a reaction is you stood in front of a microwave for the entirety of your life.

Cancer and mutations are an entire other can of worms, but suffice it to say, that's damage over time that microwaves could potentially inflict (it hasn't been proven yet) and isn't something that one could immediately use for a weapon.

Megan said...

I'm loving 2090's Kid about as much as I love 1990's Kid, mainly because I knew a few people in my high school that were just like him. (And no, that's not sarcasm-I genuinely mean it). It's a neat little piece of nostalgia for me. I graduated in 2000, to give you some perspective.

I only recently discovered this show-I was watching the Nostalgia Critic review of Superman IV on Youtube, and in the sidebar was a link to the ending of your 100th episode, so I watched it, thought the song was pretty catchy. Youtube search-found Bimbos in Time. Yeah, that was my first intro to AT4W. I laughed my butt off, and kept watching. (In my defense, I honestly didn't know about this blog until I did a Google search)

I'm also really impressed by how good your storylines are-they don't detract from the review at all, and as in the case with the Entity, are genuinely spooky. That voice...so damn terrifying. (Though I'm probably one of the few people on here that never played Pokemon-'yay' for epilepsy!]

Oh, another YT video I watched a lot was one that compiled all your breakdowns into one. Damn you for picking such an earwormy song! I had 'Combine Harvester' in my head for days after.

As to this comic-it sucks, and your review was very funny. Also, I need to watch Puma Man again. "Someday, I hope to be as bald as you, Sir."

So from a fellow capitalist,feminist,Christian MSTie, keep up the good work!

boooratt said...

Ok, I knew this one was bad based soully on plot outlines I've read when researching 2099 in the past but yeah this was pretty goofy! I am still curious of Jigsaw 2099 as his design looks like the stuff I draw when bored!

I've heard of and seen Franken Castle Punisher and seen images but where is this Black-Punisher from!? Also, one I've heard of but not read but want to read just for how terrible it sounds is the Punisher as a Constantine/Dylan Dog style resurrected angel demon bounty hunter story arc that last like 4-5 issues before being retcnned!

I agree that "punishment rod" has been in some places it shouldn't have gone!

Arianne said...

I'm going to have fun with with some future fictional slang.
The Punisher comic does look pretty Shtako and so does his costume.
I do however, enjoy the cameo of 2090's kid. I just hope the 90's kid doesn't screw up 2090's timeline .

Anonymous said...

Old school triple homer with Castle "Aaaargh". Keep up the work good!

I understand that ads need to be injected, and can ignore them without a brain fracture. The one I get is something about some Ladies who mispronounce the word "Ask". Hilarious satire of...well I have to look into it. Satire of something?

Ming said...

Unbelievable. I mean, really, this is Punisher 2099? He's just like the regular Punisher only with Rob Liefeld-style body design and weapons. I'll stick to the original Punisher, thank you very much.

In short, a bad Marvel 2099 comic.

Eskoe said...

Not sure if you've realized by now or been informed, but Punisher 2099 was written (and drawn) entirely to make fun of American comics in the 90s. It was written by a Judge Dredd/2000 A.D. writer.

JOE SOAP said...




Looks like someone doesn't get satire.

Anonymous said...




Like Judge Dredd and Marshal Law before it, Punisher 2099 reads as pure satire to me and it would require effort not to take it as such.

Trying to attach real world aesthetics/mechanics to it is completely missing the point - like throwing a dart at a fat person two-feet away and missing.

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"Looks like someone doesn't get satire."

Looks like someone doesn't know this is the old website.