The Punisher retrospective: 'Circle Of Blood' #5

by Dave Scrimgeour & Kevin McCluskey

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​​Cover Date- May 1986
Price- 75c

Plot- Steven Grant
Script- Jo Duffy
Layouts- Mike Vosburh
Finishes- John Beatty
Letter- Ken Bruzenak
Colourist-Bob Sharen
Editor- Carl Potts
Editor In Chief- Jim Shooter

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synopsis

As the 'Circle Of Blood' closes, Frank escapes Alaric's clutches, faces off against Jigsaw once again, sends the "Punishment Squad" running for the hills, buries the hatchet with Tony Siciliano, but leaves things hanging with Angela.  Literally.  (K)

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Kev
You got anything you want to kick-off with?


Dave
The artwork is so different in this issue.


Kev
Yeh, it really is, isn't it?  That's not to say that it's bad, by any stretch of the imagination, but it's just so different, it's jarring.  And with the different script writer too, it almost doesn't feel like part of the same story.


Dave
It's kind-of of a really straight forward story.  Nothing unexpected happens.  I find it a bit disappointing as a final issue, actually.  Although, I do like the opening full page panel, with The Punisher's teddy boy haircut.

Gas!?!? Sparks!?!? That reprogramming room is a health & safely nightmare.

Kev
Ha, ha!  It's a good look on Frank.  I know what you mean about it being a bit of a let down as a conclusion.  It just looks and reads so differently, that it feels like a stand-alone issue.


Dave
Plenty of narrative in it from Frank.  I like how he escapes from the gas chamber.


Kev
Yes, I like that too.  It shows his ingenuity.  I always like the Frank narration.  As we've said from the start of our reviews of this series, as a reader, it gets you right inside his head.


Dave
It takes us, step by step, through what he's doing, planning and feeling.  Yeah, I always liked the Punisher's narrative too.


Kev
I find it interesting when he says, "back when I was another kind of soldier in another kind of war."  It's like Frank needs to constantly be fighting a war of some kind.


Dave
When Frank has his fight with Jigsaw, some of those proportions of Jigsaw are well ropey.  Such as the panel where he is standing over Frank shouting "Come on...scream an' then I'll kill you" and even the next panel with him pointing the Uzi at him.


Kev
Good spot.  I hadn't really noticed that before.  Although, I do like how Jigsaw is just capping off shots at random as Frank stabs him in the thigh with the knife, then Frank proceeds to beat seven shades out of him.  Also, the angle Frank's arm is at when Jigsaw wrenches the gun from his grasp looks nasty.  That looks like a break or a dislocation, right there, but ultimately Frank gets in some good ground and pound when he gets Jigsaw in full mount for the W by KO.

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Should've followed-up with a head kick, Jigsaw.

​Dave
Yeah.  That's a good, bone crunching battle between them.  Jigsaw hasn't half gotten a lot bigger, physically since we last seen him.  I'm thinking this wasn't intentional.  


Kev
I don't think that it was intentional either, no.  Maybe Jigsaw’s been on the "juice.”  I think it's just a case of Mike Vosburg having such a different style to Mike Zeck.  Frank's body type is totally different too.  He looks much leaner under Vosburg's pencil than Zeck's.  He has more of welterweight M.M.A. fighter's physique here, rather than Zeck's bodybuilder look.


Dave
Do you think there was a tight deadline for getting this issue done in time for publication as well?


Kev
Definitely, yes.  Like last issue too.


Dave
That's a good frame with Frank pointing the gun at Jigsaw though.  "But it's my kind of crazy.  Not your kind.”

"I'm crazy. Crazy for feeling so blue."

Kev
Yeh.  That is a good panel.  Frank is certainly a kind of crazy that's quite specific to himself.


Dave
"You guys still here? You still want me?...Be my guest."  It's just relentless violence with Frank at this stage.  The war is coming to a close, at least with ‘The Trust,’ and Alaric shows his true colours now.  He’s a coward.  Which is what we’ve said about him all along.  In saying that, he does not too badly in managing to catch Frank off guard, but in the heat of battle, he panics after knocking him down and he runs instead of going for the kill.


Kev
Alaric did better in that confrontation than I thought he would too.  I was surprised Frank walked right into that one.  Frank is going all-out here, he knows he has to finish this, finish Alaric, finish ‘The Trust,' finish this particular war.  It's an all-out revenge story by this point.  The panel where Alaric swings the rifle and catches Frank behind the ear looks brutal, but he just doesn't have the stomach, the guts or the “intestinal fortitude” to pull the trigger.  Just like you and Frank said.  He's also becoming a bit of a megalomaniac, comic book, super villain cliche here too.  Particularly when he's spouting off lines like, "I can't fail."  I wonder if this is a symptom of the handover of the scripting duties too.


Dave
Yeah, it's probably difficult for new writer to know where the original writer was going, or  where they were intending for the character to go, so they have gone for the obvious, the snivelling, cowardly wreck he turns into.


Kev
Steve Grant is still credited as plotting this issue, so you would’ve thought that Jo Duffy at least had half an idea of the final destination for and the main character traits of Alaric.  It seems to me that, particularly with his dialogue, the idea was there, it’s Duffy’s execution of it that doesn’t have the same lightness of touch that Grant did in earlier issues.  Alaric's actually turning into the sort of grovelling little weasel that Jigsaw was back in issue one.  He's finally shown to be way out of his depth with Frank.  Frank has him pegged when he says, "Take away his goons and his guards, the whole crew of toys and people he's had doing his dirty work for him, and Alaric crumbles...he's a joke...a man who'd use a gun as a club because he hasn't got the sense--or the spine--to simply point it and pull the trigger."  And Alaric only confirms this when he reacts to having Frank in his crosshairs like this,  "Is he dead?  I think he's dead.  There's blood...blood on me...on my hands...my shirt...Got to get away."  Although, to be fair to him Alaric does show his fear of 'The Trust' here as well.  Perhaps that fear was informing his actions and reactions at this point too.  And in all fairness to Duffy, perhaps that was always intended to be the destination for that character.  Stripping away all the artifices of power, to reveal the weakness at his core.


Dave
Yeah, Frank's really managed to psychologically terrorize Alaric here, closing with the panel with a devious grin "Bang."  Still, Alaric knows The Punisher doesn't bluff either.


Kev
I really like that, "Bang" panel too.  It's a good call back to the van and the helicopter and as you say, the look of content on Frank's face is priceless.  He knows he's won this war in this moment.  The angles of those three panels is really effective as well.  Props to Vosburg on that one.

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Yes, yes, Frank. We've all noticed that nice bang you're now sporting on your forehead. Very good.

​Dave
The Punisher is well portrayed, again, using psychological tactics as well as pure warfare tactics to predict his enemies actions and influence others into doing what he needs them to do.  And what better way to expose ‘The Trust’ than through a national newspaper.  Plus, he knows it will also be the end of Alaric personally too.


Kev
Yeh.  Nice mention of the Daily Bugle and Ben Urich as well.  "...a good man, for a reporter."  Ha, ha!  I like the composition of the panels during the stand-off.  Being able to see through the wall into the two rooms really allows us to feel the tension of the scene.


Dave
Yeah, I really like those panels too, it creates an emptiness to the house which in a way kind-of reflects Alaric.  Especially now, at this final stage, where he has been psychologically stripped off his sense of power and his sense of security too.   All he is left with is primal fear.

Not breaking, obliterating the fourth wall apparently.

​Kev
He really has been left with nothing at the end of it all, has he?  "You sing loud enough, fast enough, they'll either leave you alone, or you can bet they'll get punished for whatever they do to you."  I love Frank's warped sense of honour.  Another thing; does Alaric really refer to Angela as a dog here?"  "He's my dog!  Mine!  Just like Angela.  You jerk."


Dave
Or he's just referring to Angela as his possession, like his dog.  


Kev
Ha, ha!  I'd hope so.  Yeh. 


Dave
He really is falling apart here.  It’s funny how the dog quickly adapts to a new master and walks away with Frank.


Kev
That's always sat awkwardly with me, that has.  Is it purely because it sees Frank as the new alpha, that its loyalties change so quickly?


Dave
Yeah definatly.  I think that Duffy went down the right path with Alaric, as it was what we wanted to see, Frank finally getting his hands on this pompous, arrogant douchebag.


Kev
Definitely.  The resolution to this story is pretty strong, actually.  It's downbeat.  It's not neat.  The loose ends aren't perfectly tied up, but the character stuff with Frank is satisfying.  It's like a lot of the best story's endings, in that it's a new beginning too.  We see the evolution of Frank into an even more complex and detailed character.  "So maybe I've learned...there are times you can still walk away without killing...maybe times when it's better to."  Yet despite all this, it still feels a little disappointing.  It still feels like a little bit of a let-down.  Is it purely down to the change of creative team?


Dave
I dunno.  It could be.  There is so much personal narrative around the final pages of this issue.  Frank is finally making progress in his personal war.  That panel of Tony Sicilano pointing the gun at Frank is hilarious on the bottom of the page.


Kev
The one as he's lowering the gun?


Dave
"But you killed my father too.  Now you have to pay for that."   Tony looks cross-eyed.


Kev
Ha, ha!  So he does.  He's not a particularly good looking dude, is old Tony Sicilano.  The more contemplative Frank is shown here with Tony as well, actually.  "Or, you can put the gun down and walk away...and get on with the business of living instead of killing.  Your decision."  Walking away seems to be a big theme at the conclusion of this story.  With Frank essentially walking away from Angela and leaving her to her fate too.


Dave
Yeah, I know.  This was a few years before the 1989 Dolph Lundgren version, but this ending is kind-of similar to what happens in the film.  Only, of course, the son is a lot younger in the movie.
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​Kev
Ah!   You're right.  That's true.  I hadn't thought of it like that.  Frank is clearly still hurt by Angela's betrayal, despite suspecting her all along, which is why he doesn't intervene to save her, I reckon.  "And the whole game comes to rest, teetering on the brink of oblivion."  That pretty much sums up this entire story.


Dave  
Yeah, he still seems a bit sore about that one.  It’s a good panel of him walking out of Alarics mansion in the rain.  "Looks like it's gonna be a long walk home.”  The rain matching the mood of the events that have unfolded.

Ladies & gentlemen, the 'One Man & His Dog' 2018, champions…..

​Kev
Yeh.  I like the tone and atmosphere of the ending.  Again, it's really cinematic.  Speaking of which, Frank walking away with the dog at the end puts me in mind of 'John Wick Chapter 2.'  Come to think of it, Frank ends-up with a dog at the end of season two of Netflix's 'Daredevil' series as well.  Who'd've thought that Frank was such a dog person.


Dave
Yeah, good point.  That’s a good panel, the one with aerial view of Frank crossing the bridge and Angela waiting at the other side.


Kev
Yeh.  It is.  I wouldn't mind living in Alaric's mansion.  I might be tempted to demolish the bridge and just have Tesco or Asda drop off my shopping via helicopter though.  Home delivery services from other supermarkets are available, of course.


Dave
Frank wastes no time in opening fire.  Just gave her a chance to see his face, then he quickly reacts to her reaction really.


Kev
Interesting that he shot the jeep's radiator rather than just shooting her between eyes.  Goes to show that he still had enough feelings for her to not just execute her on sight.


Dave
Yeah.  Another psychological game with Alaric; leaving his woman in peril.  It is pretty cool how the story finishes without any real closure.  It was still left open for a follow up issue, or maybe even another series.  Did the car fall off the bridge?  What happened to Tony Sicilano?  And what about Alaric?  The ending is unresolved.  Much like Frank's personal war.  He can never really close all the doors.

"Procrastination is the thief of time."

​Kev
Yeh.  That's true.  It sets up an ongoing series nicely, smoothed some of the rougher edges off Frank as a character and moved him even further into the position of an anti-hero, as opposed to the villain-of-the-month he started out as all the way back in 'The Amazing Spider-Man' #219.  Perfect for a character to carry his own series.


Dave
How do you rate this series after all these years?


Kev
I think it's really, really good, and it stands up really well to the thirty plus years since it came out.  It has its problems.  The deadline factors and the subsequent change of creative teams did it no favours in the last couple of issues.


Dave
Yeah, I agree, but it still stands the test of time for sure, only let down near the end.  But it is a great character story for The Punisher and a great launch for the many stories that followed.

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​(D) & (K)