Post by crazyoldhermit on Jan 18, 2015 17:01:17 GMT -5
The Punisher #60 (October 2008)
"Valley Forge, Valley Forge, Conclusion"
Artist: Goran Parlov
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Summary: Frank's Colt 1911 is on the table. It's loaded, with one in the chamber. Thats eight rounds. Howe asks why he does it. He doesn't want to preach or analyze, he just wants to understand what he's doing. Frank says he does it so they can't walk away and profit from the pain they've casued. Their deaths don't weigh on his conscience, he doesn't give second chances and he'll never stop. Howe thanks him.
Chapter 13 of "Valley Forge, Valley Forge." Stevie was killed with a bayonet. His death was bad but brief. He simply ran out of luck. In a broader sense it's more complex. The chronic lack of leadership at the firebase, the inadequate maintenance, Chadwick's greenhorn lieutenant and the bad weather. It's also possible that Castle's aggressive patrolling provoked the assault. But these are contributing factors, not the cause. It is not the answer of why they were in Vietnam in the first place.
On August 2 1964 U.S.S. Maddox was attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. The destroyer returned fire. Two days later the Maddox was attacked again and returned fire on radar targets. Three days later Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which granted President Johnson the authority to begin military intervention in the area without a formal declaration of war. Ten years later 60,000 Americans were dead.
But the Captain of the Maddox doubted any enemy action had actually happened. Bad weather and edgy sonarmen could be blamed for the radar contacts on which they opened fire. A U.S. pilot who surveyed the scene said there was "nothing but black water and American firepower." An N.S.A. report that was declassified in 2005 said the Maddox fired warning shots at the Vietnamese boats before coming under fire. A recorded conversation between John and the Defense Secretary revealed doubt at the highest levels of the administration, but by then they had war. Kennedy had been pulling men out of Vietnam, which was populated with 16,000 military advisors. Johnson reversed policy and moved in men: By 1974 3 million men had served in Vietnam, all of them there based on one inaccurately reported skirmish and a second that didn't even happen. In October 2005 the New York Times reported that an N.S.A. historian had concluded that the N.S.A. had deliberately distorted the intelligence reports on the second incident, and in 2000 he had revealed that North Vietnamese radio intercepts had been misinterpreted and the error was immediately covered up. Policymakers in the Johnson administration were presented only with information that supported the existence of the attacks, just so there would be no perception of uncertainty in Johnson's administration. Johnson himself said "For all I know our Navy was shooting at whales out there."
Stevie was the finest human being Goodwin has ever known. Michael's sons and daughters were robbed of their uncle, an unknown woman was robbed of her husband, unborn children of their father. That is what the war Johnson started and Nixon prolonged did to the country. The only purpose the dead men in Vietnam now serve is to teach us never to be fooled again in such a base and wretched manner. But when Goodwin watches the news he despairs, because it seems America's fallen are to be robbed of even their legacy.
On the transport back to D.C.Geller asks the Delta boys what "Marine Recon" is. He's re-reading Castle's file and it's repeatedly mentioned but he doesn't know what it is. They tell him it's the Marine's Special Forces. Special Forces...
Howe tells Frank that they both know how soldiers die: A thousand different ways but none of them unexpected. The right to make peace with dying early is what a soldier earns. Howe did not believe Frank deserved that. He believed he deserved life in prison. But Howe watched the tape and saw what was done in the name of profit and he thinks about what would happen if it saw the light of day. Frank has taught him a lesson in necessity. He picks up the gun and says theres one last thing.
The Generals have arrived of the makeshift base. They greet Howe as he exists. They demand an explanation for keeping them out of the loop, for Geller's present location and for what is going on with the tape. Howe tells them the tape is upstairs and that he's washing his hands of it and leaves.
On the plane Geller leaves Kurt a message. He's hiding in the bathroom. He thinks something might be wrong. Howe isn't what he seems to be. During Castle's second tour of Vietnam he was on all kinds of black ops operations. Most of his file is classified and is blacked out. He was in Laos and Cambodia and other places he wasn't supposed to be and thats what made Geller remember. In 1969 Howe was a POW and a Special Forces team saved him. And Geller realized, what if the guy in command of the team was... A marine asks if they're to take prisoners. Frank Castle says "No." Castle doesn't remember the incident, it was just another job. But Howe would remember, it's the moment that changed his life. And thats why Howe signed up for the job. Thats why he insisted on taking Castle alive. He is trying to save his life. He plays things by the book, he hates what The Punisher stands for but he owes him. So he volunteered for the job and he played everybody. The warm, kindly, reassuring uncle persona was just an act. Geller says he must have laughed at him behind his back, except he doesn't think he laughs much. He doesn't think Howe is the man he thought he was. And if he's seen whats on the tape theres no telling what he'd do. Under a streetlight Howe lights a cigarette. His stare is as hard and cold as Frank's.
In a bar Nick Fury is finishing up "Valley Forge, Valley Forge" as footage from Iraq plays on TV. Valley Forge, Valley Forge. Valley Forge, are you receiving, over? I say again, do you read, over? Valley Forge, we lost you, how do you read, over? Valley Forge-- This is America. Can you hear us now? Our lost one hundred ninety-two. Our cold, dead sixty thousand. On your firebases, your hills, in paddy fields and rainforsts, sprinting through the streets of ruined Hue; Dozing on the decks of Hueys, tapping magazines to settle bullets, lighting Marlboros off precious Zippos, smiling, scared; Captured in the whirr of Nikons, Leicas, in muddy footage where the colors seem to swell and run. By our words, could we conjure you? Could we conjure you up, and raise you from that rich red soil, and bring you back? To lovers. Sons and daughters. Kin. To friends grown old without you, puzzled by the youths beside them in the pictures. To the porches and stoops where you belong. Or will you always be that endless line of figures clad in green: receding single file between the sun-drenched trees, swallowed by gloom and glare in equal measure. The steady lope of men weighed down by packs. Ammunition for the sixties X-ed across the gunners' backs in bandoliers. Canteens clumsy at your hips. Humping the boonies forever. Valley Forge, Valley Forge. Standing by to receive you. Over. The bartender turns the TV over. Fury closes the book, finishes his drink and asks for another.
The Epilogue of "Valley Forge, Valley Forge." In the end, the war in Vietnam was much like any other.
There were those who profited. The eight generals lie dead in pooling blood.
Those it devoured. The photograph of Stevie and Angel posing by the sign.
And then there were those for whom there are no words. Frank walks away from the generals, .45 in hand.
Observations: And just like that it's over.
Howe lets Frank go and Frank kills the Generals, which we knew was going to happen. Howe is revealed to have a hugely personal connection with him that compromised the entire operation from the beginning, which isn't completely unexpected but the delivery of the twist hits like Howitzer. Enis fantastic at cutting between scenes and events and getting the most out of plot twists like these. Howe turns out to be a very deep character and s Geller finds out too late he is quite an intense man. He has a strong sense of duty, whatever that may be. He doesn't want Frank to die because he owes him his life. He doesn't want Frank to stand trial because it would shame the military. His only option is to let Frank go, even though he disapproves of what he does. But his own sense of right and wrong is strong enough that he needs to see the Generals punished, which they can't be legally without compromising the military as a whole. That gives him one option and all he needs to assure himself of it is to fully understand what he's doing by releasing The Punisher and allowing him to kill eight generals.
The dirty origins of the Vietnam War are the focus of "Valley Forge, Valley Forge." Anyone who has listened to Alex Jones, Jesse Ventura or Joe Rogan has heard about the Gulf of Tonkin from the perspective of a onspiracy designed to get America into Vietnam. Ennis doesn't go that far, instead he presents it as a series of blunders covered up for the sake of political posturing, which resulted in the death of 60,000 Americans. But the primary target here is the Iraq War. Ennis is comparing the Iraq War to Vietnam and by extension is comparing 9/11 to the Gulf of Tonkin incident, considering both to be flimsy justifications for those wars. The text pages in this arc have been outstanding. I know opinions are mixed on whether or not prose sections work in comics but here it serves well. These sections were difficult to summarize because every line feels significant and there is a ton of layered symbolism and references to other parts of the series. In this particular issue the biggest connection is Howe feeling he has a debt to Castle for saving his life, the same way Stevie felt indebted to Angel. Angel didn't understand why Stevie felt he owed him while Frank forgot about it completely, in both cases it came down to the characters just doing their jobs. Frank as a whole could be seen as a different version of Angel. Both were troubled before going to Vietnam (obsesion with violence and heroin respectively), both struggled to manage their vices and neither came home.
Some people have called this issue anticlimactic. They do this because the ending isn't really any ending. Frank shoots eight people, the story he's been involved with for the past three years is over and he goes out to keep doing what he does. Theres no final reflection or any definitive ending. I disagree with these people in thinking this is a bad thing. For one, "The Long, Call Dark" served the role as an emotional finale, with Frank facing the biggest thread to his life as The Punisher and being forced to reflect on what he's done to himself. This arc doesn't feature any internal monologue and Frank is mostly in the background (I believe this is the third story where he spends a significant part of it held captive or otherwise incapacitated). This one is all about the forces that created Frank Castle, the darkness that created The Tyger and changed the lives of Nick Fury, Bill Torrance and George Howe forever. And in the end nothing changes. The darkness goes on and so does Frank.
Rating this issue is easy. A+, without a doubt. The perfect ending this is brilliant series.
As an arc it's much more difficult, because I have to judge it not only as a story arc in its own right but as a finale to the series. Here I will only judge it as its own story. It gets a B+. Solid all the way through with an excellent finale.
In a subsequent post I will judge it in the context of the entire series, along with further analysis of previous arcs with the new context of the ending and the final tallies.
Frank's kills: The eight generals.
"Valley Forge, Valley Forge, Conclusion"
Artist: Goran Parlov
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Summary: Frank's Colt 1911 is on the table. It's loaded, with one in the chamber. Thats eight rounds. Howe asks why he does it. He doesn't want to preach or analyze, he just wants to understand what he's doing. Frank says he does it so they can't walk away and profit from the pain they've casued. Their deaths don't weigh on his conscience, he doesn't give second chances and he'll never stop. Howe thanks him.
Chapter 13 of "Valley Forge, Valley Forge." Stevie was killed with a bayonet. His death was bad but brief. He simply ran out of luck. In a broader sense it's more complex. The chronic lack of leadership at the firebase, the inadequate maintenance, Chadwick's greenhorn lieutenant and the bad weather. It's also possible that Castle's aggressive patrolling provoked the assault. But these are contributing factors, not the cause. It is not the answer of why they were in Vietnam in the first place.
On August 2 1964 U.S.S. Maddox was attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. The destroyer returned fire. Two days later the Maddox was attacked again and returned fire on radar targets. Three days later Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which granted President Johnson the authority to begin military intervention in the area without a formal declaration of war. Ten years later 60,000 Americans were dead.
But the Captain of the Maddox doubted any enemy action had actually happened. Bad weather and edgy sonarmen could be blamed for the radar contacts on which they opened fire. A U.S. pilot who surveyed the scene said there was "nothing but black water and American firepower." An N.S.A. report that was declassified in 2005 said the Maddox fired warning shots at the Vietnamese boats before coming under fire. A recorded conversation between John and the Defense Secretary revealed doubt at the highest levels of the administration, but by then they had war. Kennedy had been pulling men out of Vietnam, which was populated with 16,000 military advisors. Johnson reversed policy and moved in men: By 1974 3 million men had served in Vietnam, all of them there based on one inaccurately reported skirmish and a second that didn't even happen. In October 2005 the New York Times reported that an N.S.A. historian had concluded that the N.S.A. had deliberately distorted the intelligence reports on the second incident, and in 2000 he had revealed that North Vietnamese radio intercepts had been misinterpreted and the error was immediately covered up. Policymakers in the Johnson administration were presented only with information that supported the existence of the attacks, just so there would be no perception of uncertainty in Johnson's administration. Johnson himself said "For all I know our Navy was shooting at whales out there."
Stevie was the finest human being Goodwin has ever known. Michael's sons and daughters were robbed of their uncle, an unknown woman was robbed of her husband, unborn children of their father. That is what the war Johnson started and Nixon prolonged did to the country. The only purpose the dead men in Vietnam now serve is to teach us never to be fooled again in such a base and wretched manner. But when Goodwin watches the news he despairs, because it seems America's fallen are to be robbed of even their legacy.
On the transport back to D.C.Geller asks the Delta boys what "Marine Recon" is. He's re-reading Castle's file and it's repeatedly mentioned but he doesn't know what it is. They tell him it's the Marine's Special Forces. Special Forces...
Howe tells Frank that they both know how soldiers die: A thousand different ways but none of them unexpected. The right to make peace with dying early is what a soldier earns. Howe did not believe Frank deserved that. He believed he deserved life in prison. But Howe watched the tape and saw what was done in the name of profit and he thinks about what would happen if it saw the light of day. Frank has taught him a lesson in necessity. He picks up the gun and says theres one last thing.
The Generals have arrived of the makeshift base. They greet Howe as he exists. They demand an explanation for keeping them out of the loop, for Geller's present location and for what is going on with the tape. Howe tells them the tape is upstairs and that he's washing his hands of it and leaves.
On the plane Geller leaves Kurt a message. He's hiding in the bathroom. He thinks something might be wrong. Howe isn't what he seems to be. During Castle's second tour of Vietnam he was on all kinds of black ops operations. Most of his file is classified and is blacked out. He was in Laos and Cambodia and other places he wasn't supposed to be and thats what made Geller remember. In 1969 Howe was a POW and a Special Forces team saved him. And Geller realized, what if the guy in command of the team was... A marine asks if they're to take prisoners. Frank Castle says "No." Castle doesn't remember the incident, it was just another job. But Howe would remember, it's the moment that changed his life. And thats why Howe signed up for the job. Thats why he insisted on taking Castle alive. He is trying to save his life. He plays things by the book, he hates what The Punisher stands for but he owes him. So he volunteered for the job and he played everybody. The warm, kindly, reassuring uncle persona was just an act. Geller says he must have laughed at him behind his back, except he doesn't think he laughs much. He doesn't think Howe is the man he thought he was. And if he's seen whats on the tape theres no telling what he'd do. Under a streetlight Howe lights a cigarette. His stare is as hard and cold as Frank's.
In a bar Nick Fury is finishing up "Valley Forge, Valley Forge" as footage from Iraq plays on TV. Valley Forge, Valley Forge. Valley Forge, are you receiving, over? I say again, do you read, over? Valley Forge, we lost you, how do you read, over? Valley Forge-- This is America. Can you hear us now? Our lost one hundred ninety-two. Our cold, dead sixty thousand. On your firebases, your hills, in paddy fields and rainforsts, sprinting through the streets of ruined Hue; Dozing on the decks of Hueys, tapping magazines to settle bullets, lighting Marlboros off precious Zippos, smiling, scared; Captured in the whirr of Nikons, Leicas, in muddy footage where the colors seem to swell and run. By our words, could we conjure you? Could we conjure you up, and raise you from that rich red soil, and bring you back? To lovers. Sons and daughters. Kin. To friends grown old without you, puzzled by the youths beside them in the pictures. To the porches and stoops where you belong. Or will you always be that endless line of figures clad in green: receding single file between the sun-drenched trees, swallowed by gloom and glare in equal measure. The steady lope of men weighed down by packs. Ammunition for the sixties X-ed across the gunners' backs in bandoliers. Canteens clumsy at your hips. Humping the boonies forever. Valley Forge, Valley Forge. Standing by to receive you. Over. The bartender turns the TV over. Fury closes the book, finishes his drink and asks for another.
The Epilogue of "Valley Forge, Valley Forge." In the end, the war in Vietnam was much like any other.
There were those who profited. The eight generals lie dead in pooling blood.
Those it devoured. The photograph of Stevie and Angel posing by the sign.
And then there were those for whom there are no words. Frank walks away from the generals, .45 in hand.
Observations: And just like that it's over.
Howe lets Frank go and Frank kills the Generals, which we knew was going to happen. Howe is revealed to have a hugely personal connection with him that compromised the entire operation from the beginning, which isn't completely unexpected but the delivery of the twist hits like Howitzer. Enis fantastic at cutting between scenes and events and getting the most out of plot twists like these. Howe turns out to be a very deep character and s Geller finds out too late he is quite an intense man. He has a strong sense of duty, whatever that may be. He doesn't want Frank to die because he owes him his life. He doesn't want Frank to stand trial because it would shame the military. His only option is to let Frank go, even though he disapproves of what he does. But his own sense of right and wrong is strong enough that he needs to see the Generals punished, which they can't be legally without compromising the military as a whole. That gives him one option and all he needs to assure himself of it is to fully understand what he's doing by releasing The Punisher and allowing him to kill eight generals.
The dirty origins of the Vietnam War are the focus of "Valley Forge, Valley Forge." Anyone who has listened to Alex Jones, Jesse Ventura or Joe Rogan has heard about the Gulf of Tonkin from the perspective of a onspiracy designed to get America into Vietnam. Ennis doesn't go that far, instead he presents it as a series of blunders covered up for the sake of political posturing, which resulted in the death of 60,000 Americans. But the primary target here is the Iraq War. Ennis is comparing the Iraq War to Vietnam and by extension is comparing 9/11 to the Gulf of Tonkin incident, considering both to be flimsy justifications for those wars. The text pages in this arc have been outstanding. I know opinions are mixed on whether or not prose sections work in comics but here it serves well. These sections were difficult to summarize because every line feels significant and there is a ton of layered symbolism and references to other parts of the series. In this particular issue the biggest connection is Howe feeling he has a debt to Castle for saving his life, the same way Stevie felt indebted to Angel. Angel didn't understand why Stevie felt he owed him while Frank forgot about it completely, in both cases it came down to the characters just doing their jobs. Frank as a whole could be seen as a different version of Angel. Both were troubled before going to Vietnam (obsesion with violence and heroin respectively), both struggled to manage their vices and neither came home.
Some people have called this issue anticlimactic. They do this because the ending isn't really any ending. Frank shoots eight people, the story he's been involved with for the past three years is over and he goes out to keep doing what he does. Theres no final reflection or any definitive ending. I disagree with these people in thinking this is a bad thing. For one, "The Long, Call Dark" served the role as an emotional finale, with Frank facing the biggest thread to his life as The Punisher and being forced to reflect on what he's done to himself. This arc doesn't feature any internal monologue and Frank is mostly in the background (I believe this is the third story where he spends a significant part of it held captive or otherwise incapacitated). This one is all about the forces that created Frank Castle, the darkness that created The Tyger and changed the lives of Nick Fury, Bill Torrance and George Howe forever. And in the end nothing changes. The darkness goes on and so does Frank.
Rating this issue is easy. A+, without a doubt. The perfect ending this is brilliant series.
As an arc it's much more difficult, because I have to judge it not only as a story arc in its own right but as a finale to the series. Here I will only judge it as its own story. It gets a B+. Solid all the way through with an excellent finale.
In a subsequent post I will judge it in the context of the entire series, along with further analysis of previous arcs with the new context of the ending and the final tallies.
Frank's kills: The eight generals.
