Born #4 - Grade B+

Title:	Born (Max)
Contributors:	Garth Ennis Nick Lowe Paul Mounts Tom Palmer Sr. Joe Quesada Darick Robertson Wieslaw Walkuksi Rus Wooton
Publisher:	Max Comics (Marvel Comics)
Issue #:	4 of 4
Year:	2003
Pages:	32 Pages
Age Rating:	18 (Language, War Violence, Gore, Racism)
Story Grade:	B
Art Grade:	A

This comic was a completely random pick for me from a $1 bin at my local comic shop... yay they finally started a dollar bin.

I am not usually into war comics, I haven't been since I was a young kid, but the cover art grabbed me. This book was also the second Max Comics book I found in the dollar bin, the first being Alias, and since I had already grabbed Alias it made sense to grab this one as well. Another aspect that helped grab my attention was that right on the cover it says... Parental Discretion Explicit Content. That to me is the DO NOT PRESS button at a nuclear launch facility... I would have to press it to see what it did. It's just who I am. And that, as well as thousands of other reasons, is why I am not allowed in nuclear launch facilities.

Well for a dollar, was it worth the risk?

Turns out... This was quite a find.

This issue is the wrap up of 4 part mini-series that gives us the origin of the origin of The Punisher. Yes, it is the story of what made Frank Castle, the Frank Castle that would one day become Punisher. An origin of an origin.

The story is about a man everyone simply calls Frank, so I initially failed to make the Punisher connection until near the end. The book starts on the last day of a four day violent and bloody assault on his base in Cambodia (four issues in the series, four days covered). The War is Hell reference is taken seriously in this book. The story is a decent one, but has some distracting elements that I talk about in more detail below.

The art in this book is amazing; clean, detailed, gritty, dark, gory... everything you would hope for in a Punisher Comic. As you can see from the scan at the top right, the art is great. The book is graphic. It is in your face and it is everything you would expect a Punisher comic to be plus a whole lot more.

This comic is very much for a more mature audience. I wouldn't let my kids read this book simply due to some of racial slurs used throughout. While the comic is set back in the Vietnam War, and use of racial slurs and language was prevalent during that time period, I don't feel that the use of it in this book added anything to the story or character development. The story wasn't about racism, it wasn't about the plight of a particular race of people. The use of the racial slurs felt more like a failed attempt by the writer at shock and awe and it didn't fit with the story or the characters. All it really did was make me feel like the writer was trying to hard to make it feel edgy and the fact of the matter is, the story and the characters would have been fine without it.  

There is no sexuality that I recall, outside of some name calling, such as "cocksucker" for example.

The violence and gore is graphic and a little over the top in some places. I use the term over the top not a reference to over done, but more a reference to the detailed and extreme nature. Since this is a "war" comic and a Punisher comic, I believe it would be prudish to call the violence and gore gratuitous because as we all should know by now; soldiers don't use daisies and tulips as weapons for war and war is not pretty and clean. War should not be glorified or romanticized and I don't feel that this book did that. It painted a gory, over the top picture of war in the extreme. If you are offended by this type of portrayal of war, or prefer a more Comic Book Code approved approach, then this book is not for you.

All in all, I give this comic a grade of a B+. The use of the racial slurs in the dialog was unnecessary in this day of age, even for a period piece where that language was common, if the story wasn't about racial issues. This was a war comic at it's heart and the writer should have focused on that.

Until next time... Happy Pulling.