Re: Punisher MAX Series Discussion *Spoilers*
It's a damn fine comic. I love how you say Ennis has 'deepened' the Punisher by saying 'the focal point of his becoming the Punisher is not the death of his family', and showing that Frank has always had these tendencies.
I love it because you say he 'deepened' it - but look at what he did. He lessened it. He said, "you don't know how Frank went crazy. He's kinda always been this way."
He's LESSENED the explanation to his motivation for killing, yet you think he's DEEPENED it.
And deepened it he has, for this simple reason: YOU, the reader of the comic, now involve yourself more fully into The Punisher's frame of mind as you draw from yourself the conclusions for his drive. What made Punisher the Punisher? The death of his family? The Vietnam war? Or that incident that occurred when he was a kid?
Ennis has magnificently enriched the character by demonstrating a simple truth - one event does not make a person. There is no 'specific' reason, no sole cause, that people do the things they do for what they want.
And he understands that to involve an audience, you leave the mystery to motivations. You state clearly WHAT the characters want, but you leave their reasons for wanting it, vague.
I can't stand it when someone goes, "Oh, I kill people because I was felt up as a kid" or "I want to save the world because my friend died" or whatever.
The mystery of characters' motivations is integral. The Byronic hero is a mystery man, because, characters are not people - they're works of art. They can't stand up to scrutinity. So the mystery is needed to keep them interesting, and to draw the audience further into them.
If you explain the motivation, you not only alienate the audience (who rightly feel as if, "why am I even here?"), but you trivialise the character by boiling them down to a single event. Think about it - when is Spider-Man annoying? When he goes, "I'm Spidey because my uncle died. My uncle died and it was my fault." Get over it! "I'm Batman because my parents died. This makes me Batman. I'm sad." Get over it! They're goddamn whiners, their motivation is bollocks.
However, such events can be used incredibly well, not to explain motivation, but to deepen and enrich conflicts - look at "Up is Down and Black is White" to see the use of backstory to create story and conflict. Punisher doesn't ***** about why he's Punisher. Now, while it's true, Spidey is a different character and maybe, would complain about his lot - Ennis' Punisher talks just as much as Spidey, and his thoughts are not explaining his motivation. It's counterpoint narration designed to add to a progressing, turning, story. The whining of Spidey (or Batman) halts narrative drive, stagnating the story as the character explains why he does what he does - resulting in the audience stepping out of the character and feeling for the character. But before, they were feeling WITH the character.
I find this title exhilerating to read.
