Ennis Moves from Punisher to Phantom Eagle

This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on February 19, 2008 Sign up now!

By Laura Hudson -- Publishers Weekly, 2/19/2008 10:10:00 AM

This March, critically acclaimed comic book writer Garth Ennis will end his four-year run on the series Punisher MAX, a violent, unflinching take on the skull-suited Marvel vigilante, and debut a new title for Marvel called War is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle. Published under the Marvel MAX imprint, which is intended for adults and permits more mature content, Punisher MAX operated independently of the storylines in other Punisher titles, and featured a noted absence of superheroes and a more graphic approach to the murderous anti-hero.

After over four years and sixty issues, Ennis said he “wants to leave on what will hopefully be a high note. I’ve said what I want to say and taken the ongoing storyline to what I think is its logical conclusion, so this’ll be it for the time being.” Although the series will continue without him, Ennis’ fans will be pleased to learn that he still holds the door open for the possibility of more stories with the Punisher character, a.k.a. Frank Castle. “Frank’s the kind of character you never completely say goodbye to,” he said. “I’m sure I’ll still pop back every couple of years.”

Ennis’s new post-Punisher title, War is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle, will also be published under the MAX imprint, which Ennis says is often a better fit for his approach to comics. “Writing for adults has always made sense to me. The [backwards] nature of the comics business, with most people writing and drawing stories under the restrictions of children’s/teen’s publishing, is something I find rather frustrating—particularly as the actual audience is mostly well over 20,” said Ennis. “That doesn’t mean every single story should read like The Punisher; it just means you should have free reign to write each story as it feels appropriate.”

The new book will revive the little-used character Iron Eagle, a WWI pilot who originally appeared in Marvel comics during the ‘60s. It was an idea that Ennis initially pitched over four years ago, when Marvel editor Nick Lowe asked him what kind of story he wanted to write most. “Off the top of my head I told him aerial combat—preferably WWI or WWII.” Despite Ennis’ enthusiasm, however, the series was not immediately given the green light.

“A WWI aviator character—it’s not exactly a license to print money, is it?” admits Ennis. “I pretty much forgot it and moved on, but Nick Lowe persisted over the years, carefully biding his time until the climate was right to try again. When he eventually did call me up and say ‘Phantom Eagle is approved,’ I have to confess to a brief moment of ‘Phantom what?’ Then I got straight to work.”

Although war comics once enjoyed a great deal of popularity in America, particularly after WWII, Ennis said he is interested in taking a more intelligent and realistic approach to the subject than the fantastic tropes of those older comics, which “usually involve[d] unlikely characters in impossible situations,” said Ennis. “I like to reduce the characters to their bare minimum, and then use them to say something new.”

Ennis is probably best known for his work on DC’s Hellblazer series and on the ultra violent, supernatural Vertigo series Preacher, developed with artist Steve Dillon. He’s also written stories for Marvel’s Spider-Man, Thor and The Hulk series, but the superhero genre is not his current focus.

Ennis, who has explored the war genre before in his Marvel miniseries War Stories, finds true tales of humanity—and inhumanity—more compelling than the imaginary conflicts of invented worlds. “I think history—any kind, not just military—is always going to interest me more than fantasy genres like superheroes and sci-fi,” said Ennis. “Whenever I read history, I'm struck by just how fascinating, how horrifying, often how completely unbelievable the past can be. You cannot, as the saying goes, make this shit up. And nowhere is that more true than out on that most extreme edge of human behavior: war.”