EXCLUSIVE: GARTH ENNIS TALKS ABOUT HIS RETURN TO THE PUNISHER FOR GET FURY

Garth Ennis returns to Marvel, and the Punisher, in this May's Get Fury #1, and CBR had a chance to talk to the superstar writer about the project, as well as share an exclusive first look at some pages from Get Fury #1, as well as Dave Johnson's cover for Get Fury #3.

Get Fury #1 is from Ennis and artist Jacen Burrows, with covers by the aforementioned Dave Johnson. The series continues Ennis' spotlight on the journey of Nick Fury as a CIA agent following World War II, only this time, with the series set during the Vietnam War, Ennis is also returning to the world of Lt. Frank Castle, during the period where the Punisher was born (as depicted in the classic 2003 miniseries, Born, by Ennis, Darick Robertson and Jimmy Palmiotti).

GET FURY #1 (OF 5)

• GARTH ENNIS (W) • JACEN BURROWS (A) • DAVE JOHNSON (C)
• VARIANT COVER BY JACEN BURROWS • VARIANT COVER BY ROGÊ ANTÔNIO
• STORMBREAKERS VARIANT COVER BY MARTIN COCCOLO
• GARTH ENNIS RETURNS TO MARVEL - WITH NICK FURY AND FRANK CASTLE AS YOU'VE NEVER SEEN!
• It’s 1971, there is a war raging in Vietnam, and Nick Fury has been captured by the Viet Cong. At this moment, they don’t quite understand that they have in their possession a man who knows enough secrets to damage the United States beyond comprehension. The C.I.A., however, DOES realize this and they can’t risk their enemy getting those secrets, so they dispatch the most deadly man in the U.S. Army – LT. FRANK CASTLE.
• 32 PGS./Rated MAX …$3.99

CBR: You've been working with Jacen for so many years now, has it almost developed into a hidden language? Do you find yourself writing scenes specifically because of how you think Jacen would like to draw a particular moment?

Garth Ennis: With Jacen, as well as most other artists I've worked with for any length of time- eg. Keith Burns, John Higgins, Steve Epting, Goran Sudzuka- I've developed a sense of comfort and trust that allows me to proceed largely on instinct. Jacen is a guy whose art is always a pleasure to see- he did a terrific job on last year’s Ribbon Queen, and he’s just turned in a killer first issue on our new series for Ahoy, a sword & sorcery book called Babs. I do find, though, that it’s better to select the right artist for any given story rather than tailor a story and its individual scenes to an artist.

Of course, very occasionally I won’t know who’s going to be drawing one of my scripts; in those instances I just imagine the pages as if they were laid out by Steve Dillon (ie. perfectly).

It has been over 20 years since you first visited Frank Castle's Vietnam experience in Born. As a student of history, do you feel that there is anything you've read in the past two decades about this era of the war that has reconceptualized it for you?

Ennis: Certainly, I can see the stuff I got wrong- Born is set in October ’71, several months after US Marine Corps ground operations in Vietnam actually ended (so file under “You live and learn"). Beyond that, reading about the experience of Vietnamese people in the war led me to create the character of Letrong Giap, allowing me to take a look at things from the locals’ perspective- we see him in My War Gone By, first fighting the French as a Viet Minh guerrilla and later the Americans as an NVA officer, with his appearance at the end of that story forming part of Fury’s grim little epilogue. His later appearance in The Platoon fits roughly in the middle of all that, where he’s still serving in the field- alongside Ly Quang, the young survivor of American atrocity, who meets her fate fighting with the Viet Cong. Finally, Giap shows up again now, as the 90-something narrator of Get Fury.

Will we be seeing any of the characters from the "Valley Forge, Valley Forge" arc in this series?

Ennis: Only Frank and Fury. I think the only other guy who could have appeared is Colonel- probably then Private- Howe, a character I liked writing but who had no part to play here.

While it has been 21 years since Born, it has been even longer since you, Darick Robertson and Jimmy Palmiotti also did Fury. Thinking back at some of the pearl-clutching at the time, do you ever feel it's a little surreal that 22 years later, Nick Fury is now a movie icon, and they're still letting you play with his comic book world?

Not really, I’ve always seen the two as completely separate. The movie Fury is Sam Jackson, and quite apart from the super hero aspect of Marvel movies and comics, there’s no way an African American soldier (through the lens of real-world history) could have followed the career path the max Fury does-from the racially segregated US Army of WW2 to the OSS to the CIA. Overall, Marvel seem happy for me

to continue with the Nick Fury I chose to write- they know I do better when I don’t have to deal with fantasy elements.

I do recall that old Fury series with some affection- at Marvel at that time there was a feeling that the lunatics had taken over the asylum, a real sense of “anything goes”. I just took the character to what I saw as his logical place in the world, ie. a complete lunatic in love with war. I know that among others Stan Lee didn’t like it, but never having read any of his comics that doesn’t mean as much to me as it might to some.

You're currently writing the excellent 007 for Dynamite. How do you think Fury would have gotten along with the original Fleming Bond?

I could see the two of them getting on quite well, given that they would ostensibly be on the same side. I suppose you could come up with a story where they find themselves at odds, something to do with the divergence of British and American interests, but I think that would be a bit of a weary contrivance. Far more interesting to find smarter ways to compare and contrast them.

Fury does seem to be a bit more aggressive in his pursuit of things- from mission objectives to the opposite sex- but I think Bond would probably find all that hard-charging stuff quite amusing.

Get Fury #1 is on sale May 1st.

Source: Marvel

2024-03-28T06:02:22Z dg43tfdfdgfd