One of the great things about guilty pleasures is the ease in which one can defend them. The mere statement that something is a guilty pleasure is typically all that is necessary, though the drawback is that people then automatically assume that the film is awful without ever watching it. Now in the case of something like Punisher: War Zone it most certainly is an awful movie, but I loved it anyways.

Normally Anna would never agree to pay money to go see something like Punisher: War Zone. By her own admission she refuses to believe in the concept of the guilty pleasure unless one is discussing Journey or Whitesnake, she will fist pump to Here I Go Again until the end of time I tell you, but I had a few things going in my favor on this particular day. We hadn’t been to a mainstream theater in a few weeks, which meant that she would be powerless to resist the opportunity for me to buy her her favorite fast food, that being a burrito from Pancheros which just so happens to be next door to the theater. And since there hadn’t been even a passable new release in weeks, Punisher: War Zone was the only film left that she would agree to watch and thereby receive her burrito. This left me in the enviable position of watching the film I wanted to and Anna annoyed at having to suffer the same fate.

Now as a connoisseur of 80’s action films, it is easy to see why I would like Punisher: War Zone as the plot isn’t far removed from being Commando. And with oodles of awful dialog, wooden acting and absurd violence, it was as if I had traveled back in time to a simpler, more violently beautiful place.

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I’ve never really given much thought about what I would consider the perfect crime. I’m not exactly ambitious so it probably wouldn’t extend much further then trying to purchase comics for my collection without Anna’s knowledge. She watches the movies and the Wii games like a hawk after all, so if I want to buy something perfectly crappy without having to listen to her grumble to me about it comics are really my only legitimate avenue of deception. Hey, I already feel guilty about buying Spider-Man comics, I don’t need her adding to my own self-imposed lecture.

Now sure, I found the whole Brand New Day storyline interesting at first, as writing out Mary Jane was the kind of huge shakeup that might recover the comic from the truly terrible Civil War storylines I had previously suffered through. But the whole concept has quickly stagnated, resulting in what now appears as nothing more then a blatant attempt at erasing everything J Michael Straczynski had written over the length of his tenure.

Now I know JMS wasn’t exactly popular with the Marvel fanboys. I mean really, attempting to add more depth to a character that was over 40 years old was simply unacceptable. Marvel and its fans simply would rather have numerous Spider-Man books that follow a basic plot by numbers arc rather then suffer through something that might actually result in a new experience for both the character and the reader.

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I was saddened to hear today that Steve Gerber died. He certainly isn’t a big name in the comic book industry for many people, but he was often times hugely influential on many of today’s writers, both with his stories and his causes. And while best known for his creation Howard the Duck he was hugely influential to almost any child of the 80’s, as he was regularly enlisted as a story editor for animated television shows like The Transformers, G.I. Joe, and Dungeons & Dragons.

And as I pointed out in my latest column, he also has a bit of responsibility for bringing to my television set Starchaser: The Legend of Orin, as Steve Gerber was the creator of Thundarr the Barbarian. He’ll be missed, but lucky for us his work will not.

And here is a link to a much better written, and more worthy write-up of this man’s work and influence.