Issue(s): Punisher War Journal #46
Cover Date: Sep 92
Title: "Hot chrome and cold blood"
Credits:
Chuck Dixon - Writer
John Herbert - Penciler
Fred Fredericks - Inker
Tim Tuohy - Assistant Editor
Don Daley - Editor

Review/plot:
I opened this up and immediately wondered if Marvel had screwed up the numbering for this crossover. This is part six of Dead Man's Hand, but it begins with a direct continuation of last issue, which was part three. And part four already showed the conclusion to the scene from last issue, and since then the Punisher has been all over the place, ending with him sucker-punching Daredevil for the cliffhanger of part five.

I'm of course familiar with comics depicting the same scenes, but until now each part of this crossover was a direct continuation of the previous part, with no concurrences. And there's no indication that what we're seeing here is a flashback or a repeat, and indeed (as i already mentioned in part four), there are a lot of incongruities between the depiction of the two scenes. For one thing, Viper is fighting alongside the Punisher this time.

And this time we see that Silvermane is also mixed up in things.

And the jousting scene comes off a little differently, too (and Bucky is back in her purple outfit).

Note also that Punisher says that he first saw Bucky with Bushwacker. I don't know when that happened. Also, it's wacker, not whacker, right?

The art makes it look like Silvermane gets run over by a van, so thank god for the script.

We do start to catch up with ourselves after that, jumping ahead to after the events of Nomad #5.

Coming back from that, Punisher goes to his car. He's approached by Hydra agents disguised as security guards (but their ring gives them away). Meanwhile, Micro and Mickey Fondozzi get caught snooping around by Hydra. Mico pretends that they are Secret Empire agents.

The Secret Empire actually has an agent embedded with Hydra, and he contacts his bosses to tell them about the capture. Competition and paranoia within the Secret Empire runs rampant enough that they at least entertain the possibility that Secret Empire agents really have been captured.

So they send Chainsaw and the Pretorians to attack Hydra, and kill off the captured "agents".

Meanwhile, the Punisher comes across the Hand and the Yakuza, fallout from what was going on in Daredevil #308.

Note the "poetic" comment from the Punisher, reflecting the ant-Japanese sentiment in the US at the time due to the strong Japanese economy.

I do agree with the Punisher about ninjas.

After that, the Punisher comes across Daredevil, as we also saw in Daredevil #308.

So almost nothing new happens in this issue. Micro and Fondozzi getting caught and the Secret Empire making the decision to send Chainsaw to kill them is pretty much the only thing (plus Punisher kills some Yakuza and ninjas).

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is part six of Dead Man's Hand. Part seven is in Daredevil #309. Note that i have not included Chainsaw or Pit Viper 12 as a characters appearing. That's because i'm treating the opening scene as a flashback, since it repeats a scene from Nomad #5. And the rest of the issue occurs concurrently with Daredevil #308. I do list the characters that appear concurrently with the Daredevil issue, and that includes Silvermane, because he's seen at the end under the slot machine that Daredevil dropped on him.

References:

• Punisher thought Chainsaw was dead as of Moon Knight #23.
  
• After the opening repeat, the events of Nomad #5 occurred.

Crossover: Dead Man's Hand

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A