Issue(s): Punisher War Journal #47
Cover Date: Oct 92
Title: "Say goodbye to Vegas"
Credits:
Chuck Dixon - Writer
John Herbert - Penciler
Fred Fredericks - Inker
Tim Tuohy - Assistant Editor
Don Daley - Editor

Review/plot:
Punisher, Daredevil, and Nomad are rushing to the airport to catch the last of the crimelords that were in Vegas to divvy up the Kingpin's former holdings. Nomad is now second-guessing his decision to not kill the Slug.

On the way to the airport, they're met by "Viper", who is piloting a helicopter.

That little text box is the first and only acknowledgement that the Punisher recognized that the woman looks like Viper.

Viper takes them to the airport and blows up Hammerhead's jet. The criminals then get to fighting over who gets to take Hammerhead's limo.

Hammerhead is not exactly on model there.

Hammerhead and Tombstone bond over killing the Secret Empire guy.

Meanwhile, Fenris shoot down Viper's chopper.

I don't know what they mean by "father's betrayal". We haven't seen that they've found out that Snakeskin was really Baron Strucker. And if they're mad about Werner taking over Hydra, i really don't get it. It's not like their father left it to him in a will or something. If they wanted to take control of Hydra, they should have just fought to take it over. Pair of whiny brats.

Nomad is able to take them out by separating them.

Then Hammerhead and Tombstone run him over.

I like it when Hammerhead and Tombstone are buddies.

Punisher doesn't like Viper's style.

But she tells Punisher that she could be useful to him. She knows that Nomad has been in cryogenic storage, for instance (and note that Nomad seemed to be back to being willing to kill people before he got shot down).

And she's got money and all sorts of awesome weapons.

Nomad's kevlar protects him from the bullets, and he's able to take out the remaining Secret Empire agents. The Chainsaw and his Pretorians show up, but Daredevil conveniently crash-lands another helicopter on them.

No guilt, Daredevil. Just an accident.

Viper leaves, but Punisher says that he's tired so he lets her go. Then Micro and Mickey Fondozzi show up and give everyone a ride back to town.

Like i said at the beginning, this story doesn't seem all that coherent if you actually think about it, and we're definitely left with some open questions. But you certainly get to experience a wide array of villains and there are a lot of fun moments.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is the ninth and final part of Dead Man's Hand.

References:

• Punisher fought Viper in Punisher annual #2.

Crossover: Dead Man's Hand

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I'm guessing the "minus the scar" thing was a last minute insert to try and... uh, acknowledge... the two continuity problems with Viper appearing here (namely that she's busy elsewhere and that she's already met Punisher). The way she's still mostly drawn to obscure what would be her scarred face definitely seems to add credence to that.

It seems like, based on your recaps and scans, the crossover is structured in such a way that if you were just reading each individual series, you wouldn't feel like you were missing anything if you didn't buy the other chapters, despite Nomad and Bucky's involvement in the other books. Nomad is left in the desert in #5 of his series and just shows up with Daredevil and Punisher in #6, but getting Daredevil #309 wouldn't tell you anything about how he got from one place to the other, each book seems to have their own "climaxes" for the crossover, and even when it comes to the meeting of villains each book seems to further different subplots (hell, PWJ #46 is the only non-Daredevil appearance of "Snakeskin" you have tagged). The one exception is that War Journal readers *might* want to pick up the Daredevil and Nomad climaxes in #309 and #6 respectively (only) to fill in the period between last issue and this one, but then going back and filling in the rest of Daredevil and Nomad's parts of the crossover might be more confusing than enlightening due to the hiccups with scheduling and coordination. And ultimately, for those reasons the relative independence of the titles, which has the effect of making it less than effective at cross-pollinating the audiences of the various books, might not be entirely intentional, but rather the writers taking a general outline of what's going on, a general setting and some semblance of a shared plot, and finding their own angles on it.