Issue(s): Punisher War Journal #70, Punisher War Journal #71 (main story)
Cover Date: Sep-Oct 94
Title: Last Entry: "Warm bodies" / "Road to death!"
Credits:
Steven Grant - Writer
Hugh Haynes - Penciler
Scott Koblish / Scott Koblish & Mick Gray - Inker
Freddy Mendez - Assistant Editor
Don Daley - Editor

Review/plot:
Someone liked the Punisher dying and being replaced during Suicide Run so much, we're doing it again with "Last Entry". But this time we'll be doing it veeeeeerrrry sloooooooowly. Despite issues #70-75 all being part of a named story arc, the individual issues don't have a lot to do with each other and don't take place in succession. And in terms of being entries in the Punisher's War Journal, it seems more like it would several instead of just one. I guess "Last Bunch of Entries" doesn't have the same punch.

The Punisher is still on the run and assumed dead after the events of Suicide Run. But there are wanted posters hung up around...

...and VIGIL is actively responding to potential Punisher sightings. 'Rusty' Nails is called in to deal one such sighting at a bar, but it turns out to actually be Payback.

After a long brawl, Nails subdues Payback. He accuses Payback of killing Harold Jessup, but Payback denies it, and Nails realizes that it could have been Taylor Blackwell (it was), and if so it means that Punisher's killing of Blackwell may not have been so bad after all. Nails brings the beaten-up Payback to Dr. Melinda Brewer, and learns that Brewer's other patient, Lynn Michaels, is gone. We see that she's off seeking Blackwell.

It's worth noting that this is all some pretty deep continuity for a Punisher comic. For a character where most stories can be casually read just to see which type of criminals he's blowing up this week, expecting readers to remember who Payback is and who Jessup and Blackwell were is unusual. And context clues won't necessarily help; i.e. Michaels gunning for Blackwell even though he's dead. I don't think it's bad, at all; just noting that the series is going more in the direction of, say, the X-Men, than the Punisher typically did in the past.

Meanwhile, the Punisher buys a car.

He also bribes the salesman to set him up in a service station so that he can do some work on the car. While he's there, a reporter, Lu Vincent, shows up because her car is acting funny. When the Punisher investigates, he finds that there's a bomb in it. She doesn't know why she's being targeted.

The assassins, now worried about exposure after the failed attempt, have to track down Vincent and the Punisher (who they assume is just an ordinary mechanic).

The Punisher defends Vincent from the assassins, but she realizes who he is after he drives away.

And we'll pause here because this is where the back-ups focusing on Jimmy Pierce which have been running since issue #67, catch up with the main story. (The back-ups are also why there isn't a lot of plot in these issues.)

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Takes place concurrently with the Jimmy Pierce back-ups from Punisher War Journal #67-71, culminating with the Punisher connecting with Pierce at the end of #71.

Despite this being the prelude and part one of an arc called "Final Entry", the issues in the arc don't necessarily take place directly after each other, and aren't even all related.

References:

• Eddie Dyson became Payback after turning in corrupt fellow police officers as seen in Punisher War Journal #48-49,51.
  
• Harold Jessup was killed in Punisher #87.
  
• Punisher killed Blackwell in Punisher War Journal #64.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A