Mancotron

Cool. As for everyone complaining about his hairstyle (or lack thereof), be happy he doesn't have some douchey emo haircut or something. I could easily see that as an alternative they might have chosen.

I've always felt the worse thing they could do (and yet continue to do) with The Punisher is have him running around in the 616 universe. Castle, Ghost Rider, and I'll even say Daredevil should exist in their own self contained stories, separated from 616.

 Among all my friends, I'm the biggest Daredevil defender, since they all think he sucks. I was so disappointed by Brubaker's latter half, and all of Diggle's run, so I had a hard time defending him. Hopefully Mark Waid can pick up the pieces. 

I won't say I don't like him, because I don't know him. However, even by pop music standards I think his music sucks. Also, the MTV marketing machine produces another mediocre talent that sells gangbusters because he's marketable or whatever, big shocker. Take solace in knowing he'll be gone in about 3 years and some other half-wit will take his place, and he'll sell like gangbusters too because kids'll buy anything. Garbage in, garbage out. 

Ok here's the deal, does he shoot the person in cold blood or just because they happoened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?  My answer he picks up his guns dusts off his skull puts on hig big boy pants and gets the F*$%K back to work! Why?  Frank Castle is an ex police officer and an ex military soldier.  I am sure in War times and possibly in the line of duty there has been times he has killed those that were "less than guilty".  Police do this all the time Some young punk kid pulls out a toy gun at a cop and is gunned down because of it., this is why all these toy guns are to have orange tips nowadays. Point... It's never good or easy to deal with when someone innocent dies in a firefight but as a soldier as a cop and as "The Punisher" it is your sworn duty to get past it. Because 9 times out of ten  more innocents will die without your intervention than with.'Nuff said.

Am I the only one on earth who thinks her current redesign might've worked?

I have a love/hate relationship with Morrison, but I lean closer to love than hate. The bat totem stuff I'm not really interested in, but I do like his characterization of Batman as human potential personified. I'm not sure what to make of Damian just yet as he's still a relatively new character which always means there's going to be a hit/miss quality. 

I'm not sure why everyone is poo-pooing the satanic imagery stuff as ignorant, I mean he stated his reasoning for using it, and I think Heavy Metal is far more guilty of perpetuating pentacles, and inverted crosses as satanic than anything else on the planet. 

As for his co-opting of Batman lore, he incorporates enough of his own weirdness that I don't always mind it. I mean I can imagine he does it to reconcile all the loose threads in the Bat-lore. 

On the other hand, he gets up his own ass alot; which can either really pay off or it's just mind-boggling.

Honestly, Secret Warriors is one of those series where you should probably read the whole thing from beginning to end. Hickman really didn't do any filler arcs or standalone stories. I'm not sure why someone would've told you this is an exception to the "everything matters" nature of Hickman's writing. If anything, Secret Warriors is exactly the book that gave him that reputation. Skip any issue, and chances are you've missed something. God of Fear, God of War is the story arc that gets the closest to being skippable since it gets a little sidetracked tying into Dark Reign and sorta crossing over with Thunderbolts, but even that arc is actually a big deal not only for Phobos but because that's where Leviathan is first revealed in the B-story of the arc.

So I'd really say start with the first trade, Agent of Nothing, and make your way through the series from there. You've already read S.H.I.E.L.D. so there's no need to recommend that. Some elements of it do tie into the series like they have with Fantastic Four. Besides that... Secret Warriors really does stand on its own with the exception of a brief tie in to Thunderbolts.

I avoided all the media hype surrounding it, so I went into it fresh. I must say it was a well written arc, and a strong send off. I'm sure they'll bring him back eventually, but it was a good story and that's all that really matters in the end. 

Thank you! I've also maintained that Ennis' Punisher Max was criminally underrated. So many people are put off by The Punisher's seemingly being a one note character, but with MAX, Ennis put on a clinic in developing said one note characters. He understood that with a character like the Punisher, you need to have various foils to play him off of. This is one of the few series I've read completely from beginning to end. Ennis' Punisher, for me, is the definitive Punisher.