Comic Info
Comic Name: Foolkiller: White Angels
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Gregg Hurwitz
Artist: Paul Azaceta
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2009
Foolkiller: White Angels #1
Reprints Foolkiller: White Angels #1-5 (July 2008-January 2009). Mike Trace is on another assignment. As Foolkiller, he’s taking on a hate group called the White Angels who are targeting minorities. When he discovers the Punisher is also on the trail of the White Angels, Foolkiller realizes he might have a reluctant partner in Frank Castle. With the body count growing, Foolkiller will sort out the fools but could become a target himself.
Written by Gregg Hurwitz, Foolkiller: White Angels is a Marvel limited series. Featuring art by Paul Azaceta, the series is a follow-up to the previous Foolkiller 2007-2008 limited series which like this volume was released under the Marvel MAX imprint.
Foolkiller was a ’90s series that I kind of liked. The character put away his goofy pirate look from the 1970s, donned a leather outfit, and began killing. It was gratuitous and pretty typical of the 1990s, but it also didn’t hurt that Foolkiller (the Greg Salinger Foolkiller) was from Noblesville, Indiana right near where I grew up…and one of the few “heroes” from Indiana. The Trace MAX Foolkiller is pretty much the Punisher with a sword…I don’t feel that his path against the foolish is as fun as the Earth-616 Foolkiller.
Foolkiller: White Angels #2
The comic deals with gritty realism, but the Trace character can easily chop his way through body parts and people with little effort. I didn’t ever feel any worry for the character because both he and the Punisher made the jobs look a bit too easy. The assassin came and was pretty much stopped with little effort. It wasn’t like I felt there was much danger or risk.
The comic tried to distinguish the Punisher and Foolkiller’s actions. The Foolkiller is making “art” while the Punisher is just killing and not trying to make it look pretty. If this was the plotline of the story, I would have liked to see it expanded. I think the Punisher should have tried to understand the Foolkiller and the Foolkiller should have tried to understand the Punisher…it felt like they started to explore it and had to wrap-up the “team-up”. It also felt like the Punisher should have been in the final issue to really cement his role in the collection.
The Foolkiller: White Angels series also has a big problem. As of 2019, there has never been a follow-up series to the comic. This volume feels like a real lead-up to the next volume. The assassin is maimed and out for justice and the police are begrudgingly having to bring in Foolkiller. It is set-up for the future, but nothing came of it…leaving the reader the ultimate fool for thinking there would be a payoff.
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