The Punisher In Grand Park LA

Continuing in TTDILA's series of covering where The Punisher goes in Los Angeles in his current comic book series by writer Nathan Edmonson and artist Mitch Gerads- we missed an issue,#5, where Frank was about to fight Electro-. He is still fighting the recently used for an appalling Spider-Man movie villain in this issue, #6.

Spoilers

This issue has Castle taking down Electro with rubber bullets, a novel idea, but mention some sort of a special rubber suit or electric proof suit to writer Nathan Edmonson and it's "far-fetched". Using current real world tech to take down an electric powered freak still a cool and down to earth choice for Edmonson and his writing style of keeping the Punisher realistic enough in a universe of weirdos.
Domino, the lucky mercenary mutant with a permanent black-eye saves Electo at the last second with a kick to Castle's head and then we get a title sequence/story name of "Red Dawn."

Marvel loves to make movies out of comics. I know it's happened plenty times before, but the current Punisher and Moon Knight series love setting up each story like a movie with the title and credits after a little action. For DC titles you have the title at the end of the story as an ironic joke that you would only get after reading the full story. Either way, I'm sold on each Punisher tale being a mini movie. His opening line as the title comes up is "This is a world of super heroes and super villains., '... Sometimes I'm not sure I'm cut out for it." Ooh, that's some depressed Punisher goodness of how weird it can get in the Marvel U.

For fans reading Original Sin, it's funny to note Punisher being called away from LA by Doctor Strange to hunt down the supposed assassin of The Watcher. The Punisher and Doctor Strange team-up needs to last longer as they fit horrible together and hate each other. That's a whole other series.

Look closesly and see the I Punish LA sticker

All wrap up the rest of the story by writing the Punisher stops the boss of the Dos Soles gang of poisoning the our LA with deadly toxic gas to get the respect he wants for his gang, which isn't the best plan. He's the head of a deadly drug gang, not a great thinker on long term plans. The Punisher is about to kill him when a drone takes him out for him and the hi-tech Howling Commandos finally go after Frank. They blow him up so much he actually has commentary on how sick he's of being blown up. That and when war is fought for politics it's worthless over a series of events where the Howling Commandos kick his butt all over LA with high tech equipment.

In the end, Punisher is hit by some sort of GPS rocket guided bullet. I guess using current technology wasn't going to stay in the story forever or that only the Punisher will use it. Punisher lies possibly dead on a Metro bus, it being an LA Metro bus it's possible that no one will notice for some time as they aren't known for their safety are cleanliness and soon to be even higher exorbitant prices.


Trying to get away from the Punisher in this issue is the big boss of the Dos Soles gang, at one point  he moves his butt through Grand Park LA. Known for it's relative safety, so far, has been the Grand Park LA, created as part of a deal by the Grand Wilshire going up and the revitalization of the area for downtown by the city and county of LA. The 12-acre park is located in-between Los Angeles City Hall and all the way up to the  Los Angeles Music Center. TTDILA has written about it on many occasions for the free events it offers throughout the year. This Summer a huge concert series, the Made in America festival, will take place over Labor Day weekend at the park. August will also see a series of free sci-fi screenings every Saturday.

The Grand Park
200 North Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Event Calendar

As depicted in the comic, the top layer and parts of the park are covered in cement. Layers of the park rise like giant steps up from City Hall to the music center and you'll need to cross some streets carefully to cover the entire are of the park. From the bottom, you start with a big grassy area and outdoor table/hall section off to a side, filled with pink metal chairs and tables. The park is filled with the oddly choice of the color pink chairs and tables, which does grow on you. If the park's furniture items are ever stolen they'll easily be picked up by their color.

Where Dos Soles boss is running off in the comic is closer at the tip top of the park, depicted missing the metal railing, above the huge fountain. The huge fountain, The Arthur J. Will Memorial Fountain, at the top does shoot water up in the air for different shows every so often. There's a nice area to walk through, a wade-able membrane pool that's always wet where water shoots out of the ground underneath the fountain.

A few areas are set-up for performances to be given. With them are free lending libraries of books you can just pick up and read and mixed memorials of no distinctive event. Many of the them are random events not entirely linked to LA's history.

The rest of the park is mixed with green pastures to plop down on and more cement surrounding plants that don't require so much water to stay alive.

Grand Park LA has been loved by the surrounding community for its big open area that anyone can stroll into and enjoy with all the events that take place. Dancing, poetry reads, video game meet-ups, movies, food truck festivals, concerts are only a few of the uses the park has had since it's opening. It drew a huge crowd for New Year's Eve with 3D hologram technology being shown on City Hall.

If the Punisher ever wanted to relax from hunting down perps he might just want to heal his war wounds for a few minutes sitting back and watching the families go by at Grand Park LA. Then he would be reminded how his family was killed at Central Park in NYC and get back to punishing people.

I noticed the I Punish LA sticker in the comic, have you seen any around town? They're real and Edmonson gave them to fans to put up around LA.