NA another thing is that I mean I hated, hated, hated that Devil by the Horns comic but then I looked at when it was written and at or around that time Daredevil's ongoing was being written by Kevin Smith and it was a trainwreck too.
Plus. . .comics are like fanfiction. Every writer wants to be distinctive and to have a different take on the characters. So for example in Devil in Cell Block D by Brubaker, Brubaker portrays their relationship as mutually helpful and as a way to preserve Matt's integrity and keep him away from the brink. During this time, Matt was more violent than usual and that's what fit the story. During Ann Nocenti's run around ten years earlier, she had a much more pacifist take on Matt. So in her run, Matt and the Punisher really don't get on. They also don't need to at that time either so it works out well. And then in 'Devil by the Horns,' Ennis is just an awful writer so there's that.
The point being really that you CAN judge a character by a single run if you really want to, but that takes the character out of a lot of context even in cases (like Fraction's Hawkeye) that are deliberately novel takes on a character and storytelling for them.
Re: 'the devil by the horns'
Plus. . .comics are like fanfiction. Every writer wants to be distinctive and to have a different take on the characters. So for example in Devil in Cell Block D by Brubaker, Brubaker portrays their relationship as mutually helpful and as a way to preserve Matt's integrity and keep him away from the brink. During this time, Matt was more violent than usual and that's what fit the story. During Ann Nocenti's run around ten years earlier, she had a much more pacifist take on Matt. So in her run, Matt and the Punisher really don't get on. They also don't need to at that time either so it works out well. And then in 'Devil by the Horns,' Ennis is just an awful writer so there's that.
The point being really that you CAN judge a character by a single run if you really want to, but that takes the character out of a lot of context even in cases (like Fraction's Hawkeye) that are deliberately novel takes on a character and storytelling for them.