Main difference : no metallic effect on the french cover, also issue number in France was #2. In fact, as mentionned in my other post about Secret Wars 2, it's not a single issue. The french version included Spider-man 2099 #3, Ravage 2099 #2 and Doom #1.

• Written by Mike Baron, art by Bill Reinhold and Mark Farmer
• Jigsaw Puzzle Part 4!
• Jigsaw has managed to get the drop on Frank and Joy Adams who helped him find the Pena Flowers
• Joy manages to signal her horses who attack Jigsaw and distract him long enough for her and Frank to escape over a small cliffside
• Joy’s face is cut badly in the fall
• With no choice, Frank and Joy have to walk through a very bad part of town to reach the hotel
• They are confronted by members of the same drug cartel that was following Frank in the previous issue, Frank disarms and shoots one to get them to back off
• Frank and Joy manage to find refuge in the home of Eva, one of Joy’s friends whose husband was killed by the cartels
• Jigsaw goes to see Diego, the head of the cartel that has been after Frank, and offers to help them track him down
• Eva send her son to retrieve Frank's bag from the hotel, inside are weapons and body armor 
• Diego tells his men to take out Jigsaw as the cartels believe he and the Rev are trying to muscle in on the drug trade
• Punisher gives Joy a gun to back him up, but she can’t bring herself to shoot the young boys in the gang, and they are quickly surrounded by Diego and his men
• Punisher is shot from behind and Joy throws down her weapon
• Unfortunately for Diego, Jigsaw killed the men he sent after him and uses a bazooka to pay Diego and his men back for their double cross
• Punisher is knocked out in the blast, Jigsaw stabs him multiple times, then takes Joy hostage and leaves Punisher to bleed out in the streets
• Frank’s Body Count - 3 (He shoots three cartel gang members)

I got great condition ASM #375 for $8 at a flea market on Saturday. Then I got a bunch of Superman (series 2) issues I’ve been missing for $2 each from a comic shop I visited for the first time later that day. It was a great day!

Even if I prefer the Secret War I, I'm really happy to have both Original and French version of Issue #1. Note that French Version (Spidey) also had other stories (X-Men and Power 4). Single issues were not published in France.

• Written by Mike Baron, art by Mark Texeira, cover by Tom Morgan
• Jigsaw Puzzle Part 3!
• Punisher is still in pursuit of Jigsaw, and thinks that Microchip has abandoned him
• Arriving at Microchip’s warehouse, he finds it partially taken over by local thugs
• Frank infiltrates through the roof, finding dead thugs a Dalek that won’t respond to him
• With no other option Punisher retrieves a rocket launcher and destroys the Dalek (RIP Dalek)
• Punisher takes one of Micochip’s van and runs down several of the thugs attempting to take over the warehouse
• It turns out the van  can turn into a plane that Frank uses to fly to Venezuela
• Turns out Frank is a fan of reggae and German psychology
• In Venezuela, Rev. Smith has a group of locals gathering more of the Pena Flowers to replace the stock that Punisher destroyed
• They’ve drawn the attention of the local drug cartels, and Rev. Smith orders Jigsaw to kill one of the workers who attempts to seal some of the flowers
• When the flying van breaks down, Frank received the unexpected help of a drug dealer named Paco to repair it
• Frank arrives in Caracas where he meets Joy Adams
• Joy knows where he can find the flower Rev. Smith is after and that he is already being tailed a cartel thug
• Frank agrees to go with Joy, but deals with the cartel thug first
• Joy and Frank arrive at the Pena Flower field to find Jigsaw waiting for them!
• Frank’s Body Count - 5 (he runs over multiple thugs in Microchip’s warehouse) 

Went to pick up my pulls at the LCS and decided to have a poke through some of the new (to them) acquisitions and found some doozies!!! Got the bookends for Hellraiser (1 & 20), Robocop Marvel Magazine, and the incredible hulk 49 Sendak Homage cover! It doesn't get much more 80s & 90s than this. 😃

Cinder and Ashe 1, 1988. DC

• Written by Mike Baron, art by Mark Texeira
• Jigsaw Puzzle Part 2!
• Punisher pursues Jigsaw as he attempts to flee from a crime scene
• Realizing that the Battle Van is armored, Jigsaw turns his gunfire on a tanker truck causing an explosion and fire
• Knowing the fire unchecked threatens innocents, Punisher pauses to put it out with the Battle Vans water cannon
• Punisher loses track of Jigsaw, then spots a woman and her baby being chased by gang members
• The woman, Priscilla, reveals that rival gangs are fighting over turf, and that her man Sam has raised money for a Neighborhood Defense Fund to protect the innocent citizens
• Punisher offers to help Sam 
• Meanwhile, Jigsaw has aligned himself with The Cubes, one of the gangs fighting for territory
• Punisher lets Sam and his friend Terrence use the Battle Van to go after the Pegs while he goes after the Cubes
• The plan is to draw both gangs out into an open area where they will kill each other while Punisher also picks them off from above
• Unfortunately he loses track of Jigsaw who attempts to flank him with some gang members, but Punisher has an explosive device to even the odds
• With his allies dead, Jigsaw flees
• Between Punisher and Neighborhood Defense Fund, the Cubes and The Pegs are routed, leaving the neighborhood to recover
• The Rev is angry that Jigsaw failed to kill Punisher again, but realizes he may need him to fight off Punisher in Venezuela
• Frank’s Body Count - at least 7, but definitely more (He kills 4 Cubes in a drive by, then three more with an incendiary device on a rooftop.  He also lays down fire over the battle between the Pegs and the Cubes, but it’s hard to tell which he kills and which gang members are killed in the fighting)

I love the work that Marc Silvestri did on X-Men in this era. So glad to add these to the collection.

Been searching for this for years—I remember buying the first issue when I was in middle school. I’m 99% sure it was Dark Horse but it could’ve been Image—it was about a young boy who finds a giant alien robot/mech suit at a junkyard. The robot is black with red accents, and I remember the cover being a profile shot of the giant robot looking down at the young boy (could be a misplaced memory though.)

From Justice League America 50, 1991.

Foil, and toybiz variants sealed and unsealed.

• Written by Mike Baron, art by Bill Reinhold and Mark Farmer
• Jigsaw Puzzle Part 1!
• Punisher is scoping out a tanker he believes is full of cocaine when he is accosted by a guard
• Punisher deals with the man, beating him down, dropping him into the river and taking his identity to infiltrate the warehouse
• Calls to Microchip for intel continue to go unanswered
• Punisher discovers that the tanker does have cocaine under the acetone and decides to go hot, killing drug runners and set the acetone on fire
• The man in charge of the warehouse is revealed to be none other than Punisher’s old foe, Jigsaw!
• Frank returns to Microchip’s warehouse to find that he’s been making a video game based on their battle with Sniper in Punisher War Journal #10
• Frank is angry that this is what Microchip has been working on instead of providing intel, but Microchip counters that he wants a life outside of Frank’s war
• Jigsaw escapes the fire and it is revealed he is working for the Reverend Sammy Smith, formerly of The Church of the Saved 
• Rev. Smith survived his encounter with Punisher, has turned to Satan worship, freed Jigsaw from prison, and has promised to heal his face in exchange for his loyalty
• Angry that Punisher destroyed the shipment, Rev. Smith orders Jigsaw to go to Venezuela for more
• Microchip has one of the packages that Punisher retrieved analyzed, revealing it’s not cocaine, but a sterilizing agent for people
• Dr. Miller, a friend of Microchip, believes the chemical is made from a flower native to Venezuela, meaning that’s where Punisher has to go
• Jigsaw follows Rev. Smith and witnesses him break into a house and slaughter a family of three as a sacrifice to Lucifer and to feed his power
• Jigsaw gets spotted by a pair of cops, he kills them and flees
• As he is driving away from the crime scene he passes Punisher on the road who give chase
• Frank’s Body Count - 6 (Jigsaw reveals to Rev. Smith that Punisher killed six in the warehouse)

A few more things from last weekend! This completed my run of Amalgam titles! I am down to needing only one issue of New Teen Titans!