Review: The Punisher #8

Well it’s been a pretty crappy week for comics. Sure therehave been one or two highlights, but in general… crappy, thus why I’m reviewinga Marvel book for the first time in ages. If there is two things I enjoy aboutcomics, its Greg Rucka’s writing and The Punisher. Personally, Garth Ennis’ Punisher Max series was the definitiverun for the character. That series had everything and since then I’ve yet to beimpressed by the Punisher.  The lastPunisher series I read was War Journalwritten mostly by Matt Fraction and it was terrible. He killed Stiltman and abunch of C-List villains… couldn't give two shits.

This series started off meh for me and it’s still hovering aroundthat area mostly because of the big P being infused so strongly into the MarvelU. This issue Rucka does one thing right for the Punisher… he keeps his mouthshut. The story opens with a murder scene; after all it’s a Punisher book. Afterpages of death we find the big P in a standoff with a woman in all black. It’skey to point out that the Punisher is dressed in all white and looks a bit likeSolid Snake from Metal Gear. They somehowagree not to shoot each other after the woman says, “Blue on blue” to Frank. Herepeats is back and that’s the end of it. Blue on blue meaning friendly fire.

We then follow another woman who is apparently an up andcoming criminal and frankly looks a bit like the Black Widow and even hassomething similar to her wrist device. The woman is instantly in a standoff asher partner sneaks up on her and they both draw guns one another. If that wasmy life I would reconsider how I spent my time since having a gun pointed at mepoint blank sounds like a life insurance policy waiting to be paid out. Also,two standoffs? I get it already, everyone’s jumpy but they need to pull the trigger already.

The gist from there is that these two criminals are incahoots and want the Punisher dead. In fact one of them (ex-Shield agent) setup the massacre earlier to bait the Punisher into their next trap. Honestly Icould have used some back story on these two since I haven't read the series sinceissue three. It’s not that the dialog wasn’t meaningful, but I could care lesssince I didn’t know who the fuck they were or what they were doing. Also whodoesn’t want to kill the Punisher? Seems like they could’ve used that moment tosay why at the very least.

I could go on about the story, but hey that should be enoughfor you to decide if you want to shit or get off the pot. The ending wasactually enjoyable and even though it had a *Cliffyloeb ending, I still enjoyedit. Rucka knows the Punisher, but that’s not the issue; it’s everything else in thebig P’s world. I like the idea that the big P is almost a supporting characterin his own book since everyone else’s dialog drives the story, but thosecharacters have to be as interesting if not more interesting than the Punisher.That’s what Marvel doesn’t get. The Punisher can’t just kill faceless mobstersanymore, he needs a challenge and these bullshit characters are not it.

The art is fantastic. This is probably the coolest the big Phas looked in years and I loved the white suit. When I saw him standing with ablack skull on the front and half of his head wrapped, I was like “are youfucking kidding me! Awesome.” Make a figure of that or some shit and I am there.Seriously, Marco Checchetto has a wonderful style for the book that gives thebig P a fresh feel and a new lease on life. Don’t get me wrong I love tough asnails old as hell Frank Castle, but this sleek Solid Snake version is prettydamn cool.

I wouldn’t say that this hooked me on the series again, butit definitely has me back for one more issue. Maybe I’ll pick up the otherissues I missed digitally or in a back issue bin or maybe not. When you find agood comic it inspires you to find the other issues and see what else you mayhave missed, and while this is good… it’s not that good.

Score: 3/5

Writer: Greg Rucka

Artist: Marco Checchetto

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $2.99 (I thought for sure that Marvel would ask foran extra dollar!)

Release Date: 2/1/2012

*Definition: Cliffyloeb – When a single issue of a comicends on a Cliffhanger in which a new character is revealed or something inwhich you thought would was true the entire length of the issue is exposed asfalse by the last page. (i.e. anything Jeph Loeb writes).