RECOMMENDED: "The Punisher" (Cloonan & Dillon)Punisher is hip again! YAYYYYY! Thanks to Netflix's Daredevil, Punisher has found even more popularity among comic book fans and newcomers alike. So it's only natural that Marvel has put out a brand new series featuring everyone's favourite deranged mass murderer.
Olaf is a former solider, previously serving with Frank Castle himself, while The Face is a younger bad guy with little patience and a love of collecting people's faces (hence the name). Both villains have their own strengths as characters. Olaf is a decent guy at his very core, while The face is a pure psychopath. This leads to some nice interactions between the two, but also gives Frank plenty to deal with towards the end when Olaf betrays his employer and helps Castle out a bit with some information [Spoiler alert? - Ed.]. 
Olaf knows what's coming.
At the end of issue 1, Face is ordered to take out Castle by any means necessary, which includes taking some of this strength enhancing drug to try and defeat Castle. It fails, obviously. Frank Castle is too cool for that. TOO COOL FOR DRUGS. As you can tell, both issues are FILLED with violence and action, but at the same time there's so much going on. On the surface, everything is very simple, but with this drug racket and the police trying to take them down, you can see everything starting to boil over from the very start. But while the plot is action packed and fast paced, it's the way Castle is portrayed that makes this series so much fun from the very start. Cloonan may be more known for her art, but she writes Castle incredibly well, making him more of a force of nature. He’s kind of like a slasher villain, but one we can actually root for. In issue 1, Castle barely even has any dialogue. We see most of the story through the eyes of the bad guys and the cops while Frank comes in like a tornado, messing with everyone's stuff and shooting bad guys. While this series doesn't really have anything new or innovative, Castle is introduced to the reader in such a way that he feels fresh. He doesn't feel like the Castle we've been used to over the years, he feels genuinely horrifying, like something that can't be stopped. 
Drugs don't kill people, the Punisher does!
Cloonan's pacing is outstanding in this book, every panel has the right framing and any dialogue is nice and smooth, always called for. She writes a most excellent Punisher script. While it's set in the regular Marvel universe, it's not weighed down by constant special guests and references to whatever else Marvel is doing. It strikes a good balance between Marvel and Marvel's MAX line. Also on top form is Steve Dillon, providing some incredible art. Dillon has done some great work on Dredd, Preacher and the Marvel Knights Punisher run, but he's always been an an artist that takes some time to get used to. His work is normally so... Buscemi-ish. The eyes SERIOUSLY stand out (Not a bad thing). He's always been a very good artist, though. He stands out and adds a lot to the style of every book he works on. But in this series, Dillon's art work is the best of his career so far. It's incredibly sharp and dark, putting a lot of detail into characters. It's been a while since Trash Mutant has recommended any Marvel book, but this one seems like it'll be a lot more memorable than plenty of the stuff we're seeing from any publisher currently, mostly thanks to Cloonan's grasp on what makes Punisher a fun hero. Are you following the new Punisher series? You should be. Is this one of the best takes on Frank ever? Let us know in the comments! 
|
|
|
Social Trash Mutant |
|
Friendly & associated sites
|
© 2012-2020 TRASH MUTANT. All rights reserved. Some materials used are © their respective copyright owners.
