By @neil4LOST
Punisher: War Zone #5
WRITERS: Greg Rucka
ARTIST: Carmine Di Giandomenico
COLOR ARTIST: Matt Hollingsworth
LETTERS: VC’s Joe Caramagna
COVER: Marco Checchetto
EDITOR: Stephen Wacker
EDITOR IN CHIEF: Axel Alonso
CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER: Joe Quesada
PUBLISHER: Dan Buckley
EXEC. PRODUCER: Alan Fine
Release Date: February 27th, 2012
Published monthly by Marvel Worldwide, INC.
ADDITIONAL DETAILS:
Price – $2.99
WRITING:
I have to admit...about halfway through the Punisher: War Zone series I was starting to get a little worried about the path that Rucka was headed in. I ultimately still had trust that things would come back around and fans would be able to be at peace with the end of Rucka's great run. Rucka did just that. His impactful writing of the Avengers and their interactions with Frank Castle in this final issue lived up to all my expectations and then some. I knew it would be challenging for Rucka to find an ending to the series that would satisfy hardcore fans while giving them something to look forward to for the future, but Rucka nailed it.
Rating – “A”
ARTWORK:
I had hoped that Carmine's work would grow on me over time...and in some regard it has. He is still nowhere to even being as talented and detailed as Checchetto but his work ends up not taking away or distracting from the story that Rucka is desiring to tell. There were even a few moments in this issue where I was quite impressed with the angles and detail that Carmine put into them. Overall, a nice improvement.
Rating – “B”
STORY:
(WARNING – MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS)
This final issue highlights the Avengers and the fact that they are finally fed up with the Punisher. They understand that they need to bring him in as fast as possible and hope to bring in Rachel Cole-Alves in the process.
Castle's only goal is revealed in this process. His objective is to get Cole-Alves out of town and let her make her own path. Frank is willing to sacrifice his freedom in this process. He outsmarts a few of the Avengers in the process but when is he is finally captured it is revealed that they have a prison that Frank will serve the rest of his days in...somewhere under the ocean. At the end we see Rachel Cole-Alves living out the spirit of the Punisher by helping out a woman who is being mugged in Hollywood.
Rating – “A-“
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE:
The issue overall has a ton of entertainment. From hearing Tony Stark and Spider-man rant on and on about Frank Castle to Punisher outsmarting the Avengers over and over, this one had everything readers could have hoped to see in a Punisher series versus the Avengers.
Rating – “A”
OVERAL RATING OF ISSUE: “A-"
5 Comments
Great review. so was frank castle released from the underwater prison and then tied up at the start of thunderbolts? Maybe thunderbolts will reveal how he got out of prison in upcoming issues. maybe, the thunderbolts continuity is different than this war zone series. great ending though and how frank only gave up after Steve Rodgers ordered him to surrender.
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DeleteWell this issue didn't tie with Thunderbolts, at issue #1 we see Ross "rescuing" Frank in a common warehouse.
ReplyDeleteGreg Rucka… his whole Punisher/Daredevil/Spider-Man team-up was crap. It was predictable, fighting Ninjas is old and over used (the first sign of no talent in writing whatsoever), the team-up of Spider-Man and Deardevil just to get “Odd Couple” moments and arguments from them was just idiotic. These characters have nothing left to say or to argue about so they’ll just keep repeating that. Garth Ennis’s Punisher from “Welcome Back, Frank” said it best, “I know these speeches of yours by heart.”
ReplyDeleteThis is someone who thinks he’s the secret agent type… he’s not James Bond or Batman. He doesn’t go undercover that way. The redhead OC woman was nothing but a sorry ass excuse of a female Punisher (pointing there guns at each other was a Max Payne/Mona Sax rip-off). Making the Punisher look like a poor rip-off of Solid or Naked Snake (spiky hair, an eye missing, trying to make his bandage look like a bandana, a beard and using the same type of gun) and having a redhead female partner (Meryl Silverburgh) who’s wedding ending in a massacre (Kill Bill) just to get new readers is sad… and not only did we already had this whole redhead partner (the one who was from S.H.E.I.L.D.) back in the late 90’s but a female (blonde) Punisher as well… in other words… been there, done that.
But this is Marvel of the 2010’s, they have no more ideas left and they know it. So they’ll just keep reusing them, even if the ideas came from storylines that were completely terribly and ripping-off from other’s people characters.
The whole "Sir. Yes sir" to Captain America was bullshit! For god sakes Frank, why don't you just suck his dick while your at it. They still think that the Punisher and Captain America are able to relate to each other just because they’ve been in war??? Sorry, but the clean cut straight arrow WWII vet from the 1940’s can’t relate to a ruthless vigilante Vietnam vet from the 1970’s
Also, continuity errors in comic books have been going on for a very long time people.
Wait a minute... so the Punisher saved her from prison... but she goes right back to killing people, something that would put her right back in prison... so what was the point of this????
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