Becky Cloonan decided to tell us another "one-shot" format story without any link to the previous issues and it worked pretty well once again.
It's been awhile since we had these kinds of stories, but for the Punisher compressed stories with 1 or 2 issues it would work like a charm instead of big arcs.
The premise of this story was good. A huge blackout creates the perfect opportunity for predators to prey on the weak and this is pretty much what is all about. We will see the Punisher dealing with many situations on the streets due to this blackout.
Like the last issue, this new format of storytelling is based on the old standalone stories of the classic Punisher runs that started with Mike Baron as the writer. So every new reader, old or new fans can start to pick up these books without knowing what happened in the previous issues.
Cloonan tells us a compressed story with simple elements but with good action. It's great to see Frank solving "street level" problems without any fancy stuff that normally appears in the current Marvel Universe. This remembered me a lot of some Punisher MAX one-shots that were released years ago.
Cloonan took Frank Castle to a new level in terms of "accessories". Not only he puts down bad guys with his usual guns but he kills them with everything he gets. Being swords or electrifying cables. This is what I call diversity!
Cloonan shows that the Punisher continues to be merciless with cold kills but on the other side more "hero". The events of this story make him save as many people as he could without any sort of premeditation of taking down someone specifically. Only with a handgun and everything he could take on the way to put down criminals.
Matt Horak presented us with a good artwork and he played very well with it. With all the "blackout" panels Matt Horak gave an extra darkness to the Punisher and the action scenes are really well made.
This issue was mostly "black" but it gives some edge to Horak focus his art on the details that matter the most, the characters and the actions.
As I said in the previous reviews, this formula works! Short stories, one or two issues, solving "street level" problems as if a MAX story would work but only with one issue. It's been good these past two issues and I want to see more! Sadly this run will end in three issues.
Overall Rate: 8.0 / 10
