-DOUBLE REVIEW-
PUNISHER #4
Review #1:
@ivomgs
The Punisher through years have been struggling for his own place in Marvel Universe and it's a tough job to make good Punisher stories and grab new audience on board and keep the old school fans of the character. But Edmondson and Gerads are doing a wonderful job until now, it's premature to talk about this run and say it's the best Punisher ongoing ever, but this creative team are taking the right steps through this direction.
Like previous issues, we had moments when Edmondson focused in the relation Frank had with others but in this issue he focused on Frank's motivation to this "war", through the classic inner monologue.
While reading this issue i was astonished by the action scenes and the splash pages with Electro, specially when he is torturing Frank and we see his memories being "invaded" by Electro electric charges. I have to give credits to Gerads his artwork is amazing and he is responsible in the same way as Edmondson by the success of this book, he is a storyteller too.
I was expecting to see more of Howling Commandos, personally I'm more interested to see to see the clash of HC and the Punisher than Punisher vs Electro or Dos Soles. After what happened in this issue, i think we will see more of HC in the next issue, finally they decided to play it hard.
I liked to see Sam in this issue and i believe that slowly she is beginning to get attracted to what the Punisher does and his mission way more than his work as cop.
About the appearence of a character well known by the Punisher... I got mix feelings, i thought that someone HUGE like Elektra or Rachel could make an appearance in this book but instead we got Domino. In other way it will be interesting see a possible clash between her and Frank. She is a great marksmanship and very skilled at hand to hand fight. Don't know how her role will be, because in the past she seemed to care about Frank's mission.
I'm loving this run my favorite character is in good hands and i hope that Edmonson and Gerads keep up this pace! I'm looking forward for the upcoming two issues left to see how this series will end, i hope with a bang in the end!
From now on i will change the rating scale now it will be rated in a scale of 1 to 10. To be more accurate in terms of rating.
OVERALL RATING: 8.5 out of 10
Some insight about Domino and the Punisher:
Domino crossed paths with the Punisher back into War Journal Vol. 4 by Matt Fraction when G.W. Bridge created a small unit to take down the Punisher. Another interesting fact is that she was the only member in that team that believed that the Punisher was innocent regarding the killings of innocents when a fake Punisher (Ian) started to kill innocents to frame Frank.
REVIEW #2:
@neil4LOST
Issue #4 of the Punisher is an interesting issue in the young series by Nathan Edmondson and Mitch Gerads. They have changed up the familiar tone and themes of recent Punisher titles to shift the story and environment out to Los Angeles where Frank is now focus more specifically on drug cartels and other rampant crime. So far it has set up to be an new and fresh take for the character but there seems to be some glaring issues that cropped up in this issue that causes some concern for just how long this series will be able to keep fresh with readers.
Edmondson has made the writing choice to include super-villains quickly in his run. Personally I am not so sure that is a good idea. This is for several reasons. It is understood well by Punisher fans that Castle operates and works the best when his enemies are crooks and mobsters. When it strays away from that focus it places the character in a very vulnerable place. Even Frank in this issue decides to keep heroes like Captain America and others out of the picture but yet he is going up against a villain who has immense super power. It just doesn't seem to add up to me personally. I also had an issue in the way that Frank escaped torture from Electro in this issue. It seemed just way too easy. Also the choice to have Electro reveal why he is really helping Dos Solos seemed out of place. It would seem to me that Electro would want to keep that important piece of information under wraps until just the right time. These small things left me scratching my head at points throughout the issue.
As far as the art, Gerads continues to draw an impressive book. There were only a few oddities that I came across but overall, he is putting his stamp on the character. His gas mask for The Punisher is catching on with other artists as well! I have a feeling that this take on the character will be one that people refer back to for a long time to come and for that alone I am thrilled that Mitch will be staying with Nathan Edmondson on this title.
Overall, this issue felt like the weakest in the series so far. That is okay though since the series has only had four issues and it is bound to happen at some point. Personally for me I would appreciate more plot development at a faster rate and more focus on some of the peripheral characters. There was a lack of that in this issue.
OVERALL RATING: 7.5 out of 10
