Punisher Central: January 2015

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

PC POST #237: Punisher vs Batman by Dana Obera

Punisher vs Batman

by Dana Obera

Here i am to cover a fan work and this time by Dana Obera. He make a tribute to Chuck Dixon's and John Romita Jr. Punisher/Batman: Deadly Knights, but he gave a little touch and change the scenery to New York city instead of Gotham City... Here goes the 6 page story of his take on both characters, after this i will review it.

Punisher vs Batman (better quality)

I don't know how to express such enthusiasm by reading this short story... Two of my favorite characters together (again) in a different city and fighting for their own ideals Dana delivered a simple plot but very direct and straight forward he show us that besides he is an artist he can be a good writer too.

I really dug the artwork of Dana's, specially the Punisher suit, it looks like an armor but it's really cool and solid! We can find some traces in his artwork that reminds me of manga but in no way it's bad.. for the contrary it's a nice touch.

The action is very solid and more important he respected both characters, we could see a Frank Castle very skilled at hand-to-hand combat (which he is.) against the master of 127 styles. Batman is slightly more skilled than Frank but i can't perceive a huge gap between them in this short comic.

One of the best things we have is in the final page when the Punisher questions Batman about his ways of dealing with the Joker. It's priceless.

The only problem is just for the only 6 pages!

Dana make a great tribute to Deadly Knights, i can't wait to see more of his work and who knows if his future comes to a big company, i hope he can make it! Thank you for this great comic!

OVERALL RATING: 9 / 10

You can reach him on the following social networks:

Twitter: @oberaman75

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Oberacadabra

posted by Ivo Santos - @ivomgs

Thursday, January 8, 2015

PC POST #236: -REVIEW- PUNISHER #14

-REVIEW- PUNISHER #14

by @Ivo Santos

Another issue is out and one of the most expected issues of this run due to the eminent clash of the Punisher vs Howling Commandos turned out to be a disappointment at least from what i and most of the fans expected.

Overal this issue wasn't no different from the quality that Nathan Edmondson has been showing us through 14 issues which is good in my standards. But i was expecting some kind of payoff between Frank and the Howling Commandos, i was expecting a Frank ready to face these uber special task force since he knows they exist since the end of the first arc. I can handle with the first "defeat" in the end of the first arc but this time not really.

On the other side i believe that Frank has a plan and everything that happened in this issue was for a reason and he is controlling the situation, personally i don't want the Punisher to be decreased in skills just for the sake of a possible "twist", i would rather prefer that Frank could beat the Howling Commandos and take the intel of the threat off their mouths by force and he didn't had to kill them... i can foresee a possible twist and i support this theory thanks to the page 12 of this issue when he asks himself who is the man pulling the strings to everything that happened in this story since issue 1.

I don't have to complaint about the action scenes, there are a few cool moments like Frank throwing a grenade to a guy while he was falling from the building or seeing the Punisher and the HC blowing some thugs invading the hotel. Thumbs up for Nathan and Gerads for the well built scenes.

About the artwork it felt a bit rushed, i'm a fan of Gerads but this issue doesn't seem so good like issue #12. Although like i said before, the well built scenes and how he connects each character to a specific scene is very good he knows how to do it. How he draws the gear of every character is real treat to the eye. The cover is definetely the best to date in this series. If a comic could sell by the covers this definetely should be a bestseller!

Schoonover did a decent artwork in his pages.

My complaint since the beggining is the lack of the "wow" factor in this series. I'm always expecting to see a Punisher that can excel the other characters using his skills and natural talent for waging war. Frank is a genious in the battlefield and a brilliant tactician and until now i haven't seen any of these arguments but i'm hoping to see it, even if it is in the end of this run.

OVERALL RATING: 7 / 10