PC POST #335: Top 3 best Punisher standalone issues, artists & Top 5 covers of 2016!

Hello everyone, let's start for the first time to some sort of "Punisher Central: Year Awards".
In this article i will mentioned the top standalone issues based on writing, best artist and cover.

TOP 3 Standalone Issues

[ 3.]

Civil War II: Kingpin #3

by Matthew Rosenberg & Ricardo Ortiz, Hayden Sherman

It was very well written by Matthew Rosenberg and gave us the best fight with Kingpin vs the Punisher i have ever seen. And both characters have fought each other in the past for a few occasions.

Very smart the way Frank infiltrated in Kingpin's organization and specially the fight and as expected a brutal fight between these two awesome characters.

[ 2.]

Punisher #5 

by Becky Cloonan and Steve Dillon

Punisher #5 was by far the best and entertaining issue of the current run, Very compressed story with tons of action where the art and writing were in perfect harmony. 

Seeing Ortiz and Frank team up to put down Face in an asylum full of EMC junkies was a fun ride, Ortiz forced to take down her partner and both character in disadvantage and surrounded by lunatics. A fight for survival.

The legendary Steve Dillon gave a huge boost for this issue to be in the top 3.

[ 1.]

Punisher Annual #1

By Gerry Conway & Felix Ruiz

Punisher Annual #1 was the winner of the best standalone issue of this year! After 25 years, Gerry Conway come back couldn't be better. Conway built a great point of view story without fading the star of the book ( The Punisher). 

This is a revenge story featuring Mamdouh, a police officer crossing the lines of vigilantism and the law. Great plot by one of the few writers who know the character by his core.

Top 3 Artists

[ 3.]

Paul Davidson

(A Year of Marvels - November Infinite Comic #1)

I like a lot the art of Paul Davidson, he deserved to be in the top 3 of Punisher artists for this year. He did a great job in the action scenes and in developing a great Frank Castle with the perfect build. 

Davidson did a wonderful job in portraying the expressions of the characters he developed for this story.

[ 2.]

Andrea Broccardo

(Doctor Strange/The Punisher - Magic Bullets #1 - #3)

Andrea Broccardo is becoming the greatest revelation as an artist to me. He did really improved since issue #1 in this miniseries. Great scenes and very well drawn characters. 

His Frank Castle remembers me the old school Frank from the early 90's. I really love the look and the casual suit Frank uses. I wish i could see him more often in Punisher stories.

[ 1.]

Steve Dillon
(Punisher #1 - #7)

Steve Dillon, the writer who worked in more Punisher comics than everyone else. He is part of the Punisher mythology and certainly contributed for what he is today.

Dillon is a great storyteller, he tells us the story by the pencils, and most of the times we wouldn't need writing to understand what he want to tell us.

He redefine the character for this run, gave him a hair more like Jon Bernthal's and a bit of a tan color.

The build is perfect and not to mention how gory his scenes were, a real kick ass violence necessary for a Punisher comic. And when the violence was excessive he tried to play with it and gave us funny moments due to some weird kills. 

Dillon was the only one who make me laugh while reading Punisher comics,

The prize is for you, best Punisher artist in 2016!

Top 5 Punisher Covers

[ 5.]

Punisher #3 Variant by Becky Cloonan

[ 4.]

Civil War II: Choosing Sides #4 by Declan Shalvey

[ 3.]

Civil War II: Kingpin #3 by Aaron Kuder

[ 2.]

Punisher #1 Variant by Alex Maleev

[ 1.]

Punisher #7 Variant by Marco Chechetto

Here is my top picks for the best story, artist and cover of 2016. I wish i could gave them all a prize but at least i can give them some recognition for their work. There a few more covers that deserved to be mentioned specially the ones in the Punisher ongoing by Declan Shalvey.

I hope everyone can have a Happy New Year and wait for the reviews of Punisher #7 and Doctor Strange / Punisher: Magic Bullets #3 and #4.

posted by @ivomgs

PC POST #334: PUNISHER Solicitations for March 2017

THE PUNISHER Solicitations for March 2017

PUNISHER #10

Becky Cloonan (W), Matt Horak (A), Declan Shalvey (C).

* Agent Ortiz is no longer hunting Frank with the D.E.A. Now, as they say, it's personal.

* Agent Ortiz is now up against both the Punisher and an entire deadly mercenary outfit.

* Agent Ortiz might be in trouble.

Editor note: Is it me or did i just seen something similar happening in the last run by Nathan Edmondson, when Agent Stone turn against Frank and hunting him down?

DOCTOR STRANGE/PUNISHER: MAGIC BULLETS #4

John Barber (W), Andrea Broccardo (A), Jason Muhr (A), Michael Walsh (C)

* Using dark magic, a mobster family has transformed into monstrous beings of unbelievable power!

* With Doctor Strange working on being more grounded and the Punisher trying to adjust to magic, this mismatched pair has their work cut out for them.

posted by Ivo Santos | @ivomgs

PC POST #333: Deadpool vs the Punisher TPB, new miniseries or collected stories?

According to Bleeding Cool, there will be a Deadpool vs the Punisher coming from Marvel Comics in 2017.

Their source was this Amazon link, which can tells that will be in August, 2017. There is no more news or synopses about this comic.

Fact is that Marvel is doing collections with the Punisher that started this year. The old Punisher War Journal by Jim Lee and Punisher vs Marvel Universe. Next year we will start with the most successful team up between Punisher, Wolverine and Ghost Rider, the two stories ( Hearts of Darkness and Dark Designs) will be released in one trade. 

Two more releases in August, Punisher : Suicide Run and what now it seems a miniseries or a collection of stories of Deadpool vs Punisher.

There are tons of stories that both clash together... most of the times it were only for a few panels. 

We got the first time both encountered in Deadpool ongoing back into '97, issues  #53, #54 & #55 and in the Deadpool: Suicide Kings arc. In both stories we can see Frank fighting Wade for full issues, which leads us to a huge probability of a collected stories. 

On the other side some comic book fans and specifically Deadpool and Punisher fans have been requesting this fight for far too long.

During Thunderbolts or even Punisher vs Marvel Universe we got both characters fight for just a few panels, i think this will not be enough to fill a book.

Personally i would want to see a new original miniseries, but i will be very happy with a launch of a collection stories with both characters.

Next year will be full of Punisher releases, maybe because of the Punisher series to be released by Netflix, near the end of 2017.

´

Let's wait for further developments or some synopses of this trade paper back.

 posted by Ivo Santos |@ivomgs

PC POST #332: "Back to 'Nam", Ennis and Parlov are back with a sketch of the "Platoon".

Yes!! The project is still alive. The long promised miniseries featuring Frank Castle in his first tour in 'Nam is in production.

Goran Parlov shared this morning a sketch of this long awaited series.

For those who don't know Parlov and Ennis will join forces again to take on the character, a great creative team to give us once again the Frank Castle we love, the original, the Vietnam bad ass.

Click on the link to see the news back in 2013.

Three long years of waiting and it's finally happening. Can't wait!

Ivo Santos | @ivomgs

PC POST #331: -REVIEW- A Year of Marvels November Infinite Comic #01

Looks like Infinite Comics are a constant these days, specially featuring the Punisher.

This current year, there was Daredevil /The Punisher: 7th Circle, Doctor Strange / Punisher: Magic Bullets ( still ongoing) and now this short story Year of Marvels November #01.

(W) Todd & Elliot Casey / (A) Paul Davidson / (C) Lee Loughridge

-Might contain spoilers- 

The story begins with the Punisher badly wounded due to a miscalculation of the firepower of the gang he attacked. He passes out and he's found by a family that treats his wounds. Bad luck for them, the gang he attacked found out and tries to put the Punisher and the family down for good. 

The Punisher is weaponless and has to deal with them before they end him.

Never read the work of Todd and Elliot Casey, but they wrote a very simplistic Punisher story. Unfortunately it does not bring nothing new. 

On the other side this was a decent standalone story, it reminded me the good old days when there were simple stories like this in between major arcs.

Todd and Elliot created some connections among the main characters of this story. They even introduce elements that could make Frank relate to them, but i think it didn't work out. 

The action was decent, but sometimes the crooks were too dumb and died in the most ridiculous situations.

The art of Paul Davidson was decent. It helped a lot to give some quality to this story and the colors of Lee Loughridge definitely have to be mentioned specially for the dark panels when Frank is facing those gangsters.

This review was hard to do, i have read at least three times just to see what i was missing. I was expecting a bit more of this story, it's not bad, but somehow i felt that i have read this somewhere.

The other thing was the lack of empathy i i felt with some characters, even considering all circumstances presented in this comic.
It looked like that everything was a bit rushed without time to developed them.

Overall Rate: 5.5 / 10

posted by Ivo Santos | @ivomgs

PC POST #330: -REVIEW- Doctor Strange / The Punisher: Magic Bullets #2

Last week it was released issue two of this miniseries that belongs to a new wave of Punisher "Infinite Comics" ( Only digital, for now).

(W) John Barber / (A) Andrea Broccardo / (C) Andrew Crossley

Last issue Frank search for Doctor Strange help on dealing with demonic monsters that were in the mafia restaurant he attacked.

Most of this issue Frank tries to persuade Doctor Strange ( who wants to help) but in some odd way shows some resistance to Frank's invitation.

While in the Fusilli's restaurant looks like some sort of "hotspot" for demonic monsters, a new character appears, Mangrove aka Doctor Hurt. He is the man who will leech the powers of those demonic beasts and transfer it to the Fusilli's brothers.

The Punisher in this story is clearly out of the picture, dealing with demonic beasts is more Strange's department. But i'm curious to see what will happen.

John Barber took the time to explore a bit more of the story, while the cliffhanger we see in the end of the comic give us a hint, that issue #3 will give us the expected fight between the Sorcerer Supreme and the One Man Army against those supernatural beasts.

The art of Andrea Broccardo still has the same quality (great) has we seen in the past issue. My only complaint is the colorful issue but that's the department of Andrew Crossley.

I think this comic should be darker, specially because of the theme.

Barber and Broccardo continue to give us a good ride. The pace of the story did slow down a bit but it was necessary for exploring a bit more of the story.

And despite that this isn't Frank's business, i'm looking forward to see what John Barber will do with character while facing these supernatural threats.

Overall Rate: 7.0 / 10

posted by Ivo Santos | @ivomgs