Punisher War Zone #1

After the fiasco on Wall Street and blamed for the death of 3 of New York’s boys in blue, the man hunt for The Punisher continues. After an embarrassing defeat at the hands of The Punisher, Spider-Man calls a meeting with his fellow Avengers to organize the capture of Frank Castle once for all!

The Team

Written by Greg Rucka (Whiteout Vol. 1 : The Definitive Edition, Alpha, Stumptown HC), illustrated by Carmine Di Giandomenico (X-Men : Magneto Testament, Journey Into Mystery/New Mutants : Exiled) & coloured by Matt Hollingsworth. Cover by Marco Checchetto (Squadron Supreme : Bright Shining Lies, The Punisher by Greg Rucka Vol. 1). Published by Marvel Comics.

The Pros & Cons

This is the mother of all Punisher stories and it doesn’t get any crazier than this, as the Mighty Avengers take on the One-eyed One Man Army. With his lady friend locked away at Ryker’s, the Punisher is on his own again, as it should be, as a solo killing machine bent on eradicating criminals everywhere. The Avengers never gave a hoot to Frank’s murderous activities, they always had bigger fish to fry, but a meeting with Spider-Man has changed all that. All Spidey had to do was convince the boy scout Captain America to give the word and the hunt was on!

Fresh off the regular Punisher series, Greg Rucka wraps up his final Punisher run with an explosive 5 issue mini series. It’s going to be a bumpy ride for old Frank Castle and I’m very curious to see how he’s going to take on Iron Man & Thor. He’ll have to pull out every weapon, explosives, armour & tricks from every single one of his safe houses to get out of this jam. Illustrator Carmine Di Giandomenico gives the pages & panels a gritty style that gives the comic a nice loom & gloom look to it. The cover is effectively done by Marco Checchetto, which clearly depicts The Avengers fate, ok he’s not going to kill them, but you get the gist of it. 

The Outcome

The premise for this mini series had me hooked the moment I heard about it, having never read Greg Rucka’s regular Punisher run, word of mouth was very positive, so picking this puppy up was a no-brainer. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be picking up The Punisher by Greg Rucka Vol. 1.