The Punisher #3
Marvel Comics
Writer: Garth Ennis
Pencils: Steve Dillon
Inks: Jimmy Palmotti
Colors: Chris Sotomayor
24pp, $3.99

Not many comic book characters have strayed as far from their origin as the Punisher has. Originally concieved as a rip-off of Don Pendelton's Mack Bolan (aka The Exicutioner), Marvel's The Punisher started off as a man seeking revenge for his family's murder by pumping lead into every two-bit gangster in New York. Well, in his last outing, The Punisher was seen working for Heaven (literally), dishing out justice with mystical Uzi's and sporting a glowing tattoo on his forehead. (I'm not making this up folks...) It didn't take a genius to figure out that, in order for The Punisher to work, he had to be returned to his roots.

Well, the folks at Marvel seem to have taken their heads out of their asses for a change, and brought some real talent on board to give The Punisher the treatment he deserves. Writer/Artist team Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon (Preacher, Hellblazer) have come on board, bringing The Punisher into the fold of Marvel's fledgeling Marvel Knights imprint.

For the most part Ennis' take is classic Punisher. The Punisher's return has brought him into a war with the Gnucci crime family. Exactly why he wants Ma Gnucci and her crew brought down is a mystery, but do you really need to know the specifics? Placed on the trail to apprehend the Punisher is rookie detective Soap, a complete loser whom nobody believes will be able to pull it off. Most of the police force quietly supports the Punisher's activities, so Soap's assignment is basically to stay out of trouble. For all the psychobabble thrown around to explain the Punisher's acts of violence, Soap sees through to the heart of the matter. The Punisher is a psycho who enjoys killing people...no more, no less. Its an interesting admonition for a comic book company that has spent the better part of two decades justifying The Punisher's killing sprees through increasingly desperate means. I mean, his family was killed twenty years ago. Anybody remotely connected to their deaths has long since been eradicated. So why does he keep killing criminals? Simple. He likes it.

Issue #3 brings the Punisher face to face with his old nemesis, Daredevil. Some of you may remember the taut conflict between these two characters woven by master scribe Frank Miller back in the seventies and early eighties, which culminated in Daredevil actually shooting The Punisher. It was an amazing moment, and probably the best in all of Miller's run. Well, Daredevil gets a second chance in this issue, and what happens, although somewhat predictable, is nonetheless very satisfying. The Punisher demonstrates the moral delimma he finds himself in quite eloquently to Daredevil, forcing ol 'horn-head to make a pretty tough choice. I only hope that the effects of that choice echo in Daredevil's own title. We also see a little more of that psyco catholic priest who uses his confession booth as an abbatoir. This isn't the first time Ennis has demonized the religious establishment, and I'm certain it won't be the last. Although this is an intriguing subplot, it isn't given very much time to develop.

Although I am happy to see the Punisher doing what he does best, I have a few qualms with this title. Number one is Marvels thinly veiled puritanical attitude towards content. Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon have become notorious for the lurid details of their work on Preacher. When the Saint of Killers goes on a rampage, people start dying. Violently. Marvel has, unwisely, decided to sanitize Ennis and Dillon's work, stifling the visceral impact of the Punisher's morbid handiwork. Imagine if Dreamworks had told Steven Spielberg that he had to tone down the D-Day landing in Saving Private Ryan, or if Stanley Kubrick had been told to remove some of the sex and violence from Clockwork Orange. Sometimes, in an effort to keep our children from seeing anything objectionable, the media misses the point. Violence in the media is not necessarily always a glorification of violence. In many cases violence is used to point out how awful it really is, a concept seemingly lost on most people nowadays. Marvel, traditionally, has been one of the worst offenders of this misunderstanding, and they continue that line of thinking here. Secondly, the pacing of this title seems a little off. The story proceeds along its path in a cold, mechanical manner reminiscent of the Punisher's unrelenting death march. The story is brilliant in snippets, but many of the books better subplots are given little or no room to develop. Some of the supporting cast are given one or two panels in the spotlight, then disappear into the narrative ether with nary a word balloon. Ennis black humor is there, but once again, it seems tempered by the foul editorial hand of Marvel's Thought Police. Marvel regardlessly seems determined to follow the edicts of the Comics Code Authority, a cold war-era dinosaur if I ever saw one. Is Marvel truly this whipped? Are they really that afraid of their stockholders? It's not surprising, considering the financial troubles they've faced in the last five years (two bankruptcy settlements, plus being bought out by one of their own subsidiaries...how degrading! That's like Taco Bell buying out Pepsi!).

All in all, The Punisher is a welcome return to the good ol' days. Ennis and Dillon's work is top notch; it's just a pity that they were unable to take the concept as far as they could have.

Rating: 7 (out of 10)

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