The Punisher: Max Volume 1 (Issues 1-12)

By Garth Ennis

Grade: A
by Mike Gilday
  
Garth Ennis has been writing The Punisher for the better part of ten years. When the character had almost become a farse, becoming a supernaturally powered agent of divine powers, Ennis (writer of hit series such as Preacher, and John Constantine - Hellblazer), said, "what the hell?" just like the rest of us. He returned Frank Castle back to his gritty, anti-crime crusader roots, capturing the psyche of a man who takes no prisoners in a war on crime. When Marvel abandoned the comics code and created a new line of comics for adults only (MAX), Ennis and The Punisher made perfect sense. Stripping away all ties to superheroes, Ennis' Punisher may exist in the normal Marvel Universe, but Spiderman etc. are never mentioned within the pages.

The great thing about this series is it starts fresh. It gives a three page re-cap of The Punisher's tragic origin, and then hits the ground running. I was surprised at the language in this book, more than the violence. Sure you see heads blown off and all that but seeing a female CIA agent muse about the size of Frank Castle's…asset…was a real eye opener that this wasn't a comic you could find on display in a drug store.

Another great thing about this series is the villains. From a bomber who blew off half his face and has to wear a plastic mask to keep it from falling off to an ex-Mafioso who was banished because of his lack of conscience and his henchmen, you never have any trouble believing that these people are threats to a guy who kills several dozen wise guys in the opening pages of the book. The Punisher's cold rationalizations about his killings and zero tolerance attitude, even with old friends, is fascinating to read.

This volume contains two arcs, "In the Beginning" and "Kitchen Irish". There's an artist switch in between the two that I found took time for me to adjust to, but otherwise the art is solid. There are some great explosions in "Kitchen Irish" that I did a double take on. "In the Beginning" seemed to take on a more surreal tone artistically, as opposed to a bare boned, more subdued tone in the second arc.

Still, the art isn't where this book excels, it's with the writing. If the makers of The Punisher film had followed "In the Beginning" as faithfully as in Sin City or even 300, we might have had an exceptional, gritty film that played with convention instead of pandering to it. If you like gritty, crime stories but aren't particularly interested in superheroes that wear tights and fly or swing from rooftops with cookie cutter morality, The Punisher: MAX Volume 1 might just be worth a read.