By: Peter Milligan (writer), Juan Jose Ryp (art), Morry Hollowell & Andres Mossa (colors) & Cory Petit (letters)
The Story: A middle-aged accountant takes a walk on the wild side.
What’s Good: This was an enjoyable done-in-one story of an accountant stuck in a dreary marriage. After fighting with his wife, he goes for a walk to clear his head and remembers that a buddy had once given him a coupon to the Happy Ending massage parlor. Against his better judgment, he goes in. He’s nervous as hell because he’s never done that sort of thing before. And as soon as he walks in, gunfire erupts and he ends up on the run with one of the, ahem, massage therapists. The whole story from there is a fast-paced romp as the accountant gets pulled deeper into the intrigue and violence. Very well done.
In fact, I’m going to go further and say how happy I am that Marvel will publish this sort of story. As I’ll go into below, there isn’t much Punisher in this story, so this isn’t the sort of comic that helps to sell an action figure or that someone hopes could be spun into a movie. It’s just a fun story that doesn’t have any ulterior motives and doesn’t require that the reader be familiar with 30 years of continuity to understand.
However, I was on the fence about picking his up because it is NOT Jason Aaron’s PunisherMax, but what cinched it for me was seeing that Juan Jose Ryp was doing the art. I’ve enjoyed his work in the past and really liked his style in Nancy in Hell a few weeks ago. His work doesn’t disappoint here. It isn’t quite as over the top as Nancy in Hell, but it is still pretty violent and blood-spattered. I recommend it.
What’s Not So Good: While I enjoyed the story, there isn’t much Punisher in this story. Frank Castle only appears in about 10 panels in the entire story and he is completely incidental to the story. So, if someone picks this up expecting a Punisher story, they’ll be disappointed. This was more a chance to tell a “walk-on-the-wild-side” story and they just chose to have it be in the Punisher’s world which gives it a different feel than if (say) they had placed it in the Spider-Man world and had Spidey show up at the end and beg the guy not to do something really rash.
Conclusion: Not essential reading and not much Punisher, but still a fun little story that doesn’t require you to know anything about comics going into it OR buy anything else to continue the story. I’m glad there is a place at Marvel for these sorts of stories.
Grade: B-
– Dean Stell
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Conclusion