Review: Punisher #7

By TyrelK

January 5th, 2012

Having just written an entire article devoted to the Punisher and his newest ongoing one would think they would find nothing but sweet words of deep praise here. Alas, I am saddened to inform you that Punisher #7 provides the first semi-letdown of the current run.

First, let’s address the art. Deconstructing art isn’t anything I’m exceptionally gifted at but I can tell you what I like and I can tell you what I don’t like about it. The artwork in this issue, while maintaining a nice chunk of its usual tone, is a bit of a disappointment. Though by no means is it all that bad, it’s just that it’s missing that normal darkness meets the lightness of Matt Hollingsworth’s coloring. Marco Checchetto, on regular pencils, is missed here. It’s becoming apparent just how important Hollingsworth is to the Punisher’s artistic renditions because he’s taken what is a different style of illustration and somehow made it very cohesive to the rest of the series thus far. As far as colorists go, he’s one of the first that I’ve ever paid special attention to in regards to their uniqueness. I will say that the shots of New York in winter look and feel as precisely bleak as I know winters in urban areas to be. You get the feeling this was a bit of a filler issue before the next part of the arc begins/continues so I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here when I suggest that Checchetto was given a break before things ramp the hell up.

It is an interesting and fresh change of pace to put Detective Clemons and Bolt in the forefront. As a matter of fact, the only whiff of Frank Castle we get is through the use of the omnipresent flashback (more on that in a minute). Rucka, like myriad scribes before him, could have taken this seemingly straight forward “buddy cop” routine to generically grand heights instead chooses to cultivate an atmosphere between the two that resembles something more akin to Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt’s rapport in Seven. Minus the severe perversity. Cranky, older, more experienced black cop and young, more upbeat, newer white guy. It’s easy to muck something like this up with typical stereotypes but Rucka pulls it together in a fashion that seems wholly realistic and absolutely believable. The two aren’t good friends, they’re partners. They both have different codes concerning their work on the force and, what will be the ultimate lynchpin or coffin nail in their partnership, their opinion on Mr. Castle.

Beyond the good use of Clemons and Bolt’s part in this title, I felt that this issue was at least half-wasted. I appreciate the tension Rucka puts down on every page; how at the end of every panel I expect to find something just ball-shocking on the next one. It takes some serious talent to pull that off and Rucka has to be applauded here.

However, the entire issue concerned only Clemons and Bolt traveling to and examining the crime scene that Punisher and Rachel Cole-Alves created in Punisher #6 when they went insane on a whole gaggle of the Exchange. The dialogue between the two, at times, comes of stilted but whether or not this is the genius of Rucka handling two cops who aren’t completely comfortable with each other quite, I couldn’t say. And then, insert drumroll, comes the flashback, which is where I draw my first problem with the issue. We’re made to believe that the reason Detective Clemons has such a hard-on for Castle’s capture is due to an event that occurred several years in the past. Upon arriving at a perp’s apartment, a man responsible for killing four people by spiking aspirin pills, Clemons and his former partner come to find Punisher fighting Daredevil in a heated rooftop punch-up. Obviously, Daredevil wanted to bring the man in to face justice through the proper legal procedures and the Punisher, it’s a safe bet to conjecture, wanted to bring his own particular type of justice straight to the man. Anyway, making a short story even shorter, everyone escapes but the killer and through some legal technicality the criminal is released because Frank Castle had tainted the scene of the man’s apartment by simply being there, as there would be no way to distinguish what instruments of malice were his or Castle’s. Of course, you know what comes next. Guy gets released, Punisher punishes him. End of story.

Look, Ozzy Clemons is an officer of the law. It should be his responsibility to bring in lunatic vigilantes (sorry Frank, but you are) just because that is the responsibility of officers of the law. All I’m saying is, if you’re going to try and give some back story as to why he so fervidly wants to throw the book at the Punisher we could have been given a more believable motive. Maybe I’m missing something. Picking up innuendos and allusions, I’ll admit, isn’t my specialty. Quite possibly, we’ll see further revelations and repercussions evolving from this otherwise useless and sidebar-esque tale. But, if nothing else, it was nice to see Frank mixing it up with regular Marvel characters like Daredevil (even if he was decked out in his old Punisher trappings). This is the first book in a few years that puts Frank in the 616 so I’ve wondering when we’d get to see this. Too bad it was just a flashback.

Ultimately, the story wasn’t bad. Not at all. It was entertaining. Problem is, we, as readers, already knew everything essential driving Punisher #7. Clemons reveals that he knows Bolt is feeding information to the Punisher. At the end, Clemons figures out that someone who wasn’t the Punisher also had a hand in decimating the ranks of the Exchange. I’m not sure why this side of the story couldn’t have been told in a much smaller dose while also giving us a bigger taste of the Punisher himself. Rucka’s strides in providing characterization is great but we’re buying the book, mostly, to see the Punisher in action, and this wasn’t the absolute best use of his talents in this respect in this issue. After all, we only get to see him once a month nowadays (especially since Jason Aaron’s Punisher MAX is essentially kaput). Hopefully, we’ll get more Frankie boy next month, but, also hopefully, Rucka doesn’t over-compensate for his lack of face time in this issue by giving us a Punisher-only issue in #8. I’d like to see him maintain the balance all the previous issues he’s had been building on.

Overall, Punisher #7 is somewhere in the C- range for those of us used to the regular outstanding qualities of the previous issues. But, on the other hand, it’s not a bad jumping on point for those whose interest have been piqued or were considering checking out the title. Things are about to get real up in here.