Broken Frontier

Norman Osborn has elicited the help of the Hood to take down the Punisher once and for all.  In this issue, the Hood brings out the dead, Punisher blows stuff up, and G.W. Bridge gets thrown back into the thick of it.

In Punisher #6: Dead End, Norman Osborn has hired the Hood to kill the Punisher after a failed assassination leaves him bitter.  The Hood has concocted quite a plan to catch the elusive antihero:  Resurrect almost every bad guy the Punisher has killed and create an army, including Basilisk, Cheetah, Cyclone, Death Adder, Firebrand, Hijacker, Human Fly, Lascivious, Letha, Megatak, Mirage and Turner D. Century.  As incentive for these baddies to succeed in killing Punisher, the Hood has placed a 30 day window on their lives.  Failure to kill Castle would result in their second, and probably final, death.  In addition to this army of forgotten madmen, the Hood has brought back Punisher’s old partner and long-time friend:  Microchip.  It seems Osborn has finally found the right man for the job.

While this resurrection reunion takes place, Punisher methodically works his way through secret hideouts of these villains, killing everyone in his way and blowing up everything else.  We realize that Castle’s intuition for locating these bases goes by the name Henry, a computer wiz with the know-how to help Punisher target his enemies.  With Henry on the case, we believe Castle cannot be caught.  However, Basilisk and Death Adder decide to pay G.W. Bridge a visit, a man who has spent the better part of his life chasing Castle.  With Bridge’s knowledge of Punisher’s general movements, catching Castle should be a cinch.

Rick Remender writes a competent Punisher story, complete with cold, detached dialogue and ruthless attitude.  The reader will enjoy his attention to the lesser known villains from Marvel past, as well as his penchant for grit and pulp.  What is most satisfying about this arc is that Remender allows the Punisher to be his violent self, with no remorse for anyone (even his partner Henry).

Tan Eng Huat draws in a style fitting of a story interested in returning to the pulp style of comic.  There are elements of Silver Age artistic development that blend purely with the resurgence of some older characters.  Tan meshes his technique with Remender’s writing style brilliantly.

This arc is really a setup for a smashing next issue.  Of note, Remender and Tan give the readers a look into the style choices for the villains used in the supplemental pages following the story.  Short biographies and anecdotes for each character will get new readers up to snuff.