Broken Frontier

Frank didn’t take too kindly to the idiot who shot Captain America, so you can imagine how he feels about some scumbag who defiles Cap’s uniform.

Some guy calling himself the Hate-Monger (who wears a definitively blasphemous version of Captain America’s uniform) is shooting up the Mexican border because, "America is for Americans." The visual--as seen on the cover of a Mexican newspaper--is enough to make Frank Castle spit nails…and head for dryer climate to shoot people in the face.

The Punisher stands out as the only (anti)hero to have been directly involved in the outcome of Civil War without having actual superpowers…unless being perpetually pissed off and conscienceless passes for a superpower these days. Since this title began five months ago, Matt Fraction has been more or less pigeonholed into writing about Frank Castle’s place in the Marvel Universe during and after those events. The flavor of these issues have therefore been more mainstream (meaning not as graphic), but no less entertaining, than Garth Ennis’s Punisher MAX series.

What Fraction has done is establish Frank as a man who, despite being a complete psychopath, falls under an unwavering moral code. He protects the innocent just as he has always vowed to do, but he also holds military authority in the highest regard--especially the authority that Captain America held/symbolized. On the flip side, despite it providing some excitement this issue, I’m hoping that the long-running plot of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Bridge and his pathological attempt to bring the Punisher down ends soon. Either that or I hope it has a payoff that I don’t see coming.

Olivetti provides a great deal of visual detail for someone that does all the art. It may help that the pages aren’t inked, but it’s still impressive nonetheless. The characters are expressive, the action is dynamic and the locales are detailed from foreground to back. Okay, so the new look for the Punisher beginning with next issue looks a little goofy, but I get the feeling that this is intentional.

So many characters have (at least) two books being published these days. However, most of these books don’t stand apart thematically, visually or in disposition the way the Punisher’s two monthlies do. And even if they did, I would be hard pressed to find two (or more) books about one character that come off quite as enjoyable as Punisher and Punisher: War Journal.