Punisher MAX Volume 1 for $19.79 at Amazon
Alright, I’m gonna start this off in a certain way. I’ve read all the Garth Ennis Punisher stuff (as far as I know) , and I started with the Max label stuff. I’m not sure this was a good idea. The MAX Punisher is serious and brutal. The earlier Ennis non-MAX stuff is silly and takes place around other superheroes. If you prefer silly, wait for my later reviews! Now, each of these MAX reviews is going to be about the hardcovers, because no way was I writing up a review per arc. Oh, and the first one contains Punisher – The End, which I won’t review, but it’s alright.
I’ll admit, I’ve never been a fan of the Punisher. He seemed a weird guy to have in a place like the Marvel universe, like he never fit. The MAX run mostly places him outside that universe. It lets him be brutal. It even lets him get a kill count in the hundreds every few issues while only coming off as a little ridiculous.
The art is just straight up fantastic. Between the cover and the interior art, I was blown away, it’s utterly perfect for this Punisher run.
The story? Better than I expected. You’ve got Castle laying out hundreds of Italian mobsters at a birthday party, the CIA is involved, Micro’s involved, and what you found out later is how beautifully this opening arc sets up the next few arcs. Ennis really nails this one on all levels.
The second arc has the fantastic art of the first, but the story is about the Irish gangsters. Out of all the Ennis Punisher stuff, the Irish stuff never hit it off with me. I’ll say straight up it’s still well written, has plenty of interesting characters, and the way it starts off is not at all what I expected. So even though it didn’t do it for me, it’s still worth reading.
4.5/5. This opening arc is some of the best writing you’ll ever get on the Punisher. The second arc is still good, but less interesting to me. It’s what knocked it down from a 5.
