There are two types of Punisher’s in the Marvel universe.

One interacts with the superheroes and fights the supervillains when need be.

The other is a brutal man with no remorse and the superheroes seem to be absent.

I am not a fan of the first Punisher. It’s not to say that Frank Castle can’t be entertaining to read when he’s fighting a villain like the Hood. In fact I love all the moments of Punisher when he was involved with Civil War. But it just seems to me that it’s pointless to put a man, who kills first and then asks questions later, and not have him kill the supervillians. It’s why the MAX line even exists but even the Punisher in the late 80′s and early 90′s was much more violent then this version. So with all of this said, why did I give Remender’s Punisher a chance?

Basically I like Rick Remender as a writer and if his Fear Agent title has shown; he can write some really fucked up stories. That works for Punisher, but also with this Dark Reign nonsense it would be great to see someone actually take Norman Osborn on directly. Since none of the other heroes are trying to do that yet. When I read the first issue I thought everything was going to work. Punisher immediately tries to assassinate Osborn on the first page; then you have a realistic fight with the Sentry. (As realistic as it can be with a normal human vs a superhero) But once we get into the main story with Castle and his new Microchip fighting the Hood….I just got disinterested. It’s the same old Punisher that Matt Fraction tried, and failed, to make an interesting character. Remender seems to get a bit more leeway on the violence, but still very little killings go on. Plus the title just gets ridiculous sometimes; case in point that Avengers get up he wears towards the end of this. What the hell is that all about?

Jerome Opena is a great artist to look at. But for some reason his pencils just didn’t translate well with these issues. Maybe it’s the Marvel coloring department but most of these characters look off model. It’s too sketchy in a lot of ways and it’s too bright at points. There’s a moment where Castle is fighting a group of superpowered Chinese organ traders. That scene is almost impossible to look at and try to figure out what is going on. When it’s someone just talking or it’s a quiet moment; the art looks great. But when actual fighting goes on (and that’s most of the book here) it’s just a mess. Again I like Opena’s art and his run on Fear Agent is beautiful to look at….but it just doesn’t work for me here.

Maybe it’s just my bias against this version of the Punisher but I couldn’t have fun with this title. I can definitely see why someone could love this and maybe this title gets better within the next trade. As it stands, I can’t really recommend this. Maybe if you can flip threw it at your store, don’t buy this at first glance.