The Noir line by Marvel has been hit or miss with me. Their first attempt with Spider-Man was pretty poor with a bad mystery plot and some ugly artwork. But the next try with X-Men was really good. Mainly because Fred Van Lente actually did a great job making out a noir story and the art was servicable. There’s been two other books in the line, but for me this is the third attempt to give this line a chance. It involves one of my favorite characters, so can Frank Tieri make a successful attempt at translating the character?

Let me start off by stating that putting Castle’s war effort from Vietnam to World War I is perfect thinking. Yes the second World War had much more casualties but the first war was an experimental one. So many people died because they didn’t know what to do and the trench warfare is still the worst use of the technique in history. You put Castle in that war, and let him be involved the Battle of Verdun (one of the bloodiest battles in the war) and it’s a great translation to the setting.

With the story itself, is a bit slow to be honest. Castelione comes back from the war and is now a single father. The mob comes in asking for money; and like how History of Violence shows; you don’t mess with a man with a violent past. It’s not like this was bad to read or anything. It just read too slow for me. It seems like we could’ve got to the part with the gangsters towards the middle of this, and not the end. Although I do love it Tieri is using a real (and well known) gangster with Dutch Schultz as the antagonist. Sorta keeps the plot realistic and not make the gangster another supervillain remake. The art in this is something not really to get into. It doesn’t look bad and that two page spread with the Battle of Verdun is nice to look at. But it’s just a dark looking book and almost looks the same as the other Noir titles. No offense to Paul Azaceta, but it’s just bland to me.

This was a last minute decision to me and as a whole; I liked this title. It’s not perfect nor is it the most remarkable thing ever. But the writer definitely translated the Punisher into the 1920’s, even if he hasn’t shown his face yet. I’ll give this mini a shot the rest of the way and seeing the next issue: The Russian is going to be involved. I like that.