I have drank from the Punisher Omnibus, it’s nectar is sweet!

Before I bought this I actually made an error.  See when I first read Garth Ennis’s Punisher I read Welcome Back Frank and then started reading the MAX series.  I had no clue that the Marvel Knights went past Welcome Back Frank.

This however did not upset me when I got past the first 12 issues.  I
actually was excited at the fact that I had bought a giant book that I
did not fully pay attention to while handing over my cash.  It was like I had
just discovered some uncharted planet, ready for me to do unspeakable
things to it’s native inhabitants.

I read through the first issues fairly fast, I tend to do this with anything I’ve read before.  A good example is Kevin Smith’s Daredevil.  The first time I read it I probably invested 4-6 hours of reading.  Now I can read it in maybe an hour.  Once I moved into the new material I felt like I was at a standstill.  This book moved slow to me because it was the only thing I’ve been reading except for an occasional, “I really should read something else” moment.

I can honestly say that even though I mixed up and thought this had a bunch of MAX stuff in it, I still thoroughly enjoyed everything this book had to offer.  I probably enjoyed it a little more because I really like dark humor.  This book is filled with it.  Also we get to see Frank team up with all sorts of other heroes which he doesn’t do in the MAX title, that I know of.  His first team up with Spider-Man was fantastic.  This was one of my favorite lines in the entire book, “We had a team up, you were great.”  The fact that their team up came back in the end and brought this book full circle with his other team up with Wolverine and his fight with Daredevil, was great.

This book really does well because of its supporting cast, which is mostly Detective Soap.  You can’t help but feel bad and laugh at this guy at the same time.  All of his sexual exploits range from disgusting to laugh out loud.  Once again these stories kind of come full circle in the end of the run.  I also like to see his progression as a character when he finally seems to grow a pair in the end.

I think this book took on all sorts of major topics as well.  Dealing arms, Homosexuality, politics with the mob, Ireland’s issues, and all sorts of other things.  Well some of these may not be “major” but were neat topics.  I really enjoyed the arc with the Homosexual Sheriff in Texas.  It’s towards the end of the book and is a good read.

I could go on and on about the run and how great of a job Ennis did, but really it’s something that needs to be read to be fully appreciated.  I would like to mention that Dillion’s art is great.  I’ve only really seen him do this book (no I have not read Preacher) but I would like to see more of his work for sure.  Also I don’t know the other artists off the top of my head, but most of them did a fairly good job for Punisher.

This book includes Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe.  The single issue does a pretty good job of getting the job done within its page allotment.  I can’t say I would imagine it any other way.  If you can get your hands on this separately I highly recommend reading it as well.

Lastly is the quality of the book.  It’s well printed and bound.  I feel like I could club baby seals with this book without issue.  Which is a problem for my wrists.  Unless you’re in a position to sit and have this book on a table or in your lap, your wrists will either snap under the books glory or become stronger.  This book also had some scripts as extras.  I glanced at them but overall seemed like lame extras.  This wasn’t a huge deal considering I bought the book for the story, not the extras.

Final word is, if you like Punisher and like me can find this book for 30% – 40% off you should think about purchasing it.  The book is well worth it for 60 bucks considering there is something like 45 issues in this book.  If you do the math that’s $1.33 per issue, which is not bad by today’s standards.

One last thing I would like to thank my brother for giving me Christmas money, it helped with the purchase of this book.