Oh Juan Jose Ryp. I think you are going to fit quite nicely in the Marvel Universe.

I don’t think I’ve really ever expressed this until the ‘Wolverine: Best There is’ preview came up earlier in the week. But let me state it again: I am a huge fan of Juan Jose Ryp. His work for Avatar has been one, of many, artistic bright spots for the company. Whether it would be any of his work with Warren Ellis (Black Summer, No Hero) or even his movie adaptations (Robocop); you can always say the books he works on are beautiful.

What makes his work so beautiful is…..well his extreme detail to violence. So it makes perfect sense to get the man to work on Punisher right?

The story, I admit, is very ho-hum even for a Punisher story. It involves a guy, who never took adventures before, and get into an extreme situation. How many times have we’ve seen that in film, tv, or video games even? There’s the mob, the sexy girl, and the action keeps getting ratched up a notch. It’s not badly written mind you, it just is so predictable to read. Peter Milligan has always been hit or miss with me, so maybe that is the problem. All I know is that the story is not the focial point of the issue.

At first the issue looks like any other comic. Ryp has always done a great job making each character look different from the rest. While the details in the background are great, so far I know a lot of people don’t see much into his work. But once the Punisher comes in and the bullets start to fly; that’s when the fun begins. Somehow, in some way, Ryp is just a natural when it comes to carnage. He can choreograph gunfights with the best of them and everthing just flows so natural. Now obviously since this Marvel, the amount of gore (even for a MAX book) is kept to a minimum. No spinal columns or faces being ripped off here. But when we get great car chases, or shoot outs like in here; then seeing Ryp being a bit tame is hardly a problem.

I’m so glad I was able to pick this one-shot, and you all should too. Maybe not for the story or to become a Punisher fan. But try and get this to see just how incredible of a talent Juan Jose Ryp is. Trust me when I say this: You will find no other artist out there like him and you’ll be better off reading comics with him in the credits.