Frank Castle aka ‘The Punisher’ can give off a certain niche to readers. If your the type of person who wants to see criminals get killed by dozens of bullets; Castle is your man. If you like someone with a no nonsense attitude as he guts a mob boss; Punisher is your hero. But now a days, unless your a very creative writer; Punisher can be very dull at times. Punisher MAX: Naked Kill is one of those dull comics.

This certain one-shot follows Castle as he tries to stop a snuff film ring. The problem is that the building he needs to get into has the best security in the world. With this hinder in the plot he forces a worker of the building to get him inside and save the women involved. But with no guns or knives to use; it looks like Castle will have to go in all ‘MacGyver’ on these criminals. It’s not a bad premise; I mean what point have we not see Castle try to kill someone with an ordinary object? But the premise is on surface as best; cause by the end of this plot he (and how can this be a spoiler?) he gets the gun and kills anyone that flinches. It’s a shame that Maberry couldnt keep the premise going all threwout the issue. Considering he’s one of the biggest named writers out today you’d think he try something new with Punisher. Instead it just reads as the same old Punisher plot from beginning to end.

It doesnt help for me that Laurence Campbell; an artist style I grew to hate during an earlier MAX run is here for pencils. For a one-shot though; his style doesnt bother me as much. Maybe it’s because he did more then one issue and had to tell a more free-flowing story his style got a bit worse as it went on. Here it’s all gritty and dark with black grime surrounding the panels. His character models arent bad, but they certainly arent the best (especially when it comes to faces). Campbell’s ideas of guns are certainly amusing as well. I swear that shotgun Castle was holding had the barrell twice the size of a normal gun. While this type of art didnt bug me like it did before; it;’s certainly nothing to cheer about either.

While it’s certainly a good idea for Marvel to let big name authors to try Punisher out….Usually they dont work in the long run. Greg Hurwitz did a great job at first with Frank Castle. But as his arc continue to go it felt like same old Punisher. This could go for most writers that have tried to do a ‘fresh’ take on the character. Its a shame to think only people with the last name of Ennis and Sweircyznski could tell a very good Punisher story. As it stands, this is certainly not a one-shot I say to rush out and get.