The Punisher #11 – Review

by Greg Rucka (writer), Mirko Colak (art), Dan Brown & Jim Charalampidis (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Detective Warren Bolt comes clean about his relationship with the Punisher after a crazy night with Frank in Times Square killing….zombies?

The Review: There are two ways of reading this comic.  On the one hand, you can look at it as a comic where Warren Bolt talks a lot and kills zombies with Frank in Times Square.  Pretty ho-hum, right?  On the other hand, if you come in with an open mind, this comic rewards the astute reader with a more psychological reading.

Rucka has given us an issue with a real interior focus; all the events are narrated from the perspective of Bolt with no one, as his interviewers later admit, to contradict his story.  As such, it’s all up to him and, given his background as faux-hero, you’re left wondering about the reliability of what he’s relaying.

Now, I’m not saying that this issue is entirely a figment of Bolt’s imagination; it most likely isn’t.  We know SOMETHING went down with zombies in Times Square.  However, I couldn’t help but get a real Tyler Durden/Fight Club vibe off of this issue.  Bolt and Frank’s unique relationship, with Frank doing the dirty work that Bolt is too afraid or too inept to do himself, leads to the two being inextricably linked to one another.   In a way, watching Bolt and Castle run about killing zombies in Times Square (a situation which, in itself, is so ludicrous that it only facilitates the surreality), you’re almost waiting for the Fight Club twist: Frank was never there.