Punishermax #6 – Review

by Jason Aaron (writer), Steve Dillon (art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors), and Cory Petit (letters)

The Story: We’re introduced to the Marvel MAX version of Bullseye, as he begins his hunt for Frank Castle.

What’s Good: This issue sees Jason Aaron’s continuity-free take on Bullseye and overall, it’s successful.  Aaron has a good handle on the character’s distinct voice, which is intelligent, detached, psychopathic, and mildly humorous.  Bullseye sounds oddly affable and never over the top.  It’s easy to write an intelligent serial killer like Bullseye in an over-the-top or scenery chewing sort of way, and I’m glad that Aaron steered clear from this route.  Bullseye seems more real because of this, but still colorful enough to make for a compelling villain.

The strongest portion of this issue, however, is a conversation between a wounded Frank Castle and his doctor, who happens to be an old friend from Vietnam.  It offers Aaron a chance to once again attempt to get into Frank’s head.  There are wonderful touches of rueful retrospective and references to Frank’s age that have proven before to be useful tools for writing the Punisher.  The conversation ends up feeling heavy and meaningful.  I enjoyed how Aaron explored Frank’s erasure of identity and humanity.  These are familiar themes for a Punisher comic and have been explored before, yet Aaron makes it all just emotionally significant and hard-bitten enough to make you forget that.

Steve Dillon’s art is, as usual, a perfect fit for the Punisher.   His action scene at the issue’s end is rife with desperation and tension, yet the entire book nonetheless carries that hint of light-hearted wackiness that inhabits all of Dillon’s work.  Everything looks good here and I enjoyed his take on Bullseye as well, from those devious, intelligent eyes to the little scars surrounding Bullseye’s infamous forehead scar, which were a really nice touch.