Punishermax #5 – Review

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

The Story: The Punisher and the Mennonite’s battle comes to its brutal end while Fisk and Rigoletto lock horns.

What’s Good: This may very well be the best issue of Jason Aaron’s Punishermax series thus far.  It gives you everything you could possibly want in a Punisher comic or a MAX comic.

As might be expected, the action is something too ugly and brutal to really be called “action” in the conventional sense.  The violence is absolutely unflinching and in a way, I respect Aaron for his willingness to live up to the MAX promise.  Horses are decimated and there are innards aplenty and a child meets a gruesome end.  In both cases, the bloodshed is shown to the reader upfront, without any cutaway.  After all, this is a MAX comic and any such thing would be an act of self-censorship.  Aaron does not shy away from any of it and Steve Dillon certainly obliges him.

A real star this month though is Aaron’s take on the classic Frank Castle monologues.  Those who have grumbled about the lack of focus on Frank should be satisfied this month, as Aaron’s textboxes fully encapsulate everything that is awesome about Castle.  We get that badass fanaticism and refusal to die, we get the gruesome, almost over-the-top descriptions of pain and injury, and we even get that sense of poignant personal tragedy integral to the character; essentially, Aaron touches upon every good thing that can be done with a Frank Castle monologue textbox.  Through them, Castle feels fully realized, with various aspects of his voice from the Ennis MAX days being visited.

And then there’s Fisk.  Aaron’s take on the villain is more unforgiving than ever, as he almost seems to chastise the reader for ever having sympathized or rooted for him.  There is a significant emotional shift, or self-realization, in this issue that is very well-done.  Fisk’s coldly and objectively calculated response to his son’s being held hostage is stunning, and his words of comfort to his grieving wife after the ordeal are absolutely chilling.  Much like Castle, Fisk also receives some great internal monologues this month, touching on his history while suggesting his ideals of fatherhood, valued up until this point, are a facade.  It’s stuff that’s as brutal and real as the physical violence on the page.

As a small point, I also really loved the ending of the brawl between the Punisher and the Mennonite.  The conclusion of the fight is just perfect in that the brutal acts of violence that lead to it are strangely metaphorical.  The Mennonite’s downfall in the fight parallels his downfall in life while the Punisher’s final weapon is essentially a physical manifestation of his own trauma.  It’s just so strange to see brief acts of over-the-top violence be so directly referential to points of emotion or character.

It also bears being mentioned that Steve Dillon does an amazing job on this issue given that the book is completely and utterly devoid of humor.  Usually Dillon seems a bit out of sorts without at least a little slapstick or crudeness, but he succeeds this month without either.

Punishermax #4 – Review

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

The Story: The Punisher goes head to head with the Mennonite and the Kingpin finally makes his move.

What’s Good: This book really has that R-rated action movie feel that’s pretty integral to a comic like Punishermax.  While the issue never comes close to approaching intellectual fare, it’s fun to watch and read in that blockbuster sort of way.

The bulk of the issue is an extended brawl between Frank and the Mennonite.  It’s beautifully paced and sequenced and has a fantastic flow to it, with one frame naturally and organically following the last.  It’s completely smooth, without any of the hiccupping that often occurs in lengthy fight scenes.  It’s also brutal and unforgiving, while also being fairly creative, visceral, and personal.  I think that a lot of that owes to Aaron steering clear from the over-the-top excess that Ennis often utilized, which ended up turning fight scenes into comedy.  By keeping it relatively realistic, Aaron ups the intensity.  Of course, a lot of this has to do with Steve Dillon, who brings his action chops along, without the goofy faces.

The Mennonite also really delivers, as Aaron really makes the most of the concept.  Leaving the character motivations behind this month, Aaron decides that the character will only use the weapons that his “religion allows.”  In other words, no guns or cars – just horses and a big mallet.  It’s really humorous stuff that colors the book and gives it its own unique personality.  It really livens things up and brings something special to the Mennonite character, enough that I hope to see him again soon.

Aaron also does well with the Frank Castle internal monologues, owning up to the tradition of using the textboxes to have Frank describe his gruesome injuries in detail.  It makes the fight scene that much more difficult to read and ups the desperation and brutality quotients exponentially.

Punishermax #3 – Review

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

The Story: Wilson Fisk goes out to silence the one person who’s onto him, before finally going one on one with Frank Castle.

What’s Good: Three issues in, and this month is, more than anything, Aaron and Dillon testing the limits of the MAX imprint.  How much can they get away with?  A lot of this button-pushing comes from the character of Mamma Cesare, introduced in this issue.  Personally, I thought the old lady to be an absolute ball.  The ridiculous barrage of profanity that she produces pretty much continuously is simply unbelievable.  But really, it’s the horrible mental images I got from the many and varied gruesome acts she threatens which really had me laughing.  It’s just so completely over the top, and yet I can’t help but commend Aaron’s creativity.  All told, Mamma Cesare is just a wholly entertaining character who leaps off of the page.

Aaron also gives us a little more Castle this month, and it certainly pays off.  Those grizzled Punisher monologues that Ennis perfected return in a much bigger way, and they certainly make the book feel more “Punisher.”  It’s grim stuff, and that’s just as it should be.  Frank also gets in a tussle with Fisk, and it’s both thrilling and smile-inducing in a slapstick kind of way, with Castle flying head first through a door or nonchalantly breaking the neck of a faceless of goon.

But the thing that really piques my interest is a new, as yet nameless, character who Aaron introduces this month.  An Amish-styled farmer who doesn’t seem to share his community’s faith and appears to have something of a dark past.  He’s an interesting figure, sympathetic and menacing, at once searching for redemption, yet ultimately willing to return to his dark, old ways when the phone call comes.  The fact that this return seems to be perceived by the character as a kind of divine will is also very promising.  At the moment, the character is a big, menacing question mark of faith and shame with an ambiguous relationship with forgiveness, and I really like where this is going.

Punishermax #2 – Review

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

The Story: Wilson Fisk’s history is delved into as Operation: Kingpin is put into action.

What’s Good: While last month was a declaration of Garth Ennis, this month makes clear that Jason Aaron is interested in more than just emulation, as he brings the unforgiving grit found in Scalped to Punishermax.

That means an incredibly dark issue.  As this is largely due to its exploration of Fisk’s past, the change in tone between issues feels appropriate.  There’s really not a joke to be found this month, nor is there any Ennis-styled slapstick.  That said, while the pure fun quotient may take a slight hit due to that, it also elevates this month’s issue into something that is a more serious, weighty project.

This process also helps to create quite possibly the most terrifying Wilson Fisk we’ve ever seen.  Aaron’s Fisk is nothing short of an absolute psychopath.  His lack of conscience, mercy, or human feeling is deeply unsettling.  Fisk rigorously abides by and brutally enforces a rigid rule of self-preservation and satisfaction.  Beyond that though, he is beholden by no laws of decency or humanity.  Certainly, when Fisk embraces his wife and child at the end of this month’s issue, it feels very different from when he did so at the end of last month’s.

In painting such a character, Aaron really does push the Marvel envelope, and he does so in a manner totally different from Ennis.  While Ennis tested limits by writing outrageous acts, Aaron crosses boundaries through portraying acts and writing dialogue that is simply disturbing and mature in the truest sense.  Ennis had me flabbergasted, but Aaron actually made me uncomfortable.

On art, Steve Dillon serves up his usual fare, though he does do some surprisingly poignant work on his characters’ faces.  Dillon’s done a great job with Fisk so far, with expressions that are surprisingly subtle yet resonant and nuanced.

Punishermax #1 – Review

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

The Story: In a final desperate bid to stay alive, the mob creates a final scheme to kill the Punisher – Operation Kingpin.

What’s Good: How much do you like Garth Ennis?  Your answer will largely determine how much you like Aaron’s approach to Punishermax.

That being said, even for readers unfamiliar with Ennis’ work, this is far, far from a bad comic.  It’s got all the desperate scheming, outrageous gore, torture, and general nastiness that you’d expect from the Max line.  However, for those die-hard Ennis fans like myself, this book is a real treat, one part love-song and two parts nostalgia trip.

This book literally feels like it fell out of a time machine as Jason Aaron channels Ennis so effectively, you’d think it was the man himself.  In fact, Aaron starts the series off right with a scene that is outrageously gory.  So gory is this display that it borders on being slapstick.  Then, in a manner that is straight out of Ennis’ playbook, this grotesque sequence leads to a joke that is both ridiculous and uproarious.   It’s so appalling that it shouldn’t work, and yet it does for that very reason.  This humorous sequence alone shows that Jason Aaron knows how to work this series: it’s all about pushing those boundaries so far past the brink that one can only laugh and gape simultaneously.

The scene also reminds us that Wilson Fisk is a bad, bad man.  When I first heard Aaron’s decision to bring in an alternate-universe Kingpin, I was concerned.  However, I actually found myself enjoying the character.  He’s devious, imposing, and though he speaks little, every word he says counts.  Taking him out of the Marvel Universe also gives Aaron the freedom to explore the character in ways otherwise not possible.  Seeing Fisk fly under the radar or catching a glimpse of him as a family is uniquely enjoyable.

One also can’t downplay the impact of Steve Dillon.  Without him, this comic would not have been the rousing success that it is.  It’s thanks in no small part to his efforts that this book is the callback to the glory days that it is.  The man has not lost a step.  This is clearly the guy behind Preacher and he makes no attempt to disguise that fact.  Dillon’s performance can simply be described as one thing: giving the hardcore Punisher fan what he/she wants.  And of course, Aaron’s gory sight-gag would not be possible without Dillon, who’s probably got a doctorate in that sort of depravity by now.

What’s Not So Good: This book succeeds at establishing its world, but it comes at the cost of Frank Castle’s presence.  The Punisher just isn’t in this book as much as you might expect, what with half the issue being spent on a single conversation between the various mob bosses.  Frankly, you’d expect a first issue to see more Punisher-related awesomeness, but it never really comes outside of an admittedly gruesome torture scene.  Even when the Punisher does get some combat in, he’s relegated to shooting a few baddies in the background while the focus remains on Fisk.  I expected him to be a little more front and center, or get a bit more page-time than he did.

Honestly, I was just hoping for a little more excess and mass murder out of Frank.  Is that too much to ask?

Conclusion: Welcome back, Frank.

Grade: A-

-Alex Evans