The Punisher has been a frequent appearance in the War of the Realms event. Bryan Hill wrote him in War of the Realms Strikeforce – The Dark Elf Realm, Jason Aaron writes him in the main event book and Gerry Duggan (also the author of this issue) is slated to continue his Asgardian adventures afterwards in Punisher Kill Krew. So far, he’s been very well portrayed by all three writers.

This issue is very compressed and action packed. Gerry Duggan catches the attention of the reader with some good writing and strong depictions of The Punisher and his inner monologue, something that fans have been missing for a while…

It’s total mayhem! Crazy trolls and other monsters from the nine realms want to feast on Frank’s group and they have to fight their way out with all they have. Of course, the expendable “bodyguards” Frank found are inmates and they pretty much serve as human shields and distractions for Frank’s lethal handling of the threat. It’s a very entertaining issue, with the only sad part being how fast you’ll get through it all.

Marcelo Ferreira is equally responsible as Duggan for catching the attention of the reader. I still think the artwork was a little bit more “refined” last issue, but Marcelo continues to deliver. There’s great detail in his artwork and it’s fun how Marcelo builds the action scenes and all the “barbaric” fights. There are great dynamics between panels and not simply cut scenes so you can actually see the “motion” between panels in a real sequence.

 

Rachelle Rosenberg was important too with her colors. She set the right theme for this comic book and the splash scenes are very well done.

The cover by Juan Ferreyra is fantastic…not as epic as last issue, but it depicts exactly what is happening in the issue.  I really like his interpretation of The Punisher. It’s pretty much how I envisioned it in my head and all the interventionists in the cover are characters in the comic as well so, it’s accurate as I’ve said. 

 

 

Overall Verdict: Very excited for this story line, sadly it’s only three issues. I really think this creative team is doing great work together and that the reader will benefit from this chemistry. Gerry Duggan is answering important fan questions such as “What would Frank do in a bigger event such as War of the Realms?” AND we have the more than missed inner monologue. Duggan is nailing the Punisher.

 

RATING: 8/10