After Frank Castle fully manifested the powers of the Beast last issue, he led an all out war on the criminal underground far greater than ever before. Corpses and body parts were strewn from the wreckage of broken planes and left to shark ridden waters. Entire skyscrapers were destroyed in the criminal sanctuary of Bagalia and even Doctor Doom’s nation of Latveria was hit. Frank ultimately chose to end his war after realizing that The Hand were attempting to get him to kill simply for the potential sins and crimes in people’s hearts. Nevertheless, the bloodshed has become too much to ignore for the greater 616 and par for the course, consequences have come for The Punisher.

The Punisher vs. The “Heroes” Once Again

On one front, some of Frank’s “closest” peers (Dr. Strange, Black Widow, Captain America, Wolverine and Moon Knight) have arrived to take him down. With the powerset of the heroes chosen to take Frank on, it seems that Jason Aaron’s intent was to set up a fair fight to demonstrate the strength of Frank’s newfound powers and showcase Frank’s different dynamics with some of his closer allies.

It’s overall a pretty fun sequence. There’s gross segments where red globs of possessed necroplasm are being extracted from Frank by Dr. Strange and flashier elements where Dr. Strange is targeting Frank with neon green astral axes and claymore mines. There’s a few brutal segments including Frank redirecting Wolverine’s adamantium blades back through his own face. Captain America and Frank share a cool, quiet moment acknowledging their shared honor as members of the military before Frank strikes him with a flaming sword, leaving Cap cowering behind his shield. In the end surprisingly, Frank overcomes the heroes. Although, his victory is short lived.

The Vengeance of Maria Castle

The second plotline involves the resurrected Maria Castle regaining her memory and cognition and learning the truth about her husband’s legacy as The Punisher. With each issue wavering and being unreliable as to Maria Castle and Frank Castle’s memories and flashbacks due to the influence of The Hand, it’s been extremely hard to follow Jason Aaron’s intent with the flashback storyline as well as Maria Castle’s resurrection. We’ve seen the couple connect and fall in and out of love. Frank Castle wavers between being a present father and husband and a traumatized, disconnected man that has never overcome the violence he was witness to as a child. Maria Castle has been depicted as a devoted wife struggling to keep her family together and as someone in fear, doubt and quiet intrigue of the violent nature of her husband. Overall, it seems that the emphasis on Maria Castle has simply served as a conduit to tarnish the image of the Castle family having a happy life and condemn Frank’s acts as The Punisher. And in the end of it as a cliffhanger, Maria Castle snaps and shoots Frank upon learning the truth…leaving him for dead.

As a positive, the art by Jesus Saiz, Paul Azaceta and Matt Hollingsworth continues to be awesome and this series is one of the most beautifully drawn Punisher arcs. The depth of color and the layering of the various elements in the fights are awesome. Panels explode with vibrant backgrounds and we see the mash-up of characters engaged in fisticuffs with modern weaponry cut with supernatural spells, demonic flames and weapons in bright neon colors. Frank’s fights with Dr. Strange and Captain America are the highlights of the action. The ending page by Paul Azaceta showcasing the aftermath of the Central Park massacre deserves to be an art print in itself.

Final Thoughts

It’s ironic that just as Frank chose to end his war to be with his family last issue, Maria takes him out. While it’s understandable that Maria would have a negative reaction to learning about Frank’s actions as The Punisher, her shooting Frank feels entirely out of left field. Frank has saved tons of people by eliminating sadistic cartel and mafia members, racists, serial killers, heartless white collar criminals and human traffickers and he wasn’t responsible for his family getting massacred. Everyone from Ares to The Hand to Maria seem to have their own concrete opinions on who and what Frank Castle is and he’s had no say to make his case. This run appears to simply shoot for provocation to recontextualize The Punisher to change his mythology and his future. For every interesting bit, cool moment and reexamination of The Punisher, the series is ripe with messiness in the execution and lack of clarity as to the ultimate messaging. While every comic character ends up with similar runs and reexaminations, it still feels as if the external politics of the character have influenced this story. We’ll see where it all ends next issue.

RATING: 6/10

Next Up! Issue #12 on May 31st.