THE PUNISHER #4
"Do Not Fall in New York City"
Recommended (8/10)
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Marvel Comics/Marvel Knights
Writer: Garth Ennis
Pencils: Steve Dillon
Inks: Jimmy Palmiotti
Colors: Chris Sotomayor
Letters: Comicraft
Editors: Nanci Dakesian & Stuart Moore
Price: $2.99 US/$4.50 CAN |
I worked for a few months in Manhattan. Fascinating city, and much friendlier and easier to navigate than I expected it to be. I was well aware, though, that there was a different side of the city that I saw only rarely, and only for the briefest of moments. Garth Ennis, through the title character, dwells on that more unfortunate side of the city in this issue, and it makes for a solid read.
Joe Perrett has reached the end of his rope. Ruined financially, his wife left him and took the kids with her. Joe was a broken man... one with a gun. Joe's crimes seemed like the sort of thing that called out for the kind of justice that the Punisher doles out on a regular basis. There's one problem: the Punisher owes his life to Joe Perrett.
There's little in the way of bullet-riddled mayhem for Steve Dillon to render for the readers in this issue. There are no twisted, goofy and unimaginably evil characters for him to draw. Instead, he grabs our attention with the emotional intensities of the title character and Joe Perrett. Normally, I rave about Chris Sotomayor's colors on this book, but given the tone of the story, I found myself wishing he had employed a muted palette. The brighter colors aren't really in keeping with what Ennis says in the script.
The real star of this particular "show" is Ennis's narrative captions. The issue's action consists mainly of two men wandering the streets of New York City, but the narration, in the title character's voice, blinds one to that fact. Ennis tells the reader of a dark reality, that everyone is far closer to hitting rock bottom than they might think.
The only real flaw with Ennis's script is how predictable it is. From the moment that the reader becomes aware of the previous relationship with the Punish and Joe Perrett, one gets a clear idea of where the story is headed. It's not the plot that draws one in, but the look at extremes of humanity.
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