|
PUNISHER #8
"When Frank Sleeps"
Not Recommended (2/10)
|
Marvel Comics/Marvel Knights imprint
Writer: Ron Zimmerman
Pencils: Mike Lilly
Inks: Rodney Ramos
Colors: Steve Oliff
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Stuart Moore
Price: $2.99 US/$4.50 CAN |
Given that the Punisher has become, in effect, a comedy title
under the pens of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, a tongue-in-cheek story wherein
the Punisher goes back in time to kill Al Capone may not be the worst idea in
the world. However, it certainly wasn't the best, either, and given such weak
clay to work with, it's little surprise that Zimmerman, Lilly and Ramos have
turned in one of the worst Punisher stories I've ever read... and I read the
story in the 90s where the Punisher underwent cosmetic surgery to become black.
Muddy, unclear artwork, a ridiculous premise and a tone that goes beyond darkly
humorous and into inappropriately goofy combine to create a story that was, for
me, an unpleasant chore to read.
While reading through the
book, my first thought was that Zimmerman had failed to accurately capture any
of the characters, from Punisher to Nick Fury to Reed Richards, but there was an
explanation toward the end that revealed it was simply Frank Castle that he
didn't get. Whereas the book has generally been written with a tone that Frank
Castle is a dangerous psychopath Zimmerman's script takes a more sympathetic
tone, portraying Frank as the hero of an action movie, wily, clever and in the
right. Given the viewpoint of the story, I suppose this sympathetic view makes
sense, but that's only if you're charitable enough to give the entire thing a
reread upon finding out the ending.
In fact, a lot of the
enjoyment of this story will hinge upon a couple of things: One is whether the
reader enjoys the ending or not. It's quite silly, and it is one of the cliches
that people bring up when they talk about how not to end your stories. In the
end, the story is inconsequential as a result of the ending, changing nothing
and telling us nothing new about our protagonist either. The other lynchpin is
whether or not the reader finds the idea of Frank Castle as a gangland enforcer
in the 1930s to be an intriguing idea. As I found the premise as ludicrous as
the ending, whether it's through the device used here or through some "What If?"
scenario, it doesn't matter to me that Zimmerman did a fairly effective job of
characterizing the time period and the crime therein.
On the artwork front, I was
also disappointed. After Dillon's fun and clear style of artwork, Lilly's work
is a bit jarring. More to the point, while he has an atmospheric style similar
to Alex Maleev or Alberto Ponticelli, he could use considerable work on
important details like faces and a lot of work on the storytelling in his action
scenes. I spent much of the issue wondering who was who and what they were
doing, and that's a fault of the art, not the scripting.
When it was announced that Marvel was doing a Punisher ongoing, I feared the
worst. Fortunately, Ennis and Dillon came on to do an entertaining short arc and
made me think that perhaps I had judged the idea too harshly, based simply on
the Punisher implosion during the 1990s. To their credit, Zimmerman and company
have turned in a story that is not at all a generic Punisher tale that would
have fit into any of his three titles during that era, but neither have they
turned in a story that I had any interest in reading.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board. |
