In the absence of any new series which caught my attention this week, let's go back to Punisher, and the concluding half of a two-parter guest starring Wolverine.

Last month, you may recall, Wolverine took a bit of a kicking, as Ennis derided his speech patterns, shot him in the face, and generally showed him no respect whatsoever.  Meanwhile, Wolverine and the Punisher teamed up to prevent the New York mob being overrun by vindictive dwarves.

No doubt there are still purists out there who are aggrieved by Garth Ennis turning Punisher into an OTT black comedy.  This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, an intellectual book.  Ennis' angle on the Punisher is quite straightforward.  The appeal of the Punisher is that he kills people and gets away with it.  Other writers have tried to give the character dramatic weight, explore his psychological conflicts and such forth, but basically his fanbase just liked to see him kill people. 

Aside from one relatively serious issue earlier in the run, Ennis makes no attempt to pretend the book is about anything else.  It's just about having him kill people in the most imaginative and satisfying way possible.  Ennis uses comedy to make the book palatable rather than sick.  (Or more accurately, he uses comedy to make the book sick in a palatable way.)  The secret is not to mock the Punisher himself, who retains his completely deadpan attitude no matter insane the plot gets, seemingly failing to recognise that the story ever gets more than Mildly Unusual.  The Punisher remains totally in control; everyone else gets obliterated and humiliated in an assortment of ridiculous ways.

Now, admittedly, there's only so many of these stories that you can do, and when you get on to the midget jokes, it's arguable that the seam has been mined as far as it'll get.  Entertainingly ridiculous though it may be, this hasn't been one of the stronger arcs and it's probably nearing the time to either try a different angle or call it a day.  Punisher is the sort of gloriously uninhibited nonsense that's entertaining to read once in a while, but can easily descend into formula if it's allowed to continue.  The book is approaching that point by now.

This month, though, Wolverine is attacked by chainsaw-wielding midgets, shot in the balls by the Punisher in order to shut him up ("They'll grow back"), and literally steamrollered.  The hero always wins in his own book, but Ennis leaves nothing to chance by ensuring that his character completely destroys the upstart prat from the X-Men.

Probably bad for you, but who cares?

Rating: B+

back | continue