The Punisher #1 Review: On The Road Part 1

Frank Castle is back and he has brought everything that made The Punisher such an iconic series with him.

The Punisher #1
Written by Becky Cloonan
Art by Steve Dillon
Colored by Frank Martin
Published by Marvel Comics

I have never been a huge fan of the Punisher. To my mind he has always been a one trick pony that didn’t offer much in term of character development or growth. Basically The Punisher was about Frank Castle killing people. Very bad people, but that was about all the title ever seemed to offer.

Of course, there have been high points, including the seminal “Welcome Back, Frank” storyline by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. It was there that Dillon pretty much became the definitive artist for the character and Ennis laid out the basics on how to write a great Punisher story:

Let The Punisher do what he does best and just get out of the way.

That would appear to be the philosophy that Becky Cloonan has decided to adopt as the latest writer to tackle Frank Castle. When it comes to writers best suited to take on a book like The Punisher, Cloonan’s name isn’t the first one to spring to mind.

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Or the second if I’m being honest.

But in the first issue of the latest Punisher series she more than shows that she is fully capable of writing a really good Punisher story. Much like Ennis before her, she doesn’t attempt to “humanize” the character or add layers to him. She simply shows that he is very, very good at killing and leaves the development of the story to the supporting cast.

In fact, Castle doesn’t say a single word the entire issue. It’s a real testament to Cloonan’s abilities that she can craft such a compelling story without even using the star of the book. I’d love to see some other writers try to pull that off.

When it comes to Punisher artists, you can’t go wrong with Steve Dillon. As he has shown over the years in books like Hellblazer and Preacher that he is a master of the craft of drawing comic books. The storytelling is straightforward, the characters look like real people and he has a stunning ability to draw intense action with just as much skill as more quiet moments.

When I picture Frank Castle, I picture Steve Dillon’s interpretation in my head. If I had one problem with the Punisher in the recent Daredevil Netflix series, it was that he didn’t look more like Dillon’s version.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the colors of Frank Martin, which explode off the page. Few colorists can do with a color palette what Martin can do and he and Dillon make for a real artistic team supreme.

More superheroes and comics: Preview: Spider-Women Omega #1

The Bottom Line: The Punisher #1 is a return to what makes a character like Frank Castle so great. Buckets of blood flow freely in an entertaining opening chapter to what looks like could be another classic Punisher story. Throw in the great supporting cast and a villain like few others in Face and you have me hooked.

I may have never been a huge Punisher fan, but with comics as good as this, that could be changing.

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