Tim Bradstreet's cover to THE PUNISHER #13.
© Marvel Comics

Mania Grade: B+
Issue: 13
Authors: Garth Ennis, Dougie Braithwaite, Bill Renhold
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $2.99

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THE PUNISHER #13

This issue finds Castle approached by Nick Fury after slaughtering a Leon Rastovich a Russian mob figure recently released from prison along with all of his henchman and his mother to boot (complicit in her son's child prostitution ring). Turns out Fury released him so he could contact Castle in person (I doubt he's in the white pages these days) to do a black ops job in Russia in exchange for a file containing the user names and passwords for "D.E.A., F.B.I., customs, I.N.S., the Coast Guard. Every major police department on the eastern seaboard." Of course, the kicker comes at the end and we find out Fury may not have complete control of the situation.

As usual, Ennis handles the dialogue well and writes a believable voiceover for Castle. I'm also glad to see Fury back, along with a small hint that he might be around a bit more in the future. The mayhem is joyful as always, and the MAX label allows Ennis to write unrestrained, as this title should be. The last PUNISHER series was hampered by its PSR+ rating and Ennis's attempt to write it as a black humor title, rather than as the balls-out action book it is now. Dougie Braithwaite's art retains to consistently dirty look that this title has had since it went MAX. And, unlike a lot of artists, he also remembers to make Castle look his age (pushing 60, according to Ennis).

I always enjoy reading THE PUNISHER, but I'm always bothered when I remember how good some of Ennis's past work has been in other series. PREACHER remains one of my favorite series, but it had an advantage that Marvel titles don't a self-contained story that spanned the entire series. Call this "the Vertigo model," if you will. Marvel books are hampered by the somewhat self-contained four to eight issue story arcs that characterize most of its titles. I know there is ongoing continuity, but it seems like the company is trying to make their titles easier to republish as trade paperbacks and easier for new readers to pick up without being hampered by several issues worth of material to catch up on. It may be good for the company (and that's certainly nothing to dismiss), but it hurts storytelling in the long run. Can you imagine if Ennis was allowed to write a 30 issue arc of THE PUNISHER, instead of wrapping them up like miniature Dirty Harry sequels? Readers had a taste of this in Ennis's 1999 Punisher miniseries, WELCOME BACK, FRANK. For my money, that's about the best the Punisher has ever been and I'd like to see the title have that kind of breathing room again.