Crime novelist Victor Gischler pens a vicious Punisher one-shot with Little Black Book, in which the line between sex and violence becomes perilously blurred. After buying the services of Vette, a high-end prostitute, for a few sessions, Frank Castle steals her Blackberry. In lieu of a little black book, she keeps the names of her clients there, including Carlos Ramirez—a media mogul with numerous legitimate interests, including a pizza chain and a hip-hop label. But, Ramirez lives a shadow life on the wrong side of the law. He is a narcotics kingpin, with several murders under his belt, including that of a police captain and his family. Castle blackmails Vette into serving as her driver, allowing him easy entry into one of Ramirez’s party. Mayhem and bloodshed ensues.
On its surface, Little Black Book comes off as a fairly standard Punisher shoot-‘em-up, but Vette’s first person narrative lends some gravity to the story. She compares men to dogs, and expresses surprise that the Punisher doesn’t heed the leash she pulls on most of her customers. From the day he both sleeps with her and takes her Blackberry, she begins to understand that Castle has transcended humanity into something primal and animalistic. Whereas her own role in the plot against Ramirez makes her feel vulnerable and uneasy, she notes that Castle moves through it with machinelike grace and calculated ferocity. She clearly thinks the world of herself and her cleverness, but she finds herself matched—and ultimately, saved—by one who has absconded his vulnerable humanity for a mission—one that has become a matter of instinct, utterly divorced from emotions. Initially, that seems like almost a disheartening—and oft-repeated—observation about Frank Castle. Garth Ennis and other writers have long established that the Punisher stands beyond redemption, and can only live as a killing machine born in the jungles of Vietnam. But, when Castle saves Vette near the story’s end, it becomes clear that the world sometimes needs men as unforgiving as those that would exploit it. It may not be pleasant or happy, but the alternative would mean allowing humanity’s worst to run roughshod over everyone. There are no shortage of stories emphasizing the folly of violence and its cyclical nature. But in Little Black Book, Victor Gischler asks if sometimes it isn’t necessary.
Artist Jefte Palo and colorist Lee Loughridge contribute stark, angular illustrations to the story. The colors are largely muted and drab. Castle’s move from his disguise as Vette’s driver to his skull-shirted self is marked with a transition from brighter to darker colors, though it’s not as prominent as it could be earlier in the story. Regardless, Palo and Loughride draw Castle as an avenging angel born from the darkest corners of Heaven. When he enters Ramirez’s bedroom, he appears so fundamentally devoid of humanity that even the reader should feel intimidated.
Little Black Book is a strong Punisher one-shot with a first-person narrative that elevates it above the fray. Though one can easily read it as a standard Castle kill-fest, Vette’s observations give the story the kind of insight that a one-note character like the Punisher needs. Gischler will write the main series for issues #71-75, so readers have a lot to look forward to.
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