Remember when Frank Castle teamed with Dollman’s daughter?
The Punisher : War Zone #8
Marvel Comics (October, 1992)
WRITER: Chuck Dixon PENCILER: John Romita, Jr. INKERS: Mike Manley, Jimmy Palmiotti, & Josef ‘Joe’ Rubinstein COLORIST: Kevin Tinsley LETTERER: Jim Novak EDITORS: Don Daley & Tim Tuohy
Frank meets a cop who has gone “on vacation” to track down a serial rapist and is even willing to work with the Punisher to catch him. Their first team-up doesn’t succeed but Frank does wing him. Meanwhile, another woman has hired 12 hitmen to track down the Punisher.
What they got right: Hey, someone found a way to use rape as a plot device that DOESN’T demean a character to “give them depth” or give their male counterpart a new drive to fight a bad guy! Holy crap! Sure, the cop is pursuing the rapist because she met one of the victims and she got close enough to get involved, but it wasn’t a regular or familiar character, and unless we met her last issue..well, at least it’s better than the rape stories we usually get.
What they got wrong: Even John Romita Jr. couldn’t escape the 90’s. The art looks like watching a “fullscreen” presentation stretched to widescreen. There are time when Frank seems to have too much detail (scars and the stubble) compared to the other characters. I wonder how many changes the inkers made?
Recommendation: Of the three Punisher comics we’ve looked at thus far this is easily the weakest for me. But again, this isn’t my genre, type of comic, or “hero”. Maybe the rest of the storyline makes up for it, but I can’t recommend this one.
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