It totally works - Punisher 11

I’m not a big fan of the Punisher. He’s one of those characters that can be used to great effect by a good writer, but on the surface there’s just not much about him that appeals to me.

That being said, I’ve really enjoyed Rick Remender’s take on him in the new Punisher series. Especially the bit where Punisher’s arsenal is made up of lost and discarded weapons that once belonged to various super heroes and villians.

The latest issue of Punisher takes the character in a really fun (but I assume temporary) new direction. Basically after a life ending injury (decapitation) the Punisher is brought back as a Frankenstein-style monster by a group of Marvel’s monster characters. Nothing about that says it should work. It’s kind of a little too high-concept and the kind of thing you expect all the oh-my-god-ninjas-vikings-robots-zombies-oh-my-god crowd to get all frothy about. But rather than spend time telling you AWESOME!!! it would be if Punisher was a Frankenstein monster, Remender just writes and interesting story with a nice hook and lots of nods to Marvel history.

And the art’s by Tony Moore of Walking Dead fame so it’s really, really good obviously.