Frank Castle, in the most heterosexual way possible, I love you!
Having been absent from comic shops for all the years The Punisher first had his own title, I love catching up on all his exploits in collections like ESSENTIAL PUNISHER: VOL. 3. For me, Marvel can’t issue these babies fast enough, and they’re a tremendous value at that: 22 issues for less than $20, in this instance.
The fun begins with a multi-issue arc that puts Castle in a Philadelphia amateur boxing ring that then leads to a ninja training camp in the wilds of Kansas, which itself will send him to a village in Japan.
Once that violent, vicious arc is complete, other issues find Punisher hijacking a submarine, matching wits with Dr. Doom, going undercover in a meth-making biker gang and — in the one misstep — fighting robots. The book closes with a six-issue arc pitting him against archenemy Jigsaw; several sequences will remind you of the recent bloody (and bloody good) PUNISHER: WAR ZONE feature film.
Two supersized PUNISHER ANNUAL issues are also included, sporting such stories as a Moon Knight team-up against a werewolf-esque curse, Punisher battling a virus-mutated creature and, even better, Punisher’s tech-geek pal Microchip standing up for a Vietnamese restaurant owner pestered by muscle, as well as helping an old lady get her money back from a scammer.
Mike Baron wrote most every page in this edition, and it benefits from consistency. Artists are scattered across the board, but most adhere to a gritty, downbeat style that ironically makes the book a ton of brutal, boisterous fun. —Rod Lott
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS SERIES:
• ESSENTIAL DEFENDERS: VOL. 1
• ESSENTIAL GHOST RIDER: VOL. 1
• ESSENTIAL GODZILLA: VOL. 1
• ESSENTIAL IRON FIST: VOL. 1
• ESSENTIAL KILLRAVEN: VOL. 1
• ESSENTIAL MAN-THING: VOL. 1
• ESSENTIAL MAN-THING: VOL. 2
• ESSENTIAL MARVEL HORROR: VOL. 1
• ESSENTIAL MARVEL HORROR: VOL. 2
• ESSENTIAL MARVEL SAGA: VOL. 1
• ESSENTIAL MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE: VOL. 2
• ESSENTIAL MOON KNIGHT: VOL. 1
• ESSENTIAL NOVA: VOL. 1
• ESSENTIAL PUNISHER: VOL. 2
• ESSENTIAL RAMPAGING HULK: VOL. 1
• ESSENTIAL SAVAGE SHE-HULK: VOL. 1
• ESSENTIAL SUPER VILLAIN TEAM-UP: VOL. 1
• ESSENTIAL TALES OF THE ZOMBIE: VOL. 1
Related posts:
- Essential Punisher: Vol. 2
- Essential Rampaging Hulk: Vol. 1
- Essential Marvel Two-in-One: Vol. 2
- Essential Moon Knight: Vol. 1
- Essential Man-Thing: Vol. 2
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Thanks, Rod. I still haven’t seen that film.