Writer:
Gregg Hurwitz

Artist:
Laurence Campbell

Letterer:
Cory Petit

Guess what? It’s Dave Johnson we have to thank this time around. Why? Because he’s the only one who manages to actually get a sense of “Who’s Who” across. Too bad he’s only the cover artist here. In any case, if it weren’t for Johnson we wouldn’t know who we’re dealing with, despite it being bloody obvious, really. You see, Punisher War Zone opens in cinemas on December Fifth. Unless you live in Europe, then you can be happy if you get to see it before you die of old age. In any case, this calls for as many parallels to the movie as humanly possible so Jigsaw must be in there. I actually thought that they’d get to Jigsaw in the next arc, but apparently, I was mistaken. Instead of another arc, they give us another Punisher series called “The Punisher” in January. And also, Punisher MAX (officially known as “Punisher”) might be renamed to “Punisher: Frank Castle.” Lovely.

In this issue, Frank shoots people. A revolutionary concept, I know. I was surprised too, to be honest. It’s rare that Frank shoots people, really. And that’s all there is. Then we see a mostly black splashpage of a guy we assume to be Jigsaw.

See, we couldn’t tell from just looking at the art. And that all roots in Campbell’s obsessive need to spill all his black colour all over the page. Quite honestly, it’s disgusting. Pair that up with Campbell’s unwillingness to draw faces and you have basically a bunch of shadows marching about. And when you have to do a guy that has a face that is stitched up as his trademark... well, you’re pretty much fucked in that case, aren’t you? Can’t draw faces, job is to draw a face people can recognize. Bad luck, dear Mr. Campbell. Let’s do a little fun excercise. You have 22 pages of comic. On these 22 pages of comic, you have exactly 13 eyes that are drawn and not just black blobs in the middle of what are supposedly faces. That’s more or less exactly 0.591 eyes per page. Pair that up with there being someone’s head in every panel and about five panels a page... yeah, you get the picture.

Bad luck or bad plot or bad art aside, this issue basically is a kick into the balls of every Punisher-fan out there. You have no story, no art to speak of and you only know the main villain because the one guy who can draw decided to put him on the cover. And that even wrecks the formerly known to be great shoot-out-issues where Frank just mows everything down and we all start gushing. Campbell is one of the few artists who manages to mess up a probably excellent story by just drawing it.

And you know the most insulting thing about it all? If you look at Campbell’s Website, you notice that he could draw things so that you can actually make out what they are. In fact, if the’d put effort in it, he’d actually be pretty damn good. So it must be that he’s decided that he hates the Punisher and all his fans. Well, I’ve ranted, have a rating now:

Two out of Five. Not one of the Punisher’s greatest moments.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (3)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Sullivan E. wrote on November 19, 2008, 13:15

Title: ... Yes. Whatever happened to the man going slowly insane, dammit?

Chris M. wrote on November 19, 2008, 13:29

Title: ... Why didn't you stop when Ennis left, Marvel? Why?!

Dominik B. wrote on November 19, 2008, 13:41

Title: ... Probably sold way too well. I mean, look at it, when Ennis touches the Punisher, it's instant gold. And when Ennis has his paws on the Punisher for 5+ years, then it's bound to have built up a loyal fanbase. Not cashing in on that fanbase would be a stupid thing to do. But seeing as Hurwitz has delivered an excellent five issues of the Foolkiller, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that should he have a good artist on his side, then it would be a good book. Preferrably Lan Medina. I'd eat that comic. Literally.

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment