Not your average comic book fight.
This issue starts immediately were the last issue left off with the Punisher and Vulture going at it. This isn’t like the Stiltman fight or even Frank’s original fight against Daken. This fight lacks any black comedy of some of Frank’s more recent battles against supes whether they are villain or hero. This battle also lacks the certainty of Frank not winning like in Dark Reign when Frank had every Hammer agent after him as well as Daken. Just like the cover shows the fight does take place in the sky over New York City. I won’t get into much detail here since I don’t want to give out spoilers for this issue other than to say the fight was not like a superhero vs. supervillain fight. It was very brutal and very quick; like two people in a real life knife fight not holding back. The battle while very violent wasn’t as violent as the Punisher’s first encounter with Daken yet it does have the violence level of some of his fights in the MAX series.
Outside of the battle only a few things happen in this issue which is understandable since its only 22 pages and the major point of this issue is to see Frank in action against a supervillain being written by Greg Rucka. We do see that Oscar Lemons is good at his job since he does find where Frank was and figured out what happened quickly. We see Norah Winters return in this issue and her utter shock at what she finds at the end which is understandable. We also see poor Sergeant Cole in the hospital again seeming to feel what Frank is going through even though they haven’t meet yet. Mr. Rucka is clearly setting the stage for her and the Punisher meeting latter on down the road and it will be interesting to see how the meeting goes. Considering they both have been through something very similar and their military backgrounds.
Overall this issue was quite good for what it was a very brutal battle which showed the reactions of others. While this issue is focused on the fight we are still getting introduced to the new characters Mr. Rucka has created. Also the issue has Frank finally say something as well! So I’d give this issue 5 out of 5 since it delivers what you expected it do from the previous issue in way that felt natural and smooth.
