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Punisher first appeared in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man, in issue #129 which hit the shelves in February of 1974. He was a popular character who appeared many more times in the pages of Spider-Man and Daredevil when in the early 1980’s, writer Steven Grant and artist Mike Zeck pitched to Marvel a full ongoing series for the man with the skull on his chest. Marvel may have been hesitant to pull the trigger so a mini-series was instead proposed, with it supposed to run 4 issues. The following hardcover collects this mini-series, which was extended to five issues when the first immediately sold out. The rest, as they say, is history.
The five-issue mini-series starts off with Punisher in jail. He goes after Jigsaw there, and the two have an intense battle. It is stopped by Don Cervello, a mobster who runs the prison. He tells Frank about a plot to break out of jail and they want his help. Of course, they turn on him and shoot him (but Frank was not injured due to his anticipation). Frank stops Corvello from breaking out (though Jigsaw escapes) and Frank is trapped by the police until the warden reveals he is part of a secret society called the Trust that wants to eliminate organized crime and want Frank to help them. Frank agrees and is free. Meanwhile, a son is convinced to kill Frank in revenge for his father’s death. The second issue begins with Frank killing a faux Kingpin. Kingpin has his own agenda and is gone but Frank tells the papers he killed Kingpin which starts throwing the organized crime into disarray. Frank is nursed back to health after Kingpin’s office explodes by a woman named Angela and he leaves her to pick off more of the mob bosses. A peace conference is called and someone actually crashes the meeting instead of the Punisher. Frank’s new van is destroyed at the end of the second issue.
From there, the story really picks up. Frank starts seeing that the Reach isn’t quite what it appears to be. They are manipulative, and are way more into things than even he suspected. He takes out more mobsters but wants to end the circle of blood, the endless killing and the endless stream of innocents being caught in the crossfire. By the end of issue three, Frank is betrayed by Angela and if the Trust can’t use Frank, they will kill him. So Frank starts going after the Trust and finding out that a man named Alaric is the brain behind the Trust. He discovers where his mansion is and heads over there. He runs into a horde of brainwashed fake-Punishers that the Trust have been using and even Jigsaw. Punisher has to deal with Jigsaw and escape the brainwashing procedure before he can face Alaric one on one. Alaric is no match and Frank makes him call the papers to unveil to the world the Trust and ruin them. Frank leaves and no loose ends are left. The son bent on revenge learns and important lesson, that revenge doesn’t stop anything, and Angela is dealt with in a just way.
-The Bottom Line- The mini-series starts with a foreword by Carl Potts, which was penned in 1988. Perhaps they should’ve, I don’t know, updated it. Considering the Punisher in 1988 was at his most popular the foreword can’t reflect on the downturn of the Punisher in 1995 (when all his titles were cancelled) and finally his rebirth with Garth Ennis in the early 00’s. There is just an incredible amount of extras, too, more than any other collection I have seen. The extras are littered with pages of Mike Zeck’s pencilled version of the different covers to not only the mini-series but other covers he drew. There is even a section called portfolio chock full of more Punisher drawings. Finally, the full pencils for issue #1 is included as well. What an incredible amount of extras that really add some nice value to the book. Now, the book itself, it started as a four-issue mini-series and issue #1 is much longer than the other four. I don’t know if they shortened the final three into four issues but it didn’t affect the quality at all. The pacing of the mini was done well with Frank first getting out on his own and then learning the Trust is not all it seems. The only thing that seemed odd is the choice of other artist for the final issue. Zeck’s pencils really capture the gritty nature of Frank and the fill-in on #5 just jarred the whole feel of the series. In hindsight, Zeck should’ve done the last issue, even if it meant delays. Civil War was delayed but it will read amazing in trades since it is only one artist. Again, hindsight is 20/20 and all. The fifth issue seems a bit more rushed (due to the extra writer, too) but the feel of the series is a lot darker than what you saw from Marvel at the time. I can see why this led to a full ongoing for Castle, as the mini-series is as good now as it was 20+ years ago. Recommendation.
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