Comic Review – Punisher: Frank Castle #75, The Walking Dead #66 and Gravel #14

So. Apparently, this is the end of Punisher Max, or Punisher: Frank Castle, or Punisher: vol. 23 or whatever it is Marvel is calling this comic these days. On Garth Ennis’ run, I think it was Punisher Max, but they decided to add the “Frank Castle” on the title for no good reason. And apparently, the new “Punisher” title will be reset to issue one and will be called…

“Punisher Max.”

I quit this shit.

Anyway. Issue 75. Five writers, five artists, five stories, acceptable results. None of the stories are great — some are good, some are overly sappy. Let’s go one by one:

The first story, “Dolls”, is written by Tom Piccirilli with art by Laurence Campbell and colors by Lee Loughridge. The premise is interesting — Frank Castle is interrupted when he’s about to execute someone with a sniper rifle. The interruption consists of a little girl who got lost in the streets and needs help finding her father. Castle decides to help her before carrying out the execution, to avoid doing it in front of her.

Not that that would have been a real obstacle. He could have simply asked her to close her eyes. Then he’d kill the bastard with the silenced rifle and help her. Instead, he decides to do it after finding her dad — and upon doing this, he uses his shoulder as a support for the rifle and kills the bastard anyway. Which kind of invalidates the whole point of the story, which, nevertheless, has some good moments — like a poignant flashback shot of a doll fallen on grass. Still, in a certain moment of the story, Castle says, “All little girls should have wonderful birthday parties.”

Let’s put it this way:

“All little girls should have wonderful birthday parties” – Frank Castle, aka The Punisher.

Doesn’t really work, does it?

Still, Laurence Campbell’s art is vastly superior to his previous efforts (Punisher #61 – #65, a horrendous arc written by Gregg Hurwitz), and has some memorable panels and very good coloring by Lee Loughridge, so visually, at least, the story works well.

The second story, “Gateway”, is written by Gregg Hurwitz, with art entirely by Das Pastoras. Surprisingly — considering Hurwitz is responsible for the worst arc in this series — the story is very well balanced. It deals with a “middleman” who believes himself to be nothing but a tool, despite knowing perfectly well he’s helping known criminals comission hits. I especially like the one-way conversation between Frank and a friend, with Frank lying on a hospital bed. It gets the point across without being melodramatic.

Das Pastoras’ art has several highlights, but his art is far too colorful, almost appropriate for a children’s book. That, and some panels are plain mediocre (like the last one, which has a very badly drawn Punisher). Still, all in all, his art is pleasing to the eye.

The third story, “Ghoul”, is by Duane Swierczinsky, with art by Tomm Coker and colors by Dan Freedman. The idea is excellent — a man has gotten hold of the Castle family’s possessions on the day they were attacked during the picnic which Frank was the only survivor of. This same man is selling this stuff online for outrageous prices — until Castle finds out and decides to do something about it. But unlike the first story, “Dolls” — which is a good idea badly-executed — Swierczinsky develops the plot very well, his only moment of weakness being the scene the man says “Oh, God” and Castle replies with a cliche, “It’s not God”. Despite this brief flaw, the story is good and Tomm Coker’s heavily shadowed art, darkly-colored by Dan Freedman, is very suitable and aesthetically efficient.

The fourth story, “Father’s Day”, is by Peter Milligan with art by Goran Parlov and colors by Lee Loughridge. It’s basically the highlights of Garth Ennis’ run, with a caption reading a letter from Castle’s daughter, Lisa, to him. This could have worked very well if it wasn’t for the letter — which is not convincing as the work of a little girl. In some moments, she displays childish writing, in others she uses metaphors (her references to what’s “in the dark”). Also, Milligan tries too hard to touch the reader’s heart strings — something the last page, in my case, accomplished, but this is because of Goran Parlov’s art.

Goran Parlov is one of this series’ best artists, a genius regarding visual storytelling and facial expressions. In the last page of this story, he and Lee Loughridge simply own. Castle is riddled by bullets, badly-injured and near-death, but his face, instead of expressing despair or pain, shows simply disillusionment — like Castle is slowly realizing that a long, normal life with his family was, after all, simply too good to be true. That is a beautiful page, and while it’s mostly Parlov, Milligan deserves credit too, even though the rest of the story is weak (except, of course, for Parlov and Loughridge’s beautiful art).

And finally, there’s “Smallest Bit Of This”, by Charlie Huston, with art by Ken Lashley, inks by Rob Stull and colors by Edgar Delgado. Utter waste of time. Huston simply shows Castle fighting a guy after a long firefight, adding some pseudo-meaningful captions. Ken Lashley’s art is terrible (the only example of bad art in this issue), so there isn’t much Stull and Delgado can do. The only truly bad story in this issue.

Also — I know it’s a sneak peek, but I have to comment on the Punisher Max #1 preview — Steve Dillon’s art is beautiful as always, and it’s wonderful to see it colored by the excellent Matt Hollingsworth — not only because he’s a brilliant colorist, but because it brings me warm memories of “Preacher” (my all-time favorite comic and blah blah blah you know the drill by now).

What bothered me here is that writer Jason Aaron is apparently going for a Max version of the Kingpin. I’ll save my final thoughts for the complete story, obviously, but so far? Pathetic. I hate this shortcut: using established characters and changing them to adequate the mood of your story, instead of creating your own character. And the idea behind Aaron’s plot (the creation of a fake target for the Punisher) would have been good enough to work without the Kingpin. But hey… too early to judge.

“Punisher: Frank blah-blah-whatever #75″ has its ups and downs, but on average, it’s worth a read. The art is more consistent than the writing, but the writing itself, except for Huston, is not bad — at most, it’s flawed, and at best, it’s fine. The whole thing is very efficiently lettered by the competent Cory Petit — especially the caligraphy used in Lisa’s letter, on “Father’s Day”, which looks handmade but is still very readable.

(an extra note — each story’s individual credits should have included the colorist, and it’s ridiculous their work has been neglected despite being vital for the visual of the stories. In order to see who colored each one, you have to go back to the first page and check the credits — and meanwhile, the writer and the artist are credited in each story)

“The Walking Dead #66″ wraps up this arc quite well, despite one recurring problem in Kirkman’s writing — overusing splash pages. In this case, double page spreads, one of them used simply to show Rick giving an order. And in that same panel, Adlard decides to go Eduardo Risso on us and signs the panel, something I always found ruins the immersion.

Despite the exaggeration, though, the story is well-written. It wasn’t exactly clear what they do to the villain, though — apparently they torture him, which is inconsistent with Rick saying they did not like doing that. If they didn’t, they could have just shot him dead. The rest of the plot has several good moments, however — I especially like how Kirkman inverted expectations regarding the conversation between Dale and Rick. I really don’t have much else to say, though — “The Walking Dead” remains on the same writing standard of the last issues. As I’ve already stated, this series is lacking impact, and this issue has not changed my opinion. The way Kirkman uses double-page spreads twice just on this episode hints at the possibility of him being aware of this, but trying to solve it the wrong way — trying to force impact on something that isn’t that impactful.

Despite signing his artwork twice in this issue (I don’t like when Risso does it either), Charlie Adlard’s art is beautiful as always. He’s especially successful at shadowing, and even though the double page spreads are unnecessary, Adlard renders them amazingly well. Cliff Rathburn’s grey tones add visual depth to Adlard’s work, but I wonder how well his art would stand on pure black-and-white. However, letterer Rus Wooton has ups and downs — I like the font he uses, but I don’t like how he makes the balloons jagged to denote shouting, instead of increasing the font size — a much more efficient method.

“Gravel #14″ wraps up a “meh” story arc. This has been a formulaic plot, schematic and most of all, unremarkable. The previous issue left so little impression in me I thought, upon reading this one, that I had missed it.

This one, though, has some highlights, since it’s a climactic conclusion. I like how Gravel turns the entire city against his enemies, and Mike Wolfer and Warren Ellis’ dialogue is always interesting enough, but I’m afraid that’s it. I know it sounds like I’m too tired to write a proper review, but the truth is I found “The Walking Dead #66″ to be more of the same (which is not necessarily bad, considering it’s a good series) and “Gravel #14″ is simply the end of a frankly boring story arc. It’s just “alright”. All I’ve said about previous issues, from the writing, to the art, to the colors — is still valid, so I’m afraid repeating everything would be an exercise in pointlessness.

Comic Review – Doktor Sleepless #13, Gravel #13, Punisher Max #73 and Punisher: Noir #1

“Doktor Sleepless” has been on a crescendo since it began. And I don’t mean just its complex story, but also its quality — it started well, with good writing and art, and is now brilliant, with Warren Ellis orchestrating the city-wide confusion like a maestro and Ivan Rodriguez delivering gorgeous and narratively exceptional artwork, showing a scary improvement since the first issue.

Leaving aside my half-assed musical analogies, this series is easily Ellis’ strongest title on Avatar Press. The titular character finally appears after several issues behind the curtains, and he appears not only on a splash page, but also looking much more vulnerable than we’re used to seeing him. And this is disarming — so far portrayed as an iconic character, Ellis and Rodriguez show the human being beneath the goggles, paradoxically at the climax of his mad scientist delusions.

In fact, Ellis and Rodriguez deliver a series of nine-panel pages that are nothing short of sublime, portraying the violence in Heavenside in a disconnected, almost random way as the Doktor goes back to assuming his role and the “camera” slowly zooms in on his face.

Now efficiently colored by Digikore Studios (making up for Andrew Dalhouse’s incompetent work as colorist), Ivan Rodriguez’s art has never been more beautiful. His story-telling is top-notch, and his human-figure drawing has shown considerable improvement, not to mention his good facial expressions (not only he can draw a convincing “mad scientist grin”, but John Reinhardt’s face as he says “I never said that” is ominous and frightening). His panel-arrangement is clear and organized, and his shadowing — which used to be sketchy — is much sharper. Seabra, a Brazilian artist, inks five of this issue’s pages, and he clearly followed Rodriguez’s style quite well, since I couldn’t tell which pages those were without the help of the credits page.

(as opposed to say, the pages in “The Boys” inked by Rodney Ramos, which look radically different — and actually better — from the ones inked by Darick Robertson himself)

I didn’t think, in the beginning, that I’d like this book as much as I do now. But I find myself eagerly awaiting the next issue, and very interested in the complex and clever story Ellis and Rodriguez are telling so well.

“Gravel #13″ is not as successful. Ellis and Wolfer went for a talky issue — which isn’t in itself a bad thing — but I realized, upon reading the same page for the third time because I hadn’t absorbed it yet, that I wasn’t too into it. It doesn’t really take the plot forward and — with the exception of the interesting legend told by a certain character (regarding a giant) — the people Sergeant Major Gravel meets in this issue have nothing truly interesting or new to say.

The problem is that this comic is coming to rely too much on a structure — in this story arc, for example, we see Gravel interviewing people on the first half of an issue and finding someone with powers to hire on the second. And in this particular episode, it’s just plain tiring. It’s a “meh” kind of read that is partially saved by Wolfer’s competent artwork (with equally competent coloring by Juanmar) — his human figures need a lot of work, but his visual narrative and composition make up for most of it. The splash page showing a cop being victim of magic is quite good.

However, I find myself, contrary to “Doktor Sleepless”, not all that thrilled by the cliffhangers — even the one on this issue, which promises to answer the long-standing mystery this arc is about, failed to make me curious.

“Punisher Max #73″ surprised the shit out of me. Because it is VERY good. I did not expect this level of quality after Garth Ennis’ departure, but Victor Gischler is doing an excellent job of crafting an entertaining story while staying true to the protagonist — well, mostly. I will admit I have mixed feelings about the jokes Frank Castle makes in this issue, but they never go into over-the-top territory.

What does go into over-the-top territory is the story itself, and in this case this isn’t a bad thing. Gischler knows how to extract humour from the situations he puts The Punisher in, and the last panel is hilarious by presenting an even bigger threat than the immense Earl (who kills a gator with his bare hands in this issue).

Maybe comedy is not something you’re expecting from Punisher Max, but I accept that with a change of writer a change of tone might come as well, and as long as the character is still himself, that is okay. Gischler proves to be a thorough storyteller, giving us some insight even into the thoughts of the guy the Punisher had on his car’s trunk (and who inadvertently turns out to be Castle’s salvation).

Goran Parlov is at the top of his game, and so is colorist Lee Loughridge. Together, they deliver beautiful visuals and Parlov displays his usual ability with facial expressions — few are as capable as he is in that area. He nails, as always, Castle’s face on any given moment, which is vital in counter-balancing the jokes Gischler makes Castle say. And except for a mistake in the first page (“Ususally” instead of “usually”), Cory Petit’s lettering is efficient as usual.

However, “Punisher: Noir” is a good idea that Frank Tieri turns into shit with his blatant use of cliches and his poor portrayal of The Punisher –

– in fact, this is what most people who write The Punisher get wrong: the man himself. On the flashback showing Castle during World War One, it’s simply ridiculous to see him wield two pistols (with skull logos on them, no less) and charge alone into an enemy trench. Tieri doesn’t seem to get The Punisher is the most dangerous vigilante in the world precisely because he’s not a moron, let alone THAT much of a moron.

The way Tieri introduces his villain is equally laughable — the villain punishes his henchmen cruelly, in this case, by cutting their fingers off after pretending he wouldn’t do them any harm. Cliches like this are all over this book, which is a shame because it had so much potential. Thanks to Tieri, it’s predictable and brings nothing new.

However, Paul Azaceta’s art, colored by Nick Filardi with moody tones that fit the time period, is attractive and interesting. With better writing, it could really have some impact, but not on the service of a writer who thinks setting The Punisher on the thirties and calling it “noir” is enough. As for the lettering, Joe Sabino gives no reason to complain except for a moment where he dramatically increases the font size of a single word in the middle of a sentence (“Hell” in “Get the hell out”) — and he increases it far too much, making it look like the character has said it so loudly it’s incredible the windows don’t shatter.

All in all, it’s the same story involving mafia, protection money and etc. we’ve seen so many times, but with The Punisher — and a moron version of The Punisher at that.

Comic Review – No Hero #06, The Punisher #72 and Prototype #04

(Trying out a looser, economic, less tight review style)

“No Hero” has been an infuriatingly inconsistent series. The first two issues seemed to be leading into a cliched “rookie-sees-that-his-idol-is-actually-an-immoral-cunt” story, and the other two issues fortunately started going on a new direction, even if they featured a protagonist who could talk perfectly well without any lips and didn’t seem to have a personality. In fact, a lot of the characters didn’t either.

And then, on issue #05, the plot just went bananas. Turns out Carrick Masterson IS an immoral cunt, which I wasn’t sure of since he oscillated so much between “sweet-talking, wry-smiling bastard” to “concerned, responsible leader”. And Josh Carver trying to save a falling plane was just a disastrous scene since it went completely against the realism the series has fought so hard for: what kind of even-barely-sane person tries to stop a plane by ramming HEADFIRST into it at full speed? What part of “planes have weak, fragile, vulnerable-to-inertia people in them” is hard to understand?

On that same scene, Digikore Studios fucked up the coloring by forgetting that Josh’s hands bleed while he tries to save the plane — another inconsistency in the writing (or Ryp’s artwork, I dunno whose idea it was), since pulling on a beam makes Josh’s hands bleed, but ramming them onto the front of a falling plane apparently causes no harm at all (except on the plane) — and when he’s back on the ground, his hands seem fine. Of course, they could regenerate quickly, but where did all the blood get to? And if they can regenerate quickly, why wasn’t that mentioned? In fact, why do we learn Josh can fly only when he’s about to go save the plane? Is it his first time flying? Don’t we get to see him training this skill first? And wasn’t he completely insane on issue four? What, he’s perfectly fine now?

Nitpicks like this haunt “No Hero” and, added up, become one big glaring flaw. And now, on the sixth issue, Warren Ellis goes for two of the most obvious twists he could have chosen and Juan Jose Ryp forgets how to draw faces. The latter can be painfully verified on the last panel of the first page. Which is a shame, since Ryp’s art was starting to become narratively better and more consistent, and here it suffers again from a lack of clarity and some poor facial anatomy. But otherwise, the level of detail is staggering, and some pages look simply amazing (and the colouring by Digikore Studios does not have any problems this time, being efficient).

The writing inconsistencies also plague this issue — Josh Carver says that the FX7 shows you who you think you should be. Wait a second — he knew this, Carrick didn’t? Carrick MADE the fucking drug. He watched several people being transformed by it. And yet Carver figured it out? The same guy who tried to stop a plane by ramming into it HEADFIRST?

And is Carver crazy or not? After spending two issues talking like a mongoloid (but intelligibly, despite having no goddamn lips) or not at all, on the fifth he seemed perfectly articulate all of a sudden. In fact, on this issue, he even grew lips — something he didn’t have on the last panel of the previous issue, so he basically grew lips while going back to Carrick’s mansion. And now, he’s part of a twist that I expected but hoped wouldn’t come because it was just the most obvious path to take. In fact, I’m surprised Carrick himself didn’t see it coming, something that is made even more hilarious by the page where he asks himself WHAT WENT WRONG.

Excuse me, are you retarded? What’s the new factor? When did things start going wrong? What did Mandy AND Marsh warn you against, one right after the other? Are you really a genius scientist?

To make things worse, it seems Carrick is not only just another immoral cunt, he’s a typical comic book villain who controls the world and wants to keep hold of it. To see him make a speech about how the world is his was just painful to read. Especially because a lot of the things he describes, like Bin Laden being dead or there having been an institution of black states, were not established on any of the previous issues and for that reason, feel like cheap shots at impressing the reader with a parallel world.

To make things EVEN worse, a recurring problem in Ellis’ writing — expositional dialogue — is back. The moment Josh explains why he thinks his penis fell off during the transformation, it becomes clear, judging by the way he says it and the way the other person is not exactly in a state to pay any attention, that Josh is explaining it to the reader, not to the person. And it’s just there for Ellis to shock most readers with “wound fucking”.

Speaking of fucking, we get to the last page, which…

…

… is so ridiculously over-the-top that I pretty much gave up expecting any further realism, or sense, from this comic. The plot might even MAKE sense, something that’ll be established on the next and final issue, but it’s poorly-structured and poorly-told. None of the characters have actual personalities, the dialogue is either expositional or exaggerated in its attempts to sound clever (“Well, I’ll take my silver linings wherever I can find them. Even if they look a little bit like duct tape gleaming from the wrists of a forcibly restrained patient”) and there’s far too many nitpicks and inconsistencies that add up to problematic story-telling. After issue five, “No Hero” could either blow my mind or shoot its own foot. It shot its own foot. With a rocket launcher.

On the other hand, “The Punisher” has been a nice surprise. After Garth Ennis left the series with sixty magnificent issues under his belt (not to mention the amazing specials), I really couldn’t think of anyone who could keep up that standard, so I hoped the next writer would understand that he shouldn’t try to top Ennis’ work, just do his own job as best as possible. I was prepared to accept someone else’s Punisher as long as it was, you know, The Punisher.

What I got, at first, were five horrendous issues. Not only Gregg Hurwitz tried to bring Jigsaw into the Max series (c’mon, everyone’s tired of that prick), he explored every cliche in the book regarding The Punisher and the final issue was just FUNNY, with Frank Castle actually managing to throw an object across the air and hit a switch with it that made a crane drop a container on a bunch of bad guys. Yes, he’s a natural born killer. No, he’s not Bullseye.

And that artwork by Laurence Campbell was just a fucking joke.

The next five issues, however, were surprising, since writer Duane Swierczinsky wasn’t afraid to try a different tone while doing the most important — staying true to the main character. “Six Hours To Kill” was an enjoyable (and darkly funny) arc with exceptional artwork by Michel Lacombe. I thought it would be a quick highlight on a series that would resume inevitable mediocrity.

Fortunately, writer Victor Gischler has proved me wrong so far. “Welcome To The Bayou” shows Frank Castle in new territory — dealing with redneck white trash. While this isn’t much of a plot, Gischler writes it with such charm and wit that it’s surprisingly interesting, and manages to add his own style. His Frank Castle has a sense of humour that, fortunately, never goes overboard and is never gratuitous, something writers like Matt Fraction got horribly wrong on “Punisher War Journal”.

And it’s great to see Goran Parlov back, aided by the ever-efficient colourist Lee Loughridge. I consider Parlov’s sketchy, but narratively perfect artwork to be superior to Sean Phillips’, which is saying a lot. In this comic, he continues not to disappoint, drawing clear action scenes and never making me stare in doubt at what I am seeing (something Juan Jose Ryp isn’t very good at, although, let’s be fair, I really DID NOT expect the last page of “No Hero #06″).

Gischler stays true to Castle’s careful methods and strategies, especially during a well-written brawl. This is not the Garth Ennis Punisher and I’m okay with that, as long as it continues to be this entertaining (and well drawn) and maintaining a level of coherence.

Finally, “Prototype #04″.

“You’ve all read the brief”, a soldier explains to his team in an elevator. And then, he proceeds to repeat the brief he just said everyone in that elevator ALREADY KNOWS. This is textbook expositional dialogue, and man can it turn me off. Witty dialogue during action scenes also annoy me — when your life is at risk, your priority is not thinking of clever things to say. And yet, we have a guy running from a monster in this comic who claims he’d love to be saved by “half-naked roman gladiators at this point”.

I have to confess I gradually lost interest in this book written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray. But despite the dialogue, the action scenes are well-written, dynamic and especially, well-drawn by Darick Robertson and Matt Jacobs. Wes Hartman’s colours also deserve special mention in their good detail and lighting. It’s an eye-candy, entertaining book, but whatever interest I truly had in the plot has vanished. It lost momentum. Also, it doesn’t help to see a character who, as far as I know, is a phisically normal human dragging a DEAD LION with ONE HAND across SNOW.

Fun book, very pretty, above-average for a videogame-inspired comic. Some thought went into this, and some of the dialogue is interesting and well-researched — but it just overall lost momentum.

(Encapsulated) Comic Review – Punisher War Zone #06, Crossed #03, Unknown Soldier #4 and Final Crisis #07

Not feeling too well, so this week’s reviews will be dramatically trimmed down to one paragraph each. Sorry.

Punisher War Zone #06: extremely entertaining and quite funny, it also has Steve Dillon’s stellar art – in this issue, him and Ennis absolutely rock out with amazing action scenes and splash pages — greatly-coloured by Matt Hollingsworth and lettered by Cory Petit. Brilliant mini-series.

Crossed #03: This one focuses more on the characters and the loss of morality in an apocalyptic world. Ennis and Burrows take a step back from the carnage to offer a depressing look at a new world order, one even children aren’t safe from. Burrows’ art is beautiful, although Juanmar’s colours are way too bright – contradicting the appropriate cold tones of the previous issues. Excellent episode.

Unknown Soldier #04: it continues on its way to becoming a new Vertigo masterpiece. Carefully scripted with balanced amounts of intrigue, shock and character development, it suffers only from Alberto Ponticelli’s subpar art (although he improved from previous issues) and Oscar Celestini’s simplistic colouring. Clem Robins’ lettering, however, stands out thanks to its incredible intensity and his exotic designs, along with perfect balloon placement.

Final Crisis #07: Basically convinces me this is all a ridiculous joke. Pathetic, expositional dialogue, unclear plot (plot?), plot devices (again, plot?), despite the excellent visuals.

Comic Review – Punisher War Zone #5… and yeah, that’s about it

(Clearly a homage to the cover of Preacher #12 by Glenn Fabry – I love it)

Written by Garth Ennis

Art by Steve Dillon

Colors by Matt Hollingsworth

Lettering by VC’s Cory Petit

In a nutshell: FUN.

Published by Marvel Knights

With this weekly mini-series, Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon went back to the old MK Punisher like they never stopped in the first place. And while I certainly prefer Ennis’ work on the MAX imprint, there is no reason not to enjoy this lighter take on the character – especially with Dillon and Hollingsworth handling the visuals.

In the last issue, Frank Castle and his snitch Schitti – the latter being drugged shitless and carrying a pumpkin around – got caught in a trap masterminded by the new Elite. Under M60 fire, Castle and Schitti try shooting their way out while lieutenant Molly Von Richthofen continues powerlessly hidden in a bathtub in Schitti’s house while a bunch of wiseguys wait for him to arrive so they can blow his head off.

Dark humor is the priority, as usual in the MK Punisher series, so Ennis invests heavily in it without, however, letting things become so campy we actually stop taking it seriously. The Punisher’s captions continue to serve the purpose of illustrating his to-the-point lines of thought and his ability to quickly assimilate a FUBAR situation. And Elite is skillfully written as a dangerous yet sloppy villain – the scene on the subway is case in point. While the comedy is almost always present, the action scenes never abandon realism – the MK Punisher is still more human than in any Hollywood flick he’s ever been in (I have not yet watched the similarly titled “Punisher Warzone” film, but the trailer shows him hanging upside down from a chandelier while accurately shooting enemies with two SMGs, so… yeah).

But fortunately, this comic proves itself above mere escapist entertainment thanks to a plot that is, so far, actually coherent and intriguing – and characters that act realistically within the story’s context. I think it goes without saying the dialogue is sharp and clever, since this is Ennis’ trademar — whoops, guess I said it anyway.

Meanwhile, Steve Dillon, Ennis’ wif — usual contributor, is perfectly comfortable. The action scenes are clear, never leaving any doubt as to who’s shooting and who’s getting shot at or ran over by a car or crushed by it and other amusing passages to afterlife. I especially like the difference between The Punisher and the other characters – while Molly and Schitti are highly expressive, Castle’s face goes from “grim” to “slightly less grim” – which might sound like harsh criticism, but is actually a compliment, since it suits the character very well.

Matt Hollingsworth, like Dillon, is also handling the art with no trouble at all. Choosing good color palletes and paying attention to color reflections (off skin, off walls, etc.), he adds further aesthetic quality to the artist’s work and even more intensity, due to the blur effect he uses when someone fires a weapon.

Finally, letterer Cory Petit places the balloons and captions with care and his caligraphy is very clear, which makes the reading experience flow even better.

Ending with a typical Ennis cliffhanger that makes me grateful the next issue is coming out soon, “Punisher Warzone 05″ is great fun, unprententious, funny and visually brilliant.

Comic Review – The Walking Dead #56, Punisher: Warzone #3, Unknown Soldier #3, Doktor Sleepless #10 and Batman #683

(issue 56 of “Preacher” has the same kind of cover. Coincidence or homage?)

The Walking Dead #56

Written by Robert Kirkman

Art by Charlie Adlard

Gray Tones by Cliff Rathburn

Lettering by Rus Wooton

Published by Image Comics

In a nutshell: Kirkman seems to find some ground and adds an interesting subplot to what has been a terribly irregular arc. Adlard’s art and Cliffburn’s tones are as efficient as usual.

Again, I’m hoping this issue means Robert Kirkman finally found a subplot that can get this title moving again. Recently, the writer has used unlikely coincidences and events to do so, almost reducing the characters to stereotypes. In this issue, however, he introduces a new, tense problem that not only is character-driven, but also original – something difficult for an ongoing series that’s almost at sixty issues, equivalent to, not counting the delays, five years of publishing.

In the previous episode, Maggie hanged herself. I questioned the probability of Maggie actually doing that and filed it under “shock value”, but in this issue, Kirkman builds an excellent scene around the event, which serves as a base to the aforementioned tense subplot. It’s refreshing to see Rick being himself for the first time in a long time, as Michonne put it. Also, Kirkman shrouds Maggie’s decision in mystery, which indicates he has a plausible explanation (I hope) for what she did. I will say no more about this or about Maggie, because I’m coming very close to revealing a spoiler around which the first scene depends in order to be appropriately striking.

What’s important is Abraham, the new character Kirkman introduced and who seems straight out of “Gears of War”: big, manly and blunt, he’s clearly a control freak who likes to believe nobody knows as much about the situation than he does. Therefore, his face when he turns out to be so horribly wrong in a certain moment is, to Charlie Adlard’s credit, perfect. And to Kirkman’s credit, so is his behavior for the rest of the issue, right up until the final page that summarizes basically what’s wrong with the character.

Pretty much nailing the characterization and dialogue this time, Kirkman also gets the pacing right – unlike the previous issue, which was a disappointingly quick read on top of being a mediocre one as well. So once again, I repeat: I hope the writer keeps it up this time, going back to the character-driven style that made all the issues up to #51 must-reads.

As for Charlie Adlard, his art continues as consistent and narratively excellent as usual, but I did notice some carelessness. An almost hilarious example is when Rick is confronting Abraham and his gun is holstered on the right side of his waist – and Rick doesn’t have a right hand, which would make for a quite funny scene if a zombie happened to show up. But when Rick is walking away in the same scene, the holster is back on the left side. Aside from that, facial expressions and panel composition are as professional as I’ve come to expect from Adlard, and Cliff Rathburn’s grey tones cleans everything up nicely. Rus Wooton’s lettering keeps the same high standards from previous issues.

“The Walking Dead #56″ is a good read, but it doesn’t convince me the next issue will be as good. I am, however, reassured.

(couldn’t find issue three’s cover on Google Images, so that’s  issue one’s)

Punisher: Warzone #3

Written by Garth Ennis

Art by Steve Dillon

Colors by Matt Hollingsworth

(I think I just squealed out of sheer awesome – it’s the “Preacher” team!)

Lettering by VC’s Cory Petit

Published by Marvel Knights

In a nutshell: Ennis, Dillon and Hollingsworth. Do I really need to say more?

This mini-series came as a complete surprise to me. I had no idea Ennis and Dillon were briefly returning to their darkly hilarious Marvel Knights’ Punisher ongoing. For a second, I thought it was a half-assed adaptation of the film until I saw their names on the cover, and Matt Hollingsworth to boot. Obviously, I smiled like an idiot at that sight. Although I most definitely prefer the Max version of the character, Ennis’ previous Punisher was still one of the best dark comedy ongoings in the industry – I’ll never, ever forget the classic scene Frank Castle runs over Wolverine with a steamroller (“This’ll do the trick”), or uses Spider-Man as a human shield against The Russian (who, by the way, has a huge pair of tits in that very scene).

So to see a sequel to the classic Punisher maxisseries that pretty much ressurrected the character from his disastrous “Angelic Avenger” portrayal is really satisfying, especially when it (sort of) brings back a great villain: Ma Gnucci. In the previous issues, Frank saw the return of the wretched bitch, whom he had crippled – leaving only a head and a torso, but still alive – and posteriorly kicked into a mansion on fire, watching until he was sure she’d died. So it came as a bit of a surprise when, in the first issue, she appeared in a Gnucci reunion. Once again proving why he’s the best Punisher writer ever, Ennis promptly made Frank bazooka the fuck out of her and everyone around her, killing her instantly – Frank Castle was never one to let surprise cloud his judgement. But apparently, she had been seen again another location afterwards. Confused, Castle tries to get to the bottom of this as he works with an informant who’s undercover in the Gnucci family in exchange for his life when the job’s done. Meanwhile, the son of aristocrat vigilante Elite is determined to carry on his father’s work: assassinating the Punisher.

Establishing the light, cruelly funny tone of the book right in the first page that recollects everything that happened up to this point, Ennis is clearly just having fun here doing his trip down memory lane, and he’s ever so happy to let us in on the ride. The dialogue is sharp as you’d expect from him and the characterizations are, as usual, the story’s main strenght – since The Punisher himself is not exactly the deepest guy in the world, the supporting characters need to be interesting so we’ll care about the story. Case in point, the undercover agent Frank’s using, Schitti, is immediately likable – and the nagging doubt on whether the Punisher will let him live or not is always present. While the unforgettable lieutenant Martin Soap is not present, the lesbian detective Von Richthofen is, and her personal struggles with her bissexual girlfriend is one of the book’s highlights. The new Elite is as funny as the previous one, and his captions are priceless in their spoiled little aristocratic rants. It’s impressive how Ennis easily goes back to the style of his MK Punisher series, which ended about five years ago.

And then we have Steve Dillon, a brilliant artist whose style I’ve come to nearly worship. Some say his characters all look alike, but that’s just pointless nitpicking – if you pay attention, most artists who don’t use reference have characters that look alike – even the phenomenal John Cassaday suffers from this. What really matters about Dillon’s art is the perfect visual narrative – clear angles, excellent facial expressions, an immediate compatibility with Ennis’ writing. I thought he was severely underestimated for his “Wolverine: Origins” work – he was one of the few good things in that title. Also, I always liked Dillon’s clean lines. In this mini-series, he’s particularly inspired and comfortable with the action scenes and especially, the humor.

Finally, Matt Hollingsworth, a hugely talented color artist who is clearly satisfied to be working with Dillon again. Notice how he nails the lighting in the graveyard scene, and the blur he adds when someone shoots in order to simulate the gun’s recoil. Dillon, too, gets Castle’s shooting stance perfectly – it’s not easy to draw a machinegun shooting stance due to it’s complex nature: butt of the gun on shoulder, one hand on the trigger, the other on the grip, eyes lined up with ironsights – tricky. But he does it. I’m just unsure whether it’s correct to close one eye while shooting – I hear it’s wrong not to aim with both eyes open.

Entertaining and nostalgic, “Punisher: Warzone #3″ is a fun trip. When it comes to me – as must know by now – the more Ennis, the better. And it’s weekly, too.

(couldn’t find issue three’s cover, would you believe. So that one is… dunno. One of the covers.)

Unknown Soldier #3

Written by Joshua Dysart

Art by Alberto Ponticelli

Colors by Oscar Celestini

Lettering by Clem Robins

Published by DC\Vertigo

In a nutshell: One of the best single issues of 2008. Holy SHIT.

“Unknown Soldier #3″ can already be considered one of the best single issues of 2008.  Despite Alberto Ponticelli’s weak artwork, the narrative is strong and relentless, not afraid of showing children being murdered and the complex nature of Uganda’s war. It dissects the nature of the country’s violence via the eyes of an apparently psychotic man, Lwanga Moses – the new Unknown Soldier.

In this issue, Moses fails to pull the trigger when necessary and is captured by the L.R.A. (Lord’s Resistance Army) and sees, up close, how disgusting and rotten it all is when he meets with the leader of the particular cell he’s been captured by – a man who casually says he’s a friend of Jesus Christ, but sees no problem in brainwashing children and using them as soldiers – or little girls as wives for these soldiers. It’s, at the same time, painful to witness how Moses is starting to depend on the dark side of his personality – the one who, so far inexplicably, guides him in battle. Reaching a perfect balance, Dysart exposes the rotten nature of religion while he shows some of the goodness it may inspire, like sister Sharon’s struggle to save the children.

But his story isn’t mere propaganda – it’s strongly based and written, with excellent dialogue and brilliant use of violence to cause necessary shock. And the last page is heartbreaking, even in Ponticelli’s under-developed pencils, for what it portrays alone.

Ponticelli is, as already mentioned, lost. His narrative is comprehensible, but his lines are sketchy and indecisive, without the necessary weight a story like this requires. Colorist Oscar Celestini gets the tones right, but his simplistic palette doesn’t help Ponticelli’s art in the slightest – this is a book someone like Goran Parlov would be immensely comfortable drawing, and I hope the next arc brings a better-suited artist to handle it.

Brave and poignant, “Unknown Soldier #3″ establishes Joshua Dysart as a very, very promising graphic novellist. If this arc continues on this path, it will even surpass Ennis’ Unknown Soldier mini-series – and that is pretty much the highest compliment I can offer.

Doktor Sleepless #10

Written by Warren Ellis

Art by Ivan Rodriguez

Colors by Andrew Dalhouse

Published by Avatar Press

In a nutshell: Even if Warren Ellis hasn’t been as sharp as usual, Dok Sleepless continues to be an intriguing and well-written ongoing – especially in this excellent issue.

In order to build the mythology around his titular character, Warren Ellis (aka Internet Jesus, Love Swami and other nicknames used by the people on his criminally fun social network) has taken a step back from the protagonist and is now portraying Heavenside, the city he lives in – or haunts, depending on who you are. As he does that, he also builds the central mystery of the book: who the fuck IS Doktor Sleepless? Is he good? Is he evil? What’s his ultimate plan? Who’s he using?

In issue #10, we are introduced to Alex Singer, a dirty-mouthed detective who mantains an unpolite (but playful) relationship with her superior – a subtle touch in characterization that adds to the characters’ individuality, an aspect I’ve been giving Ellis shit about in my reviews of late, saying his characters sound too much like the man himself (check out his Astonishing X-Men run, for an example). So it’s nice to see people who seem less like Ellis’ creations and more like… well, people. This detective in particular ends up with Dr. Albert Cannon, who just attempted to shank a reporter called Sarah Berlin. As she interrogates him, she finds out surprising truths about the man – and a final, horrible truth surrounding him and the captain of the police, the all-powerful Preston Stoker – so powerful, in fact, he can afford to talk about himself in the third person without being called on it.

The dialogue is priceless this time around. I especially like when a policeman says Cannon has been getting treatment for his burns, Alex asks what kind of treatment and he answers “Pointing and laughing, mostly”. But the winning line is most definitely when Alex asks Cannon: “You were going to stab Sarah Berlin with the same knife you used to stab Gregory Shale. Why?” and he replies “Well, it was the only knife I had”. THIS is the Warren Ellis I love reading. Clever and sharp without losing sight of characterization. A especially brilliant moment is when a character slaps another – something that comes unexpectedly and conveys the gravity of the situation.

Ivan Rodriguez improves with each issue. His visual narrative is stylish and his characters have interesting design. In an issue that consists mostly of indoor settngs, he captures the feel just right, choosing good angles and shadowing to keep the scene interesting, as if the dialogue alone wasn’t enough. Andrew Dalhouse’s coloring is appropriate and pretty.

Intriguing and well-written, “Doktor Sleepless #10″ raises the standards of this series. It’s not a great ongoing yet, but most definitely a solid one.

Okay, okay. I’ll behave.

Batman #683

Written by (sigh) Grant Morrison

Art by Lee Garb -- oh, c’mon.

“Soul-killing shells”. I admired the structure of the previous issue, but this one is just more of the same with absolutely horrible, expositional dialogue and it hammers the same point: Batman is awesome. He’s the strongest, the smartest, he thinks of EVERYTHING yeah yeah I know. Anyway, I’m glad it’s over. Morrison’s run was a fucking disaster for the character – all it added of new sucked, with the only exception being the Joker’s new visual, which is interesting and less goofy.

I’m not going to waste any more time saying the same things I’ve been saying for the last five reviews or so.

Comic Review – Wolverine #69, Back To Brooklyn #2 and The Walking Dead #54

Wolverine #69

Written by Mark Millar

Art by Steve McNiven

Inks by Dexter Vines

Colors by Morry Hollowell

Lettering by VCs Cory Petit

In a nutshell: epic and interesting, “Old Man Logan” continues to entertain and provide a compelling look at a post-apocalyptic USA set in the Marvel Universe. And even if it didn’t, McNiven’s phenomenal art alone would be worth it.

Mark Millar has a talent for ressuscitating titles. If a book hasn’t been at its best lately, with half-hearted arcs and poor art – call Mark Millar, ask him to write a new arc and it usually works wonders. This happened on Spider-Man, already happened on Wolverine and now is happening on Wolverine again.

Millar – who really should try writing a non-superhero story some time, because he’s got talent for it – carefully balances developing the characters and the world around them. Logan is portrayed as a deeply broken man who just wants to live a low-profile life in his own little corner. For unknown reasons (which are promised to be revealed on the next issue), he refuses to hurt anyone. Hawkeye, meanwhile, hasn’t lost his killer instincts, but has apparently lost his daughter, Ashley. In fact, the conversation he was with Logan on a bar about it is one of this book’s greatest moments (“I helped so many people leave this world, man. It was so damn cool to watch someone arrive.”). Hell, even the fucking SPIDER BUGGY is exploited effectively by Millar.

At the same time, Millar shows us what’s left of the USA – with dinosaurs from Savage Land roaming the country and a disturbingly modified version of Mount Rushmore – okay, Mount Rushmore being used like this certainly isn’t original, but when you’ve got Steve McNiven drawing for you, you really can’t miss the chance. And indeed, his art is absolutely gorgeous. Brilliantly inked by Dexter Vines and colored by Morry Hollowell, his usual contributors, it not only looks amazing, it also shows the action from elaborate angles – another proof of how talented McNiven is at drawing the human figure and environments. But it’s his shadowing that truly blew me away, especially in the panel where we see a flashback of Wolverine spitting blood (this book doesn’t shy away from violence, thankfully). The lettering by Cory Petit is well-placed and with clear caligraphy.

“Old Man Logan” is so far a compelling and powerful arc that explores Wolverine the man instead of Wolverine the animal. Millar continues to be one of the few writers who makes me read superheroes.

Back to Brooklyn #2

Story by Jimmy Palmiotti and Garth Ennis

Written by Garth Ennis

Art by Mihailo Vukelic

Lettering by Simon Bowland

In a nutshell: with only two issues so far, it’s already brilliant.

No matter what publisher he’s working for, no matter whether it’s a high-profile book or a low-profile book – Garth Ennis is always Garth Ennis. Even while he’s working on his excellent “The Boys” series, he doesn’t allow his quality standards to drop while handling this project idealized by Jimmy Palmiotti, which is considerably under the radar. And this is why he’s my favorite writer.

Managing to slip in his trademark black comedy without harming the overall drama of the story, Ennis develops his characters with charm. Despite being a killer with brutal methods to say the least (remember the bucket scene in the previous issue?), Bob Saetta admits that maybe he’s a monster, but his family isn’t and he’s trying to protect them. And now he has to protect his old ex-girlfriend as well, who broke up with him precisely because she hated what Bob had become. And there’s Vinnie Thermos, who’s called Thermos because — no, I won’t ruin it for you.

On the other side of the spectrum, we have Paul the Wall, Bob’s brother, who kidnapped his family. Despite his dumb look, Paul is dangerously sharp and ruthless, and he hires a guy by the name of Churchill – who proves just how effective he is in the last panel of this book. Churchill is reminiscent of Stein from Ennis’ “Pride and Joy”, which is far from being a bad thing.

But it’s the dialogue that truly makes the story shine. Contrary to Warren Ellis’ recent work, Ennis gives each character a manner of speaking and makes them sound natural. The excuse Vinnie Thermos tries to make to a bunch of guys who want him dead is absolutely priceless.

Ennis’s writing is brought to life by Mihailo Vukelic’s gorgeous art. Painting New York in opressing sepia tones, he ensures Ennis’ sense of humor never breaks the serious surface of the story (although Ennis is a master of avoiding that all by himself). The artist proves himself excellent with visual narrative and facial expressions, both handled with surprising subtlety – for example, Bob’s slight smile when his ex-girlfriend makes a comment on how Vinnie looks.

With efficient lettering by Simon Bowland, “Back to Brooklyn” is very compelling and looks great. It’s refreshing to see a down-to-Earth crime drama like this in comics instead of in a movie. There’s enough superheroes already.

The Walking Dead #54

Written by Robert Kirkman

Art by Charlie Adlard

Gray Tones by Cliff Rathburn

Lettering by Rus Wooton

In a nutshell: an intense episode that brings “The Walking Dead” back on track after a number of ridiculous coincidences.

The way Rick and Carl found the rest of their group in previous issues was really an example of a narrative trainwreck. They just, y’know, STUMBLED into them in the middle of a huge zombie-ridden land. But now that they’re back together, Robert Kirkman seems to be back on his game, by adding a number of new characters that are going to Washington D. C. – and one of them knows what caused the zombie infection. In fact, Kirkman subtly portrays how used Rick has gotten to this post-apocalyptic world when a character says “I know what caused this mess” and Rick replies, “Mess? What mess?”.

Intense from beggining to end, this issue has some of the best dialogue Kirkman has written in a long time – a great example being when someone explains how the zombies form herds. The characterization continues to be one of this book’s strong suits, and Rick’s refusal to make a single decision for the group after all that has happened is touching. So is what he says to Carl near the end of this issue.

Charlie Adlard’s art – hell, just insert everything I said from previous reviews right here. It’s still as excellent as ever. The same can be said of Cliff Rathburn’s gray tones and Rus Wooton’s lettering. I prefer not to waste your time making the same compliments to them as I usually do.

“The Walking Dead #54″ is a very good issue. I hope Kirkman keeps avoiding coincidences and focuses on his characters.