The Punisher Vol. 1 - Dark Reign

So now that I've finished my Luna Brothers marathon, I thought I'd venture into something with tights. I really want to get to Franken Castle, so I'm reading the newest volume of The Punisher that was launched during Dark Reign. I'm not a huge Punisher fan, but now and then he tends to have stories that I like. The last volume, the one that was launched during Civil War, I liked a lot. My problem is with the character, a lot of times he can be kind of overly violent, so when  you're doing a kind of gritty "darker" version of the character there's nothing to relate to, it's just mindless killing. The Punisher I like is when he's so hyperviolent that the stories come off as comical, because then relating isn't as important, because you're in it for the fun. I have to say that I'm enjoying this series so far, because it hits this mark right on.

Basically Punisher usually just chases the D-lister villains who need to get a bullet between the eyes because they're wasting space in some bigger character's rogues gallery. I feel like he's one of those characters Marvel keeps around to get rid of loose ends of villains that don't quite gain notoriety. So the guys he's killing are usually pretty fucking lame, well during the Dark Reign of Norman Osborn he says, well who the fuck do I kill when everyone's a bad guy... the answer is everyone! He decides it's time for him to go after some real baddies. Not like Stilt Man, and Jack-o-Lantern, and lame ass characters like this, no he's going after the top dog and all of his cronies. But he's got to be smart about it. The volume starts with him saying you can't just walk up to a guy like that, you've got to do it right. So he starts taking out his and The Hood's operations one by one, and doing it in a rather flashy sort of way. I really liked this whole volume a lot. Something about the Punisher not being able to just walk up to some douchebag and shoot him, really is entertaining for me. It's almost like what if the Punisher were forced to think like Batman. I mean there are full scenes where he's running away from goons armed just as much as he is, or even full on squads of super Villains with powers and shit. And he just waits and bides his time until he can get the kill shot it. There's one scene where his side-kick guy tells Frank that there's going to be a lot of baddies towards the end of the book, and the next panel is Frank loaded up with miscellaneous pieces of other superheros gear, including an Ant-man helmet, what looks like a bunch of Hawkeye's arrows, and maybe one of Iron Man's gauntlets. This is the Punisher I Love! I don't want to ruin how that stuff comes into play, but it is an awesome pay off, and everyone who doubts me on whether or not shrinking is an awesome power will eat their words!

Also the art was really good from start to finish. I can't even point out what I liked about it, but the style was really nice, and I've never even heard of this artist before. This book has me wanting to go out and read more stuff from Rick Remender pretty much right away. The only thing is that the finale of the volume which is supposed to be a kind of cliff hanger/ teaser, and I could kind of care less about it... I'm going to keep reading because i liked the first volume so much, but I'll explain why I'm not as excited for two in my review, who knows maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised again! If you want to check this out for yourself you can Search Amazon.com for punisher vol. 1, or just click the box below!

Thanks For reading!

Dark Wolverine Vol. 1 - The Prince

So usually Marvel is pretty good about packaging. DC tends to be the company I give shit for it, but occasionally there is a title or two that Marvel just doesn't know what to do with. Dark Wolverine is apparently that title. The first volume of this book is five issues long. Two of which aren't about Dark Wolverine at all. They're just two issues that couldn't be collected into Old Man Logan, the previous arc in the Wolverine ongoing. So since these two are between old man logan, and Dark Wolverine get crammed here because they have no where else to go, which wouldn't be a big deal if they were given as bonus content, but they're not... The volume after the first is only four issues long. Now this might sound crazy... but wouldn't it make more sense to put all of that into one volume. The two random issues, the first arc which is three issues long, and the second arc which is four issues long? I mean that's a big volume, but then you just charge a tad bit more, and then you have a quality product. Instead of the whole run of this series being broken up and crammed into other books. I'm going to try and read them as best I can, I'm just a tad bit frustrated about it when I have to read and buy other issues I don't want to, and especially so when I have to purchase them if I want Dark Wolverine.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, the actual review of the content and not just how it's bundled: I liked the shit out of this first volume! Now the Back-up, or whatever you want to call it, wasn't as awesome. It's just a two-shot story that's kind of half assed trying to explain how Wolverine is in so many places at once. It doesn't really work, but it is kind of funny to see. Now Daken on the other hand... Now that Daken is in his own series, I thought I'd have reason to go back and read Dark Wolverine, and boy am I glad I'm doing so. This guy is cool as shit. He walks everywhere with this swagger. He dresses like it's noboby's business. He even has small differences in his powers that he uses to their full extent. I was worried before reading this, because I had been warned that his sexuality plays a big part in the book, because he uses it to his advantage so often. I had seen things like this done poorly before, and kind gritted my teeth and waited for the impact, so to speak. But it's really not that bad, and for the most part it's done really well. He's not just randomly fucking people with no regard. He does it when he wants to, and mostly when it serves him. Every thing he does in these first three issues is to serve a purpose, and I absolutely loved it. It's very reminiscent of DEXTER, if you watch it, where every action has an explanation, and an inner monologue that goes with it. And in some cases this kind of story telling could get annoying, but it's kind of the same as it is in DEXTER, if you like the character, you'll like it here. And honestly I don't see why you wouldn't like him. As far as plot goes it's a tiny bit hard to follow, and you have no idea what his true intentions are through the this first volume anyway, but they hint at it once or twice. Basically Daken is going around making as many double deals as he can. He's a double, double, double, double agent. Which really amounts to, he's out for himself.

This book is definitely worth reading, but how is the decision. If you like single issues, this might be one of the few cases, in my opinion, where you might be better off buying it one by one. But what about the rest of the run? You going to buy all 15 issues that way? If you don't mind paying for a full trade where the first two chapters kind of suck, and the last three are really solid, then I say pick it up, because that's how I'll probably purchase it. Especially considering that's how most stories go anyways. Instead of two issues of build up, you get two issues that aren't relevant. Six of one, half a dozen of the other... You can Search Amazon.com for Dark wolverine Vol. 1 or you can just click the box below. 


Thanks for reading!
James