Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Punisher MAX: Happy Endings #1


I rarely pick up Punisher comics in anything but trade these days, but since I don't buy the collections of one-shots, I grabbed this one since Peter Milligan worked on it. It's got some neat ideas sprinkled through, but it didn't blow my mind.

The issue follows the path of an unhappily married accountant as he get wrapped up into the Punisher's dangerous world. After befriending (sort of) a femme fatale masseuse, he ends up taking to the world of gunplay and death better than he expected. The Punisher exists in this comic only as a force of nature to occasionally point different pieces of the story to different locations. The Punisher isn't the star here, he's just an executioner brought in to punch people's tickets. I liked how Milligan wrapped up the story, because it is the opposite of how most of these stories go. I suppose it is realistic, but I don't think we'll see a spin-off for Gun-Fighting Accountant any time soon.

Avatar's Juan Jose Ryp brings his ultraviolence to Marvel, and it works fine for a MAX book. His violence, gore, and mayhem are almost on a level with Geoff Darrow. I don't care for his faces as much, but I can deal with it to get these complicated set pieces.

Overall, 4.99 is a bit much for a book like this...

Fair

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