The Punisher #3 Review

Writer: Becky Cloonan / Artist: Steve Dillon / Marvel Comics Frank Castle is on a controlled rampage. On his hunt to take down the organized drug cartel and mercenary group named “Condor” Frank is going up the organization’s ladder step by step, leaving nothing but bodies. Like the cover says, this book is not for kids, and has shown itself consistently violent in a predictable way. I say “predictable” in a good way, the same way Fast & Furious movies exceed expectations by exactly meeting them… in the words of Coach Denny Green, “They are who we thought they were.” In that way, Becky Cloonan’s The Punisher is reliably thrilling page after page. This book isn’t cute; it doesn’t look to confuse or baffle you, at least not yet – no, The Punisher is Man on Fire playing the long time, a series of carnage following a man on a mission. The appeal to tactical strikes and sheer badassery make The Punisher one of the most honest books on shelves – you get exactly what you expect, and exactly what Cloonan wants as an action comic that is what we thought it was. This is quintessential Punisher.

Issue #3 follows the same formula as the ones before it: Frank stalks his prey, murders them, and finds the next bridge in his game of connect-the-dots, all the while staying ahead of the cops who remain one step behind his carnage. The cops are almost the series’ narrators, or the closets thing to it, as they piece together insights that Frank doesn’t give us himself. How little do we get f…