This trade collects issues 1-7 of The Punisher Vol. 2, written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Steve Dillon with inks by Jimmy Palmioti.
This is a follow on story to Welcome Back, Frank, and as such a lot of the elements from that book are still prevalent here, although the main story arc in this trade is only 5 issues long as apposed to the first's 12, which makes for a much tighter and better paced story, one of my criticisms of the first book, that there wasn't enough emotion or jeopardy to hold a readers attention for 12 issues. But Ennis's fun writing and Dillon's almost cartoony drawings just work a whole lot better in this shorter format.
The story has a few follow on points and some returning characters from the last book so I would recommend reading that first but it's not like a part 2 or anything so it's not absolutely essential. The story revolves around The Punisher taking on an island of the toughest most dangerous mercenaries on the planet lead by a money hungry, bloodthirsty general, and crazy Punisher violence ensues, it goes from a stealthy jungle attack very reminiscent of the classic Rambo scene to just all out war, and it's all a blast. The only problem I had with this story was the treatment Ennis gave Spider-Man in issue 2, with The Punisher essentially using him as a human shield. When it's The Punisher or any of the other regular characters in this book getting pounded, kicked around or shot I don't mind in the slightest, firstly cause I never really cared for The Punisher, and secondly Ennis has created a world where you don't have to care, he doesn't invoke any emotional attachment to any character and the over the top violence he creates is almost comical so you can't really take it seriously, maybe it's just me being a huge fan of the wall crawler but his sudden appearance then the pummelling he has to take, it just felt distasteful to the character, who doesn't belong in Ennis's world . We all know Spider-Man from his own books where he can and does get hurt and where the reader cares what actually happens to him, so I just found issue 2 made me dislike The Punisher, both the comic and the character for the first time on Ennis's run. But again that could just be me.
Also in this trade you get a one issue story about an ex-army buddy of The Punisher going postal and how The Punisher deals with him and a silent issue written and drawn by Dillon which admittedly was the weakest issue so far and ends out the trade on an usually quiet and sombre note. Overall another good fun Punisher book, again entertaining in small doses, just don't expect anything too thought provoking.
The next comic book of the week will be Superman Red Son.
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