Punisher: Mother Russia (Collects, #13-18 Jan. - May '05)
Garth Ennis • Dougie Braithwaite
This comic I feel, is an important event in my very brief Comic book life, it was my first really hard to find comic. I swear, for the past like 3 weeks, (I'd strut in Bee-Gees music in the background, optional) on either Wednesday or Saturday (because I'm cool like that,) and say "Yo Joe, (that's right, I ryme,) you got my book yet?" Every week he'd say no. Til' one day I forced him to call the people and get it. I'm glad I did, this is a really good Punisher book.
It seems weird that I am going ga-ga over a character that's not the Punisher, but the one character that I think could actually take the Punisher actually, Nick Fury's here! He comes to Frank in order to fufill a mission, the most important this side of Red Dawn, he must get in to get a girl infected with a disease called Barbararossa. It is the most dangerous thing ever, no really, you get zapped, hardcore. To make things worse, a Cold War vet, comes in later in the story, nicknamed the Man of Stone.
The Man of Stone was a great character. He was a real badass, and will do anything to keep his Mother Russia alive and well, presumably under communisim (why not, The Smurfs did well under it.) He'll even kill one of his commarades to protect it.
Nick Fury is a lot like him in the fact that he beats one of commanders for doing something very immoral, and wrong. I liked him a lot better than Valley Forge, Valley Forge's Fury, in there he was way too bitter and really just a sad sap of a man, opposites here.
One character I didn't like was the Punisher's partner hired by the Army. He seemed more like a plot device than much else the one thing I remember he did was being able to get there, prove that Frank really does have even more of a soft spot for kids (which is proven about a bajillion times.) Seriously, like why?
The plot does unfold fine. The beginning scene is everything we could have wanted. Everyone and their mom (litterally) get shot, knifed, or blown up. Then the rest is pretty much spent in a nuclear silo, Frank killing Russians that are trying to invade. The twist with the plane hijacking, wasn't very good. But by the end, the twist was superb. I swear, I never saw it coming.
Garth Ennis artist from his first Punisher artist, Dougie Braithwaite are reunited. Reunited, and it feels so good? Well, In a few panels Frank looks like he should have gone to Arkham a long time ago (#16, pg.12, panel 5.) The lighting effects of the bar scene worked well and the gushes and gushes of blood coming from people is nearly unmatched.
Grade: A- The more I think about it, the more I like it.