Punisher (Vol. 6) #34

 Posted: 2004
 Staff: spidermad (E-Mail)

Background

The Punisher has been on a killing spree for years, dispensing his own brand of justice. Daredevil, Spider-Man and Wolverine are going to try and bring him in and they've got him cornered...

Story Details

  Punisher (Vol. 6) #34
Summary: Spider-Man Appears
Arc: Part 2 of 'Confederacy of Dunces' (1-2-3-4-5)
Editor: Joe Quesada
Writer: Garth Ennis
Pencils: John McCrea
Inker: Crimelab Studios

The Punisher knows he has no chance of taking on all three heroes at once. So tries to buy time by seeming to surrender and asking to have one last chesseburger before they take him in. He wals across the road into a diner, with the heroes following and not sure what to do. Dave is there waiting, he's been following the Punisher and is all excited because of the heroes in tow. The heroes bicker and aren't what to do. In the meantime the Punisher has thought of a plan. He elbows Wolverine in the nose, sending Wolverine over the edge and ready to kill. Spidey and DD have to work together to hold WOlverine back, while the Punisher escapes. The sit heroes sit down to eat a burger and discuss what went wrong.

The Punisher gets right back on the trail of this big meeting he's been trying to find. He finds the location and a suspicious guarded van with an unkown man inside. He busts up the meeting, which is more of an auction for something of great power. The Punisher kills everyone then tortures a survivor to find out where the merchandise is at, its supposed to be in the van. The Punisher also picks up a video that was being used to advertise the merchandise. The Punisher heads of home with the video, van and 'merchandise' not too sure of what's so special about the merchandise.

At home the Punisher watches the vid and is very taken aback by what he sees...

General Comments

This issue is better than the last, but the expected laughs were too few and far between. I love books that poke fun at superheroes. I have very fond memories of the appearances of Wolverine, Spidey and Thor in the pages of Deadpool. And the scene with Wolverine is chuckle worthy, but then the other plot kicks in and the laughs are out the window. The characters do have act a little more stupidly than is plausible, but I'm willing to forgive this in the name of a few cheap laughs.

The plot on tracking down the meeting etc I found mostly boring. The mystery of merchandise has me interested. Especially because I think there is a hint that this will now play into the DD, Spidey and Wolverine part of the plot. But I found the fight scene unexciting. I don't know what it was, but Steve Dillon used to make these scenes interesting and worth sifting through again. McCrea's work here tells the story fine, but it doesn't really spice it up enough to be drawn out over so many pages.

Overall Rating

Still holding out hope that the next issue will bring something great...

 Posted: 2004
 Staff: spidermad (E-Mail)