Writer: Steven Grant; Artist: Mike Zeck; Inker: John Beatty; Letterer: Ken Bruzenak; Colorist: Bob Sharen; Editor: Carl Potts; Editor in Chief: Jim Shooter; Cover Artist: Mike Zeck
Mob boss Tomas Santiago and his two brothers are leaving their restaurant, talking about the current gang war that has resulted from the Kingpin's death. Suddenly, the Santiagos are attacked by a gang working for a rival boss named Ejsazaka, and only Tomas is able to escape in his limo. He quickly realizes, however, that his driver has been replaced by the Punisher. Frank saves Santiago's life and kills the men pursuing them, then tells Tomas that he's to call a meeting between the mob bosses to end the gang war before more innocent people are killed. Reluctantly, Santiago agrees.
Later, Castle is reflecting on his recent actions in the home of his new companion, Angela. She brings up the Trust, the group that helped Castle escape from prison, and tries to convince him to join with them totally. Castle is wary of doing justice by committee because of the opportunity for corruption, but he's unaware that the Trust's agent Alaric is listening to their conversation via a recording device. Frank notices a car outside watching the apartment, and when he goes outside to confront the observer he recognizes him as Tony Massera, whose father was involved with the mob. Massera is out for revenge, but refuses to act until Castle has finished his war against the mob, who Tony hates just as much as the Punisher.
Castle later pays a visit to Simon Ejsazaka to convince him to agree to the peace conference, and before he leaves Frank gets information on another mob figurehead named Marcus Coriander. Meanwhile, Santiago has set up the meeting via conference call, and when it begins the Punisher arrives at his office. But this Punisher is an imposter working for Coriander, and they've used the conference call idea to assassinate all of the mob bosses at once. The imposter shoots Santiago, but is then in turn shot by the newly-arrived Punisher. Before he dies, Santiago tells Castle that Coriander betrayed them.
At his Park Avenue South office building, Coriander is instructing his men - all wearing imposter Punisher costumes - that the real Punisher will be coming for them soon. He leaves his men to train, but then finds Castle waiting for him in his office. Coriander tries to explain that they're on the same side, both working against the mob, and if Frank kills him then the Kingpin will have no opposition when he returns from his faked death. Castle disregards Coriander's argument and gets ready to kill him, but Coriander takes him by surprise with a lamp and runs to his men, ordering them to kill Castle. Frank easily out-shoots the imposters and gives chase after Coriander; but in the building's lobby, which is littered with innocent people, Coriander shoots at his pursuer and accidentally kills a little girl. Coriander freaks out and runs away, but Frank finds him hiding in an alley. Coriander starts to tell Castle who the real person is behind the operation, but before he can say the name Coriander is shot and killed by Angela. Frank is stunned by the realization that Angela is really his enemy, and is unprepared when she shoots him and runs away, leaving the Punisher passed out in the alley.
Review:
The first Punisher mini-series continues, with Grant and Zeck still at the helm and allowing Frank to slowly unravel the conspiracy surrounding him.
This issue contains one of my favorite character moments for Frank Castle, and it's a credit to Steven Grant's talent as a writer that he's able to pull it off so well. It's the moment where Frank realizes his plan to destroy the mob has spiraled out of control, and he's essentially bit off more than he can chew, that really speaks volumes about the character. Castle was still early in his career at this point, and having an ultimate "fix all" master plan back-firing in his face so dramatically in effect sets up the entire methodology of the Punisher from this moment on. After this, Castle is no longer after the big picture or the long-term effects of his actions, because he knows the war he's fighting is too big for him to ever truly destroy. So he undertakes his mission by inches, with each death hopefully leading to a greater goal but in reality doing nothing but chipping away at stone. The "circle of blood" motif is echoed nicely here as well, with Frank realizing that his war is never going to end, it's going to continue and escalate until either he or everyone he cares for is dead.
Grant also exposes the Trust for what they truly are, and while they do in fact succeed in eliminating most of the Mafia in one big strike, Castle is absolutely right in his assessment that "justice by committee breeds bias and corruption". Once the war is fought by an organization instead of one man with a moral code, the system breaks down until the good guys are as bad as the people they're fighting. This is some wonderfully deep stuff that Grant's saying through the Punisher's thought captions, and it makes sense that at this point in his vigilante career Castle might be having second thoughts on how much he can honestly accomplish all by himself. Frank's not as hard or unwavering in this story as he is in later stories, there's doubt in his thoughts. But that brings me to the one point that has always struck me as false, his shock and disbelief that Angela is really working against him. As I've said before, Frank has always had a blind spot when it comes to women, but as paranoid as Castle is I've always thought his relationship with Angela was completely out of character.
Mike Zeck and John Beatty are still providing some really great artwork for this series, but you can tell that deadlines were starting to catch up with them. Some of the wonderful detail work from the first issue is starting to slip here, and the last few pages in particular have a rushed feel to them. Still, rushed or not the issue looks great, and it really makes me wish that Zeck would have been able to finish drawing the entire series.
"Circle of Blood" has understandably become one of the best-known and loved Punisher stories, and this chapter is a perfect example as to why.
Grade: A
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