Sitting in the Lion's Head Pub, reporter Norah Winters is working on a story about the Punisher, his history and motivations for his war on crime. She stops and calls her editor, Ben Urich, who meets her at the pub. She asks him for advice about something important she's recently learned. Three hours earlier, Norah rescued the Punisher after his mid-air fight with the Vulture, which left Castle gravely wounded. He directs her to drive, not to a hospital but to Queens, where they eventually arrive at his safe-house. She helps him inside, and is stunned when she sees the amount of weaponry that Castle possesses. When she asks him about it, he orders her to leave.
Back at the pub, Urich tells Norah that years ago he learned a secret about a superhero that would have made him famous and rich had he revealed it. But he realized that the only person that story would have served was himself, and he advises her to think about whether revealing her secret would be serving the public or herself. At the safe-house, Castle bandages his wounds and creates a makeshift splint to support his broken leg, and then he leaves with a bag of supplies.
In the South Bronx, police detectives Bolt and Clemons investigate the Vulture's dead body on a rooftop. Clemons discovers where Castle landed and realizes that he survived the fall, possibly with help. When his partner, Bolt, questions why they're investigating this instead of the Cole-Alves shooting Clemons says the cases are related. He chastises Bolt by saying just because they don't weep for the people he kills doesn't make Castle a hero. At a closed animal shelter, Frank is stitching up his numerous wounds when he hears a fight happening outside. Two drug dealers are beating up a boy who had informed the cops on them, but before they can hurt him Castle comes out and shoots both of the men. He then orders the boy to follow him inside, to hold the mirror for him.
At St. Vincent's hospital, Norah visits Rachel Cole-Alves, the only survivor of the "Wedding Day Massacre". Later, back at the Lion's Head Pub, Norah is visited by Detective Clemons, who has received Norah's description by someone who saw her helping the Punisher. He wants to know where Castle is, because helping the Punisher makes Norah an accessory. She tells Clemons that she's on a deadline and will talk to him later, refusing to give him the information he wants. Norah has changed her story from the Punisher to one about Rachel Cole-Alves and the tragedy she has lived through. While Norah finishes her report, the Punisher leaves the animal hospital.
Review:
Frank has survived his brutal fight with the Vulture, but his injuries force him to seek help from an unlikely source: reporter Norah Winters, who gets her own time in the spotlight with this issue.
I didn't know/remember much about Norah from her brief time as a supporting cast member in Amazing Spider-Man, and when she appeared last issue I wondered if she'd just be another supporting character stuck in to gum up the works and take time away from the other, more interesting characters. With this issue, Rucka has sold me on Norah Winters, and I greatly enjoyed seeing the Punisher's world viewed through her perspective. She comes across as a tough, no-nonsense type of woman, but when she's faced with the sheer brutality of Castle's war her facade cracks - she doesn't know what to do when Frank orders her to help him, nor can she do anything but ramble and stammer when she sees his safe-house. But even though she knows where Castle now lives and could easily turn him in, Rucka brings in a brilliant parallel to Norah's boss, Ben Urich, who long ago learned Daredevil's secret identity and endured a similar crisis of conscience as Norah does here. In 22 pages, Norah Winters evolves from a stock character type (sassy female reporter) into a real, true personality.
While Norah's story dominates the majority of the issue, Rucka still takes time to check in with the rest of the supporting cast. Detectives Clemons and Bolt make their appearances, and most importantly we get another look at Rachel Cole-Alves (who, the poor dear, is still correcting people about her last name) and the first spark of her friendship with Norah. It's fairly obvious by this point that Rucka is setting Rachel up as a counterpoint to Frank who will be looking to get revenge on the Exchange, and there are quite a few similarities between the two characters (see the flagging of both characters' military careers during Norah's writing sessions). I'm not sure why "Lady Punisher" seems to be such an intriguing idea for writers - see Lynn Michaels and Jenny Cesare - and it remains to be seen if Rachel will offer anything new to the role.
Naturally, Marco Checchetto and Matt Hollingsworth turn in another beautiful issue on the artistic side, and it's nice to see that Checchetto is obviously becoming more comfortable on the series with each new installment. His work on Frank in this chapter shows a man who is not just hurt, he's gravely wounded in near shocking ways, particularly with the wound and bandage across his left eye. And the colors, jesus do they look amazing, especially the use of such vibrant blues and reds; a lot of times colorists don't differentiate to much of a degree when the scene calls for daytime or night, but here the book seems drenched in darkness while still remaining crystal clear.
Each issue of this series has been better than the one before it, and this one is no exception.
Grade: A+
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