Writer: Tom Piccirilli; Artist: Laurence Campbell; Colorist: Lee Loughridge
The Punisher prepares to kill Maxwell Hawthorne, but a lost girl, Becky, interrupts him. Punisher pauses his mission to help Becky find her father. While they search, Punisher buys Becky a Sally Stylish doll, which he recalls his daughter Lisa had years ago. They find Becky's father, and Punisher uses him to steady his shot to kill Hawthorne. Punisher warns the father to never let Becky out of his sight.
"Gateway"
Writer: Gregg Hurwitz; Artist: Das Pastoras
Gateway meets with Drago family Consigliere George Apostolo and brings Tommy Drago's order to kill Francesco Drago to Enzo Gaucci. In Central Park, the Castle family is caught in the crossfire when Enzo attacks Francesco and the Germaine twins. Later, a fellow Marine visits Frank in the hospital, telling him that Gateway passed on the information that led to the Castle family deaths. Frank returns home where a half-eaten family breakfast is still on the table. Castle grabs his shotgun, travels to Gateway's home, and kills the information courier.
"Ghoul"
Writer: Duane Swierczynski; Artist: Tomm Coker; Colorist: Dan Freedman
Sgt. Hickey sells the shirt Frank Castle Jr. was wearing the day he was killed on an auction site for a five figure sum. He leaves to meet someone selling the Castle family picnic blanket, but is ambushed. Hickey wakes up in his apartment where the Punisher cuts off one of his fingers. Punisher tells Hickey to buy back all of the items he's sold over the years and document their destruction, or Hickey will lose his arm next. Punisher leaves a bag of money to pay for the items. later, Hickey prepares to destroy Frank Jr.'s toy police car.
"Father's Day"
Writer: Peter Milligan; Artist: Goran Parlov; Colorist: Lee Loughridge
In a motel room, the Punisher sews his wounds closed while he recalls a letter his daughter Lisa wrote to him entitled "I feel safe when you are with me" on the day she was killed.
Title: "The Smallest Bit of This"
Writer: Charlie Huston; Artist: Ken Lashley; Inker: Rob Stull; Colorist: Edgar Delgado
Surrounded by dead mobsters in a burning bar, the Punisher and the only surviving mobster, both armed with knives, scramble for a gun. As they struggle, Punisher imagines his family surviving the attack in Central Park and growing old. When the mobster stabs Punisher the vigilante imagines dying along with his family. When Punisher kills the mobster, he imagines his family surviving alone. Punisher is satisfied when he emerges victorious.
Review:
The first volume of Punisher MAX reaches its final issue with a mix of short stories that range from great to just plain awful. I figure the fairest way to review this issue is to just go story by story and give comments, otherwise I'll be here all day.
The first story is a 9-pager called "Dolls" by Tom Piccirilli and Laurence Campbell, and its decent enough I suppose. Piccirilli is a writer that I am totally unfamiliar with - though I'm assuming he comes from a crime fiction background, like most of the other writers in this issue - and he seems to have a solid handle on the Punisher. There have been quite a few stories over the years about Frank bonding with a child, complete with the obligatory flashbacks to his own children, and this story doesn't really offer anything new to that formula. I did like the bit with Castle using the girl's father as a rifle stand to make his kill shot, and his advice at the issue's end to "never let her out of your sight" is less a warning than a plea from one father to another. Campbell has become a bit of a staple for these inconsequential MAX stories, having drawn the majority of issues since Garth Ennis' departure, and his work here has the same problems I've had with his previous issues; namely, there's just not enough flash to it. Everything looks somber and depressing in a Campbell story, and while that mood certainly works for a lot of Punisher stories I'm not so sure it fits this one. I did like the panels with no background elements other than the falling snow, that was a nice touch.
Next up is "Gateway" by Gregg Hurwitz and Das Pastoras, and it was probably my favorite of the five stories. Like all of the stories in this issue, this one focuses on the death of the Castle family, but the approach it takes is so different that it immediately stands out from the pack. The actions of Gateway and his murder by Frank fit seamlessly into the framework provided by Ennis in "The Cell", but there's a nagging detail that hit me at the story's end. Gateway is the middle man between the people that actually killed the Castles, and I definitely get why Frank killed him - he destroys lives while hiding behind a "nothing personal, just business" lifestyle - but why wouldn't Frank question him before the kill to find out who actually pulled the trigger in the park? It's a moot question, since it would neither fit into the 8 pages provided for it nor would it really fit with "The Cell", but it still puzzles me. The artwork by Pastoras (another creator unfamiliar to me) is really unique, and it makes the pages leap out at you while you're reading, particularly the last page. I'm reminded a bit of Frank Quitely and Richard Corben, and that is certainly a compliment.
"Ghoul" is the third story, this one by Duane Swierczynski and Tomm Coker, two creators whose work I've highly enjoyed in the past. This was my second favorite story in the issue, it gets its point across in just 6 pages and doesn't over stay its welcome. The idea of a cop selling the Castle family's belongings on eBay is a ghastly idea, and it's one of those ideas that I can't believe no one else had thought of before this. The Punisher is a cult figure in the MAX universe, books have been written about him and people can buy his skull shirt in stores, so of course there would be a group of ghoulish collectors looking to buy "memorabilia" like this. Hickey calls the buyers "sickos" without realizing that his profit off a family massacre makes him the real "ghoul", and though he's not committing any crime I still wanted to see Frank punish him. As we've seen in past stories, the one surefire way to break through Frank's stone-like emotional wall is to fuck with his family and their memory, and I'm surprised the writer held Castle back as much as he did. Coker draws some wonderfully moody panels, with most of the story being lit only by the light from a computer monitor.
"Father's Day", by Peter Milligan and Goran Parlov, is pretty much a "greatest hits" clip show, with each panel showing a flashback to each Ennis MAX storyarc in descending order from last to first. Other than the novelty of seeing series regular Parlov draw scenes from every MAX arc, what the hell was the point of this? Milligan can be a great writer (and can also be a terrible writer, it's true), but to even call this a "story" is a stretch of what that word means. The narration letter by Lisa Castle is sweet and sad, especially when it shows that she was writing it on the day she died, but it doesn't connect with the clip show panels until the last two pages. Parlov is great and all, but I'd have rather see him draw an actual new story instead of just retreading stuff we've already seen.
Finally, we come to "The Smallest Bit of This", which is easily the worst story in the issue. I've read through this 9 page story several times, and I still can't figure out just what the hell it is trying to convey. Charlie Huston is a writer that I've long felt to be over-hyped, starting with his mediocre relaunch of Moon Knight and the god awful "PunisherMAX: Hot Rods of Death" one-shot, and the narration in this story is so overblown and melodramatic instead of deep and thoughtful. But this story could have been saved if it had an artist that was capable of telling a story instead of Ken Lashley, whose sketchy, half-finished panels do the worst art job in a Punisher comic since...well, since the last time I can remember, to be honest. Until I read the synopsis from the Punisher Index, I had no idea what the flashback panels were supposed to be about (and how they figured it out beats me, this thing is unintelligible). Ugh, I hate this story and everyone involved with making it should feel ashamed of themselves.
This isn't really the end of the series, considering that the main series narrative ended 15 issues before and there was a relaunch of the book a month after this was released. But I think I liked this issue overall, with 3 good-to-great stories, 1 that rated as a healthy mediocre, and just 1 that was god damned unreadable. Three out of five ain't bad.
Grade: B-
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