Too much art not enough story

"Frank Castle died with his family. Now, he simply is the Punisher. And the war goes on . . ."Fast-moving ensemble story (our titular character is more of a supporting player in this one) with two NYPD investigators - who, at least early on, appear to be intentionally illustrated to resemble Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt in the film Seven - working a wedding massacre quagmire. While the volume did not always feel substantial there were good scenes, such as the hired-gun villain literally swooping...

Fast read! Good story. Just expected more

Rucka instantly sets a mood - gritty, sparse, cryptic, rainy, bloody, heavy. No spare words - no spare emotions. More intense looks, less of the omniscient narrator that spoils a good tense mystery build-up. Checchetto composes some amazing scenes and looks: evocative, nothing unnecessary, and the transitions seem cinematic. Using the comics medium to its greatest effect, Checchetto and Rucka present a vignette - an introduction - in the first issue that rivals some of the most thrilling, heart-...

I'd heard mixed things about this. But I wanted to check it out to try some of Rucka's work, since I'm not that familiar. I also like crime comics, which is what this is, basically.Punisher is almost a background character. It's more about his presence in the world rather than him being front and centre on the panel. For the first issue he doesn't even talk. It's a take that some people won't like. But I always appreciate writers trying to do something new with Marvel characters.The story opens

The skull on Frank Castle's iconic tee is now a melting hominid -- braincase minus mandible as always, but melancholy, proto-human, threatening. In earlier Punisher comics you figured he found a skull shirt in a sewer, but here it's like he designed it from scratch -- it's the only concession to a putative inner life you get in this reboot. And therein lies Rucka's charm. In the past, we always endured some attempt to make the Punisher a fellow human, from his ambiguous origin story to PTSD esca...

Punisher always works best as the strong, silent type. A pastiche of the best 70s action anti-heroes.Writer Greg Rucka and artist Marco Checchetto get this and take it a step further, dropping the inner monologue found in most Punisher stories and presenting the revenge-fueled Frank Castle as a supporting character in his own book.Can you imagine Paul Kersey or Dirty Hero as background characters in their own stories? Well, Rucka and Checchetto make it work with Castle. Likely they realized that...

Now for some actually good Punisher! Overall I liked the art, although it was at times difficult to figure out the action scenes, and some characters looked too alike (and he has one character, an old detective that is clearly traced from shots of Morgan Freeman in Seven). Not much actually happened in this volume, its all a bunch of setup. But that's ok, mostly because I know where its going, having read the one issue crossover that this series had with Mark Waid's Daredevil. Where this story r...

Any Punisher not written by Ennis feels like an imitation. Not bad stuff here. Enough for me to check out Vol. 2.

"Let me ask you a question, Norah: Is there a story here, one you need to report?""Yeah, there's a story here. A big story, maybe.""Not every truth we learn is a story, Norah. Not every story needs to be told. Back when I was on the beat, I learned a secret. A big one, one about a costume. The kind of story that, had I broken it, would've made me famous. Would've made me rich.""And being that you're neither...""Never told a soul what I knew. To this day.""Why not?""Because the only person it wou...

The Punisher can be written really bad sometimes...but this is Greg Rucka. So we get the opposite here. Actually, Rucka decides to try a new spin on things. Instead of focusing on Punisher himself he gives more of the book time on the cops and law enforcement as well as regular people view point on events including the Punisher. It gives the Punisher the more "grand" mythos you hear from bad guys but it's a nice twist here. Seeing the Punisher in action without the Max title and it's still prett...

I wasn't sure about this series. I loved the first movie and hated the second (I'm totally excluding the very first movie with Dolph Lundgren, which was execrable), and I am not 100% sold on the idea of the Punisher. I like some vigilantes, such as Batman and Daredevil. I can understand what drives them to use force and violence in the cause of justice. In the case of the Punisher, his justice is very final and brutal. He doesn't kill innocent people, but if you're a violent criminal, you're fai...

So Greg Rucka does the Punisher. The Punisher is one of my favorite characters, thus I appreciate it when writers make him into a smart, ruthless, merciless killing machine. Rucka's Punisher does a good job on that account. While this is a "reboot" of sorts, Punisher fighting in the ME versus 'Nam, the main facet of what makes the Punisher the Punisher remains- the guilty must be punished.Rucka's Punisher is well done. He is grim and a man of few words-in fact he says no more than a dozen throug...

I'm back on the Greg-Rucka-train! This time focusing on The Punisher.💀This reads like a detective story: Punisher rarely shows up. The art on the other hand, is excellent!

Your basic Punisher story wrapped up with a new creative team.Innocents shot at a wedding. Punisher comes. Punisher kills. Actually, Frank Castle is so monolithic in T-800 mode that the rest of the cast shines all the better, even though they still have to be developed: the pair of detectives, one of them being a snitch for Castle and the upstart blonde journalist in a Urich/Daredevil situation. Nothing too original but it can do the trick if played correctly in next volumes.Another POI would be...

Greg Rucka, I love you. Man can't write a book worth a damn, but puts his hand on a comic script and becomes Raymond Chandler. Just like Mark Waid on Daredevil, Rucka is bringing the Punisher up out of the zany, silly, slapstick corner that other writers painted him into. A complete revamp of the character and series by Rucka could make this one of the best books Marvel has to offer. Especially with the way their top writers like Bendis and Aaron like to go overboard on their books, its nice to

I’ve read few Punisher comics not written by Garth Ennis, but I’d heard Rucka’s run was worth checking out. After this first book, I agree. This is basically a noir/crime story like much of Rucka’s work. There’s a wedding massacre and mob vengeance, while we mainly follow two detectives (and a journalist) on the trail. As for Frank, Rucka doesn’t use narration. Instead, Frank is a supporting character. We see him upfront, but more often he’s a looming presence in the shadows, a very real threat

Read in the comics: Rucka adds to the cast. This artist is quite good. Matt Hollingsworth's color art adds quite a bit. But, it's still the Punisher...

Read this for work when it first came out; still hasn't grown on me. I mean, I love Rucka, but his version of the Punisher is so shallow and bland that I can't help but be pulled out of the story by the inconsistent bits. (Maybe this isn't the book to show off how much you love the Chevy SS.) If this was only about Alves and Winters? Four stars. But this isn't my Frank.

The Punisher is great, but this isn't his best incarnation. The vulture is a terribly lame assassin. He scoops up his targets and drops them to their deaths. one would think with that MO he would be adept at getting people to let go, but the Punisher climbs him like a ladder and stabs him to death. The idea of a female Frank Castle, clearly being set up in the sole survivor of a wedding massacre, could be interesting, but I don't know what a gender bent Punisher does for the world. I think that