Review: PunisherMAX #3
“Kingpin: Part Three”
PunisherMAX #3 cover
Writer: Jason Aaron
Art: Steve Dillon
Colors: Matt Hollingsworth
Letters: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover: Dave Johnson
I have a confession. When I was young and would watch reruns of the original Spider-Man cartoon I would eagerly await the title of the episode to find out which bad guy our friendly neighborhood web-slinger was going to fight. “The Golden Rhino?” Goofy, yet fun. “Where Crawls The Lizard?” Also goofy, and set in my home state of Florida!
Deep down, however, I think I most enjoyed the episodes with Kingpin. All those other bad guys had byzantine origins and crazy powers– The Radiation Specialist levitating Manhattan in the stratosphere is an image that sticks with me to this very day. Kingpin was just a hardtack crime boss. That’s it. There wasn’t a special anti-serum Peter had to conjure at the last second to save the day, no deus ex Achilles’ heel. Even if Kingpin was behind a goofy scheme of some sort, it still came down the guy just being a deceptively big man, up to no good, who could throw you headfirst through the nearest door.
Needless to say, I was excited to hear that Jason Aaron was not only going to take on this character, but pair him up with the other big just-a-guy badass of the Marvel universe, Frank Castle. I deeply enjoyed Aaron’s The Punisher X-Mas Special one-shot back in 2008, and this new series is equally unapologetic about what it is, as best suits Frank.
While Frank is solidly written, grim and relentless, it’s Wilson Fisk and his origin (Is this a technically a reboot? A re-imagining? Yes? I know the MAX imprint is its own timeline…) that really shines. Aaron’s obviously having fun writing the character’s seemingly inevitable journey from hired hood to supreme crime boss.
Dillon’s exceptionally clean art is just as ultra-violent and unflinching as you would expect. So unflinching, in fact, that when I read the first issue, I informed Janice that while I found Dillion’s depiction of one particular bit of violent ocular mayhem hilarious, she might prefer to avoid it. While nothing in the following issues has so far reached that level of gore, there’s at least one moment in each one where you have to stop and check that, yes, someone has indeed drawn what you just saw. Each issue so far has made me laugh out loud while reading, though, so I’d say it’s working.
This does say it’s a Punisher book on the cover– is it wrong that part of me hopes Kingpin doesn’t suffer the usual fate of someone in Frank Castle’s gunsights by the closing curtain? As strong as the first half of the arc has been so far, I look forward to finding out.
[...] as the Hellblazer-loving VFX geek he is, then offered up a review of Jason Aaron’s latest PunisherMAX [...]