Review: The Punisher - From First To Last HC

The Punisher: From First To Last HC
Written By Garth Ennis
Art By John Severin, Lewis Larosa and Scott Koblish, and Richard Corben
Published By Marvel Comics. $19.99 USD

There's always plenty to criticize Marvel Comics for, but give them credit for the good stuff as well, some of which gets taken for granted, like Garth Ennis' Punisher stories. Ennis has managed in his five or so years as regular scribe to actually get better, which is rare in ongoing series these days. On the contrary, most of the time a writer tells the stories he really wants to tell in the first year or two, or else stretches out that big story so much readers stop caring when he finally gets to the end. Ennis started off looking at the Punisher as a very cartoonish, fascist character, not unlike his work on Judge Dredd. As his artist Steve Dillon is suited to depicting ultraviolence and deadpan facial expressions, but not nuance or pathos, so did Ennis give him plenty of gore and chuckles to draw, the results so much like a DePalma/Schwarzenegger movie that never happened.

But along the way, something happened, and it seems that Ennis grew to love that big lug Frank Castle, or at least to love the opportunity to tell more sophisticated crime stories. Some would point to The Punisher becoming a MAX title as the beginning of this, but it was really a year, year-and-a-half prior to that. Indeed, the first MAX storyline saw Ennis taking advantage of the increased freedom to have more blood and profanity, but while that is always a part of his work, he seems to be taking the character more seriously now.

From First To Last is a good example of this. It collects three one-shots that are independent of the ongoing series. They are also independent of each other, though thematically they go together nicely, as one is a kind of origin story, one is a contemporary stand-alone adventure, and the last imagines the very last Punisher adventure.

One might call the choice to use John Severin on "The Tyger," the story of Frank Castle as an NYC youth, inspired, but really, is there anything he can't draw well? Though of course he's well-known for war comics, his style has mellowed with age and it fits the innocent tone Ennis is going for here. It's not really a Punisher story, as it's Frank as a skinny, artistic kid, but it does fill in, in a natural and not obvious way, some of the background for why Frank would want to protect the innocent when he grows up. It's an excellent story with a nice twist in it and some remarkable character work, such as Frank's mom standing up to her husband in one of the only ways a wife could in the '50s. Even if you care nothing about The Punisher, this story is worth tracking down in its original one-shot, as it's one of the better pieces Marvel has published in years, and one of Ennis' best as well.

"The Cell" is drawn by frequent Punisher MAX art team Larosa (pencils) and Koblish (inks) and is much more in line with typical Punisher stories than the preceding, and following, stories. Frank turns himself in and ends up on Riker's Island, whereupon he stirs up a lot of trouble in order to get to a small group of mobsters who are living quite well there. See, this family caused the deaths of Frank's wife and children. But Frank (and Ennis) don't just go for violent retribution and creative cruelty; Frank has learned a secret one of these old men has kept from his Don, and it's a secret to tear them all apart with little further effort from Frank. The art is grimly realistic; you won't find a kind face or anything of beauty here. It's all brutality. Actually, after reading this one I had to wait a while to get to the final story, as "The Cell" is so heavy one may need something lighter to wash it away with. Excellent done-in-one effort, though.

The final story, "The End," is the closest to the tone of the stories during the Dillon era, but with some extra qualities to it that surpasses them. First, there's Richard Corben, whose style of deformed, driven little men is utterly appropriate to this apocolypitic story. Also, there is a real sense of despair here. While the early Punisher stuff from Ennis laughed in the face of the horrors of the world, this story is about when there's no more laughing about it. When it's just time to end it. Not to be too cryptic--the story is about a secret, Illuminati-type group of old men who are helped cause a global nuclear war to thin the herd and are on their way to their secret shelters, but they didn't reckon on Frank Castle freeing himself from prison, or that he cannot be bought and would rather wipe Humanity's slate clean than let them live on. It's really chilling and rather somber, not at all what one might expect with the premise of "the Punisher at the end of the world."

An excellent stand-alone collection, this book finds Ennis and his collaborators at the top of their games. The hardcover has no extras, but no matter.