Punisher 4, She-Hulk 3

Punisher 4
Edmondson (w) and Gerads (a and c)

Captured by Dos Soles and Electro, Punisher is in a bit of a bind. Electro tortures him while the leader of the Dos Soles promises that he'll earn money loaning Punisher out to be tortured to other villains who have been hurt by his actions. Electro has no intention of letting Punisher live that long but doesn't mention that bit to the Dos Soles' leader. After the drug lord leaves the room, Electro continues to brag to Punisher before Punisher kicks out at the chest of Electro and propels himself, chair and all, through a window behind him. Freed from his chains on impact, he rushes to one of the bombs in the room, daring the Dos Soles who saw his escape to shoot him. He manages to get a gun from one of them and he works his way through the building before the Dos Soles' leader detonates the building, preferring not to leave anything behind. Punisher reunites with Tuggs and tells him that the Soles are planning a citywide strike on LA with Electro, who is also working with AIM and has come to work with the Dos Soles as part of an arrangement with AIM (though Frank doesn't know this part yet). While Frank sets out to shut them down, Tuggs is captured by the new Howling Commandoes closing in on Punisher. A new wrench is going to be thrown into everything, though, as AIM hires another mercenary to work for whatever their plan is: former X-Man/X-Force member Domino.

Like BLACK WIDOW, Edmondson is here writing another story about a strong protagonist who is good at what he does even if what he does is arguably "good." He also makes sure that the protagonist has a strong narrative running throughout, something important for both books that he's writing right now. With BLACK WIDOW, he has to ensure that she's not characterized as cold or heartless; Noto's art helps bunches with that because she's so very human in the art but having a running narrative of the way she thinks helps tremendously. In that same way, Punisher is brutal and efficient in his methods and he's very steadfast in what he believes, all of which has put him toe-to-toe with unambiguously "good" superheroes time and again. Giving him a strong narrative and putting his very human thoughts there (as writers sometimes use the "Punisher's War Journal" entries to do, though I think it's less effective than a straight shot into his mind) humanize him in a way that his actions never could. Strong issue here and plenty of story to follow as Punisher's new universe gets a bit bigger every issue.

She-Hulk 3
Soule (w) and Pulido (a) and Vicente (c)

She-Hulk has been approached by Kristoff Vernard, son of Dr. Doom, seeking asylum in the United States. As the two go out for coffee so she can hear his case, he says that he's being kept in Latveria and groomed to be the next ruler of the nation, which may be okay except that he knows he wouldn't be a ruler in his own right, he'd be the ruler holding all of Doom's positions and doing only what he wanted. He wants to be allowed to experience the world for himself and he knows Doom will never allow it. She agrees to help him but, since he's been in America for exactly a year at this point, they have to get the paperwork in that day. She calls in a favor with a judge and they get into Kristoff's car. His driver begins to take them to the airport, revealing himself to be a Doombot as they figure out where they're going. She-Hulk stops him and tracks down an old Fantasticar kept at JFK to get them back into the city. On the way in, they're besieged by legions of Doombots as they try to make their way into the courthouse in disguise. One catches what they assume is Kristoff only to find it's Hellcat posing as Kristoff to allow the actual man time to get into the courtroom. He does and She-Hulk rushes in behind him, rather beat up. Given the difficulty it took just getting past Doom and into the court that day, the judge approves his grant for asylum but no sooner does she pound the gavel than does Doom himself descend into the courtroom and drag Kristoff away, with She-Hulk vowing to get him back.

Bold move here as Soule puts She-Hulk right up against Dr. Doom to kick off her brand new series. There's a lot of legal work here as we understand why Kristoff wants asylum and the case in which it can be granted to him, not to mention some of the logistics of gaining asylum. The book kicks off with double page spreads galore as She-Hulk and Kristoff walk through the city with elongated panels stretching between the two pages. It's certainly an interesting layout and makes the story feel almost widescreen, in a way, though it's not a tactic I think I'd enjoy so much on repeated issues (I'm a bit conservative with my fondness for double page spreads, another thing I tend not to enjoy from Bendis). The book flows pretty well, though it's an interestingly paced book. There are long swaths of dialogue as procedure and history is explained but the double page spreads serve to make the book read faster; though there's a lot of dialogue, every page-worth of dialogue is spread across two pages. So the book flows but it's not in a regular sort of way. Still, it works and the book continues to be a pretty fun ride.