SPEED ROUND: Punisher 6, New Warriors 5

Quick note to start: having a pretty busy weekend (they're only going to get busier from here, it seems, but I'm going to do my best here) and so the last two sets of reviews this week, both set to drop today, will be done in SPEED ROUND fashion, where I tell very little about the comics (though especially these two deserve a little more) and just drop a rating in. Sorry for all of the format changes recently but such are the ways of a blogger on a limited schedule.


Punisher 6
Edmondson (w) and Gerads (a and c) and Petit (l)

Punisher nearly kills Electro but is stopped by a reluctant Domino, allowing both mercs to escape. He sets out to stop Guillermo Del Sol but finds himself caught in an explosion, seemingly killing Del Sol. He's caught in two more explosions and eventually shot through the back as he lands on a moving city bus by the Howling Commandos, still hot on his trail.

The book keeps its intensity up and manages to fit three nice explosions in (impressively, they all look really good too) without it going so over the top it loses itself. Instead, Punisher even points out how much he's getting blown up. It's smart and quick writing and it's easy to lose yourself in this book, as it's been pretty easy throughout its run so far. Very strong stuff coming from Edmondson on both this and BLACK WIDOW and equally strong stuff from Gerads on this title.

Total Score: 5/5


New Warriors 5
Yost (w) and Roche (a) and Redmond (c) and Caramagna (l)

Still examining things to do with the High Evolutionary, the New Warriors (minus Nova, home per his mom's request) have made their way to the Wundagore Mountains to investigate possible monsters in the mountain. While Justice, Scarlet Spider, and Water Snake search the mountain (complete with Water Snake seeing visions of the whole team dead), Speedball, Hummingbird, Sun Girl, and Haechi make sure the villagers are fine (they are) and chat together. In the mountain are an evolved dog and cat who agree to return the team home but plan to do it by teleporting the mountain to New York.

The book continues to be a lot of fun and Nick Roche's art here matches the tone of this issue, which is a little more humorous and light, brilliantly, right up to and including when Hummingbird questions Speedball's involvement in Stamford and his time as Penance, which silences Speedball for just about the only time we've seen so far. It's a deep, dark moment juxtaposed against the lightness and fun of the issue (minus, of course, the visions Water Snake's having). Definitely worth reading this title, which is something of a breath of fresh air in exactly the sort of way Yost's SCARLET SPIDER was.

Total Score 5/5



BOY I wish I had swapped CYCLOPS and LOKI with these two because I didn't say much about those books and I have more about these books but TOO LATE FOR WISHES NOW.

Black Widow 6, Punisher 5, Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 2

Black Widow 6
Edmondson (w) and Noto (a) and Cowles (l)

Black Widow has been captured and has spent her interrogation trying to learn what she can about her captors but it's only led her to realize that they're more scared than anything, desperately striking out while they can at anything that could give them information. She breaks out of her bonds when the time is right and begins to make her way down to Damon Dran, who has apparently reconstructed Molot Boga in the hopes that the new steel Hammer of God will be able to protect him from whatever's after him. Widow throws him overboard and captures Dran but whoever it is that's after him has infiltrated SHIELD to some extent as well, turning one of their officers who delivers a poisonous gas to Dran in his cell. Not knowing who she can trust, Natasha returns to her regular life and gets her new assignment from Isaiah.

Story
Edmondson is doing something really interesting with this series so far. He's telling quick stories, getting in and out with a good read on the character and a good sense of what these sorts of missions are. Of course, between this new ongoing plot line and the Iron Scorpion plot line from issue two, there are plenty of directions still to go out there but neither requires immediate action. Instead, they create an atmosphere around Natasha, one that shows the world seemingly closing in around her and closing her off (there's a nice theme through this one that she can't trust anyone and that it's possible she'll need friends going forward with Hawkeye tossed out as a possibility). 5/5

Character
The biggest character movements here are seeing Widow using her interrogation to learn more about her enemies, something not uncommon to Widow's character (even enough that it was referenced in The Avengers), and when she realizes just how alone she is. Seeing how she copes with that, if she decides to pursue allies or pushes forward alone, will show a lot about her character while also allowing us a glimpse behind her process. Really looking forward to it. 5/5

Writing
Edmondson, on top of getting in and out of stories relatively quickly, even the ones that he leaves open-ended to return to later, knows that fewer words can often tell more. There's limited dialogue and limited narration, never distracting from the story or the art but still doing more than enough to convey the plot and the character and everything else he may need to do. Natasha has always seemed a terse character and Edmondson isn't afraid to let her action do the talking. Of course, that's made easier when you have Phil Noto doing astonishing work on the book. 5/5

Art
Gorgeous book with phenomenal characters, solid emotion, great action, and perfect colors. I've already said it all about this series but Noto continues to impress. This issue kicks off with a full page panel of a close-up on Natasha's punched face and it still looks phenomenal. I put this issue down, as I do with seemingly every new release from this book, going "geez, this book is great to look at." 5/5

Miscellaneous
Man, it's going to get a five. It'd be nice if she had her memories of Bucky because NATASHA, I KNOW SOMEONE YOU COULD TRUST.

Total score: 5/5


Punisher 5
Edmondson (w) and Gerads (a) and Petit (l)

The Commandos after Frank tagged the coyote Loot with a tracker and waited while he traveled from Tuggs' place to Frank's hideout. Frank returns to Tuggs, freeing him from his binds, but doesn't have time to think on who attacked him as Electro has just shut down all power to the city. With the power out and the green light given, the Dos Sols attack every cop they can find, killing off police officers with abandon and creating havoc while their boss prepares to trigger the chemical weapon. Punisher finds him and manages to slow him down, nearly able to kill him, before Electro arrives and strikes at Punisher.

Story
The attack on LA is ramping up quickly as the Dos Sols begin to shoot cops and wrap their hand around the city. Guillermo, their leader, is ready to kill the city to show his strength and to advertise his gang to any who would join up. Meanwhile, the Commandos are still after Punisher and the other characters that have joined Frank's new life are all getting enough screen time to show that they'll warrant some attention here as well. Another strong outing from Edmondson as he shows a city in real chaos (which is, coincidentally, a buzzword in this week's BLACK WIDOW as well). 5/5

Character
It continues to be hard to judge Castle's character as he continues to be someone who plays things pretty close to the vest and doesn't have the benefit that, say, BLACK WIDOW has because there's not a lot of narration to show the reader what's really going through Frank's mind. Still, the speed with which he reacts to Loot's presence and his single-mindedness to stop the Dos Sols and Electro say a lot about him. Like with BLACK WIDOW (it's hard not to compare the books as they star protagonists who are similar in their demeanor and sort of in their skills and as they're both written by the same guy right now), Edmondson keeps it pretty short with Frank's dialogue and allows the art to do the talking for the character. It's strong work and it can be rare to see in a Marvel book but Edmondson is doing well in both his books. 5/5

Writing
Covered a lot of this section both in the story and character sections and in my BLACK WIDOW review, honestly. This story, obviously, is more of a traditional long arc than what B-Widz is going through right now but that makes sense with who Punisher is. You don't send Black Widow into a Punisher story any more than you'd send Punisher into a Black Widow story. Though they're presented in a similar fashion in some of the technical stuff, the stories are pretty diverse and I think Edmondson is showing a lot of poise in crafting them the way they need to be crafted. 5/5

Art
Mitch Gerads is doing really cool stuff with this book both in the action sequences and in the colors. It's a very dark book but he continues to mix in moments that are a bit lighter in their presentation if not in their tone, necessarily. Of course, this issue is largely darker because the power's gone out all around the city and cops are being killed in droves. Still, everyone has a very distinct look and Frank and Electro fighting has the sort of kinetic energy (and electric energy) that it should. 5/5

Miscellaneous
It's a testament to this book that I'm not sure I'm coming around a lot on Frank Castle as a character but I'm still finding this series remarkably engaging and well executed.

Total score: 5/5


Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 2
K. Andrews (w and a) and Caramagna (l)

Danny has to rush to K'un Lun, which isn't supposed to intersect with this plane for years still to come. Fortunately, he has a secret path back secreted away under Rand Tower, a way to teleport into the magic city. While the girl Brenda calls an ambulance for the messenger in Danny's apartment, Danny recalls more of his childhood, now remembering the crazed look in his mother's eye as she swears Danny to avenge his family on Harold and as she sacrifices herself to the wolves so Danny can make it to K'un Lun. Now he's apparently made it to K'un Lun, overrun by the cybernetic ninjas that attacked his apartment, where just days ago Davos, son of the original Thunderer, attacks his sister, who has since taken on the mantle of Thunderer while their father has taken on the role of Yu-Ti, leader of K'un Lun. When Danny finally arrives in K'un Lun, he finds it aflame with what seems to be a decapitated Shou-Lao front and center.

Story
Andrews really throws it all at us right at once, which is a gutsy move for someone delving so deep into K'un Lun history in just the second issue. We see Davos, we see the Thunderer, we see Shou-Lao, we see more Iron Fist origin, etc. It's kind of stunning all presented in there and it shows a lot of guts to hope that readers who may not know all of this will understand it as we push forward and that they'll stick with the book long enough to see how it fits together or where it's going. Still, the story itself is something of a mystery but what we need to know now is that there's discontent in K'un Lun and that someone somehow related to its past is transformed and attacking. It's an interesting story but we'll have to see where it goes now. 4/5

Character
There's a bit more to Danny revealed here particularly as Andrews ekes out the last bit of his childhood origin in this issue and as we get a slightly better sense of his voice through the narration and the way he views himself. We also get a quick tutorial in the way Davos thinks, which will undoubtedly be important, and we get a quick look at the new Yu-Ti (new-ish, anyway. I think this is one of the first times we've seen him acting as Yu-Ti). There are moving parts all around here and the story is at the forefront so there's maybe a little less character than the first issue's initial information dump but there's still a bit here to learn about. You can't expect every issue to come with major revelations. 4/5

Writing
The tone, helped along by the art and the color, is decidedly dark and hectic, all of which comes through pretty strongly here. Andrews deciding not to go into tons of detail about who these characters are and how their lives fit together may be a somewhat risky move in terms of keeping readers onboard but it makes sense as far as establishing a frantic tone and keeping an air of mystery to the book. It's a clever move, we'll just have to see if it pays off as we continue. 4/5

Art
Andrews' art continues to be pretty outstanding and the colors really help to set the tone effectively. The switches between looking at the present and looking at Danny's past are made more interesting and made easier to see as Andrews switches art forms a little bit and switches color palettes while also giving the past sections a more classic comic book faded feel. It's effective and it's useful to establish what's going on in a book that can come off so chaotic at times, intentional or not. 5/5

Miscellaneous
Another strong issue though there are real concerns about how vague and cryptic Andrews is going to be as we push forward. Obviously way too early to tell if this is a real concern just yet.

Total score: 4/5

Loki: Agent of Asgard 2, Punisher 3, She-Hulk 2

Loki: Agent of Asgard 2
Ewing (w) and Garbett (a) and Woodard (c)

Loki is hot on the trail of Lorelai, Asgardian and younger sister of Amora the Enchantress with whom both Thor (thanks to Loki's magic) and Loki (thanks to Loki) have had romantic trysts. The All-Mother wants all Asgardians returned home and so have tasked Loki with finding Lorelai and bringing her back, but he's not entirely forthright with them (as is his way). He's after Lorelai, sure, but it's for his own purposes. He finds her robbing a casino and manages to scare her off from it in the midst of the heist, from within the vault, but it allows him to track her movements afterwards. She's gone back to ground which means conning people at speed dating so Loki finds himself at speed dating telling this whole story of Lorelai to fellow speed dater and new female lead for the book Verity Willis, a girl who cannot be lied to. Well, she can, but she'll know it was a lie. She won't necessarily know the truth but she'll know that's not it. I couldn't be rolling my eyes ANY HARDER, DEAR READERS.

Lorelai makes her return to the 616 after, coincidentally, an appearance in Marvel's Agents of SHIELD just this very Tuesday. Call it fate, call it karma, but now Lorelai is taking over very small parts of the Marvel Universe. That's not really why I'm here though, is it? No, no it's not. I'm here to talk about Verity Willis, a redheaded girl covered in tattoos who is able to see through Loki's disguise as an older and non-costumed up human when he appears in front of her at speed dating. The problem I have with Verity Willis is OH MY GOD SO MANY. Look, Al Ewing has gained some good faith in my book. I liked his short times on AVENGERS ASSEMBLE and some of the other AGE OF ULTRON tie-in books and I've come around on his MIGHTY AVENGERS and I liked the first issue of this series. I don't even hate this issue. My problem with Verity Willis is that she feels SO VERY FORCED. Ignoring the fact that her given name, apparently, is Verity (and she's had this power seemingly forever so don't tell me she's an Inhuman whose power reflects her inner self because I WILL NOT BELIEVE YOU, THEY DON'T MANIFEST UNTIL ADOLESCENCE AND ALSO INHUMANITY JUST HAPPENED so I ask you how could she even have been EXPOSED to the Terrigen Mists), she is so blatantly the counter to Loki that it is a ridiculous story. I talked a lot about how Nuke was interesting in recent CAPTAIN AMERICA comics or, perhaps even more applicably, how Dr. Mindbubble is an interesting foil because both Nuke and Mindbubble have different aspects of Captain America in their origin or in their actions but both are very clearly fighting for something at odds with Cap. However, both are also DEEPER than their connection to Cap so they can exist elsewhere. Verity Willis, even after just one issue, is so clearly writer's room'd around Loki that it's crazy. It's really hard to get past, you guys.

The issue does a lot of other stuff that I'm not so onboard with, including somewhat distracting layouts and looks that aren't dissimilar to, for example, HAWKEYE 8, which found Cherry sending Hawkeye comics the rang of old romance novels. Here's the thing: this may be unfair, but it was great in HAWKEYE and it doesn't work for me here. Part of it is simply that LOKI's attempt came second and it's never good to come second in something innovative like this. Part of it too is that it doesn't really fit; when HAWKEYE did it, Fraction and Aja and Annie Wu (who drew the various romance-style covers spread throughout the book) put it in several times, making it the tone of the comic and ensuring it became part of the layout. LOKI does it once and does a couple other weird things with captions here and there and it gives the comic a "we're really trying too hard" feel. Sorry about the three paragraphs here guys, noticed that it was running a little long and wanted to break it up a bit more (also I just looked back at some of my old, less uniformed stuff on the blog and some of it is REALLY hard to read with the layout I haphazardly used. Whatever, guys).

Punisher 3
Edmondson (w) and Gerads (a and c)

Punisher is up against Electro on an LA highway and quickly realizes he's outmatched. He hasn't planned for this fight and Electro has, leaving Frank at a distinct disadvantage. He manages to create a diversion by shooting the gas tank of his own previously exited RV and escapes to be picked up by Tuggs, coyote in tow, later. Castle and Tuggs talk about what Electro could be doing with the Dos Soles but can't come to any real conclusions. Frank goes back to the well of one of his intimidated (by which I mean really-beat-up) informants and learns where the Soles are holed up. He prepares to strike at their compound but realizes that he's, perhaps, underestimated his opponents. He still does solid work taking down the Soles' guards, even managing to pretty safely transition from roof to ground, until Electro gets the drop on him and knocks him down, promising to bring him to the boss.

More intense fighting and more hunting down the Soles drives this issue. We're not getting anything particularly earth-shattering in the presentation of this iteration of Punisher but what we are still getting is a solid presentation of a comic book. It's well-written and well-illustrated. The tone is very consistent and exactly the sort of tone we need on a Punisher book. On top of that, the story is compelling and the pacing is perfect, which may save it from becoming boring from people who haven't really been Punisher fans in the past, perhaps because the idea of just shooting through hordes of gang members doesn't really appeal to them (guys, I'm talking about me here, it's not all that veiled). I think it's a testament to Edmondson and Gerads that I'm enjoying this book since I feel like I really shouldn't be. It has a lot of the token pieces that makes Punisher uninteresting to me without really adding anything huge of interest but I am still interested in this series. It's the power of tone and pacing more than anything else (though I'm also pretty into the art style of this one too). Hopefully it continues to be solid as we push forward.

She-Hulk 2
Soule (w) and Pulido (a) and Vicente (c)

She-Hulk has moved into her own law office in a brick building leased out by an ex-mutant who has leased the building exclusively to people with powers, knowing how hard it can be for such people to find office or living space in New York, given the liabilities they are. She-Hulk's first order of business is hiring an assistant, which she does when everyone waiting flees for some mysterious reason and she's left with one applicant, Angie Huang, a strange woman with an impressive resumé and a pet monkey named Hei Hei. The second order of business is finding business. As she has no clients (except the case that her former law firm sent her away with where she and several other super-powered and super-powered associates are defendants), she makes a few calls only to find herself met with resistance from everyone. She calls it a day and goes out at night with Patsy Walker, AKA Hellcat. Hellcat is having problems of her own and ends up having, perhaps, a little too much to drink and insists that She-Hulk come with her to beat up some bad guys. They crash a secret AIM base Hellcat learned about from a SHIELD agent during some date and they're attacked by the two AIM agents stationed there. She-Hulk easily takes down the guy in full robot suit she's fighting with but Hellcat has been captured by the other. She-Hulk threatens him but ultimately says that they can just walk away from this if he lets Hellcat go. He does, the heroes tie them up, and they all go on their way. The next day, She-Hulk gets her first client, Kristoff Vernard, son of Victor Von Doom, wishing to defect from Latveria.

I try to ignore other reviews, no matter how small they may be, when I'm preparing my own review. I prefer to go in with my own opinions, get them out of the way, then realize how wrong I am. In this case, though, I saw some tweets from cartoonist Darryl Ayo that talked about giving away SHE-HULK 1 halfway through it then read all of SHE-HULK 2 because it was a much more confident comic. I see some level of truth to that; I do think that SHE-HULK 2 is already feeling more confident about its place and in its main character than SHE-HULK 1 maybe did. On the flip-side, I do believe that SHE-HULK 1 was a better story. Granted, there's decidedly not a lot happening in this one; Jen is trying to find work so she's not exactly doing a ton in this issue whereas she had a case set up for her in the first issue. However, I thought this one was more about world-building in a lot of ways than the nice start that issue one had. Still a pretty solid issue here. I think Javier Pulido's art is going to draw a lot of love it/hate it response and I'm not really sure where I fall on it. For what it's worth, I think I really like Muntsa Vicente's colors with Pulido's art. I think that the two of them together are creating a very interesting and colorful world for She-Hulk to live in, something that isn't often true about new books. We'll see about this one, guys. We'll just see.

Punisher 1, Wolverine 1

Punisher 1
Edmondson (w) and Gerads (a and c)

Punisher has moved his operation to the west coast in order to stop some crime out there and to stay off the Avengers radar after things didn't end so well with them on the east coast. He's been out there a little while now and his first major mission is shutting down a drug running ring that ends with a big cartel named Dos Sols. He's made some contacts out in LA too, including an army officer capable of smuggling weapons to him named Tuggs, a young female police officer named Sam, and Louie, a local diner owner. While it seems Tuggs knows Frank's true identity, it's tricky to say whether or not Louie or Sam does (more likely Louie than Sam, who works the Punisher beat). When Frank ends up finding an HQ of Dos Sols and promptly blowing it up, it separates his supporters from his detractors, with some cops, Sam included, lauding him for taking down Dos Sols and some swearing to catch him, including the apparently deputized Howling Commandos.

I had to think about this issue for a while after I read it to try to figure out where I stand on it. Of course, it's kind of a fool's errand to try to figure out where you stand on a series after one issue but we're certainly getting a groundwork to base our future assessment on here. The thing that's most apparent is that Edmondson is very clearly creating a network for Frank to go to, something comprised of people on the ground (like Louie, capable of gossip and someone who supports Punisher because the kinds of crime he sets out to stop are run by criminals who wouldn't fear the Avengers the way they fear the Punisher), people in high arms places (like Tuggs, who seems to genuinely like Frank on top of a clear sympathy to the cause, illustrated by his willingness to smuggle arms out of a military base, an act the discovery of which would ruin him), and cops (like Sam, who has apparently taken a liking to Frank and understands the Punisher's place in the city). In fact, I think probably Frank is the person developed least in this issue but that's got a purpose too: this is still Punisher, the one we've seen for so many years now. Frank Castle wasn't about to come back with some kind of new set of beliefs so why spend too much time establishing what those beliefs are? Good issue and I think that it's more a groundwork laying issue (with some solid action and a couple of kind of fun beats) than many number ones are.

Wolverine 1
Cornell (w) and Stegman and Morales (a) and Curiel (c)

Wolverine is back after getting January off (haha, just kidding, I looked it up and WOLVERINE 13 was less than a month ago) and he's only a couple months removed from the loss of his healing factor and his subsequent beatdown at the hands of Sabretooth. Weeks earlier, he met with Storm to talk about (or distinctly not talk about) his new life as someone who will age and will weaken (if you believe that he's not getting his healing factor back, as he is currently forced to believe). He's averse to using armor and other weaponry at first but then decides he's okay with it and trains with Black Widow on using a sidearm and adopts new armor to protect him. In the present again, he's working with a team comprised of never-before-seen super-powered people named Fuel, Pinch, and Lost Boy to do various jobs for an overseer calling himself "The Offer" because he always makes offers to people that, in a line this book didn't use but very CLEARLY wanted to, they can't refuse. Someone from the Daily Bugle shows up to The Offer, claiming to be a contact from Sabretooth, and finds his life threatened only to be killed by Wolverine.

As I said above, it's a fool's errand to try to figure out where you stand based on the first issue of a book but it's also a little hard to consider this the first issue of a book when it's not even a month removed from the last issue of the book that preceded it and it's written by the same writer telling what boils down to the same story. So all the things I didn't really love about Cornell's "previous" WOLVERINE title are back in force here, including a shoe-horning of support characters who quickly go underdeveloped and an odd almost entirely humorless (not for lack of trying in some cases) protagonist and, frankly, some rather boring dialogue. In this story specifically, we'll have to wait a bit longer as some of the details as to Wolverine's switch from the X-Men to a weird team which headlines with a character named "Lost Boy" whose costume is simply an open hoodie with no shirt on underneath and a big chest tattoo that says "FIGHT EVIL WITH EVIL" become a little more clear, but I'm also going to be a little more willing to write off the series if it has a start so slow. I was hoping Stegman's art would infuse a little life into the book I found so lifeless with Cornell, Farmer, and Davis but I think it will take a little more than that to really get into this one.

Deadpool Kills Deadpool 4, Trial of the Punisher 2

Deadpool Kills Deadpool 4
Bunn (w) and Espin (a) and Gandini (c)

The Deadpool Corps has been decimated, leaving just Deadpool and Pandapool to face however many evil Deadpools remain. The Deadpool Watcher sacrifices himself to re-power the Nexus and send the 'pools to the HQ of the evil Deadpools but, sadly, it turns out they're expected. Bonus, though, there are a few more good guy 'pools waiting for them there and the tides turn again. In the end, though, it ends up with just Deadpool vs. the original crazed Deadpool, the one who started it all. The crazed Deadpool still believes Deadpool is the progenitor of all things and that they can end this by their deaths. He catches Deadpool questioning but, ultimately, Deadpool's beliefs win out and he wins the fight, killing a now-converted evil Deadpool in honor of his fallen friends. Deadpool begins to search out a new way home as his direct enemy Deadpool lurks in the shadows, watching him.

Pretty neat little ending to a somewhat neat little book. Marvel has clearly carved out a little niche for this story and is doing its best to keep that niche going. Still, the story was entertaining and the idea of self and existence all come across pretty well, even if the story felt mostly like a way to draw all manner of different Deadpools, a worthy enough cause. The art was impressive and the variety of Deadpools certainly kept the backgrounds interesting so the idea that we got a plot at all was something pretty unexpected. Nice little book, really felt like it knew what it was and accomplished what it set out to accomplish. Deadpool returns in Night of the Living Deadpool.

Trial of the Punisher 2
Guggenheim (w) and Suayan (a) and Gho (c)

The case isn't going particularly well, considering the fact that there are a number of witnesses out there to attest that Punisher has, for all of his other possible crazy tendencies, very clearly known what he is doing. One particular piece of testimony paints Punisher as a methodical killer, trying to hunt down criminal and known pedophile Vincent Siglio. Instead of going through just the heads of crime families and the like, Punisher went to ground and started working his way through the minor players to find information, which he was never able to find. The story shows how aware of his own plans Punisher is. Matt Murdock is called in as an expert on Punisher but refuses to reveal much, given client privilege. Punisher, meanwhile, insists that his lawyer drag the case to the following Wednesday, which she is able to do. On Wednesday, he testifies on his own behalf and reveals that he has a tape with a confession of bribe-taking from the Assistant DA he killed. He informs the judge of a website he's loaded the video to that requires a password and the judge says that he'll watch the video and review it, but Punisher further insists that he be there for it. His lawyer pushes for him, saying that Punisher is absolutely allowed to participate in his own defense, and the three of them, plus the prosector and some security go into the judge's chambers to watch the video. While it plays, Punisher uncuffs himself and steals the security guard's gun, forcing the attorneys (even his own, who feels incredibly betrayed) and judge to cuff themselves to the desk. He then races through the courthouse according to the map he had drawn himself to another room, where Vincent Siglio was about to be transported, having turned evidence and entered witness protection. Punisher kills Siglio and narrates to us about his plan working out.

It's not a bad little story and it was definitely a good call to make this a two-issue arc. I've talked a lot recently about stories overstaying their welcome or, in the case of something like Infinity, lasting exactly what they need to last. This one feels like one that someone along the line could have said "make it a four-part series" or something like that to try to milk it but two issues told the story concisely and efficiently, never leaving too much or too little on the table. If anything, it's Daredevil's testimony that feels a little padded out but it still fits in the context of the story and it helps resolve any questions about why Murdock stayed out of this case in the first place. Pretty good story, nothing particularly illuminating about the character of Punisher, given that we pretty much already know his modus operandi and the lengths he'll go to in order to punish but it's still a readable and interesting little slice of life story.