Something noteworthy is going on with this cover. Or rather, not going on. There’s no Comics Code Authority approval stamp. This is because the radical new management decided they didn’t need it anymore. And they were right. And so, that strange and restrictive organization largely created to destroy EC Comics under the guise of “protecting the children” would soon find its services were no longer required at the other publishers, and be no more. To celebrate the occasion, the man, the myth, the legend, Bill Sienkiewicz is on deck to introduce the Punisher. We open in Ryker’s Island with a couple of inmates discussing how Herman Schultz, aka the Shocker, got out because his lawyer was able to argue Spider-Man violated his civil rights.
For all the talk of manga influencing comics in the mid-to-late 90s, there had never and may not ever be again a more manga-looking page in American comics than that last one. That guy, who is obviously the Punisher, keeps beating on this dude until the guards show up and exposit both that he used to be a cop and that he’s in here for killing a cop as they argue about whether to tase him. Taser wins, and Frank is dragged off. Later, a Dr. Ruben is let in to see him, finding him in some maximum restraint, Silence of the Lambs-type stuff and demanding he be let out of it. She says he only kills people he believes to be criminals, and therefore none of them are in any danger. Then, talking to Frank, she lets us know he’s killed 9 inmates since he’s been in.
Sienkiewicz seems to be playing with Photoshop with the amount of lines and shadows crossing and reversing here. Which might also explain why this page seems a bit lower quality than the others. Thicker lines and less complex scribbles. He’s been pushing his craft basically as long as he’s been in comics, he’s so great. Dr. Ruben says killing people won’t bring his family back, and asks if he wants to talk about them, which segues us into some pages of his family being gunned down in the park, same as in the regular comics. In a sharp move, it’s the only sequence of pages in the book so far in full color. Here, when being left for dead, Frank notes a unique belt buckle on one shooter with a gun engraved on it.
She says she could get him movies to a more humane institution, he says she can’t, and she realizes it’s time to go. As he waits for the guards, Frank eyes a pen and paperclip on the table. Then he’s carted off, and we move our scene to Manhattan where some kids have spotted Spider-Man, because we’re almost out of pages and this is ostensibly his comic.
Bendis’ Spider-Man is just great. So, next issue, Daredevil. Punisher isn’t too different other than how he couldn’t have been in Vietnam, what will DD be like?