Punisher Tyger and The End comics
To the max

// Synopsis: Punisher: Tyger is a tale about Frank Castle as a 10 year old. The son of a local mob boss has been terrorizing the neighborhood girls and the community is paralyzed with fear. In Punisher: The End, years in the future after a nuclear apocolypse, all that is left of America are roaches and the Punisher. Both of these one offs were written by Garth Enis.

// Review: I have always been a fan of the Punisher, and the Jim Lee War Journals run are among my prized possessions. It's been a while since I've read a Punisher book but when comic afficionado Blair Butler declared these two one offs by Garth Enis as her all time favorites, well I had to BitTorrent them immediately.

/ Let me cut ot the verdict: awesome. What I've always loved about the Punisher is that it was never about a derivative save-the-world plot. Just a guy with no powers but a whole lot of hate and guns killing bullies and those who prey on the weak.

/ In Tyger we get a glimpse of a gentler Frank Castle who read poetry! It's told in a flashback during one of his stakeouts. What you get is a tale that gives some interesting insight into him and how his sense of justice and vengeance was first formed.

/ In The End, America is about to be nuked by China 20 years into the future. To prevent a bunch of criminals running loose in a post-nuclear world, the governor orders all inmates of the state penitentiary executed. Well the Punisher had been long since locked up and that's just not going to work for him. He survives to fullfill one last bit of unfinished business. The only detractor to this issue is that it is horribly fugly.

/ Both issues are from the Marvel Max series, which means lots of gore and profanity.

// Wrap up: As Punisher stories goes, Blair Butler did not overstate that these are two fantastic reads.

Entertainment rating: 4