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(Spoiler Free Review) The Punisher: Red Band #1 It starts very well with non-stop action (as we saw in the previews). Julius Ohta brilliantly executes his artistic skills, making the violence feel truly violent... I would say visceral at certain points. This is no joke, and the Red Band title will likely be the most violent series in the Marvel Universe. Ben Percy did a great job writing this issue. The story is well-constructed, and he makes the villains feel like genuine villains... real monsters. Another great job handling the big bad boys of this title. He handled the Punisher very well, but I have to say I was apprehensive about the last page. I really hate when they do this to Frank. I really do. But still, I have high hopes that this will turn out to be good and that it will pay off. I'm still excited for issue #2, coming up in October.

It's good to see Frank Castle again. I was excited but not "that" excited for this book to come out, but how things have been lately with my favorite character, anything done and done right, it's good and I will gladly accept it. Don't expect anything action packed, but this is a set-up issue, nothing groundbreaking in terms of storytelling and the reasons that will put Frank's crosshairs on Nick Fury were kind of "predictable". Either way, it started well, I'm more pumped by this than Soviet #1 or even Platoon #1. The artwork was good, and again, Jacen Burrows shows how to make violent scenes as we saw in Punisher: Soviet. Can't wait for the rest of the story and how things will not be that "simple" as Ennis used to show us. Welcome back, Frank. It's good to have you back, buddy.

Worst Punisher ending that the Punisher ever had in more than 37 years (since he has an ongoing series). Bad dialogues and bad direction. It's not about the skull or the weapons, it's about the pointless deconstruction Jason Aaron did to the character that at the end of this issue it was irrelevant. This new "age" Punisher isn't for me. I'm sticking with the old Punisher series and stories until 2020.

This run disappoints everyone who wants to look for a Punisher story. This isn't a Punisher story. And it's not the "heavy metal skull", or the lack of guns in my opinion. It's really the flashbacks and how Jason Aaron is retconning Frank Castle origins. Jason Aaron proved more than once he got a weird fixation with Frank and Maria marriage, or in this case, every time he got a chance to write a Punisher series, he always mention divorce. Don't know why this is so important to him, shattering the family man he always was and described since its creation. This doesn't add anything to the Punisher story but it's an important story to shatter that image of a family man to a broken man, depressed with a weird childhood who couldn't adapt to his civilian life after the war. The artwork was really good by Jesús Saiz and Paul Azaceta. Saiz really nailed the action scenes but it's always a shame to see wonderful talented artists who could shine with a proper Punisher run being "wasted" in this one.

Better issue than what I've expected. There are good moments, but this doesn't feel like a Punisher story. Long gone are those days when he went after the bad guys and punish them, now it's too much complicated with unnecessary nuances added by Jason Aaron to justify what Frank Castle is.

This was an entertaining issue, the good thing about these War Journal series is that it's way better than the main ongoing series. Still can't understand Frank's fixation with swords when he could finish the job easier with them. Still hoping to see some kind of explanation for that and not something random.

The highlight of this issue was the battle between Ares and Frank. His motivations despite "keeping his wife alive", are unknown. Why Frank changed his ways, changed the skull, and joined a terrorist organization seems to be far from being explained. What he thinks about all this, what he's going to do, it's still a secret. What we have is the same monologue from the Priestess telling (or retelling) Frank's history. In the final issues, we see a real "world of horrors" way out of character. As if Frank would be part of some sick show played by the Hand.

Disappointing issue. Probably the worst that was released since issue 1. Nothing new happened, it felt like a filler issue. Lots of retcon's to Frank's childhood,. probably manipulated or not. At this point the reader doesn't know what is true or not. This looks like Jason Aaron is merging his Punisher max run with Punisher 616, with a lot of elements from his own run. The artwork was great.

This issue was a bit better than the previous issues by Jason Aaron, but this storyline is getting even more confused by each issue. The latest "revelation" kind of cleared up what is going on but we still don't know what is going on with Frank. Frank continues to be a third person in his own comic, not only we don't know what is he thinking and especially what is his purpose in this run. The art was pretty good as always but so far good artwork cannot save this run if it's not properly written, and so far, there are many loose ends to cover up and no clue how to cover that up.