Comics Fondle

Usually, when Ennis breaks his formula–Frank Castle narrating, intercut with criminals worrying and maybe some cops fretting–it’s trouble for The Punisher. But Widowmaker, which literally keeps Frank bedridden for a couple issues, is different. It’s maybe Ennis’s most literary story–the journey of a woman who can’t stand the emptiness inside herself–but it’s also got a lot of the traditional Ennis flavor.

The villains are a bunch of Mafia widows (widowed by the Punisher) who go after him for revenge. While Ennis does inject some humor into their scenes, it’s not the standard stuff he falls back on when he’s disengaged. Widowmaker is an exploration of bad people and the widows are some terrible people.
It’s also a lot about race and what it means and what it doesn’t. With Len Medina’s heavily photo-referenced faces (Sam Jackson plays the cop), it’s hard not to see some of it as a proposed Goodfellas-Punisher crossover.

But the end is what Widowmaker is all about. It’s not exactly a turning point, but it is the place where Frank Castle gets to know something about himself, something regular readers have been learning about him since the beginning of Ennis’s run. Something Ennis actually got scared of the last time he held it firmly–The Punisher, the MAX Punisher, is about Frank Castle’s sincere desire to be tender. That motivating factor being tied fundamentally to his war on crime is why Ennis’s Punisher run isn’t just valuable, it’s essential.

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Technorati Tags: Comic Book, Garth Ennis, Len Medina, Marvel Comics, Punisher, Review

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