A begrudging buy for completion's sake
Right off the bat, let me say that there is nothign WRONG with this issue... I just feel that I've seen it all before.
The trio of characters involved in this crossover generally gets roped together for a story along similar lines to this once every few years. And we've seen it all before: Daredevil and Spider-Man are friends with a quippy rapport, and Punisher agrees to work with them for a common goal, promising to not use lethal force during the team-up (however hard it is to imagine him actually carrying through with that promise).
Picking up from what's been going on in the highly acclaimed (and justifiably so) Daredevil book these past few months, this brief crossover ropes Spidey and Frank into the whole mess, for understandable if less than captivating reasons. Having the issue co-written by the writers of Punisher and Daredevil's solo books makes this issue work more or less, though as an extension to both those books rather than anything that justifies the existence of Avenging Spider-Man. As this issue is not written by Avenging Spider-Man's regular writer Zeb Wells, this issue is a failure in the "making new readers buying this issue for the crossover only continue buying this comic" department, as for all intents and purposes, this issue is more a "Daredevil & Punisher Annual / Special" than an addition to what is, from what I understand, a modern "Marvel Team-Up" title.
Both Daredevil and Punisher's books are very good right now, and this issue is pretty much the weakest comic published to date that's affiliated with either of them. So in that regard, I can't really imagine it being that successful in converting new readers to either of those titles who aren't already reading them. Ultimately, this issue, and this storyline, thus far, is just there for those who insist on having the whole story and are already reading Punisher and/or Daredevil (though primarily Daredevil, as this is spinning out from his comic, and I doubt if people reading Punisher and not Daredevil right now will miss much if they skip out on the upcoming Punisher part of this crossover). People who have been reading Daredevil from the beginning must buy this issue if they want the full story. People just reading Avenging Spider-Man or Punisher do not.
0 Comments