Take Your Happy Ending and Shove It.
What a cool way to end an interesting story.
My mind is blown after reading this issue, almost everything about it is awesome. We start off where the last issue ended, Frank is being attacked by "The King of Death's" henchmen and eventually is taken down. We get this really cool inner monologue where he is basically punishing himself for being an idiot and trying to save people instead of kill the monsters hurting them. It's still as awesome as it was in the first issue, the character Frank Castle is just one of those characters you love to listen to and Jonathan Maberry does a great job capturing that essence.
Mary Jane is also really well done in this issue, I think she is one of the best things to come out of this issue because even if her lover is a cannibalistic freak she knows that he is still the same person she fell in love with years ago. She sees what Frank Castle doesn't, making her the perfect Ying to his Yang in this series.
Deadpool also shines in this issue, Jonathan Maberry is easily one of the best Deadpool writers of today. His humor is very very very similar to Joe Kelly and his moment with Red Skull was a real treat. I'm still laughing over it. Deadpool also in some weird bizarre way saves the day for Frank and Mary Jane, whether it was intentional or not I'm still not sure yet.
The death of "The King of Death" was really well done, no stupid monologue, no drawn out violence. When Frank brings him down to his knees he doesn't goof around. Awesome scene, awesome, awesome, awesome scene.
Finally the ending. One of the best things about the novel I Am Legend (Which this is obviously based off of) was it's non happy ending. Robert Neville never got away or saved the world. He is only one man against the entire world. Well the same is kind of like this ending. It's an ending that is probably going to tick a lot of people off, but that was the point. The cannibals aren't the monster of this story, Frank Castle is ...and it's just as ironic in it's own way as the ending to the I Am Legend novel. Both Robert Neville and Frank Castle realize that they are the monsters of their stories.
When the ending happened I was SHOCKED!!! I couldn't believe it happened, I was speechless. I'm not joking when I said my jaw dropped and for a brief second, I was ticked...but after thinking it over a bit, I liked it more and more and understood why it happened.
Bravo Jonathan Maberry, you have written a Punisher story that (to me) is on par with some of Garth Ennis' stuff. Well done sir, well done.
5 out of 5
PICK THIS UP!!! THIS IS A MUST READ!!!!!