Twice the Punishment
There is pretty much only one real flaw to this issue, and it's the lack of Checchetto's artwork. Sayan does some of the better fil-in artwork for the series, but it's damn near impossible not to miss Checchetto's perfect 'Nu-Noir' style that fit this series like a latex glove. Sayan does do a nice job at not trying to be Checchetto, bringing his own sense of gritty roughness to the series. Sometimes the facial expressions aren't strong enough, but overall it's good.
It's amazing how long this series has gone on without fully addressing what set the story off. What's more amazing is how that didn't hamper the series in any way. But it's happening, Frank Castle and Racheal Cole-Alves are avenging the deaths of all who attended the wedding. The world now has a Punisher duo, and they are incredibly smooth operators. The Exchange go to lengths that would be ridiculous if this wasn't the Marvel Universe, and yet Castle is still at least a step ahead of them, and now he's got an extra body to use in his war. The two have an amazing partnership, the emotions are so intense that they manage to flare up even minimally in their cold armored hearts. But in the war, these are suppressed, and together they are the greatest criminal killing machine the world has ever seen.
There was just something a little soulless about this issue though, not a whole lot of major stuff to distinguish this from any other issue. A lot of the methods were reused from previous issues, and since it's the beginning of the renewed campaign against The Exchange, there's some definite tone overlap as well. Cole-Alves is the new element here, and the difference she makes is subtly demonstrated on so many levels.
Turns out The Punisher has handwriting a lot like mine. The space between letters in a word isn't consistent.
In Conclusion: 4/5
The beginning of the climax to the Cole-Alves tale; Greg Rucka has been treating us to some amazing characters with such intense rich depth, and I'm hoping we don't see this undone when Marvel Now! rolls around. Is Punisher being relaunched? I know we had confirmation for FF, Deadpool, Avengers, X-Men, Hulk, etc; but what about Punisher or Daredevil? I haven't been paying much attention to this.
