Bone-crunching Justice
The resolution to this story was appropriate, if somewhat violent. As with the previous issue, the set piece is the battle between Wolverine and Punisher, highlighted by the fact they don't know each other. One gets the feeling they should - how many other guys with claws coming out of his hands exist in Frank Castle's world? I get the world thinks Wolverine is dead (though I don't know why that is off hand), but Castle should be smarter than that. The absence of any reconciliation between them is a bizarre high point of this issue. Castle and Logan aren't the kind who make buddies easily - it's fighting that they don't shake hands and go out for a beer after the poacher elimination business is resolved. Perhaps if they knew who each other was they'd do that, but it makes sense they wouldn't here (and that they are in the heart of the Congo). The Punisher puts a stop to the poachers in a very Mad Max-like way, though it is fighting for the vision of justice embodied by the Punisher's world. The writer makes it a little more digestible with the way the villains are written in this issue, but that doesn't take away significantly from the satisfaction of this issue. Both anti-heroes are out for vengeance, though for decent reasons, so it's not too hard to go along with them, even though it means Castle can never get away from his own war on crime. One feels sorry for him to an extent, but that's probably because this is his sympathetic phase in the late '80s. Even so, it's a well-handled issue that uses familiar story-lines and stock characters to tell a satisfying story.