The Punisher MAX

The Punisher MAX is a mature comic book series written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Laurence Campbell under Marvel's MAX imprint, featuring the titular vigilante anti-hero as he goes about his brutal war on crime.

Why it Rocks

 * 1) Fantastic artwork throughout, with plenty of cover pictures for issues that look almost real and an insane amount of detail in each panel.
 * 2) This is the violent series that pretty much made the Punisher who he is now, a brutal killing machine in a brutal world. There's loads of extraordinarily graphic violence and bloodshed, and it avoids feeling mean-spirited for the most part.
 * 3) It also details Frank Castle's backstory, having become a killing machine during the Vietnam War, where he became addicted to the carnage and made a deal with himself to keep it going, unaware that this deal would lead to his family's massacre. It shows how this addiction to killing criminals carries on as he grows older in the present day. Another interesting scene shows him killing a fellow soldier who tried to rape a Vietnamese woman.
 * 4) Interesting storylines that all have a catalyst to start them, whether it's by the Punisher himself or some other villains in his world. For example, In The Beginning where Frank massacre's an Italian mob which leads to several brutal assassins going after him, or Kitchen Irish where a bomb goes off in Hell's Kitchen and sparks a war between all the Irish mobs seeking their ultimate leader's inheritance. Some of these stories inspired seasons in Daredevil and The Punisher tv show.
 * 5) Fight scenes are prolonged, graphic, and exceedingly brutal, which is something not seen in a lot of comic books.
 * 6) The series dives into the Punisher's psychology, where he describes his senses of each situation in vivid and pretty interesting detail that helps readers further understand what kind of a person he is.
 * 7) There are no heroes in this series, the Punisher himself might not kill innocents, but he does commit many brutal and irredeemable acts of violence, even if his victims are mostly evil people. The villains are truly abhorrent beings who commit many atrocities that Frank must punish them for (pun intended), and even the good guys, the police and others, will go to great lengths to achieve justice, even if that includes lots of killing. This may sound boring and repetitive, but the ideas they all express are very interesting, and it works real well showing the potential ugliness and generosity of the human spirit all at once.
 * 8) Though the series is quite dark, like The Boys, there's plenty of legitimately funny scenes that add a bit of relief from the darker moments, and plenty of dark comedy as well. These are usually supplied by characters other than the Punisher for obvious reasons, but that often makes them all the more effective.
 * 9) Interesting dialogue that mostly feels realistic for it's setting, including plenty of swearing as is customary in Garth Ennis stories.
 * 10) An interesting choice to show the Punisher becoming an old man and still fighting crime, showing that he's a little less capable in that age, and often is severely wounded as a result. It's also an interesting choice to show no superheroes or villains from the Marvel universe, just mostly realistic characters instead.
 * 11) Some interesting themes are explored, like how the Punisher doesn't do what he does out of sadism and in fact feels no different when all is said and done, which makes his quest all the more sad and realistic. It also shows how deep-seeded hatred was still present from the cold war and other conflicts around the time.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Some parts can still be a bit much for some readers, like a scene where a man is castrated which, though not shown graphically or otherwise, nothing is left up to the imagination.
 * 2) Some choices Frank makes during the Vietnam War kind of contradict his character, like causing the death of a general and considering killing a captain, since neither of them were criminals or really bad. Admittedly, he didn't kill the general himself, but still.
 * 3) The swearing can be a bit much at times as well.