PUNISHER NOIR (2009)

I really dug the “Noir” series. They’re not part of Earth 616 so I haven’t been covering them, but I dug them. And Punisher’s was one of the best.

Marvel’s “noir” series reimagined its characters in the 1930s period as film noir.  Many of the noir books didn’t work, a few were very good (Spider-Man, notably), and then there was Punisher Noir.  Which was excellent.

Punisher kills a dude by dropping a roller coaster on him.  If all you read from my post is this, then you should already want to go buy Punisher Noir.

Writer Frank Tieri did a great job at seamlessly bringing the signal events in Punisher’s development, from his war experience…

 …To the skull on his chest, now a tattoo….

Without giving away too much, Tieri and artist Azaceta also bring in major players like Jigsaw, the mad Russian, Barracuda, etc.  The characters are similar enough to be clearly recognizable (like Russian’s t-shirt) but are different enough to seem all new.

And they also made the main villain a real guy, Dutch Schultz, the famous Jewish gangster from New York.