Punisher #6 Review

Written by: Jason Aaron
Art by: Jesús Saiz, Paul Azaceta
Colors by: Dave Stewart
Letters by: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover art by: Jesús Saiz
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: September 7, 2022

Punisher #6 puts Frank Castle against Ares in a bid to end the Punisher’s eternal war. Can the power of the Beast give Frank the strength he needs to put down the god of war?

Is It Good?

Punisher #6 continues tearing Frank Castle apart as he struggles to be free of competing factions who want him to be their living weapon for all time. The violence is brutal, the emotional suffering is palpable, and Frank’s final act in this issue is heartbreaking.

It’s not clear where Aaron is taking Punisher, but Frank is not headed for anywhere we’ve seen before. The Punisher is a tortured man in this issue. Tortured to such an extent that the only thing he can do is kill, kill, and kill some more. In fairness, the plot doesn’t make much progress in this issue, but we see our anti-hero finally come to blows with Ares, and we see what happens when the Hand tries to resurrect Frank’s children. In a sense, the plot does move because we see what happens when certain actions are tried, even if they fail.

The tentative down point in this issue is the lack of apparent destination. Stories work best when you have at least a vague idea of a destination. The journey is where the fun comes in, and if you can change the destination mid-way, so much the better. Right now, this title is giving readers a lot of interesting meat to chew on in the journey, but the lack of a destination is becoming a growing point of frustration.

The art by Saiz, Azaceta, and Stewart is solid, depending on your point of view. Saiz’s art for the present is worlds better than Azaceta’s flashback art. So much so that the shifts in the timeline are radically jarring. Splitting the two artists into two timelines makes sense, but their styles are not complementary, so the jumps make you feel like you’re reading two different comics that leave you with an unpleasant visual aftertaste.

About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

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Final Thoughts:

Punisher #6 continues to assail you with brutal violence, emotional and mental torture, and heartbreak. All emotional beats you want for a comic to grip you. Unfortunately, the lack of a destination or goal is becoming a point of frustration that makes it feel like Aaron is giving you violence and heartbreak for their own sake.