Punisher #227-228

PUNISHER: WAR CRIMINAL pts IV and V

Written by Matthew Rosenberg
Penciled by Stefano Landini and Guiu Vilanova
Covers by Clayton Crain
Published July 11 and July 25, 2018

   Frank sits at a Mexican restaurant with Black Widow and Bucky Barnes, all the while repairing his armor and jawing it up. Together the three of them team up to stop the rogue Hydra agents from breaking into the prison along with Baron Zemo.

We don't put up with that here. What'd you think this was? Taco Bell?!

   The Punisher walks inside through the flames, all the while murdering random inmates when Zemo opens the cells, allowing scores of supervillains to finally have a crack at one of their biggest enemies. Black Widow and the Winder Soldier back him up but are slowly being overrun. They keep blasting away when eventually Captain Marvel appears, along with tons of Avengers, X-Men, Defenders, and the Fantastic Four. They all fight back as Zemo uses the diversion to free fake Steve Rogers, former Hydra overlord.

Hey rat. Long time no see!

   With the prison riot in full force overhead, the Punisher sneaks away to find Zemo - but is discovered by Iron Man first. He's obviously pretty sore about the armor, but Frank decides to start a massive fire that Tony will have to deal with to save the others.

You better go stop that. It looks pretty bad...

   Meanwhile, the chopper readies for takeoff with the Hydra elite aboard. Frank bursts through the top floor to stop them, blasting the helicopter's tail off in the process. Frank kills the pilot and guards and finally faces down Baron Zemo and Ghost.

Ok, lets go. Wait.. That hurts...

   The battle is epic, but Frank gets the upperhand by shocking Zemo and Ghost into submission.. He begins to beat the Hydra leaders to death but is eventually stopped by Iron Man, who clearly knows his way around a super suit pretty well. 

He's pretty good with these suits, Frank.

   Zemo and Ghost use the distraction to escape, as a determined War Machine appears to take back his armor. With far more advanced tech, James Rhode Rhodes is able to slowly crush the now obsolete suit, eventually dismounting and explaining to Frank how the War Machine armor is bigger than both of them. He realizes he's defeated, and the suit opens up.

Fine!

   Frank is taken into custody along with Stevil Rogers. Nick Fury explains all of Frank's offenses all the while conveniently leaving out that the original mission was on his orders. All in all, two dozen guards were killed, Zemo and Ghost escaped and the Supreme Commander is still alive - a score that Fury obviously doesn't want to hear.

You suck, Fury.

  The issue wraps with Bucky and Natasha standing in the road to block the prison convoy. The Punisher is about to be free once again. What does that mean going forward? We'll have to wait as this issue is left to be continued.

Just give us what's in the trunk.

   And so just like that the Punisher's Legacy era comes to an end. That's cool though. I knew when Rhodes came back. Tony would never let a vigalante keep one of his suits. Even though I think he wore it better than anyone else ever did. So we're back to the old Punisher but with Matthew Rosenberg still at the helm, I think this book is still in better hands than it's ever been. I give these two issues a 9/10.

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