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The Punisher: The Tyger #1
Book Released: 01 June 2006
Review posted: 06 June 2006
Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: John Severin
Colors: Paul Mounts
Publisher: Marvel Comics MAX
5.00 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by Matt Rawson
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The Punisher, as a character, wasn’t fully created until
Garth Ennis started writing him.
Ennis’s Punisher yarns make all
other creators’ attempts look like failures, even if they were good
in their own right. Garth Ennis has taken Frank Castle and made him as
much his own as any character he created in Preacher. The
Punisher: The Tyger #1 is a testament to just how good Ennis is at his
craft.
When the name Garth Ennis is printed on a cover, the first
impression I get is that the contents within will not be for the
faint-of-heart, morons, or any religious cults. Ennis is
Frank Castle wasn’t fully created until
Garth Ennis started writing him.
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known for his
over-the-top violence, bizarre sexual content, extreme blasphemy, and all
the other great stuff that makes a great comicbook. Within the pages of
The Tyger #1, however, you will see none of the above. What you
do get is an example of how wonderfully Ennis writes the most elusive
and disturbing of all literary elements: real, tangible human emotion.
Ennis has made it a point to delve deeply into the origin and the
profoundly disturbed psyche of Frank Castle. Frank is, at the base of
his crusade, a serial killer, and Ennis asks the burning question,
why? Why and how could someone end up becoming The Punisher, the
Tyger of our species? That essential equalizer that exists throughout
time? The face not made by God?
The answer to these questions has proven to be much more complex than the mere
death of his family. Ennis explored Frank’s origin in the mini-series
Born, and continued in the terrific one-shot The Punisher: The
Cell. The Tyger adds to this mythos by exploring Frank’s
childhood, and it shows us that the seeds of the Punisher were
sown long before even his pivotal tour in Vietnam.
John Severin’s artwork is nothing less than equal to
Ennis’s writing; he gives the story the visual weight it demands. Frank
is ten years old in this tale, and he looks ten years old. Frank
John Severin adds a tough-as-nails flair seen only rarely since the EC crime comics of the
1950s.
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does not
appear like a midget body-builder or a syphilitic child with an
oversized head and manga eyes. When Frank is angry, he looks angry, not
constipated. The men look like men; the children, like children; the women,
like women; and on top of that he adds a dynamic, visual representation
of the proper emotions called for by the dialogue. John Severin adds a
tough-as-nails flair seen only rarely since the EC crime comics of the
1950s. Along with Garth Ennis, John Severin is obviously a
master of his artform, and he pulls no punches with The Tyger.
The cover art, as always, is provided by the talented Tim
Bradstreet, and this one especially caught my eye. The visual weights and balances
of the composition, the muted color choices, and the overall visual
construction make this particular effort extremely successful. It remains
iconic, as all Punisher covers are, but with all the
combined elements of the composition it also summarizes the story within quite
effectively. The image of Frank superimposed over the tiger, while
literal in regards to the title, also represents a manifestation of the
part of Frank that is The Punisher. So, as far as The Tyger goes,
you can indeed judge the book by its cover.
The Punisher: The Tyger #1 is the absolute perfect thing to
give that friend who is still holding on to the archaic notion that
comics are just for kids, social maladjusts, and/or sexual deviants. It is
brilliantly written, the art is accessible and realistic, and it is
self-contained. Hell, give it to your teachers, your parents, or anyone
who needs the extra push to convince them that comics at their best,
being the perfect union of literature and art, represent the single
greatest artistic storytelling form to be born in America!
—CCdC—
Cover image used without explicit permission in accordance with the "Fair Use" provision of US copyright law.
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