★★★★★ 5
Quite possibly the best Punisher stories ever told
Format: Hardcover
It's no secret that Garth Ennis' long run on the Punisher (particularly the MAX titles) has been nothing short of superb if not visionary, and this handsome hardcover collection, featuring three seperate one-shots, further proves that point. From First to Last begins with the Tyger, a story in which a young Frank Castle embarks on his first night of vengeance as the Punisher. As he has some mob men in his sights, he recollects to a summer in Brooklyn when he was a young man, and a shocking event that only further shaped Frank's inevitable path to becoming the Punisher. This story is good, but it's not anything really great, though John Severin's art is quite good. Thankfully, everything gets better from this point on. The Cell finds Frank turning himself in and convicted of his many murders and taken to the bowels of Riker's Island. However, Frank has a reason he's here, and it involves five men who all share a secret and a link to Frank that you'll never see coming. This story alone makes this collection worth picking up, and the art by Lewis Larosa (who also worked on the first Punisher MAX TPB, In the Beginning) is gritty, bloody, and brilliant. The third and final story is the spectacular Punisher: The End, featuring art by the legendary Richard Corben, which more than makes it worth checking out alone. As part of Marvel's "The End" line, this one-shot is just that, as an elderly Frank Castle finds himself as one of the last men on Earth after a nuclear holocaust has turned the world to ash and dust. Of course, there are still those that are guilty, and need to be punished. The last two stories alone are some of the best Punisher stories ever written, period. If you missed out on the one-shots when they were first released, now is your chance to read some of the best mainstream comic gold to come along in a long time, and this collection only furthers the notion that is discussed on the book's inside flap: Ennis was born to write the Punisher.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2006
