PUNISHER/BATMAN (both books) review

PUNISHER/BATMAN crossover specials

Here's a couple of short reviews of the Punisher/Batman books that came out in the 90's. One was brilliant and one was toss. If you really think about it the two characters have quite a lot in common apart from their views on capital punishment. Can't understand why they never made any more of these. The potential is there for some fantastic stories.

BATMAN PUNISHER: LAKE OF FIRE

Writer: Denis Oneil

Art: Barry Kitson/James Pascoe

Review by Stewart Loud

Punisher travels to Gotham in pursuit of his arch nemesis, Jigsaw and bumps into Batman.

A fairly disappointing book unfortunately. Mediocre artwork, not Bruce Wayne as Batman (some, Azriel dude, whoever he is) and Frank is written pretty poorly. Comes across as some sort of halfwit murderous thug who thinks too much of himself. If this was the only Punisher comic I'd ever read, then I wouldn't like him. Not much here for fans of either character.

It was nice to see Frank getting taken seriously enough for a team-up with one of DC's flagship characters but still a waste of a brilliant pairing.

SCORE 4/10

PUNISHER BATMAN: DEADLY KNIGHTS

Writer: Chuck Dixon

Art: John Romita Jr/Klaus Janson

Review by Stewart Loud

One of my all-time favourite comics. Carrying straight on from Lake Of Fire, Punisher is still in Gotham chasing Jigsaw, who has now teamed up with the Joker. Proper Batman, Bruce Wayne returns to briefly butt heads with Castle before they form an uneasy alliance to take down the bad guys. A fairly formulaic team-up plot but expertly scripted by Punisher veteran of the time Chuck Dixon with fantastic visuals from John Romita Jr. Short and sweet at less than 50 pages, I struggle to think of any way they could have made this brief story better.

This is a dazzling example that Marvel/DC crossovers don't have to be printed for the sake of making money, bullshit. Great fun whichever character you read it for, plus Frank and Bruce do have a bit of a punch up in it!

SCORE 10/10

Both comics were released in the mid 90's but they're easy to find on ebay for a reasonable price if anyone feels like tracking them down.

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