*WARNING*
Before you continue on, you should be warned that there are a couple of images that are extremely violent. If you don't want to see them, you should exit out. Also, Punisher MAX is an uncensored book and not recommended for people under eighteen years old. There is extreme violence, nudity, and cursing. That said, it's a great read.
It's been over thirty years since Frank Castle's family was gunned down by the mob. It's also been over thirty years since Frank Castle has become The Punisher and has started his never ending war on crime. One of the bosses has had enough. Finally, he gets some of the other gang leaders together for a sit down to tell them about his plan to get rid of the Punisher once and for all. Obviously they are all skeptical because many before him have tried this and all of them have ended up dead, but he convinces them that this time will be different. They will create an imagineary kingpin to throw the Punisher off his game, off their tracks, and eventually kill him. How can they be so certain? Enter Wilson Fisk. It was actually Fisk's plan to create a fake Kingpin. Wilson Fisk at the time was just a leg breaker for one of the head mob bosses of New York. While his boss thought he had Fisk on a tight leash, Fisk has an ulterior motive. The plan was actually designed to kill the Punisher and for him (Wilson Fisk) to become the Kingpin himself.
Days of feeding drug dealers, prostitutes, and random thugs false information about the Kingpin myth, The Punisher finally takes the bate and starts to look further into the Kingpin of New York. Only Castle isn't dumb enough to go in blind. He notices that wherever the Kingpin's name is mentioned, Wilson Fisk just happened to have been around. So he starts putting pieces together and realizes that Wilson Fisk is the man he needs to be talking to.
Punisher tracks Fisk down to his house and calls Fisk's phone and tells him to come outside. Castle tells Fisk that he knows Fisk has his wife and son in the house and that he doesn't want to involve them. Before Fisk could react, a mob acquired hit man (who's character is too weird and hilarious to tell you what he is) attacks and beats punisher worse than almost anyone has before him.
Writing: 9
Jason Aaron had some pretty big shoes to fill after continuing where Garth Ennis left off and he did a superb job. Aaron wrote Wolverine for years and reminded people why Wolverine is to be feared, so the fact that he did such a great job is not surprising. One of the best parts of "Kingpin" story was seeing the steps Fisk took during his rise. He went from being a fat kid that was abused by his father, to the head of his own gang, to get where he ends up at the conclusion of this arc (no spoilers). He showed how cold and heartless Wilson Fisk can really be and Jason Aaron did it in such a way that is sure to shock people time and time again. Art: 7
image source "thecomicboard.com"
This writer has stated that he isn't a big fan of Steve Dillon, but he is the premier Punisher artist. He has a way of making the violence look as painful as you'd imagine it to be. When Punisher had his hands broken, the pain on Punisher's face was drawn exactly how we would image it. He has been drawing Punisher so long that it only makes that he would know exactly how to portray this story perfectly.
image source "ign.com"
In Conclusion:
This is the start of the end for Frank Castle. Does he die at the end of this series? Does he retire and train a replacement? Gotta read the series to find out. Either way, this is the first of the great Jason Aaron run of Punisher MAX. If you need more info on Garth Ennis and Jason Aaron's individual runs of the Punisher, you can go here.
