Review by Frank Plowright
Matt Fraction isn’t worried about taking risks with this series, which is good. He ended Civil War with a story almost entirely focussing on a bunch of useless villains, the Punisher only seen at the end, and Goin’ Out West opens by applying the same formula, although under very different circumstances. It’s an incredibly human and heroic story that ends with one hell of a shock for the entire Marvel universe. You’ll have forgotten.
It leads to the Punisher leaving New York as he’s personally extremely offended by someone dressing up in a Nazi-themed variation of Captain America’s costume and murdering immigrants in New Mexico. They’re more dangerous than they first seem, and via Fraction have a deadly line in initiation ceremonies, but there’s a slight mis-step with regard to foreshadowing. For the sake of a cliffhanger chapter ending Fraction flashes forward to when things have gone South, meaning he’s stuck with flashing back and forward whereas the title story would have been stronger for rolling out chronologically. Otherwise it’s good seeing some people very deserving of what the Punisher brings get theirs, and it comes with a fantastic horrific moment destined to cause problems later down the line.
Power and brutality are supplied by Ariel Olivetti, whose cast are either bulky and square-jawed or thin and weedy. It’s a contrast that works better than a description makes it sound when combined with Olivetti’s talent for defining locations and backgrounds, and he’s now delivering the full art package digitally. There are places where what’s possible via digital painting in 2007 has dated slightly, but the effort Olivetti puts in and stylistic consistency minimises these.
It’s weird now to see Rudi Giuliani listed as a New York hero, but that’s the case in Fraction’s closer, which examines heroism, how it’s defined and who defines it. Fraction switches between three separate narratives on the theme, while Leandro Fernández picks up on Olivetti’s style and delivers a pen and ink version of it. On the one hand it sets up something for the future, and on the other it shreds what was a fine opening story by messing with a core character.
Overall, though, there’s far more good than poor here, and Fraction and Olivetti continue with Hunter/Hunted. Or you could pick this up combined with Civil War as the first, and to date only, volume of Punisher War Journal by Matt Fraction: The Complete Collection.
