The Punisher, Issue #5 starts out with Frank Castle's raid of Exeter Asylum, where the drug EMC is produced. Henderson, the DEA agent, is captured in Issue #4, and the bloody outcome of that is in this issue. Worse yet, the bad guys have spread EMC through the vents, creating an army of zombie-like super soldiers. DEA Agent Ortiz has gone off the grid, and she and Castle are working together to take down Face and Olaf, the latter being Castle's former commanding officer in what war was it now? Gulf I? Gulf II? Afghanistan?
Of course, traditionally, the Punisher is a Vietnam War vet who comes home to find his family taken out accidentally in a mob hit, but for him to be an American Vietnam vet, he'd have to be 60 years old or more. Moreover, America is now defined by our wars with Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which were huge mistakes.
There's something special about this comic. The action is like that of a major movie or major TV series. There are a lot of ultraviolent scenes that lesser creators would have cut out for the sake of brevity if not common taste, but each issue feels complete. It's very well done but not at all suitable for kids under 12. Yeah, I know, "kids" under 17 probably shouldn't read it, but I think that kids in high school should be able to read just about anything as long as it isn't teaching them to blow things up.
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