Punisher: The Platoon #1
Garth Ennis (w), Goran Parlov (a)
Marvel Comics

Liz says: To my mind, no other writer can touch Garth Ennis when it comes to the Punisher. His staggering seven-year run came to an end in 2007, but every now and again he’ll dip back into the character’s mythos and continue to flesh him out. Punisher: The Platoon #1 provides a look at Frank Castle’s arrival in Vietnam. Part of the story is set in the present when a journalist (whose identity remains unknown the reader) interviews the remaining members of Castle’s first command. The story skips between the present and the past, and we see that from the beginning (long before the deaths of his family), Castle is a man who is very pragmatic about what needs to be done to fight a war. Ennis is an expert in war history, and his understanding of strategy and terminology is meticulous. So is his understanding of the character. Reading another Ennis-penned Punisher story is such a treat, and this was like stepping right back in where he left off.