Punisher Epic Collection, Vol. 5: Jigsaw Puzzle

Punisher Epic Collection

by Mike Baron, Chuck Dixon, Gregory Wright

When Jigsaw strikes, the Punisher must pick up the pieces! Frank Castle's disfi gured archfoe returns -and this time, he's allied with the Reverend Sammy Smith! The preacher has history with Frank -but he's turned away from God in favor of something more diabolical. And he's out to heal America his way -whether the nation wants it or not! Then, the Punisher takes on arms dealers, drug traffi ckers and the mob- and goes undercover as a cabdriver on the hunt for a killer! And Frank Castle signs up for a brand-new war! Plus, the hired gun Paladin and the former Captain America, USAgent, target the Punisher! And Frank joins the hunt for one of the most prized weapons in the Marvel Universe!

COLLECTING: VOL. 5: PUNISHER (1987) 35-48, PUNISHER ANNUAL (1988) 4, PUNISHER: NO ESCAPE (1990) 1, PUNISHER: THE PRIZE (1990) 1

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels

496 pages, Paperback

First published February 5, 2020

Reviews

[Sophia]

I was dragging my feet on some of these issues and after a couple of days, I just had to tell myself to skip the ones that were making me not want to continue reading.

I find the character of Punisher an interesting concept.
How can this man so righteously believe in what he does but it also sort of makes him like the people he hunts?

Unfortunately, a lot of stories are basically the same and that makes it a little boring, despite all the gun fights.

Anyway, there were a few continuity issues, like how Micro was sick of what he was doing with Frank earlier in the CE and then it was never mentioned again after the Jigsaw Puzzle plot?

Overall, while I think I own a few more ECs or collected editions, I may try to be more selective with which Punisher stories I read in the future.

[Al Berry]

A mixed bag, the graphic novels are pretty decent, the issue by Chuck Dixon is good, but Mike Baron is pretty hit and miss, some issues are just ridiculously bad writing by Baron and in everything he’s not that good with pacing.

Art due the number of different artists is a mixed bag, but all decent or above, nothing really bad.

[Ian]

The Jigsaw story is fun but goofy (the Punisher’s van can fly?). The really good stuff in this collection are the two graphic novels and the one-off issues of Punisher and his war.

[Sebastian Lauterbach]

This volume collects 2 graphic novels and a big chunk of the Punisher ongoing series in the span of 1990-1991.

The graphic novel depicted on the cover, that includes US Agent and the Paladin is fun, while the other graphic novel that deals with Stark technology drags quite a bit. The artwork is bad in both, especially compared to what was delivered in the previous volume, Punisher Epic Collection, Vol. 4: Return to Big Nothing.

Then there's the ongoing series. It sucks. Jigsaw Puzzle is a fun story arc, but many of other stories in this volume were a chore to read. What's worse is that the art for these stories is some of the worst I've seen in this period. Same applies to the annual collected in here.

There's no character development in any of these stories, which means none of these stories matter and they can be read out of order. There's not really any reason to choose this book over modern Punisher stories.