Customer Reviews

Punisher MAX Vol. 2: Kitchen Irish

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As in real-life events, Kitchen Irish starts after In the Beginning.
Ever wonder what how, when or why Hell's Kitchen reveals its ugly site?
This is where Kitchen Irish comes along. To get an average reader
understand the premise of the story, Ennis has used various references from
movies like Gangs of New York and The Devil's Own. In addition, Ennis
has created some of the wonderful supporting characters from real-life
celebrities or fictional characters such as Lucy Lawless, Martin Landau,
Bill the Butcher, Mason Verger and whoever that you see.

The gangs in Hell's Kitchen are fighting over a sum of $10 million - a
will left by the late gang boss Nesbitt. To this end, every gang will
slug it out toe to toe to reach for the prize at all costs, even if it
means of having their members killed or causing a collateral damage
which involves our vigilante. As it goes on and on, it seems that the gangs
will have a hard understanding on Nesbitt's message to them which
involves are harsh and punishing way of saying, "Will You Stop That? " or
"No Rest For The Wicked."

Kitchen Irish was the real opposite in terms of mood and tone depicted
in In The Beginning. Ennis has brought back the black-comedy elements
as seen in the Maxi series. The real highlight in this story arc is not
the story itself but Leandro Fernandez's (Wolverine) art. Clean and
better looking, it's totally different that what Lewis Larosa illustrated
in the previous volume. The colors are brighter and have more variety,
but one problem was that there are some inconsistencies in the
character faces drawn in one frame compared to the previous frame. Nonetheless,
Leandro's art was real good and thus he was brought in by Ennis to work
on the next upcoming story arcs, The Slavers and Up Is Down, Black Is
White.

A lot of people asked of the lack of sex elements in the current
series. One of the parts of the story is the only one moment in the series to
have sex elements. Although the series has the highs on wanton violence
and the language used, the real low was on the sex thing. As you can
see, Frank doesn't do this ever since the family's murder. Another thing
that makes the story fell short compared to In the Beginning is Frank
himself. In here, Frank became more or less a secondary character and
instead the gangs were given the priority first. Not much of the personal
emotions of Frank elicit so often were shown here.

Anyway, it provides a relief to the cold mood in the previous volume.
If you like the laughs, if you are a fan of Leandro's art or even like
The Punisher, it's a good read really. Good but not that great.

[This review posted by my friend Melvin, also from Malaysia!]

This is the second book in the max series and I have to say...WOW. I did not know that Ennis' fantastic writing could keep up throughout its issues. If I was a new reader to the max series I would skip right to this one. I'm not sayin the first book is bad,good, or awesome, it was amazing. But this book is definetly what the Punisher series is, the violence and intense gore, the characters who are all VERY flawed and the great dialogue. This book is a defining book and it is not linked to the first book at all, the only link to it is that Frank is in both of them. So what I'm trying to say is that so far in the series you don't have to read them in chronological order and if your new to the series and want to see how it will be read this book. Connections to later in the series are all the violence, the great character development and the really vulgar dialogue that is all good. The reason I said vulgar is every panel has at least one swear and very harsh. One old man says C***t every other line. So if swearing is a turn off you and you find that this very well written but vulgar dialogue is not what you like reading then you don't have to continue on to another book. And if you find that the gore is to intense and you dont like that well that means you should stop reading also. The series gets more gory as it goes on. But why do we read this if it sound this harsh to read. Frank Castle is the reason of course. He is an interesting man who feels he need's to get revenge and punish everyone else...but why. This book is a good discussion and makes you want to continue reading to see what twists and how messed up Frank can get bfore the conclusion. So I would by this for first time or if your a veteran.

An old Irish mobster dies leaving behind warring Irish-related factions in New York's Hells Kitchen, a ragtag bunch of former IRA terrorists and new world gangsters, intent on tearing each other apart for unimagined riches. Caught in the crossfire is Frank Castle who gets roped in by Scotland Yard undercover ops whom he owes a favour. Let the bloodbath begin!

The book features a mainstay of Garth Ennis villains - the man with the horribly disfigured face. In Preacher it was the boy who failed to commit suicide by eating a shotgun bullet, in The Boys it was the supe who came back from the dead after getting pounded to death by fists, and in this book it's the IRA terrorist whose own bomb blew up in his face but somehow didn't kill him.

The different warring factions are played off against each other by Frank and the story moves at a swift, engaging pace with plenty of action and some interesting side stories of gangster life. I've read quite a few Garth Ennis books so I guessed the ending long before I read it but it's still funny to see it play out. Overall, a strong effort from Ennis if predictable at times, but definitely a good read and a fun outing for Frank fans.

So, this was my first foray into the Punisher MAX series, and if the rest of the series is this good, I'll be hooked for a while.

This arc, though I'm assuming all arcs are like this, is borderline obnoxiously violent and vulgar. You get the n-word and c-word getting dropped, and people get wasted (the dead kind) left and right.

And it's freakin' hilarious. There's this one moment in the last issue that had me bursting out laughing in the library.

The book is pretty mindless, but if you want to shut your brain off and indulge in a little violent guilty pleasure, definitely pick this up.

Just when you were wondering whether Garth Ennis could sustain the incredible tale in Vol 1 of his Punisher Max series, along comes this second arc and volume which literally blows the opposition away. By opposition, I mean all the other comics writers out there. If Larosa was Ennis' soulmate in Vol 1, so is Leandro Fernandez here, too. His delineation of facial expression nicely conveys Ennis' intentions as to the facial characerisations here. Simply incredible!

Not as good as the first but still a tough and gritty tale. The bombing at the beginning really brings home the horror of bombs and the guy with his face blown off is a stomach churner on every page where he appears. Castle takes kind of a backseat to the whole English vs. Irish arc but Ennis has to get that out of his system in every series so glad it is good and done.

Punisher is awesome no...LEGEN....wait for it...DARY! Kitchen Irish was not the best but it is a worthwhile read. Better than that war journal nonsense. Get all 10 volumes!!!

This volume is geniusly written. Very hard to put down from start to finish. Ennis gives the greatest interpretation of the Punisher I've ever seen!

The Punisher MAX is a great comic. I couldn't bring myself to say 'better' than the Punisher Marvel Knights title, just different. The strength of the Marvel Knights title is its humor, while the strength of the MAX series is its uncompromising gore and grit. The writing is excellent throughout most of the story arcs, and the art is generally great as well. The exception to this being the first book, "In the Beginning" , where everyone is drawn so wrinkly that they look like humans crossed with pug dogs. But beginning here, with Kitchen Irish, the title has a run of great writing and excellent art to back it up. It's highly recommended for Punisher fans, or just those in need of a dark, violent, and still laugh-out-loud funny comic.

This is another outstanding Punisher comic book. The animation and story line are great.