Punisher MAX, Vol. 9: Long Cold Dark (v. 9) [Paperback]

Garth Ennis (Author), Howard Chaykin (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 9, 2008

The Punisher's wildest foe is back! Left gut-shot in shark-infested waters, Barracuda's got a major score to settle with Frank Castle. But Barracuda's no dummy. Charging in with guns blazing is for suckers. He's got something serious planned. Something that's going to hit Frank where he hasn't been hit in years: the black pit that used to be his heart. Collects Punisher MAX #50-54

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Marvel (April 9, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078512814X
• ISBN-13: 978-0785128144
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 0.4 x 10.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #287,559 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Garth Ennis is the award-winning writer of Hellblazer, Hitman, Punisher, Preacher, Pride and Joy and War Stories. He is much in demand for his hard-edged, wickedly humorous style.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Barracuda's back...for better or worse, April 7, 2008

By 

N. Durham "Big Evil" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Punisher MAX, Vol. 9: Long Cold Dark (v. 9) (Paperback)

Barracuda, the crazed contract killer that managed to survive his bloody encounter with Frank Castle (and even star in his own Marvel MAX mini-series) is back with revenge on his mind. His plan involves a secret about Frank that Frank himself doesn't even know about, and pushes his limits unlike that we've seen before since legendary Preacher creator Garth Ennis took the reins of The Punisher. I won't spoil things by revealing the secret, but needless to say, Ennis has clearly been working up to this point from the very beginnings of the mature-themed MAX series. What results is an incredibly brutal showdown between Frank and Barracuda, so much so that the artwork of Goran Parlov gets just plain ugly to look at. He's done some mostly solid work before with these characters, but when things get super-bloody, Parlov's work just looks sloppy. Howard Chaykin, who is the regular artist on Matt Fraction's inferior Punisher War Journal, contributes some guest art in the opening issue, which isn't as bad as what we've seen from him working on Wolverine and Blade, but by and far the biggest flaw of Long Cold Dark is definitely the artwork. That aside, Ennis once again provides a dark, dreary, and just plain brutal Punisher story that doesn't disappoint, and the stage is set for what will be his final storyarc on the series. All in all, if it wasn't for the artwork, Long Cold Dark would be another flawless storyarc of The Punisher MAX, but flaws aside, the book is still worth picking up regardless for fans of the series.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Garth the great!, May 19, 2010

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A. Butler "Rockwell" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Punisher MAX, Vol. 9: Long Cold Dark (v. 9) (Paperback)

I must say, Garth Ennis is probably one of the greatest,if not THE greatest, comic book story teller of my generation. He is up there with Frank Miller, Chuck Dixon and Robert Kirkman. By the last few pages of the book, Ennis had me feeling genuine sympathy for the characters involved, especially Castles antagonist. At the end of the story I closed the book and had to take a few deep breaths. This had nothing to do with the gratuitous violence throughout the pages, believe me this I can handle, but had everything to do with the gravity of Frank's predicament. Prior to reading this volume, I recommend picking up previous volumes of Punisher MAX so you are up to date on all the circumstances leading up to the events in this book. At least read volume seven: Man of stone. That should get you caught up enough.
As far as the art goes in this story, the majority of the book, minus the first chapter, is done by Goran Parlov. Many Punisher MAX fans are critical of Parlov's art because, let's face it, Leandro Fernandez has spoiled us. I on the other hand truly enjoy Parlov's European style of cartoon mixed with realism. The characters will have cartoon like expressions at times but when someone is toting an M-60 machine gun, Parlov draws that M-60 spot on.
I absolutely recommend this book. Garth Ennis's storytelling is amazing .Period.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some Mixed Emotions., April 26, 2008

By 

S. E. Britten "Britz" (Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Punisher MAX, Vol. 9: Long Cold Dark (v. 9) (Paperback)

Ultimately I rate this book highly although I've got some mixed feelings about it. As a stand-alone title I think this one falls down, but as a chapter in the ongoing saga of the Garth Ennis' MAX imprint I found it excited and unexpected. The most obvious thing I can say is don't start with this book if you're not into the whole series. I don't know why you would anyway of course, this being number nine.. But I did read a couple of the books out of order and I think reading this one before the others would unfairly turn you off the whole series.

Complaints begin as soon as you crack open the book, I admit I hadn't looked close enough to realise Howard Chaykin did the first issue in this particular title, and when I saw what I suddenly thought was going to be the majority of this stories artwork I got chilled to the bone. I don't want to be unfair and say it's horrible, but.. yeah, it's pretty horrible. Not all the time, there are actually some great bits mixed in as well, like the full-page shot of Barracuda stepping out of the lift I loved, but, well there are some real lows too. The main problem was he hasn't even gotten close to what Barracuda looks like in the other books or even the majority of this one. The one we start off with in this title is smooth and handsome and looks entirely unlike the guy we know and love. There may be moments when Frank looks like a leathery over-the-hill fifties greaser but at least its somewhere in the ball-park. I can't tell you how relieved I was to turn to the second issue and find it picked up by clearly the only man who should be doing Barracuda, Goran Parlov. I'm not a huge fan of how he draws Frank but he has Barracuda's whole character mastered to a T. Anyway, summing up about Chaykin's art I guess ultimately I've only got one lingering problem with it, and I don't want to spoil anything so if you're being really really careful, skip on to the next paragraph, but: There's a really significant character death here, and I'm just real disappointed he had to go while in that art-style, heh.

Secondly, and I'll try to make this a lot shorter obviously, some parts of the writing in this story just seem very sloppy and lazy for Ennis. It goes back to what I said, I think as a chapter it has some majorly important and exciting moments to focus on, but as a story in itself there are moments it seems rushed and disregarded. It's a book for fans of the whole series, in other words, not someone who's just starting out to read and enjoy the new Frank Castle.