Punisher War Zone #3

Last review for the night is gonna be the third issue of the Punisher War Zone mini-series.  This issue apparently has Punisher vs... Thor.  Yeah.  This should be... well, a complete and total slaughter!

Punisher War Zone #3(of 5)

Summary: Thor has tracked Punisher down to Indonesia, where Punisher has been hunting down a gun running operation taking place there.  While Thor is questioning one of the gun runners, Punisher fires a bazooka at Thor, killing the goon and taking Thor down. With that, it's on, as Punisher speeds towards the gun runner base, leading Thor into viper's nest.  Punisher ignores Thor and decides to have a shoot-out with the gun runners, so Thor decides to end this "battle" with a massive lightning strike.  Thor then approaches Punisher, who takes a swing at Thor(!?!), who simply bats Punisher's shots away, telling Punisher he only wanted to speak.  Since Punisher keeps swinging, Thor knocks him out.  Punisher wakes up later on where Thor offers him a beer(?!) and says he only wanted to talk.  Thor basically tells Punisher that if he had made his war into his life, then he was fighting for nothing since he had no life.  Punisher dismisses that and says he's fighting in a war, while Thor refutes that and tells Punisher that he had created a war so he could continue to fight and murder...  With that, Thor tells Punisher to hang up his weapons, end his war and help that Lady Punisher who was now set to be executed.  With that, Thor leaves Punisher's weapons and takes his leave.  This issue ends with Thor reporting back to Captain America that he had spoken to Punisher and feels Punisher has an honor in him, which Cap hopes is true since Punisher was the only thing that could save Lady Punisher from her scheduled death.

Thoughts: See, going into this comic I was dubious because, come on, it's THOR vs the Punisher!  THOR!!  The God of Thunder vs a guy with guns!  To me?  That's a first round knock out.  But since this is Punisher's book, I was afraid Punisher would somehow outsmart or outfight Thor.  Thankfully Greg Rucka didn't go that direction as he had Thor destroy Punisher.  And then they talked.  And I loved it!  Thor trying to talk sense into Punisher was fantastic!  I mean Thor is a guy who has been in Punisher's place when he was younger.  Just battling and fighting simply for the sake of the fight.  I really enjoyed this issue a lot, from the fighting, to the talking, to everything.  Now, the ball is in Punisher's court, does he continue to circle the world fighting, or does he head home and turn himself in to help Lady Punisher?  We'll find out with the next issue, I guess.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.