Quick thoughts on Punisher #1

OK, so this is like the 1,000,000th Punisher series Marvel has decided to publish. I swear, I probably have 6 or 7 different Punisher #1's amongst my collection! Maybe Marvel would be better suited to either stick Frank in a book where he can serve as a supporting character or put him on a team or something, because I don't think there is a large enough fanbase to support a Punisher solo series. Anyway, enough belly-aching, here's what I thought about Frank Castle's 1,000,000th series.

Overall- HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Holy S###! I'm sure glad I got this comic through my subscription with Marvel as opposed to buying it at a comic shop! The cover price of this comic was $3.99, and before I even opened it I could tell by it's size that this issue was 48 pages long. So, OK, cool, this is going to be an extra size issue. Makes sense considering this is a #1. However, the actual story of this comic was 22 pages! Think about that for a moment. Out of a 48 page comic book, which cost $3.99, there was only 22 pages of new materiel! F###ing Marvel! Besides the 22 page main story, the rest of this comic was filled with a few pages detailing Punisher's origin(as if I didn't know his origin by now...)followed by that same goddamn preview of "Agents of Atlas" Marvel has been sticking in the back of pretty much EVERY Marvel comic I've read lately. You know, out of spite I'll NEVER read one single issue of "Agents of Atlas" now. I'm that sick and tired of seeing the same preview over and over again!

Sorry to go off like that, but I had to get that off my chest. The actual Punisher story itself was OK, and detailed Frank trying to assassinate Norman Osborn, only to be thwarted by the Sentry. Frank flees from the Sentry and ultimately manages to escape, thanks to a mystery man who phoned Frank and told him where to go. The issue ends with Frank evading the Sentry, but collapsing due to the injuries he suffered during the escape.

For the record, I've ALWAYS hated the Sentry, and see him as nothing more than a boring Superman ripoff. I've never understood why Marvel/Brian Bendis has been so infatuated with the Sentry. So needless to say, I wasn't happy to see him show up in this comic book. After everything is said and done, at the end of the day, I'd give this comic a 6 1/2 out of 10 for the story. But, I'd give Marvel a 0 out of 10 for setting the price of this comic at $3.99 when you only get 22 pages of original story... That's just wrong.