Issue(s): Punisher #30
Cover Date: Feb 90
Title: "Confession"
Credits:
Mike Baron - Writer
William Reinhold - Breakdowns
Mark Farmer - Finishes
Rob Tokar - Assistant Editor
Don Daley - Editor

Review/plot:
The Punisher apparently has been going to confession (although it's been over a year since his last confession) at a St. Luke's church where they've got a nice wax Jesus statue. I can't imagine being a priest that takes confession from the Punisher, but the priest is aware of what the Punisher does and tips him off to the fact that another man that has been going to confession has been admitting to murders that are attributed in the papers to the Bayside Butcher.

The Punisher starts investigating the murderer. The investigation takes him as far away as rural Pennsylvania, where the latest body (missing a head) has been found. In Pennsylvania the Punisher convinces the local sheriff, a man frustrated by the way the courts let perpetrators go, to give him info on the case.

The killer eventually turns out to be the proprietor of a wax museum, allowing the art team to have a little fun.

The killer has been using the body parts of women to create the "perfect" Joan of Arc statue.

He's obviously crazy, but the Punisher isn't about to let him walk because of it.

The Punisher then returns to St. Luke's to find that the priest has renounced his vows and gone on a mission in Africa as a lay person. The Punisher tries to ignore the wax Jesus on the way out.

With the theme of a revolving door in the court system from both the Pennsylvanian sheriff and the Bayside Butcher, this issue falls squarely into the right-wing revenge fantasy genre.

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• No footnote, but the Punisher convinces the sheriff to help him by telling him that he's the guy that "knocked out a spoke of the Kingpin's East Coast gambling operation and lived to tell about it", a reference to Punisher #15-18.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A