Issue(s): Punisher #41
Cover Date: Oct 90
Title: "Should a gentleman offer a tiparillo to a lady?"
Credits:
Mike Baron - Writer
William Reinhold - Penciler
John Nyberg, Michael Ritter, Tony DeZuniga, & Jose Marzan - Inker
Don Daley - Editor

Review/plot:
I don't know what it means, but this is a "Special I [Punish?] New York issue!" according to the cover. The Punisher has been spending a lot of time out of New York, both in this book and in Punisher War Journal, but i doubt anyone felt like that was a detriment to sales or anything.

This issue opens with the Punisher perusing the classifieds and terrifying the local drug dealers.

In the classifieds, the Punisher sees a coded note from Micro telling him that he's established a new hideout. They meet up and have a kind of reconciliation after their little fight from the previous arc.

By the way, there are a lot of inkers on this issue and the art can sometimes get quite cartoony, even though it's regular artist William Reinhold on pencils.

In the newspaper the Punisher was looking at, there was also talk of a drought, and it also turns out that terrorists have damaged one of the city's water stations. So the Punisher goes to take a shower at the new headquarters and finds out that the water's been cut off. He goes out to investigate, and runs into Nick Fury and Al Mackenzie from SHIELD.

Fury basically gives the Punisher approval to go take care of the terrorists.

And the Punisher has a new toy to try out. A little mini-sub created by Micro.

The terrorists turn out to be a trio of women that all have a grudge against New York's water stations. One had a father who worked at a station but was passed over for promotion. One was raped in a water station (that's a very... specific sort of motivation, although admittedly this one is really just in it for the money). And one is just a revolutionary.

The Punisher expresses a dislike of shooting women...

...and in the end he avoids killing at least one of them (it's not clear what happens to the other two when the stations starts flooding).

Here's the weird ending.

Between the weird story and the cartoony art, i found myself flipping back to check the credits multiple times. I also searched around online. But it really does seem to be by the regular creative team, aside from the extra inkers. It's not one of their best, although i did like the Punisher/Micro interactions and i'm intrigued by the idea that Nick Fury allows the Punisher to operate.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is the first time Punisher and Micro meet after the previous arc, so no generic Punisher/Micro appearances should take place in between.

References:

• Nick Fury tells the Punisher that he should arrest him for the stunt he pulled in Europe, in Punisher #29.
  
• Micro got the idea for the sub after seeing the Reaver's tech in Punisher #33-34.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Nick Fury is right. His insistence on looking the other way when he meets Punisher is inexcusable.

On a certain level, the Punisher has to have sympathizers within the US government to be able to continually avoid them. He's just too open about his activities.

It would have been good if Baron had a rotating supporting or recurring cast where different people in various law enforcement agencies or business community was seen either helping him or trying to bring him to justice. Such subplots would do a lot in breaking up the monotony of "finds some drug dealers and shoot them". Baron was a good writer, but it's just too repetitive.

haha that last panel looks like a Mort Drucker drawing!