When I heard that PUNISHER writer Garth Ennis was going to pit The Punisher/Frank Castle against Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Wolverine, I knew that the storyline, "Confederacy of Dunces," was going to be a hoot, solely based on Ennis' reputed dislike of superheroes. Having not read The Punisher in almost two years, I was quite eager to read it again.

Predictably and a little sadly, the book is just the same old thing, but without the mad humor and blunt satire Ennis delivers with the regularity of sunrise. Without the violent farce and surprising pathos, Confederacy is as lame as a lone wet noodle.

The Punisher's murderous rampages are now shockingly ordinary. In this issue, Wolverine, Daredevil, and Spider-Man are also lame. It's not a matter of Ennis being disrespectful of sacred cows. It's as if he's so busy being contemptuous of the characters that he actually has no idea of what he should be contemptuous. Maybe, it's time he moved on to something fresh, although there is a very nice scene in which The Punisher kicks a heroin addict of a roof.

John McCrea is listed as the artist here, and if he did draw this, he clearly drew it while in the throws of a fever or Crimelab studios, the inkers, are themselves criminal. GRADE D