At least the Punisher's meeting with Eminem made some sense on a conceptual level. Archie Meets the Punisher, however? Poor Frank just can't catch a break with his crossovers; they're either utterly ridiculous (this and the Eminem debacle) or he gets his gritty ass handed to him by whatever hero he might be meeting at the time (usually Batman, who tossed him into a pile of trash on one occasion and then beat the snot out of him - off-panel - on another). Our veterans deserve better! Archie Meets the Punisher sees the titular serial killer head off to Riverdale on the trail of a drug dealer named 'Red' (not Reddington, a crossover people might actually want to read); a man who coincidentally looks almost identical to a certain Archie Andrews. Needless to say the comic does not begin and end with the Punisher putting a bullet through the head of Archie comics' most typical teenager. After their initial misunderstanding, the pair team up to take Red down - with surprising restraint for the Punisher. Although a scene in which Frank ties a guy to a tree and makes tinsel from his guts (a thing he actually did in Ennis's The Slavers) might not be so appropriate for Archie Comics. The comic ends with the tease of a crossover between Wolverine and Jughead. Thankfully for Logan's dignity, this did not happen.
A film critic and professional writer of over ten years, Joel Harley has a deep and abiding love of all things horror, Batman and Nicolas Cage. He can be found writing online and in print, all over the Internet and in especially good bookstores.
