Greg Rucka’s bride (the only survivor of a mob battle at a wedding) continues to regain her strength as Rucka continues to flush out her character while The Punisher is drug into the sky by The Vulture. It’s a grappling that turns into an aerial battle that lasts…all…issue…long… Besides that, there really isn’t much else going on barring the introduction (or re-introduction?) of a character with a shared history with Frank Castle/The Punisher.

For the first time, Greg Rucka’s The Punisher, which debuted incredibly strongly and with gusto, looses some of its steam. While there’s plenty of action, as the battle between The Vulture and The Punisher, which is pretty unique amongst superhero battles, unfolds over the nighttime skies of New York, the story (the series strong point) doesn’t move along much. Rucka demonstrates that he can still write a pretty good costumed/mutated/superhuman battle, and that artist Checchetto is still one of the most exciting artists I’ve seen in a while, but this issue has the feel of a filler issue that exists between plot developments.

The best aspects of this issue are Rucka’s subtle character reveals concerning the only survivor of the massacre that kicked off issue #1 of the series. Rucka has a penchant for writing strong female leads and it seems certain that Rucka’s Bride and The Punisher will cross paths at some point. Rucka set up some really strong characters in the first two issues, when he gets back to these characters, the narrative will pick up again. I’m anticipating the arrival of issue #4 as much as I was apathetic about issue #3 after I read it, so issue #3 gave me something at least: a chance to use it as a metaphor...