Wednesday is new comic day (1)

I'm a self-professed nerd, and I have always identified as such, and I'm always trying to expand topics about which I can speak intelligently. As a result, about 18 months ago I began to slowly introduce myself in the medium of comic books, as well as the culture surrounding it. Of course, once I was immersed, I was also addicted.
To share this love with whomever reads this blog, every Wednesday I am going to highlight a comic I've been reading. I'm not going to focus on a single issue at this point, because most of these books are a fair ways in and have a lot of back story to discuss.

Today I am taking about Punisher, written by Greg Rucka, with art by Marco Checchetto and colors by Matt Hollingsworth (issue 6 art by Matt Clark and Matt Southworth). If you had told me 7 months ago that I would be loving a Punisher comic this much, I would have laughed in your face. I've never found the Punisher to be an interesting character. But then Marvel relaunched his book with Greg Rucka writing, and I couldn't say no to at least trying it. Of course, I was immediately hooked. In addition to Rucka's writing, I absolutely love the art, and even with different artists this week's art was consistent, and (most importantly), the colors were gorgeous*. We're also starting to get some narrative pay off for the arc, and I'm excited to see where the events of this issue take us.
If you know nothing about the Punisher, his name is Frank Castle, and he was a US Marine. When he returned home from war, it was to find that family had been murdered. Since then, he has been a ruthless vigilante fighting to punish the horrible people of the world.
Greg Rucka has also introduced Rachel Cole-Alves, a Marine Sergeant whose entire family was murdered on her wedding day, including her new husband, and brought in Norah Winters, an investigative reporter who is determined to not be confined to being just a pretty face.
Honestly, it is probably having Rachel and Norah there that has made this book so interesting to me. Plus, we aren't just seeing the Punisher take down bad guys through extreme violence. Instead, we him plan out his targets and get injured - he isn't a superhuman, after all. But the supporting characters really round the book out, and give Frank's mission more weight, as we see the person who was most profoundly hurt by the events leading up to the story (Rachel). Yeah, perhaps that was probably unclear, but I don't want to spoil anything.
Regardless, as of the first 6 issues of this comic, I am really enjoying it. I am glad that my love for Greg Rucka enabled me to try this book, because otherwise I would be missing out on what I consider to be one of the best books Marvel is putting out right now.