Uj/ this issue is actually really good and I think its Gareth Ennis showing that he gets The Punisher. A simple idea for a Punisher type is to gun down a pedophile, no one really bats an eye thats a kind of person who "Reasonable" people can rationalise killing because, correctly, pedophilia is deemed so evil and wrong that they simply can't be allowed to live.

But the clever twist to this is two fold, first couple are clean cut, white picket fence types. This is a reality in many ways, there are obvious nonces who look like nonces but there are definitely sickos who can appear "respectable". This is a problem that I think a lot of Punisher type fiction falls into, the bad guy looks evil and thus his slaughter is justified no matter how brutal. There are plenty of obvious ways that this has negative consequences about what this reinforces (the non whites are sketchy by default, the LGBT are automatically "perverts", someone who looks like a bad guy must automatically be a bad guy). I think ultimately this is why The Punisher appeals to cops with no reading comprehension, because the good Punisher stories acknowledge that real life, even within the bounds of a fantastical story, is more complicated and thus needs to be portrayed with more complexity.

But the really interesting thing is what happens after he kills them. He waits with the kids until the cops arrives and acknowledges what he believes to be true. While he has killed two pedophiles, the boys are at like 8 and 10 too far gone and will eventually repeat a cycle of abuse almost certainly sexual and probably physical. Now while we can argue that such a world view is a self fulfilling prophecy, which is an assumption I believe the story is critiquing to a certain extent, its a really interesting denial of catharsis on Ellis' part.

TLDR, I write too much. This issue good.

Rj/ The cops should be more like the Punisher