Cover: Mike McKone

Punisher #1

Mar 2009 · Marvel · 4.99 USD; 4.99 CAD

📊 ~110,726 copies sold its debut month

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“Living in Darkness”

★ 1st appearance — Henry Russo

Rick Remender and Jerome Opeña launch a bold new chapter for Frank Castle during Marvel's 2009 Dark Reign era, with a cover by Mike McKone that sets the stakes immediately: a heavily armed Punisher raises his weapon while a rifle scope zeroes in on The Sentry mid-action amid fiery chaos. The cover copy makes Frank's ambitions plain — his mission is to kill Norman Osborn, but The Sentry stands squarely in his way first — a collision of ruthless street-level determination against near-godlike power that's hard to look away from.

writer Rick Remender · artist, inker Jerome Opeña · colorist Dan Brown · letterer Virtual Calligraphy · letterer Joe Caramagna · cover Mike McKone

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (NM) $5

CGC 9.8 · 49 in census $89

CGC 9.6 · 17 in census $41*

CGC 9.4 · 14 in census $36*

CGC 9.2 · 5 in census $31*

CGC 9.0 · 2 in census $29*

CGC 8.5 · 1 in census $24*

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CGC 8.0 · 4 in census $20*

CGC 7.5 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 7.0 none in existence

CGC 6.5 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 6.0 · 1 in census $20*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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GOOD $35 PUNISHER: WAR JOURNAL (VOL 1) --- PICK/CHOOSE! MID to HI-GRADE! *UPDATED* $2.09

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Trivia · 8 facts

Published March 2009 by Marvel Comics; cover title 'Living in Darkness, Part 1'; the 8th volume of the Punisher ongoing series.
Written by Rick Remender (with Matt Fraction credited on the Marvel.com indicia, reflecting the editorial transition from Punisher War Journal); pencils by Jerome Opeña; cover by Mike McKone; colors by Dan Brown; letters by Joe Caramagna.
Spinning directly out of Matt Fraction's Punisher War Journal vol. 2, which Remender co-wrote before Fraction's departure — establishing clear continuity with Civil War-era and Secret Invasion-era characterization.
First appearance (cameo) of Henry Russo, a.k.a. 'Microchip Junior' — a teenage tech genius and hacker who becomes the Punisher's partner during the Dark Reign arc; his identity as Jigsaw's son is revealed later in the run.
The issue opens with Frank Castle attempting to assassinate Norman Osborn with a Skrull sniper rifle from the Jersey shore — setting the series' central Dark Reign conflict — only to be thwarted by the Sentry.
The series was later retitled Franken-Castle from issue #17 onward, after Daken (Wolverine's son) kills and dismembers Castle in Dark Reign: The List — Punisher (Dec. 2009), with the Legion of Monsters reassembling Frank as a Frankenstein-style creature.
The first-print cover by McKone received a second printing variant featuring a new cover by Opeña, as well as an Atomic Comics Hero Initiative black-and-white variant cover.
The entire Remender run — issues #1–16, Annual #1, Dark Reign: The List – Punisher, Franken-Castle #17–21, Dark Wolverine #88–89, and Punisher: In the Blood #1–5 — was collected in a landmark omnibus first published in 2012 and reprinted in a new edition in April 2025.