Punisher Max #1

Frank Castle stands against a weathered, poster-covered wall, hands clasped behind his head, his skull emblem barely visible beneath his dark coat — it's a portrait of controlled menace that sets the tone for Garth Ennis and Lewis LaRosa's gritty MAX-imprint run. Tim Bradstreet's cover art bathes the Punisher in shadow and tension, with a web of red lines radiating outward as if mapping the violence to come. Collecting the opening chapter of "In the Beginning," this 2005 oversized edition is a confident, unflinching introduction to Marvel's most brutal corner of the MAX universe.