The Punisher #1

History

The 2001 ongoing grew directly out of the momentum of the 2000 limited series, which Ennis and Dillon had produced for Joe Quesada's Marvel Knights imprint after Quesada reportedly recruited Ennis with an open-ended promise that he could write the Punisher for as long as he wished. Ennis had spent most of the late 1990s at DC/Vertigo on Preacher and Hitman before that invitation brought him to Marvel, and he brought the same dark-humor sensibility from those books into the Marvel Knights framework. The creative team on issue #1 — Ennis (writer), Steve Dillon (penciller), Jimmy Palmiotti (inker), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), and Richard Starkings (letterer) — was carried over intact from the preceding limited series, giving the new ongoing a seamless continuity of craft and voice.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published by Marvel Comics under the Marvel Knights imprint; this is the sixth eponymous Punisher ongoing series, designated volume 6 in Marvel's internal numbering.
• Written by Garth Ennis with art by Steve Dillon, inks by Jimmy Palmiotti, colors by Chris Sotomayor, and lettering by Richard Starkings.
• Serves as the direct continuation of the 12-issue 2000 limited series 'Welcome Back, Frank' (vol. 5); the ongoing would run for 37 issues, through 2004.
• Detective Martin Soap — the NYPD detective assigned, against his will, to the Punisher task force and used largely for dark comic relief — carries over from the limited series as a recurring supporting character central to Ennis's tone.
• The Russian, introduced and apparently killed in the preceding 'Welcome Back, Frank' series, is set up in this ongoing to be resurrected via stolen S.H.I.E.L.D. technology, making him one of the series' primary antagonists.
• The overall series is notable for its pitch-black comedic register, which Ennis himself distinguished from the more serious, realistic approach he would later adopt for Punisher MAX; this issue opens that lighter-toned chapter of his Punisher work.
• Punisher (2001) #1–7 were collected in the trade paperback 'Army of One' (February 2002), and the issue was later included in the omnibus 'Marvel Knights Punisher by Garth Ennis: The Complete Collection Vol. 1' (December 2018), alongside the 2000 limited series and 'Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe.'
• Ennis's 2001 ongoing is widely recognized as the creative bridge between the Marvel Knights-era Punisher and his subsequent, more austere Punisher MAX run (launched 2004), establishing Frank Castle's inner voice and supporting cast that the MAX series would later develop in a grimmer register.

Cast · 4 characters

Full credits

Key issues in The Punisher

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#31 1st appearance — Barracuda

Variants (1)