Following the current Punisher: Red Band miniseries, that book’s writer Benjamin Percy will team with artist José Luis Soares on a new Punisher ongoing series.
The new series will continue the story set up in the Red Band miniseries, although it isn’t completely clear if it’ll come polybagged and contain all the blood ‘n’ guts that the miniseries did. But you can expect to see Jigsaw show up.
“Punisher: Red Band was a new beginning for Frank Castle—and an unrelenting assault,” Percy said. “The book was polybagged, because it was a biohazard, dripping with blood. Now that you know we aren’t fooling around, we’re entering a new phase of storytelling that will serve both as a continuation of Red Band and a fresh start for new readers.”
It’s a good week to announce the series, because on this date in 1973, Frank Castle made his debut in Amazing Spider-Man #129. Created by Gerry Conway, John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru, the character has been through many iterations, serving as a villain, an anti-hero, an avenging angel (kind of), a Frankenstein clone, War Machine and, most recently, an agent of the Hand. The 2022 Punisher series took him down a dark path that ended with him fleeing to another dimension, Weirdworld, after being stopped and imprisoned by the Avengers and his resurrected wife. Supposedly that was an end for the character, but nothing ever stays gone forever in comics.
“I’m joined in the dark alleys and rusting warehouses of New York by José Luis on pencils and Oren Junior on inks,” Percy said. “Jose is stretching his incredible art in a new direction, channeling all the grit and scars and shadows you’d expect from Frank’s cracked-window view of the world. You’ll be amazed and disturbed by the grounding detail and physical menace and brutal action he’s bringing to this story. And who better to cast as our villain—in a story about Frank picking up the broken, jagged pieces of himself—than one of the greatest Marvel baddies: Jigsaw. Get ready. This is gonna hurt.”
Punisher #1 arrives Feb. 25.