The Punisher Picks Up The Gun Again (Spoilers)

In July final 12 months, Bleeding Cool scooped the information that Jason Aaron was to reinvent The Punisher for a brand new age, including the headline story “Jesus Saiz and Paul Azaceta Join Jason Aaron on Punisher No More” In latest years, there was rising criticism of using the Punisher cranium by police, military, militia, white supremacist teams, QAnon occasions, and Sean Hannity on Fox News, even Trump Punisher pins have been widespread. And then in the course of the January sixth rebellion on the Capitol constructing in Washington DC, many Punisher cranium insignias had been seen. This additionally adopted Black Lives Matter protests and a deal with actual and fictional police behaviour, together with using Punisher imagery by the police. Amidst requires Marvel and Disney to cancel The Punisher as a personality, Bleeding Cool noticed that this may increasingly have occurred already and that there had been no printed or solicited Punisher comedian books since November 2020. There was a group of Punisher Vs Barracuda – however that sequence was by no means accomplished. It was initially postponed by the pandemic however then deserted altogether, regardless of accomplished points having been completed. Marvel introduced that sequence for March 2022, not known as Punisher No More, merely… Punisher. Showing us Frank Castle seemingly working with ninja group The Hand, sporting sais relatively than weapons in addition to a brand new satan face brand relatively than the normal cranium picture.

So how is the change defined in continuity? The Hand was created by Frank Miller for Daredevil as an order of evil mystical ninjas who’re closely concerned in organized crime and mercenary actions. The Hand covets energy above all different targets, are based in Japan, however function internationally. They had been based within the sixteenth century as a secret society of Japanese nationalist samurai however had been quickly co-opted by the Snakeroot, an historical ninja clan that serves a primordial demon identified solely as “The Beast of the Hand”. Members of the Hand are practitioners of highly effective occult magic and may homicide an individual and produce that particular person again to life as a servant of the Hand, however a number of are identified to have reversed this programming.

The Punisher, Frank Castle, born Francis Castiglione, is a serial killing vigilante created by Gerry Conway, John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru who first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man in 1974. A Vietnam veteran, he’s pushed by the deaths of his spouse and two kids, who had been killed by the mob for witnessing a killing in New York City’s Central Park, to wage a one-man battle on crime utilizing numerous weapons. Now he’s waging that battle on supervillains utilizing superhero and alien expertise. By a gaggle who do bear similarities to the imagery by the militia group Molon Labe that Marvel Comics sued over their use of the Punisher trademarked cranium. The cranium that Marvel Comics is not utilizing. Or at the least, not a lot, anyway.

Which smacks of feeding goats to the lion, relatively than letting him hunt them. Is this going to backfire? Because what different maintain does The Hand have on The Punisher? Well, all of it goes again to the character of the beast. And simply what powers they maintain. They introduced again his spouse. Maria Elizabeth Castle.

Complete with healed bullet wounds. Since then the sequence has proven how Punisher is working with The Hand to pursue his battle, in addition to coping with Ares, God Of War, who’s by no means glad about this,  in addition to Frank Castle’s previous as a toddler, and the way he was tapped for service by The Hand as a toddler, lengthy earlier than the battle. But in in the present day’s Punisher #9, a variety of this all comes again into focus for Frank.

Remembering the previous…

Turning the swords again into bullets…

Remembering who he’s…

While Maria Castle remembers as properly…

And a brand new confrontation with Ares…

In selecting up the weapons. New weapons. Beast-powered weapons. Beast-powered bullets too, in all probability. Frank Castle has the gun and the sword. Which might be extra highly effective? It all involves an finish in January…

PUNISHER #8
MARVEL COMICS
OCT220950
(W) Jason Aaron (A) Paul Azaceta (A/CA) Jesus Saiz
Frank Castle desires to finish his battle as soon as and for all. But the God of War has different concepts. And now Ares is coming for the Punisher, with a military of closely armed Apostles at his again, trying to flip Frank again into his previous self by murdering his household over again. Parental Advisory In Shops: Dec 07, 2022 SRP: $4.99

PUNISHER #9
MARVEL COMICS
NOV220831
(W) Jason Aaron (A) Paul Azaceta (A/CA) Jesus Saiz
The epic showdown between the God of War and the Fist of the Beast. But even when the Punisher someway survives Ares, different forces are already gathering to deliver him down, as soon as and for all. In Shops: Jan 18, 2023 SRP: $4.99