Frank Castle - the Punisher - is back in New York. But he is not whole. Something is wrong with his brain.

While Frank tries to recover that which he doesn’t remember losing, an old foe is building himself up like never before…

I Know the Pieces Fit

The Punisher stalks the streets of New York once more. At first, there is no rhyme or reason for the particular path he walks. At least, there is no reason that he understands. He finds a bit more focus by listening to the police band and intervening in various incidents in his own inimitable way. But still, something is wrong. There are gaps in the memory of Frank, and he seizes up without any warning. He needs help.

He does not know the half of it. While Frank is struggling with how he has been torn down, his old foe Jigsaw is building himself up like never before. Jigsaw has a new lease on life and designs to be the new Kingpin of Crime. With Wilson Fisk off the board, and after a visit to Tombstone in prison, the plans of Jigsaw are underway. Now he just needs to remove the Punisher from the board before he can interfere.

While these two old enemies begin to circle each other once more, reporter Madeline Phipps finds herself drawn into their world. Reporting on the chaos and violence that has befallen the city in recent days, she is convinced that Frank Castle has resurfaced. Her chief does not think that a mere vigilante, even the Punisher himself, is newsworthy in a world of gods, aliens, and super-soldiers. He tells her to drop the story and stay in her lane. She is not going to, of course. The players are all set, and they find themselves on a collision course.

The New Face of Crime

I should start by saying that I was not really a fan of Punisher Red Band. It felt like hardly anything happened over the course of its five issues. The "red band" nature of the book was just some extra blood and gore, which did not really add anything to the story. By contrast, Punisher #1 was quite good. It is not as fast-paced or bombastic as you would expect a first issue to be. However, if you consider it the epilogue to Red Band that is bridging that miniseries to this ongoing title, then it makes sense. An ongoing series requires more players than a miniseries, and they all need to take the stage and establish themselves.

The idea of Frank Castle being back and feeling compelled to carry on his mission, even though he does not really know or understand why, is an interesting one. The Punisher has always been a driven character, but this is a different sort of drive than he has had before. The fact that it is largely self-inflicted adds an extra layer of tragedy to the situation. The day that he gets his memories back, assuming he eventually does, is going to be a very dark day for whoever is standing in front of him at that moment.

You cannot relaunch the Punisher without a good villain, and here they bring back one of his best. One of the pitfalls of a character like Frank Castle is that by the very nature of his mission, not too many of his enemies get the chance to recur. Usually, they are in the morgue by the end of the first meeting. This makes the ones like Jigsaw, who have survived many encounters with Castle over the years, all the more important. This is a more patient and methodical take on Jigsaw than we have seen in the past. This makes him a very interesting contrast to the Punisher as he is now.

Whenever a new Punisher series is launched, it is always a fifty-fifty chance if he is going to be treated as part of the larger 616 Marvel Universe or not. Here, he has been firmly established as part of it all. This includes appearances by Spider-Man and Jessica Jones in Red Band, and mentions of superhumans in multiple places here. This gives Frank a larger sandbox to play in, and it should help give the series some more longevity. I cannot wait until the inevitable meeting with Daredevil after he learns what happened to Wilson Fisk.

Authoring the War Journal

Continuing the threads he started to pull in Punisher Red Band, Benjamin Percy remains on writing duties here. Even though Frank Castle is a shell of a man at this point, running on mostly instinct, Percy is still able to capture the essence of the man. The drive and the ruthlessness are all there, even if Frank does not remember why. Percy has spent a lot of time writing the Punisher by this point, and the familiarity shows. For what is one-part epilogue and one-part setup issue, he keeps the pace moving. He gives everything room to breathe but does not slow down too much. That is a tough needle to thread, but Percy handles it effortlessly.

Art duties are now in the hands of Jose Luis Soares, who recently handled the last arc of the Daredevil run by Saladin Ahmed. His art is a large improvement over the work in Red Band. His Frank Castle is more of a man and less of a hulking brute. His take on Tombstone looks a bit too much like the monster of Frankenstein, but I think part of that is coloring. Jigsaw has a very distinctive look that Soares captures well here. His use of a mask to get into the prison to meet with Tombstone is appropriately gross. The bursts of violence are well-handled and surprisingly bloody for a book that does not have the red band label.

I mentioned the colors, which are handled by Frank D’Armata. On the whole, he does a great job. For a story that takes place mostly at night, he is able to use different sources of light to keep everything looking interesting. There is one page where panels alternate between Castle in his van and him doling out punishment to perpetrators. The van panels are colored in the normal style, while the punishment panels are all in red. It reminds me of the mechanics in the old Punisher game for the PlayStation 2. It is very cool. He does color Tombstone more green than white, which I do not get. It makes him look like the monster of Frankenstein more than anything. That is the only real misstep of D’Armata in this issue.

On A Collision Course

In the end, Punisher #1 is a solid first issue that both serves as an epilogue to the Red Band series and also sets up its own characters and stories for its ongoing run. The idea of a Frank Castle who knows who he is, but not why he is, is an interesting one. Juxtaposing the mission of Castle to find himself with the mission of Jigsaw to turn himself into the new Kingpin establishes them as almost co-leads for this book. This gives the story more stakes while still keeping it personal.

It will be interesting to see how the reporter Madeline comes into play as the series progresses. Will she be an ally for Castle, or more of a foil? Given the nature of the Punisher character, I rather doubt she is being set up to be a love interest. Then again, Frank is not quite himself these days, so maybe he is feeling more lonely than usual. There are clearly lots of places to go with her, which is good. We definitely need a little bit of a supporting cast, and preferably someone who does not have a figurative ticking clock above their head.

I have mentioned in the past that I am not the biggest fan of the Punisher as a character. However, I have to admit that between books like Devil’s Trigger and now the start to this new series, I am gaining a new appreciation for him. He is still not going to crack my Top Ten anytime soon, but I better understand his appeal and why he has lasted for so long. And in the world of today, who does not want to see the worst of the worst meet a horrible end every once in a while?