Welcome Back (Again) Frank

    Punisher is back in full force, a character who has always been surrounded in controversy but universally popular despite. In a world of the fantastical, cosmic, and magical, The Punisher is just a man, (albeit one who can go toe-to-toe at times). A man who the system failed and now that system deals with the consequences. I wanted to go back and read through the characters major return to form back in 2000, Marvel Knight's "Welcome Back Frank" storyline, written by Garth Ennis (Hellblazer/Preacher), drawn by Steve Dillon (Hellblazer/Preacher) inked by Jimmy Palmiotti (Daredevil/Harley Quinn), and colored by Chris Sotomayor (Captain America/Captain Marvel), to compare his return from then and how it's shaping now.

    "Welcome Back Frank" was actually Marvel's second attempt at Marvel Knighty-ing Punisher (an imprint for more mature standalone runs in Marvel's -616). The original attempt, just around a year prior, Punisher was battling angels and demons, being a Hitman for God, and other supernatural threats. These were, unsurprisingly, received fairly negatively, and after Punisher consistently having an ongoing from 1987-1997, with many highs and lows, fans wanted more.

    Garth Ennis throws us in, opening up after a successful "Frank Castle Special", it's comedic as all hell, and sudden. Frank leaves the man who calls in to his buddy that Frank walked out on about what just happened and the score he got out of it, which Frank commits one last cruel, yet humorous, act of violence.

    This entire first issue is one big standalone story that preludes into the bigger narrative, Frank is back and looking to start fresh. He starts killing off members of the Gnucci Family, a local mob, and uses this time to reflect on things about who he is. He's a shadow, a cold, calculating macho man who wants this scum off the streets. Frank himself is very calculated, strikes when the time is right. The anger in his system is just fuel to get the job done, but he is still at the end of the day, a man, with a lot of anger and nothing to lose.

    This run is self-aware in tone and humor. Garth Ennis' work is very cynical in nature yet filled with spots of good humanity. Punisher returns to base; an apartment complex filled with societal misfits. There's Dave who goes by "Spacker" Dave, a byproduct of Ennis' Irish upbringing. Bumpo, an overtly yet comically obese man stuck in a doorway, who has extreme bowel movements, who Frank pulls out, and Joan, a meek, kind, young woman who stays hidden in her room but finds an interest in Frank. 

    My favorite thing about this run is how Ennis writes this little group of side characters and their interactions with Frank. They're a motley group of individuals who society has cast-out, and they're never exclaimed to be freaks of nature or gross, disgusting dwellers. They're genuinely good, sometimes silly, people, part of a reason why Punisher does what he does. 

    In terms of the NYCPD side, a down on his luck and workplace police detective named Martin Soap, and the harassment of his very own Punisher themed department, with other lows of the totem pole, Buddy Plugg, prosy-written Behavior Psychologist, who kills himself immediately after being criticized once, and Molly von Richtofen, a hotshot Lieutenant, who has nothing else to lose. This group of characters and their department just sit on the sideline, no reason get in Punishers way if he's doing the job for you right? For some reason this social commentary that Punisher books have brought up time and time again, is always just ignored. 

    "But how am I supposed to catch The Punisher? I mean, every cop in the department loves him, they're always saying how he does half the job for us...", gloomily moans Det. Soap. The department demeans his new "Punisher Task Force", shoving him into a dirty old room because no one has any intention to help. 

    We get Ma Gnacci, and her mob families run-ins and search for Frank Castle. Freakish, frail, and gross, Ma takes a lot of similarities in her design (and her fate) as Marie L'Angell from Ennis' Preacher. She's overtly cruel, unkempt, and the butt of many jokes and supplies a factory of meatbags to point in Punisher's direction. A lot of the main plot itself is with the family, getting goons including a big stereotypical Russian character named well, The Russian, to battle it out with Frank, or have a set piece in the zoo with many killer animals. They're unlikeable, disgusting, and it feels good to see Frank wipe them out.

    We get a single Daredevil issue in #3, Frank's fight with the Gnucci Family gets Matt Murdock/Daredevil involved both in the courtroom and out on the streets. In a scuffle, Punisher ties Matt up, hand duck taped to a fully loaded revolver. Punisher tells Matt that if he doesn't shoot to kill him then he will eliminate his target. In the end Matt fires but due to a removed firing pin and Punisher's own morality, Punisher kills the man and knocks Matt back out telling him, "You can leave the killing to me."

    Issue #3 in particular is the standout in this whole run to me because it's about how Matt and Frank are on the two sides of a similar coin. Matt has faith the system, he believes in it, a lawyer and Catholic, he believes in justice but needs to take things into his own hands to truly help. The system failed Frank, over and over again. He's a Vietnam veteran, he saw the horrors of war firsthand, and when he came home from it, everything was taken from him by a crime mob, his family, his whole identity now dead. They are both Judgement, it just so happens Frank's conviction is higher.

    Our final group of characters are a group of copycat killers, The Holy, an insane priest who kills those who confess their sins at his church, Elite, a upper-class vigilante who rejects any foreign bodies that dare enter his neighborhood, specifically he targets minorities, and Mister Payback, an anarchist figure who guns down board rooms and CEOs, albeit doesn't care for who gets in his crossfire. They serve no real antagonist to the main plot, but they are all comedically taken down by Punisher after coming together to form a Vigilante group, thinking Punisher would be okay with so much civilian carnage.

    Steve Dillion, Jimmy Palmiotti and Chris Sotomayor, all do an incredible job with the look and feel of this book. Dillion's artwork has always been very uncanny, a bit "ugly." When it comes to artwork in comic books, the art always needs to sell the tone and help the narrative of the story. For a world full of such awful things, that includes these ugly faces, dirty eyes and scowls. Unflattering looks at human physiognomy. Dillon has always given a very grounded and tonally mean feel to his work and together with Garth before have they really understood each other with these collaborations. Characters are extremely expressive but not too cartoonish, this whole world feels worn-out. It's gross but it's also what our world really is.

    In 2001, for collected editions of "Welcome Back Frank", Garth Ennis writes, "Just a laugh, a thrill, and plenty of sustained automatic weapons fire for your buck." This run is like taking a hit from Garth Ennis' own pre-rolled joint of bullshit. Go with the punches, go with the grime.

    With the return of Frank Castle this year in Daredevil Born Again, and an upcoming Disney+ Special; we've seen a new resurgence in the character with a multitude of new miniseries this year, and an ongoing slated for February of 2026. 

    In this modern age, Punisher's logo has been scorched with such infamy. Radical Right-wing groups, plastic politicians, and constituted bodies have been seen flaunting Punisher logos, usually as a sign of empowerment and social upstanding. Specifically, around 2015-2016, was a rise in such with the release of The Punisher's Netflix Television show. Around 2022, Marvel decides to change Punisher's logo to try and put some separation between them and these groups. A year later, Marvel basically *soft* retired the character to try and begin with a new Punisher, a new character entirely which fans hated. It got axed after 4 issues and now we're here.

    With 2025 we've seen the release of Punisher: Red Band, the current Punisher mini-series bringing him out of retirement and into his next ongoing. This time Punisher is controlled and awakened, with no memory of who he is or what's going on, and a gang war going on between Marvel characters, Tombstone and Kingpin. 

    "He lives so others may die." Ben Percy (Wolverine/X-Force)'s opening script is descriptive, cinematic. Julius Ohta (Iron Man/Hellverine)'s art and Yen Nitro (X-Men Unlimited/Longshots)'s art is gritty, angry, an action movie. The reader is completely thrown in headfirst just like Frank into this new situation. This is complete machismo, no hint of good grace in sight. Just a solo show for Punisher as he survives in the style of Stephen King's The Running Man, he can't stay anywhere for long. We're sitting at 2 issues now and I'm very keen on reading more here. This run does take place more in-line with -616 as Kingpin has been going through a bit of a new heavenly crisis back in the pages of Saladin Ahmed's most recent run on Daredevil (2023-2025).

    It's extreme, renegade. In the weeks after Absolute Batman Annual #1 hit shelves I've been aching for something with more edge to it on Marvel's end. So far, Ben Percy is a spark for The Punisher to come back into the spotlight and it's exciting to see where things will go from here.

    We also have the recent, Marvel Knights: The World to Come, an out of universe event book reuniting some of the old Knights writers and artists in a world where things go wrong in the future for many heroes, with a Punisher Spin off by Jimmy Palmiotti and artist Dan Panosian (Captain America/Uncanny X-Men) which has one issue out at the time of writing. 

    An older Punisher in this universe's setting gets involved with a gang spreading a new kind of experimental drug in the city called Zombie, Castle-style violence then ensues. Great art by Panosian and his colorist, Dean White (Uncanny X-Force/The Amazing Spider-Man), really set an aged but grounded mood to everything. Yet the script here that doesn't really pop like Percy's did and is missing a major lack of characterization the original Knights had with Ennis'. It feels almost wrong to call this Knights with only Jimmy Palmiotti returning. 

In the meantime, Jimmy is also going to be doing a Daredevil/Punisher team-up miniseries starting this month called "The Devil's Trigger" to help tide Daredevil fans over for both characters returns in 2026.