''The Punisher'' (also known as ''The Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank'') is a 12-issue

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

limited series Limited series may refer to: *Limited series, individual storylines within an anthology series *Limited series, a particular run of collectables, usually individually numbered *Limited series (comics), a comics series with a predetermined number of ...

written by

Garth Ennis Garth Ennis (born January 16, 1970) is a Northern Irish–American comics writer, best known for the Vertigo series ''Preacher'' with artist Steve Dillon, his nine-year run on Marvel Comics' Punisher franchise, and '' The Boys'' with artist Dar ...

with art by

Steve Dillon Steve Dillon (22 March 1962 – 22 October 2016) was a British comic book artist, best known for his work with writer Garth Ennis on '' Hellblazer'', '' Preacher'' and ''The Punisher''. Early life Dillon was born in London in 1962 and raised ...

and

Jimmy Palmiotti James Palmiotti (born August 14, 1961) is an American writer and inker of comic books, who also does writing for games, television and film. Early life Palmiotti attended the High School of Art and Design in New York City. Career Palmiotti sta ...

which was published under the

Marvel Knights Marvel Knights is an imprint of Marvel Comics that contained standalone material taking place inside the Marvel Universe (Earth-616). The imprint originated in 1998 when Marvel outsourced four titles (''Black Panther'', ''Punisher'', '' Daredevil ...

imprint Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in ...

. The series features the

vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a person who ...

anti-hero An antihero (sometimes spelled as anti-hero) or antiheroine is a main character in a story who may lack conventional heroic qualities and attributes, such as idealism, courage, and morality. Although antiheroes may sometimes perform actio ...

the

Punisher The Punisher (Francis "Frank" Castle, born Castiglione) is an antihero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Gerry Conway and artists John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru. The Punisher made ...

and ran from April 2000 to March 2001.

Publication history

The series is regarded as the fifth volume of the ''Punisher'' title. The story continued in Ennis' 2001 ''The Punisher''

ongoing series In comics, an ongoing series is a series that runs indefinitely. This is in contrast to limited series (a series intended to end after a certain number of issues thus limited), a one shot (a comic book which is not a part of an ongoing series), ...

Prints

Issues

# Welcome Back, Frank # Badaboom, Badabing # The Devil by the Horns # Wild Kingdom # Even Worse Things # Spit Out of Luck # Bring Out your Dead # Desperate Measures # From Russia with Love # Glutton for Punishment # Any which Way you Can # Go Frank Go

Plot

Frank, still depicted as a

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

veteran, reestablishes himself in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

by taking on the Gnucci crime syndicate. Detective Soap is assigned to "catch" the Punisher; it is purely a P.R. move as the police do not really want Frank caught as they secretly condone his actions. Frank turns the hapless Soap to his side, getting him to pass information on local crime syndicates. Against his will, Frank gains three loyal friends in his neighbors, Joan the Mouse, Mr. Bumpo, and Spacker Dave. All end up helping him in his crusade against the Gnuccis. Some of this is self-defense as the Gnuccis learn where Frank lives and stage an attack. Spacker himself suffers torture at the hands of the Gnuccis, his piercings ripped out in a fruitless attempt to gain intelligence on Frank. The Gnucci operation is slowly dismantled. Soap is promoted to police commissioner. As a gesture of thanks for aiding him, Frank gives his neighbors a large sum of Gnucci money. Joan and Spacker would play larger roles in Frank's life later. Bumpo suffers a medical accident ("something important fell out of his bottom") and moves into a hospital.

Collected editions

The series was collected in a trade paperback, along with ''

Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe ''Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe'' is a 1995 one-shot comic book published by Marvel Comics. Written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Doug Braithwaite with most inking done by Michael L. Halblieb, the story depicts Frank Castle killing ev ...

'', as ''The Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank'' (Marvel, hardcover, ; softcover, ; Panini, softcover, ), which became the informal series title. The series was also collected as ''Marvel Knights Punisher by Garth Ennis: The Complete Collection Vol. 1'' .

In other media

*Joan, Mr. Bumpo, and Spacker Dave were all portrayed in the 2004 movie '' The Punisher''. *Another version of the story runs through the 2005 ''

'' video game.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Punisher (2000 Series) Comics by Garth Ennis Comics set in New York City Defunct American comics