Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book
Rate this book
After he watched his family murdered by the Mafia, ex-Marine Frank Castle vowed to use his skills to eliminate all criminals from the face of the Earth as the one-man army known only as the Punisher. Now, the deadly vigilante attempts to cleanse the entire world of thugs, traveling from the jungles of South America to the war-torn streets of Northern Ireland. In a time when people are hungry for justice, the Punisher satisfies by taking the fight directly to the evil men that threaten life around the world.

320 pages, Hardcover

Published June 23, 2003

15 people want to read

About the author

Garth Ennis

2,624 books3,170 followers
Ennis began his comic-writing career in 1989 with the series Troubled Souls. Appearing in the short-lived but critically-acclaimed British anthology Crisis and illustrated by McCrea, it told the story of a young, apolitical Protestant man caught up by fate in the violence of the Irish 'Troubles'. It spawned a sequel, For a Few Troubles More, a broad Belfast-based comedy featuring two supporting characters from Troubled Souls, Dougie and Ivor, who would later get their own American comics series, Dicks, from Caliber in 1997, and several follow-ups from Avatar.

Another series for Crisis was True Faith, a religious satire inspired by his schooldays, this time drawn by Warren Pleece. Ennis shortly after began to write for Crisis' parent publication, 2000 AD. He quickly graduated on to the title's flagship character, Judge Dredd, taking over from original creator John Wagner for a period of several years.

Ennis' first work on an American comic came in 1991 when he took over DC Comics's horror title Hellblazer, which he wrote until 1994, and for which he currently holds the title for most issues written. Steve Dillon became the regular artist during the second half of Ennis's run.

Ennis' landmark work to date is the 66-issue epic Preacher, which he co-created with artist Steve Dillon. Running from 1995 to 2000, it was a tale of a preacher with supernatural powers, searching (literally) for God who has abandoned his creation.

While Preacher was running, Ennis began a series set in the DC universe called Hitman. Despite being lower profile than Preacher, Hitman ran for 60 issues (plus specials) from 1996 to 2001, veering wildly from violent action to humour to an examination of male friendship under fire.

Other comic projects Ennis wrote during this time period include Goddess, Bloody Mary, Unknown Soldier, and Pride & Joy, all for DC/Vertigo, as well as origin stories for The Darkness for Image Comics and Shadowman for Valiant Comics.

After the end of Hitman, Ennis was lured to Marvel Comics with the promise from Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada that he could write The Punisher as long as he cared to. Instead of largely comical tone of these issues, he decided to make a much more serious series, re-launched under Marvel's MAX imprint.

In 2001 he briefly returned to UK comics to write the epic Helter Skelter for Judge Dredd.

Other comics Ennis has written include War Story (with various artists) for DC; The Pro for Image Comics; The Authority for Wildstorm; Just a Pilgrim for Black Bull Press, and 303, Chronicles of Wormwood (a six issue mini-series about the Antichrist), and a western comic book, Streets of Glory for Avatar Press.

In 2008 Ennis ended his five-year run on Punisher MAX to debut a new Marvel title, War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle.

In June 2008, at Wizard World, Philadelphia, Ennis announced several new projects, including a metaseries of war comics called Battlefields from Dynamite made up of mini-series including Night Witches, Dear Billy and Tankies, another Chronicles of Wormwood mini-series and Crossed both at Avatar, a six-issue miniseries about Butcher (from The Boys) and a Punisher project reuniting him with artist Steve Dillon (subsequently specified to be a weekly mini-series entitled Punisher: War Zone, to be released concurrently with the film of the same name).

Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Ennis

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
9 (31%)
4 stars
13 (44%)
3 stars
4 (13%)
2 stars
1 (3%)
1 star
2 (6%)
Displaying 1 of 1 review
Profile Image for Mark.
386 reviews7 followers
September 2, 2020
Garth Ennis wrote this collection of Punisher stories, featuring his two part Wolverine storyline, so I bought this hardcover volume. Darick Robertson illustrated the issues the Wolverine guest starred in (Spider Jerusalem makes a cameo appearance in a fight scene) and his art gave the comics a gritty grindhouse look. I had paged through one of these issues years ago, and when I got to the part where the Punisher blew Wolverine's face off, I thought Ennis was being an obnoxious edgelord. Clearly, my opinion of Ennis has changed since then, as has my reading of his characterization of the Wolverine. At the time, I thought it was shameless fan service, but now it read like a genuinely funny critique of the type of toxic masculinity Wolverine embodies.

The other stories, written by Ennis and drawn by Steve Dillon, were every bit as iconclastic and humorous as I would have expected from the team that created Preacher.
Displaying 1 of 1 review

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.