Punisher: Omnibus

The Punisher (2000/2001) (Collected Editions) #1-6

by Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon (Illustrator), Derrick Robertson (Illustrator)

The bodies of drug dealers, murderers and the scum of the Earth litter the streets - the Punisher is back, and more brutal than ever, courtesy of writer Garth Ennis! The critically acclaimed creator that brought you Preacher restores one of the most popular characters in the Marvel Universe to his former glory and ultraviolent roots. Stripped of sidekicks, spiritual directives and other excess baggage, the vengeance-crazed vigilante hits the mean streets of New York City with a renewed sense of purpose! Lawbreakers beware: Frank Castle is locked, loaded and waiting for you to slip up! COLLECTING: PUNISHER (2000) 1-12; PUNISHER KILLS THE MARVEL UNIVERSE; MARVEL KNIGHTS DOUBLE-SHOT 1; PUNISHER (2001) 1-7, 13-37

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Comic Book, Collections

1136 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2004

About the author

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

Reviews

[Ozan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had really good time reading the Omnibus. It was all just some work of fiction. No, real human beings were hurt in this book so no problem. It was all just some a little bit psycho good old fun. I feel the need to say this because i know there is alot of Punisher hate out there.

Ennis says at the begining of the book that it is a back to basics kind of approach to The Punisher which means street level crime stories with alot of violance, gun action. What works pretty good with Punisher as far as i can see. There were some very over the top parts ofcourse, but i enjoyed the book overall.

The book was more adult compared to the Batman books or any other vigilante books. I heard that Marvel Knights titles were more adult anyway and that was true as far as i could see. There were kind of cops in this book that you would never see in a Batman books first of all. A Loser cop, cops being plain insensitive bullies, female cops who were forced to sleep with their commissioners by the commissioners themselves and a female cop who was labeled as a disgrace by the departmant because she rafused to sleep with her commissioner and she assigned to an impossible case like the Punisher task force to catch Punisher with our mega loser detective Soap. She refused to sleep with her Commisioner because first of all, she was a lesbian and secondly it is wrong to sleep with your boss for your carrier. You wouldn't see any of those in Batman. Well, i have never seen anyway, and there were alot of blood in MK Punisher, Punisher was darker yet had more humor then your avarage comics, the dark humor, my kind of humor. Pure Ennis goodness and i compared it to Batman because Batman was the only book which involved with cops as much as Marvel Knights Punisher as far as i read and both Batman and Punisher work outside of the law, they are vigilantes. I never liked to call Batman a super hero, he is not one of those candy asses.

Back to the story: Detective Soap was just so funny... Poor guy, you felt sorry for his misserable life but laughed at the same time. It all turned out well for him in the end though... HA HA ! that may change with different point of views, but i think Soap was happy in the end so all is well. What would happen to the three vigilantes that inspiared with Punisher was kind of obvious, i guess. After All Punisher worked alone and he saved a bullet for himself, if the job was ever done, but the job will never be done, the Punisher's way is not the right way to stop crime and Frank seemed to know that. He just did it because of revenge and i liked to think that, but what he did was not about doing the right thing. It was about revenge. HA ! The last part came from my mind, i have never seen that's said in any Punisher book. The three vigilantes who were inspired by The Punisher was actually different views about The Punisher. The Holy was the serial killer and Punisher is considered as a serial killer by some, Mr. Payback was the people's defender, the underdog and poor's defender against the rich, big corporations, Punisher and The Elite was the rich elitest guy who saw poor people as scums and killed them. All of these 3 characters were 3 different point of views about Punisher by people and how they were ended up in the end was like Ennis refused all of the three views of The Punisher by the people and said The Punisher was something else, but i am not sure what that something else was... HA HA !

The mean mafia boss woman (i can't remember her name) at the early parts of the book had it pretty bad in the zoo and later on in her own mansion. The Darth Vader moment, she had was funny. I think i liked the Punisher against The Mafia The Best.

And the Really crazy and funny part of the book was... The Russian... HA HA ! He was the founder of the Daredevil fan club in Russia, you know... HA HA ! How Punisher handled him for the first time was just so perfect. ''Welcome to America'' indeed... HA HA ! The Second Coming of the Russian was hilerious too... With his two giant boobs... HA HA ! he loved his boobs which were result of some kind of hormonal disorder in his body as a result of his ressuraction and even insisted scientist who resurected him to make his boobs bigger... HA HA ! Punisher and Spider-Man teamed up to stop The Russian... The team up was pretty much like Punisher used unconcious Spider-Man's body as a meat shield against armed criminals and The Russian... HA HA ! The criminal millitary base island was cool. The General who ran that place was a sadistic, but kind of bad ass man. He didn't die ! I hope Ennis kept him for Max series. I would love see him in Max Punisher again.

The part with the gay cheriff was nice. How he stood up for his town in the end and all was good. That story kind of touched the subject of homophobia. It was nice to see the book get a bit socially conscious.

The little people mafia was hilarious... HA HA ! Ennis really humiliated Wolverine in that story. HA HA! Wolverine is my favorite Marvel character, but it was so funny... I'm not angry at Ennis or anything, i think it was a creative approach to how The Punisher could hadle Wolverine in an encounter. HA ! Daredevil, Wolverine and Spider-Man, The three stooges wanted to put a stop to the Punisher in the end. That was so funny. Especially how Wolverine took the wrong train in the end... Ennis really had his fun with Wolverine, DD and Spidey. lol

The last part, ''Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe'' issue was good too. A good what if Punisher story. What if Frank Castle's family were killed by super heroes as bystanders in a fight against the super villains... Frank kept the Super Heroes responsible of his family's death and went after all the super heroes to kill them all ! I think Ennis has kind of a soft spot for Daredevil. He was the one who triggered Frank's conscience in the end and made him saw the monstrosty of what he did in the What if. DD also got the least humiliation in The MK Punisher as well. HA HA !

[Drew Canole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe this is Garth Ennis's first run with Punisher. After this he'd move onto doing Punisher Max which is a little bit more serious. This book is full of light-hearted (or at least as light hearted as an R-rated Punisher goes) stories - lots of humour and nonsense violence. Ennis himself states that there's no deeper meaning to any of these stories beyond seeing Punisher violently murder hundreds of people. That's not to suggest that there isn't a backbone to these stories.

I found the series starts off super strong with the Steve Dillon illustrated chapters, but once he leaves Ennis works with a few different artists on shorter (1-4 issues) stories. These shorter stories aren't as strong or as satisifying. One highlight of the latter stories features Daredevil, Spider-man, and Wolverine coming together to capture Frank Castle. They'd all been victims of the Punisher from earlier stories and have a bone to pick with him - especially Wolverine. I thought was a satisfying way to wrap up the series and connect a few of the stories together.

[OmniBen · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Zero spoiler review) 3.25/5
So this must be how most people view Ennis' The Boys, I.E Overtly stupid and over the top. For mine, I found The Boys to be a much more mature, polished and enjoyable read than this, even with the mid series slump. To say I found this underwhelming would be a huge understatement. Perhaps my expectations were a tad high going in, but Garth Ennis writing The Punisher... I don't think setting the bar pretty high was unrealistic. The man has shown he can pen a well thought out and executed story, even when its just a violent little romp, but this was dumb! Really dumb! A sense of humour is fine. Descending into absurdity isn't. I just couldn't take a large chunk of this seriously. Things improved in the second half, both story and art-wise, with a couple of the actually surprising me with how good they were, or should that be, how good they were compared to the rest of it. Just like Ennis on writing duty, I found Steve Dillon's artwork similarly underwhelming. It didn't help he drew what was undoubtedly the worst stories collected here, but as soon as he left the book, I enjoyed the art more. Whenever Darick Robertson follows you, it's never likely to bode well. It was a Shame he only did three issues, with the book descending into an artist change ever arc, which again wasn't too my liking, although all did a decent job for the most part.
I'll hold onto this for the relative handful of issues worth revisiting, and for the fact that modern Marvel aren't likely to reprint this until sanity returns to the world. Until then, I'll keep this very O.O.P and sought after omnibus on my shelf, even if I didn't love it like I wanted to. 3.25/5


OmniBen.

[Bram Ryckaert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book starts off with a high note in 'Welcome Back Frank', in which you get the best example of Ennis and Dillon's dark action comedy. It doesn't get to that level in subsequent arcs, but I still liked the variation in stories and quite enjoyed it when Ennis writes Spidey, Daredevil and particularly Wolverine as charicatures and joke characters. Overall his MAX run is better, but this one has a lot of (dark) humor and is definitely worth your time. You either love or hate Steve Dillon's artstyle, but to me he's the perfect fit for this type of story and I'm glad he was able to do the bulk of the run.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute brilliance. I cannot fault this story. It has peaks and troughs as most story arcs do, but they are minimal and set the mark for the Punisher canon. All other Punisher stories will be compared to this run. And Garth's work on Preacher is the only other thing, that I have read, that can match it.

I'm not going to tell you the synopsis for the stories, many other reviews will cover that. I am going to tell you to read it and enjoy it.

[Rick Mackley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this; and I've read the bible, this I'll read again as though it were my bible.

[Adam Spanos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ennis' run is littered with humour and great action, however its portrayal of The Punisher's motivation falls somewhat flat at times, and it definitely detracts from the great character he subsequently built up in the Marvel MAX line. A warning to Wolverine fans however, there is very little respect paid to "the ol' canucklehead" when he shows up in the story; but don't worry, the sheer absurdity of the situation (as Logan is without a face for almost the entirety of this appearance) is more than enough to make up for the lack of respect for the character.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't believe it took me so long to get through this. For some reason I kept picking it up and dropping it.

Maybe it was because the quality of the stories notably lapsed after the opening, sensational, Welcome Back, Frank in which Ennis satirises just about anything and everything with no mercy and shows that The Punisher, a right wing monster, can be the perfect vehicle for writing a perfectly good left wing tract. As an anti-Dirty harry it's absolutely perfect and a fantastic example of Ennis at the top of his game.

The rest of this omnibus is a grab bag. The opening to The Punisher monthly series is pretty strong, as it deals with similar ideas and characters from Welcome Back... but somewhere after the opening story a decision was made to go a bit more mainstream and the stories, whilst strong - Ennis struggles to write anything dull - look a little less sharp, witty and savage, and there's more of a sense of appealing to the people who just want to see shit get blown up. That said, I immensely enjoyed this whole omnibus when I kicked myself to read it to the end - there are some great stories in the latter half as Ennis refinds his voice a bit, including a fantastic pseud-western and a really good tongue in cheek story in which Punisher is tracked down by Daredevil, Spidey and Wolverine, and shows them up something rotten.

NB: Just to point out that this book is greatly let down by the poor quality artwork throughout. Dillon's work on Welcome back, Frank is good but the colouring is atrocious and the whole thing looks amateurish as a result. The other pencillers used on the comic just never manage to creat a consistent look or feel that really works. it's a shame - not a dealbreaker because the writing is strong enough to pull you in, but would have liked something more here...

[Adam Adamson · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love The Punisher this the best edition you could buy. Not only is it over 1000 pages long, but the printing is perfect, the binding sturdy and attractive and the paper is soo glossy it reflects your face. The artwork and writing are top notch as youd expect from Garth Ennis and Steve Dillion.

This editions collects all of Ennis work on The Punisher and is the best run the character has ever had. Read more at Top 100 Graphic Novels. If you decide to buy this then you have hours of exciting, violent and no-stop Frank Castle action ahead of you.

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow why can't every comic be like this,i have never been a fan of the punisher until this comic from garth ennis.Best comic i have ever read absolutely brilliant gets better and better.I think when someone writes a comic they want to leave you a fan of there work and the character and that was achieve here. I was never a fan of the punisher now hes one of my all time favs great work from garth ennis i can't understand why this comic is not rated one of the best of all time COMIC CRITICS READ THE COMICS..

[The Lion's Share · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was such a let down. No solid story just a load of killing.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

As most folks know this is Omnibus is very hard to get your hands on...at a sane price. Anyway this Punisher was an excellent read and the action never dropped with each turn of the page.

[Omni Theus · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 out of 5 stars. Solid writing for the most part. Welcome Back Frank is so iconic and such a great read.

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, that was something.

The history of the Punisher character is pretty interesting, in that he appeared near the beginning of comics' bronze age (1970s-mid 80s), right when comics were beginning to try to be socially relevant, as they addressed concerns of the time like increasing drug use, alcoholism, crime, poverty, the Vietnam War, and more. Checking almost all of those boxes was Frank Castle, the Punisher, who was apparently inspired by films like Dirty Harry and Death Wish, and who was defined by a willingness to murder perceived criminals in cold blood, viewing it as the only permanent solution, in contrast with the typical superhero code.

He was popular for a time, first appearing as an antagonist in a Spider-man comic before eventually getting his own series, but all of his comics were eventually cancelled by the mid 90s due to low readership.

In 2000, writer Garth Ennis (Preacher, Judge Dredd, Hellblazer) teamed up with artist Steve Dillon (also Preacher) to write "Welcome Back, Frank", which was extremely popular. It would lead to a continuing series, and a few one-shots, which The Punisher: Omnibus compiles across its 1100+(!) pages.

The bulk of the content contained within was published under Marvel's MAX imprint, which was "mature-content friendly." I can't imagine the Punisher working so well anywhere else. It's over the top, graphically violent, crude, and ultimately a fun read. Frank is methodical and rigidly consistent as he deals with more and more over the top villains that only Ennis could come up with.

Ennis is someone that will always be an interesting writer to me, because I can never quite decide how much of his stuff could be read as societal critiques (he tears down the idea of vigilante justice all while showing Frank as the consummate badass, lambasts America's industrial-military complex, and takes easy shots at corrupt politicians/police) if not for how insane the content is.

Ultimately I liked this a lot. It is not in any way for the faint of heart, and might lose some readers after the "Welcome Back, Frank" section, which is the highlight, which comes in at the very beginning, but it never approaches mediocrity.

[Jinji · Rating 5 out of 5]

Punisher Omnibus by Garth Ennis!!! Ok, let’s set things up first. The main difference between Punisher, and Punisher Max (both by Garth Ennis), is the universe they live in. In Punisher Max, Frank lives in a universe much like ours, with more bad guys, violence, and bad cops (heh!), but no superheroes or anyone with superpowers. In this Punisher series, Frank shares the universe with the other Marvel characters you know and love, and Frank actually wears the Punisher costume (with the white boots and all!). Anyway, being under the Marvel Knights banner, this series is still violent (kinda like a R-16, to Punisher Max’s Rated X), but with some funny bits snuck in between. Of course, you’ll see Frank mowing down the mafia, but here, you get to see him use Spider-man as a punching bag, shoot Wolverine in the balls, beat up Daredevil, and fight a big-tittied Russian guy. I like this light take on the Punisher, a good breather from the usual Punisher storylines I read. Great job by Garth Ennis (as always!), Steve Dillon, and their guest artists in this series! I hear Garth Ennis is currently writing a new Punisher storyline, I need to look into that.

P.S. That scene with the little people are funny as fuck!!!

[Rumi Bossche · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read and finished Garth Ennis his earlier Punisher work,  i read his Max series before this, wished i read it the other way around. This  run is a bit more crazy pulpy stories about Frank Castle, with some weird but fun stories. Ennis really gets the character,  and does not need alot of tekst to tell the story. Appearances by Spider-Man,  Daredevil and Wolverine in a team up to take down the Punisher only sweeten the deal. The artwork is very inconsistent,  and changes from pretty cool to damn mediocre, but this book is not for its art, its the flow and dry humor that make this a cool one, and again, Garth Ennis is born ro write Frank Castle stories. I blast through this big omni in a couple of days, thats how much fun it was.

🌟🌟🌟/🌟

[Ross Cudmore · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate that a lot of people love this collection but for me it fell flat. There is a lack of characterization to the Punisher and the expanded cast that makes it difficult to care much for anyone or anything. Furthermore I found the humor cringy and a bit too early 2000s for my taste. The opening story "Welcome back Frank" is quite good and I would rate that four stars, but the series declines from that point forward. There are fun moments of violence when I turn my brain off, but I don't think I'll be rushing to re-read it.

[Ruz El · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one collects Garth Ennis's entire Punisher run from Marvel Knights. Joined by PREACHER penciler Steve Dillon you can expect to have high expectations. You can feel the cuffs on Ennis a bit, seeing as it never goes full batshit crazy like his Vertigo or Marvel Max books. That said, his depiction of The Punisher as a cold death machine with zero irony in the bonkers Marvel world really works. If you're a fan of either the writer or the character it's worth checking out.

[Maik Krüger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nobody writes the Punisher better than Garth Ennis! Even this toned down (as in not just for adults like the Max series) is magnificent. The Punisher movie (the one with Travolta) made liberal use of the characters introduced here and catches up with them later. The mousey girl finally overcoming her fear of everything and taking action is my favourite part. That, and her little terrier named Frank punishing the big, mean attack dog.

[kami · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plots pretty simple. frank goes out and frank kills bad guys. there were some ups and downs with this volume, and some cool artists were featured. the oneshots were interesting, elektra cameo, joan, frankie, etc. soap has got to be my favorite character. not much development in terms of storytelling, this volume really just felt like one long filler episode for the actual MAX series. this is good build up, and it was fun reading it. now, i get to move on to the real thing.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up after watching the Netflix series. Part of the storyline here was the basis for the Thomas Jane movie, as well. This giant omnibus collects solid, pretty consistent run. Highlights are Frank’s interactions with other Marvel characters, especially Wolverine. His conversation with a Social Worker alone is worth the price of admission.

[TheMadReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice introduction to who The Punisher should be. The stories don’t really tie into one another in the omnibus to create an outcome or ending however, some cool stand alone stories along the way. The majority of this book is a bit goofy and far from what the Max run by Garth became. Important for any Punisher collection though.

I’m not a fan of the art as every males face looks the same.

[Will Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a ton of fun. Ultra violent, really funny, and some human stories in there.

Steve Dillon is a perfect artist for all the insane violence Garth Ennis writes. Whenever he wasn't the artist for an issue, I actually said, "Aww" out loud.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing Art with a lot of fun Punisher storylines as well as a couple rather heavy hitting ones in relation to subject matter.
Garth Ennis

[André Crispim · Rating 5 out of 5]

1st book I’ve read of punisher, it was very good. The 1st half is better than the second, there was some stuff happening that I doubt the “real” punisher would do but that’s just something the writer decided to add.

5/5 and a must read for a punisher lover.

[BTTRSLKS Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Born, Up is down Black is white and Slavers are my faves in the first volume.

Born especially as it, for me, dives into franks history and psyche what would later transform him into The Punisher. Would deffo love to own the single issues.

[ebradley127 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Just wow. Nothing beats Ennis and Dillon, two of my longtime favorites. Add The Punisher into the mix and you've got some excellent storytelling and art.

[Rob Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best comic runs of all time.

[Jesse Bradstreet · Rating 4 out of 5]

8.5/10

[Bryan Crossley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book from start to finish. One thing the punisher comics do so well is end stories and this book does not disappoint!!