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The Punisher MAX: The Complete Collection
The Punisher MAX: The Complete Collection, Vol. 6
Collects Punisher MAX X-Mas Special, Punisher: Naked Kill, Punisher: Get Castle, Punisher: Butterfly, Punisher: Happy Ending, Punisher: Hot Rods of Death, Punisher: Tiny Ugly World, Untold Tales of Punisher MAX #1-5.
Frank Castle's relentless war on crime continues! It's Christmas, and the Punisher is checking off his naughty list! Frank gets creative to take down snuff filmmakers! In the United Kingdom, he takes on some of Earth's hardest soldiers, the SAS, and unleashes his war wagon against a biker gang! But when a hit woman releases her lurid tell-all book, will the Punisher be her salvation, temptation...or damnation? Plus: stories from the murky world that exists in the Punisher's shadow, starring an opportunistic psycho, a frantic father, a mild-mannered accountant and the young son of one of Frank's victims.
Frank Castle's relentless war on crime continues! It's Christmas, and the Punisher is checking off his naughty list! Frank gets creative to take down snuff filmmakers! In the United Kingdom, he takes on some of Earth's hardest soldiers, the SAS, and unleashes his war wagon against a biker gang! But when a hit woman releases her lurid tell-all book, will the Punisher be her salvation, temptation...or damnation? Plus: stories from the murky world that exists in the Punisher's shadow, starring an opportunistic psycho, a frantic father, a mild-mannered accountant and the young son of one of Frank's victims.
361 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 9, 2017
About the author
Jason Aaron
2,385 books1,721 followersJason Aaron grew up in a small town in Alabama. His cousin, Gustav Hasford, who wrote the semi-autobiographical novel The Short-Timers, on which the feature film Full Metal Jacket was based, was a large influence on Aaron. Aaron decided he wanted to write comics as a child, and though his father was skeptical when Aaron informed him of this aspiration, his mother took Aaron to drug stores, where he would purchase books from spinner racks, some of which he still owns today.
Aaron's career in comics began in 2001 when he won a Marvel Comics talent search contest with an eight-page Wolverine back-up story script. The story, which was published in Wolverine #175 (June 2002), gave him the opportunity to pitch subsequent ideas to editors.
In 2006, Aaron made a blind submission to DC/Vertigo, who published his first major work, the Vietnam War story The Other Side which was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Miniseries, and which Aaron regards as the "second time" he broke into the industry.
Following this, Vertigo asked him to pitch other ideas, which led to the series Scalped, a creator-owned series set on the fictional Prairie Rose Indian Reservation and published by DC/Vertigo.
In 2007, Aaron wrote Ripclaw: Pilot Season for Top Cow Productions. Later that year, Marvel editor Axel Alonso, who was impressed by The Other Side and Scalped, hired Aaron to write issues of Wolverine, Black Panther and eventually, an extended run on Ghost Rider that began in April 2008. His continued work on Black Panther also included a tie-in to the company-wide crossover storyline along with a "Secret Invasion" with David Lapham in 2009.
In January 2008, he signed an exclusive contract with Marvel, though it would not affect his work on Scalped. Later that July, he wrote the Penguin issue of The Joker's Asylum.
After a 4-issue stint on Wolverine in 2007, Aaron returned to the character with the ongoing series Wolverine: Weapon X, launched to coincide with the feature film X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Aaron commented, "With Wolverine: Weapon X we'll be trying to mix things up like that from arc to arc, so the first arc is a typical sort of black ops story but the second arc will jump right into the middle of a completely different genre," In 2010, the series was relaunched once again as simply Wolverine. He followed this with his current run on Thor: God of Thunder.
Aaron's career in comics began in 2001 when he won a Marvel Comics talent search contest with an eight-page Wolverine back-up story script. The story, which was published in Wolverine #175 (June 2002), gave him the opportunity to pitch subsequent ideas to editors.
In 2006, Aaron made a blind submission to DC/Vertigo, who published his first major work, the Vietnam War story The Other Side which was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Miniseries, and which Aaron regards as the "second time" he broke into the industry.
Following this, Vertigo asked him to pitch other ideas, which led to the series Scalped, a creator-owned series set on the fictional Prairie Rose Indian Reservation and published by DC/Vertigo.
In 2007, Aaron wrote Ripclaw: Pilot Season for Top Cow Productions. Later that year, Marvel editor Axel Alonso, who was impressed by The Other Side and Scalped, hired Aaron to write issues of Wolverine, Black Panther and eventually, an extended run on Ghost Rider that began in April 2008. His continued work on Black Panther also included a tie-in to the company-wide crossover storyline along with a "Secret Invasion" with David Lapham in 2009.
In January 2008, he signed an exclusive contract with Marvel, though it would not affect his work on Scalped. Later that July, he wrote the Penguin issue of The Joker's Asylum.
After a 4-issue stint on Wolverine in 2007, Aaron returned to the character with the ongoing series Wolverine: Weapon X, launched to coincide with the feature film X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Aaron commented, "With Wolverine: Weapon X we'll be trying to mix things up like that from arc to arc, so the first arc is a typical sort of black ops story but the second arc will jump right into the middle of a completely different genre," In 2010, the series was relaunched once again as simply Wolverine. He followed this with his current run on Thor: God of Thunder.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
May 4, 2020
Punisher MAX season two becomes PunisherMAX no space. Issues 1-12 and five quite good one shots. Jason Aaron steers the main book, bringing to the fore Kingpin and Bullseye and does a pretty good job at it. On par with Garth Ennis' work! 8 out of 12, Four Star read.
2011 and 2017 read
2011 and 2017 read
August 3, 2021
So this entire volume was just one shots...some not so great ones...Some GREAT ones. This is the chance with one shots.
So let me talk about a couple that didn't work for me. There's one of a writer, she's trying to create a story but pushing towards actual events and having people kill and murder. It's stupid with a dumb ending. There's also a couple stories that are standard bad guy being bad, robs and kills people, fakes he's a good guy, but Punisher knows all. Snooooooze. Been there.
But there's some great ones in here. My two favorite being about a guy who sees Punisher kill a bunch of people and leave one person nearly dead. He then takes that person, puts him in a tub, and tortures him. He has fantasies about doing this to other people. Yep...shit is crazy. I also loved the story at the very end about revenge, and how a boy learns from Punisher's actions on how to be a decent person. There's other good stories of Punisher freeing working girls and kidnapped girls as well as killing pieces of redneck shit.
So overall a decent collection. Mixed bag but overall had fun. Now on to the FINAL volume of the Max Series.
So let me talk about a couple that didn't work for me. There's one of a writer, she's trying to create a story but pushing towards actual events and having people kill and murder. It's stupid with a dumb ending. There's also a couple stories that are standard bad guy being bad, robs and kills people, fakes he's a good guy, but Punisher knows all. Snooooooze. Been there.
But there's some great ones in here. My two favorite being about a guy who sees Punisher kill a bunch of people and leave one person nearly dead. He then takes that person, puts him in a tub, and tortures him. He has fantasies about doing this to other people. Yep...shit is crazy. I also loved the story at the very end about revenge, and how a boy learns from Punisher's actions on how to be a decent person. There's other good stories of Punisher freeing working girls and kidnapped girls as well as killing pieces of redneck shit.
So overall a decent collection. Mixed bag but overall had fun. Now on to the FINAL volume of the Max Series.
April 27, 2020
The sixth volume of the Punisher Max Complete Collection is just as good as the previous volume. Collecting Punisher MAX X-Mas Special, Punisher: Naked Kill, Punisher: Get Castle, Punisher: Butterfly, Punisher: Happy Ending, Punisher: Hot Rods of Death, Punisher: Tiny Ugly World, Untold Tales of Punisher MAX #1-5.
This volume has a little bit of everything: from showing some Christmas Spirit (Punisher style), to taking out a snuff porn filmmaker. Punisher even takes a foreign vacation to England to deal with some rogue SAS guys, deals with a biker gang somewhere out West, and deals with a female assassin who has decided to write a tell-all book.
There are also a collection of one-shot stories dealing with some strange characters like a serial killer who follows the Punisher around, to a kid who wants revenge for his father's death at Punisher's hands.
Grim and violent, as the Punisher should be, this is a great series for any Punisher fan. Some of the stories are stellar and some are just ok. The art is anywhere from meh to ok. Artwork has never been a strong suite for this series, unfortunately, but that's the fault of the creators not the writers or the character.
This volume has a little bit of everything: from showing some Christmas Spirit (Punisher style), to taking out a snuff porn filmmaker. Punisher even takes a foreign vacation to England to deal with some rogue SAS guys, deals with a biker gang somewhere out West, and deals with a female assassin who has decided to write a tell-all book.
There are also a collection of one-shot stories dealing with some strange characters like a serial killer who follows the Punisher around, to a kid who wants revenge for his father's death at Punisher's hands.
Grim and violent, as the Punisher should be, this is a great series for any Punisher fan. Some of the stories are stellar and some are just ok. The art is anywhere from meh to ok. Artwork has never been a strong suite for this series, unfortunately, but that's the fault of the creators not the writers or the character.
December 14, 2018
4.5 stars.
I miss Ennis’s writing voice. He was the best, as far as this series goes.
Each issue in this collection was from a different writer, and it shows. Some were great, some were good, some were just ok. None sucked, which is good, but for the first four volumes, every single one was great. That’s the standard this is judged by.
And believe me, there were some gems. I like how for some of the stories, Castle was an ancillary character. He was a force of nature that would show up and deliver justice. I dug it.
The art was very good. Again, various artists, but each one was above average. It adhered to the same style as previous volumes.
If you love Punisher MAX (which I do), then you will like this a lot. It captures the Punisher MAX magic, and while it’s not quite as strong as previous volumes, it’s still in the top tier of comic books.
I miss Ennis’s writing voice. He was the best, as far as this series goes.
Each issue in this collection was from a different writer, and it shows. Some were great, some were good, some were just ok. None sucked, which is good, but for the first four volumes, every single one was great. That’s the standard this is judged by.
And believe me, there were some gems. I like how for some of the stories, Castle was an ancillary character. He was a force of nature that would show up and deliver justice. I dug it.
The art was very good. Again, various artists, but each one was above average. It adhered to the same style as previous volumes.
If you love Punisher MAX (which I do), then you will like this a lot. It captures the Punisher MAX magic, and while it’s not quite as strong as previous volumes, it’s still in the top tier of comic books.
December 3, 2017
No story arcs in this one, but rather a whole mess of one-shots and specials with the Punisher in various gimmicky situations or as the side character in another person's story. Which is good, since that's pretty much what the Punisher is all about! You either put him in a freakshow, or you make it the personal story of a character who was shit on by the establishment and needs a little Castle Crashin' to get their own back.
Considering the character's fash origins, it's actually kinda heartwarming!
Considering the character's fash origins, it's actually kinda heartwarming!
June 6, 2021
I'd heard this imprint seriously cooled down after Ennis left, and while it's true it doesn't reach those truly inspired high points, the new writing team still completely understood what people loved about Punisher MAX and gave some great stuff here.
Frank is still not truly a hero, too bitter and vindictive to avoid cruelty and ultimately more spiteful than anything even if he can do the right thing in certain cases.
I really like the Untold Tales bit, we get stories from random soon-to-be Punisher victim's perspectives and it helps flesh out these basically unimportant characters while not doing anything to make them redeemable at the same time. That's a hard tightrope and they walked it each time.
Just happy I happened to find the last two volumes in an indie comic store. Support your local comics stores everyone, online retailers can't always help you get material like this!
Frank is still not truly a hero, too bitter and vindictive to avoid cruelty and ultimately more spiteful than anything even if he can do the right thing in certain cases.
I really like the Untold Tales bit, we get stories from random soon-to-be Punisher victim's perspectives and it helps flesh out these basically unimportant characters while not doing anything to make them redeemable at the same time. That's a hard tightrope and they walked it each time.
Just happy I happened to find the last two volumes in an indie comic store. Support your local comics stores everyone, online retailers can't always help you get material like this!
March 20, 2023
The Punisher: The Complete Collection Vol. 6 collects Punisher Max: X-Mas Special, Punisher Max: Naked Kill, Punisher Max: Get Castle, Punisher Max: Butterfly, Punisher Max: Happy Ending, Punisher Max: Hot Rods of Death, Punisher Max: Tiny Ugly World, and Untold Tales of Punisher Max 1-5. Writer include Jason Aaron, Jonathan Maberry, Ron Williams, Valerie D’Orazio, Peter Milligan, Charlie Huston, David Latham, Jason Starr, Jason Latour, Megan Abbott, Nathan Edmondson, and Skottie Young with art by Roland Boschi, Laurence Campbell, Juan José Roy, Shawn Martinbrough, Dalibor Talajić, Connor Willumsen, Matteo Buffagni, Fernando Blanco, and Mirko Colak.
A collection of stand alone stories that involve the Punisher. Staying true to character, most of the stories involve some version of crime with the Punisher dealing out the consequences.
As with most collections of one-shots or anthology series, they can be a wide range of quality stories. I found the most heartbreaking to be teenager who try’s to lay a trap for The Punisher to get revenge for his fathers death. One of the most twisted issues involved the Punisher wiping out a whole apartment of criminals only for a neighbor to find the lone survivor and start torturing him. Some of these were interesting character studies in Frank Castle and others are just mindless entertainment.
A collection of stand alone stories that involve the Punisher. Staying true to character, most of the stories involve some version of crime with the Punisher dealing out the consequences.
As with most collections of one-shots or anthology series, they can be a wide range of quality stories. I found the most heartbreaking to be teenager who try’s to lay a trap for The Punisher to get revenge for his fathers death. One of the most twisted issues involved the Punisher wiping out a whole apartment of criminals only for a neighbor to find the lone survivor and start torturing him. Some of these were interesting character studies in Frank Castle and others are just mindless entertainment.
October 22, 2024
I was worried that this series would dip in quality after Ennis left, but that has been far from the case. These last two collections have primarily been one shots, but they’ve offered a wide variety of stories and art styles, all the while feeling pretty consistent.
August 21, 2017
This volume doesn't have any main story spanning across the whole book. It is a series of short stories. About half of them are even narrated from a point of view some other person and Punisher has only small cameo appearance. Nevertheless I enjoyed those stories. I liked the common idea of those stories. How can person's live change (usually from life to death) if Punisher will appear. And it has still main Punisher's trademark: brutal action. I can definitely recommend this reading.
February 11, 2020
Brutal action, language and themes.
This was my first foray into the MAX comics and I loved every bit of it.
Jason Aaron is one of my favourite writers and this is no exception. This collection is a series of short stories that aren’t related and don’t have have an overall character arc but I liked it and made it easy to read and put down at my leisure.
Loved and highly recommend if 18+ twisted shit is what you’re into!
This was my first foray into the MAX comics and I loved every bit of it.
Jason Aaron is one of my favourite writers and this is no exception. This collection is a series of short stories that aren’t related and don’t have have an overall character arc but I liked it and made it easy to read and put down at my leisure.
Loved and highly recommend if 18+ twisted shit is what you’re into!
September 14, 2017
This volume is ok, but nothing special. In Ennis' absence there aren't any efforts made at episodic stories in this series anymore, all continuity has been replaced with average one-shots with varying art styles. It's not bad, and definitely still enjoyable, but it's nothing compared to the standard that came before it.
May 13, 2020
Half good, half forgettable
Maybe it's me. Maybe it's Garth Ennis, who put such an indelible, indomitable, incomparable mark on the punisher that every succeeding writer has to be great which, sadly, few are. This starts out great, continues for a bit, goes downhill, yoo a bit and collapses with a thud. What's that which stories are which? Now that would be telling.
Maybe it's me. Maybe it's Garth Ennis, who put such an indelible, indomitable, incomparable mark on the punisher that every succeeding writer has to be great which, sadly, few are. This starts out great, continues for a bit, goes downhill, yoo a bit and collapses with a thud. What's that which stories are which? Now that would be telling.
January 30, 2018
A reasonable collection, by no means the best of the MAX reprints, but nonetheless enjoyable and entertaining. Despite individual weaknesses in writing and art, the sum of the whole far outweighs the flaws of the parts. I'd happily buy it again.
June 21, 2024
Good volume
The volume seemed to have very little continuity when it comes to a progressing story, alot of one-off issues but it had some nice Easter eggs from the past volumes on here. Regardless it is a great read
The volume seemed to have very little continuity when it comes to a progressing story, alot of one-off issues but it had some nice Easter eggs from the past volumes on here. Regardless it is a great read
April 25, 2018
85%
I thought that the storylines should have been tied together better. Held my attention,tho throughout the several times I went through to the end.
I thought that the storylines should have been tied together better. Held my attention,tho throughout the several times I went through to the end.
June 30, 2020
Read this in a digital collection, probably scanned from the original paperback. Not as good as the Garth Ennis ones, but pretty good nonetheless.
July 10, 2024
Naked Kill is great. Tiny Ugly World stood out as well as #5 of the untold tales. I didn't much care for the rest, though I still enjoyed this collection overall.
November 13, 2025
Decent stuff. Short stories. Some are incredibly, incredibly grim and dark, but overall, I feel like pretty much every story got the character.
April 16, 2026
Huge Punisher fan, and this collection did not disappoint. All the violence, gore, and sex, you expect from a Punisher MAX store. Not as good as the legendary Garth Ennis run, but was still enjoyable to read.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews