The Top 10 Punisher Stories Of All Time

This story officially wrapped up Garth Ennis’ time as the main Punisher writer and drew upon everything he had written in the previous eight years, especially Punisher: Born. With Pun facing off against members of the U.S. Marines, Valley Forge, Valley Forge is a look into Castle's relationship with the U.S. Military and the begrudging respect he still has for it.

At the very heart of the story, Castle is still a soldier; still a member of the U.S. Military, and he’s intensely driven to protect that code of honor. But now he must face off against men that he would have called his "brothers" at one point in his life. Ennis uses this story to point out the differences between a run-of-the-mill grunt soldier and a man as driven as Frank Castle.

Ennis has always gone to great lengths to recognize Castle as more than just a nut with a gun, and he expertly drives that point home in Valley Forge, Valley Forge. It’s a fitting and concise end to one of the best comic book runs of all time, but to truly appreciate this story, Ennis’s whole run must be read in order.

How do you go about pissing off somebody like Frank Castle, who's constantly angered already? Simple: dig up the bodies of his murdered family, videotape yourself pissing on them, and send the tape to the news for the whole world to see. That’s exactly what deranged mobster Nicky Cavella does at the beginning of this story arc written by Garth Ennis.

Never known for his subtlety or respect for the dead, Ennis simply shocked readers with the first issue of this story and just left audiences waiting for the Punisher's reaction, which was captured beautifully by artist Leandro Fernandez.

The rest of the story deals with the Punisher as he guns down mobsters and slowly makes his way up to Cavella. It’s simple and brutal, but Ennis keeps the suspense going throughout as the audience anxiously waits for the final confrontation between the two. And, as always, the ending isn’t pretty.

After Garth Ennis stopped writing the Punisher in 2008, the character was left in a state of flux for a while. New writers would come on to the book and attempt to lend their own voice to Frank Castle’s world, but everything wound up as a shallow imitation of Ennis' work. Then, in 2010, Jason Aaron was featured as the writer of a new book titled PunisherMax, and gave the world a new take on the skull clad sociopath.

PunisherMax differed from the other Max versions of the character because it features some classic characters from the regular Marvel Universe, as opposed to strictly just the mobsters and government officials from the Ennis days. Aaron’s first arc features the Punisher gunning after the so-called Kingpin of crime. But the problem is that Castle doesn't even know what this Kingpin looks like, or if he's simply an urban legend.

The story is filled with pervasive violence, gore, and perverse sexuality, but it’s also completely nihilistic with a ton of dark humor. Along with Punisher veteran Steve Dillon on art, Aaron created a version of the Punisher that was both loyal to the groundwork that Ennis laid down, but at the same time different enough to work on its own. It's sick, twisted, and absolutely impossible to put down.

The simple origins of the Punisher have been known for years: After his family is killed by the mob, Frank Castle decides to wage a one-man war on crime to avenge their deaths.

Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, with art by Dale Eaglesham, Year One recounts what Frank Castle was like in the days directly after the murders. He is a suicidal ex-Marine who wants the NYPD to get justice for his family. But after he discovers a trend of corruption that makes it impossible for him to get justice, Castle decides to take matters into his own hands. This develops the militant, obsessive side of the Punisher that has become a trademark of the character, and also details his early conflict with the villain Jigsaw.

Year One takes a familiar origin story and adds layers of depth and character development in order to give Castle some sympathy behind his usual hail of gunfire. He's not a gun-crazed monster; he's a broken man, a broken husband, and a broken father. This makes it both heartbreaking and adrenaline-pounding to see Castle get revenge for the first time. It may read a little dated in 2011, but Punisher: Year One is a great place to start for fans looking to dive headfirst into the Punisher’s world.

This one came out of nowhere. Released in 2005 as a simple one-shot story by Garth Ennis with art by Lewis Larosa, The Cell begins with Frank Castle turning himself in to authorities and being sent to Rykers Island to live amongst the very criminals that he has tortured over the years. As the story progresses, Castle incites a riot in order to create a distraction so he can visit the cell of the very men that gunned down his family decades ago.

The Cell is an extremely violent, yet poignant, Punisher story that wraps up a lot of loose ends for the character and draws upon all of Ennis’ nuanced development from over the decades. At the same time, it doesn’t really follow any established continuity and acts more as a “What If?” type story that is simply a stunning read. Don't wonder what comes next, or how this fits in to everything else. Just take it for what it is: a brilliant story told with conviction.

The Cell is pretty hard to come by now, but with any luck, eBay might have a few copies at a reasonable price. This is one of the best examples of Ennis’ work on the character, unfortunately it simply flew too far under the radar to pick up any real acclaim.

If there is one thing that Garth Ennis’ Punisher run was best known for it was the fact that he always found a new way to frustrate the character. All too often, writers would try and integrate the Punisher into the larger Marvel Universe with a square jaw, heroic smirk, and a happy ending. Simply put: Ennis' Punisher never smiled. And in the Slavers story, Ennis found a new way to infuriate Frank Castle, by introducing the somewhat taboo subject of sex slavery to the book.

When Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko laid out the foundation for what became the modern Marvel Universe, we’re pretty sure they never dreamed about stories involving sex slaves. However, Marvel’s Max line is strictly for adults, and Ennis is one of the few writers to add actual depth and intricate plots to go along with its extreme violence.

The Slavers introduces a truly disturbing subject and uses the Punisher as a mouthpiece for Ennis’ obvious disgust on the matter. After rescuing a young girl from some would-be rapists, the Punisher listens to her disturbing life story and sets out to end the ring of forced prostitution and abuse once and for all. The pure anger and the violence that the Punisher enacts is a long time coming, and anyone with a pulse can’t help but smile as he guns down these sociopaths with stoic satisfaction.

In the late '80s, the editors at Marvel had begun to notice that the world around them was changing. No longer did comic book fans want to read stories starring smirking, swashbuckling heroes; instead fans craved street-level violence and moral ambiguity from their idols. During this time, Frank Miller came along and added a dose of dour grime to the usually easy-going Daredevil and even Spider-Man had some experience with the filthy underbelly of society in stories such as The Death of Jean DeWolff and Gang Wars. But in 1986, Marvel struck gold when it made the Punisher the star of his very own miniseries.

Featuring copious amounts of death (including that of an innocent child) and sex, the first Punisher miniseries (now known as Circle of Blood) was a culture shock for the House of Ideas. Never before had a main character in the Marvel Universe been so downtrodden and malicious. The Punisher was portrayed as a broken-down Vietnam vet haunted by his experience during the war and his family’s gruesome murders, and he was hell bent on wiping out criminals everywhere.

With Mike Zeck expertly handling the art and Steven Grant on the story, Circle of Blood elevated the Punisher from a former one-off Spider-Man villain into a comic book icon.

In the '80s, the Punisher was one of Marvel’s top tier characters; however, once the dreadful '90s hit the comic book medium, the character was relegated to cheap tie-ins and laughable gimmicks. Writers even tried to endow Frank Castle with supernatural powers in order to compete with the horror/thrillers that DC was putting out in their Vertigo imprint. Then, in 2000, Garth Ennis changed all of that with his back-to-basics approach to the Punisher in the maxi-series, Welcome Back, Frank.

Filled with relentless gore and absurd jokes, Ennis lent his taste for gallows humor to the morose vigilante and, in turn, rejuvenated the Punisher for a new generation. Ennis portrayed the Punisher as the grim straight-man in a cartoonish world filled with stereotypical mobsters, brawls with Polar Bears, and a transgender Russian assassin.

The sick, pervasive work that Ennis had debuted during Preacher carried over effortlessly to Castle’s world and began a new trend of portraying the character in a more humorous light. This is the story that finally gave the Punisher his balls back, and, at the same time, reaffirmed his place near the top of the Marvel totem pole.

Garth Ennis has been in charge of three Punisher relaunches: two under the Marvel Knights banner and then In the Beginning, which landed under the new Max imprint. This Max version of the Punisher lacked any humor, he aged in real time, and the only characters that ever wore Spandex in these stories were hookers. Simply put: this was as far removed from a superhero tale as possible.

In the Beginning revolves around Castle’s old partner, Microchip, reentering his life and selling him out to the mob. Events soon devolve into a sickening bloodbath that features the Punisher wreaking havoc like a force of nature as he mows through mobsters like Wolverine through an army of tissue paper soldiers. When it was first published, this story was simply jarring for readers that had grown accustomed to Ennis' dark humor and absurd plots.

In the Beginning is the story that any self-respecting Punisher fan would instantly be drawn to. It goes back to the roots of the character, strips away the useless continuity, and just jumps headfirst into a pile of dead mobsters. It also shows off the pure brilliance of Ennis as he can alternate seamlessly between the tongue-in-cheek version of the character and the morose, serious version. If 2000’s Welcome Back, Frank gave the Punisher his balls back, In the Beginning inflated them to the size of basketballs.

Born isn’t only the best Punisher story ever, it is also one of the best single stories that Marvel has ever released. Focusing on Frank Castle’s third tour in Vietnam, Born is a full-on examination of the horrors of war and the effect that it has on the soldiers on the front line. Garth Ennis teamed up with Transmetropolitan artist Darick Robertson to unveil a story filled with violence, death, insanity, rape, and even hints at an appearance by the Devil himself.

In the story, Capt. Frank Castle is viewed as an unhinged Marine with a killer instinct and a personality akin to a rattlesnake. As the tale develops, members of Castle’s unit begin to get killed as they find themselves woefully outnumbered by the Viet Cong. Surrounded by death, Castle begins to break down mentally until he is confronted by a voice in his head that offers to keep him physically capable of fighting a neverending war in exchange for an unknown price. Castle agrees; he survives. But that price comes back to haunt him as he returns home to his smiling family. Fans of the character know where this is going.

Even more so than Year One, Born recounts just what makes the Punisher tick. This story laid the groundwork for the character’s motivations and is the best creative accomplishment at Marvel in the past two decades. Ennis' chilling ending will change the way you view the character when all is said and done.