In every Look Back, we examine a comic book issue from 10/25/50/75 years ago (plus a wild card every month with a fifth week in it). This time around, we head to February 2000 for the return of Frank Castle to the Marvel Universe as the “traditional” Punisher in the surprise smash hit, “Welcome Back, Frank.”
It really is interesting how many things in comics tend to have cycles. I actually JUST talked about it in the last Look Back, but its applicable here, as well. There was a point where it seemed like the Transformers were dead as a property, and now, DECADES later, it is one of the most popular comic books around. You can certainly argue that the talent involved has a lot to do with that, as Daniel Warren Johnson is an extremely talented comic book creator, so I definitely don’t want to dismiss his role in the success of the property, but it also seems like there’s a bit of an alchemy – you need top talent, to be sure, but it clearly seems like the timing is important, as well.
So you can still be surprised by the audience suddenly reacting in a big way to properties that were languishing a bit. Like, for instance, no one expected Ghost Rider to suddenly become a hit series in 1990 after the character had been in limbo for years at the time. Similarly, the Punisher wasn’t exactly at the top of the heap at Marvel when Steven Grant, Mike Zeck, and John Beatty released their hit Punisher miniseries, which led to the character getting his first ongoing series. That happened again when Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon, and Jimmy Palmiotti brought the character back to his roots in February 2000’s Punisher #1, the start of “Welcome Back, Frank.”
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Why was it so notable for the Punisher to be “back”?
When Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti’s Event Comics were first given the opportunity to take on a few Marvel characters as part of the Marvel Knights imprint, the Punisher was one of the books they took over. The Punisher was in bad shape as a character at the time. After having at least one ongoing series (and often two-three ongoing series plus seasonal one-shots) since the mid-1980s, the Punisher was without his own title for nearly all of 1997 and most of 1998. And even there, the previous Punisher ongoing series was an attempt to rework the concept (John Ostrander wrote it and it involved the Punisher going undercover with a crime family and then the Punisher working as a quasi-Agent of SHIELD), so it was clear that the character was floundering a bit. The first concept was…strange.
Christopher Golden and Tom Sniegoski had been writing comics for years at this point (a few times with each other) and had a lot of experience with the horror genre, and obviously the artist on the series, Bernie Wrightson, was one of the most famous horror comic book artist around. So, along with inker Jimmy Palmiotti, they did a supernatural take on the Punisher.
It didn’t work that well as a concept, so after a couple of miniseries, Quesada and Palmiotti decided to give it a new shot, and this time, they brought in superstar creators Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, fresh off of their classic series, Preacher.
As an aside, I just wanted to note that Jimmy Palmiotti REALLY doesn’t get enough credit for Marvel Knights. Hell, he barely seems to get into the NARRATIVE, which is CRAZY, as he was right there through all of this stuff AND he was inking books! Yes, obviously Quesada was very important, and Quesada went on to become Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief, so I’m certainly not diminishing Quesada’s role here, which was HUGE, but Palmiotti was clearly quite important to Marvel Knights, as well, and he doesn’t get NEARLY the credit that he deserves (like, not even in the same VICINITY of the credit he deserves). So, well, good job, Jimmy Palmiotti!
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How did Garth Ennis take the Punisher back to basics?
First off, the series had striking Tim Bradstreet covers. Besides Ennis, Bradstreet was one of the few constants on Punisher for the next few years….
The issue opens with a great set piece, where a crook thinks that he has been allowed to survive after the Punisher killed everyone else in his drug operation, and he celebrates his good fortune until he realizes that the Punisher heard him…
The Punisher shows that he has stripped down his operation, and is just operating out of a rundown apartment, with his fellow residents slowly set to be recurring characters…
There is an excellent sequence by Ennis, Dillon, and Palmiotti where the Punisher attacks some bad guys, and in the moment, sort of talks us through a firefight…
Finally, the issue ends with Ennis cleverly, and quickly, explaining away the Punisher’s avenging angel status, as he returns to New York City to go back to punishing criminals…
This was such a fresh take on the character, coupled with the fact that Ennis and DIllon were as hot as they’d ever be at the time, and the result was a surprise hit comic book series. It was the highest-selling issue of Marvel Knights in 2000, and the 40th highest-selling comic book issue PERIOD.
If you folks have any suggestions for March (or any other later months) 2015, 2000, 1975 and 1950 comic books for me to spotlight, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com! Here is the guide, though, for the cover dates of books so that you can make suggestions for books that actually came out in the correct month. Generally speaking, the traditional amount of time between the cover date and the release date of a comic book throughout most of comic history has been two months (it was three months at times, but not during the times we’re discussing here). So the comic books will have a cover date that is two months ahead of the actual release date (so October for a book that came out in August). Obviously, it is easier to tell when a book from 10 years ago was released, since there was internet coverage of books back then.
