Note: This episode was recorded before the death of Gerry Conway, who wrote two of the stories we talk about.
The Punisher is gearing up for a busy summer on the big and small screens (with Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Punisher: One Last Kill, respectively). So what better time to dive into some key early stories charting the evolution of everyone’s favorite gun-toting vigilante?
We start with a look at the Punisher’s pop-culture inspirations, including the Executioner and Dirty Harry, before discussing his first appearance in 1974’s Amazing Spider-Man #129, where he joins forces with (wait, this can’t be right, can it?) the Jackal to take down your friendly neighborhood wall-crawler!
Then it’s on to Marvel Preview #2 from that same year, in which we learn the tragic backstory behind his one-man war on crime!
Finally, we jump ahead a few years to Daredevil #183-184 and a gritty, street-level take on the character that’s closer to the version we’re all familiar with.
Is our (anti)hero just a poor judge of character? What type of story suits him best? And can our surly sentinel of the streets survive a frontal assault from that Whack Attack known as … The Comics Canon?
In This Episode:
- What happened to Curt on our April 1 episode?
- The Spotmaker
- Punisher War Journal #19
- Punisher: Circle of Blood (1986)
- Daredevil Born Again Season 2
- Questions about the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot
Join us in two weeks as we delve into the acclaimed three-part series Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons, by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Phil Jiminez, Gene Ha and Nicola Scott!
Until then:
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And as always, thanks for listening!