PunisherMAX

Punisher MAX
Variant incentive cover to Punisher MAX #1 (January 2010). Cover art by Steve Dillon.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics MAX Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing series
Publication date	January 2010 – February 2012
Number of issues	22
Main character(s)	Frank Castle / The Punisher
Creative team
Writer(s)	Jason Aaron
Artist(s)	Steve Dillon
Creator(s)	Jason Aaron Steve Dillon

Punisher MAX is the second comic book ongoing series published under the MAX imprint of Marvel Comics featuring the vigilante anti-hero the Punisher.

Garth Ennis, also writer of the 2000 and 2001 Punisher series, wrote issues #1-#60 of the first Punisher series under the MAX imprint. After that series was canceled after issue #75, the new creative team of writer Jason Aaron and artist Steve Dillon (well known to Punisher fans for his previous work on the character with Garth Ennis) came on board for a series relaunch with a new #1 issue. Unlike the concurrently running Marvel Universe-proper series featuring the Punisher, the MAX imprint allows the creators the freedom to write more realistic and hard-edged stories that cannot be seen in regular mainline Marvel Universe stories. Also unlike the previous MAX series, which focused mainly on Frank Castle's war against the mob, this series has Frank squaring off against MAX versions of popular Marvel super villains. The series came to a conclusion with issue #22.

Interrogating a mobster, the Punisher discovers a meeting place where many of them will be in the same place. After the meeting with the mob bosses, the men determine that the mythic "Kingpin of Crime" should be fabricated by them in order to throw the Punisher off their trails. One of the bosses bodyguards, Wilson Fisk, is apparently chosen as this new figurehead. When the Punisher crashes the meeting, Fisk gets the bosses to safety and has a chance to kill the Punisher, which he does not take. He goes home to his wife and sleeping child, when he receives the call that will seat him as the Kingpin. Smiling, hinting at an ulterior motive, he accepts.

Immediately after Wilson Fisk becomes the "Kingpin of Crime," he cancels all of the former boss' appointments. However, Fisk's secretary calls and informs him that one man refuses to have his appointment canceled. The man is known only as Bullseye, the world's deadliest assassin. Bullseye never misses his target, and has set his sights on the Punisher.