Marvel NEEDS To Follow Up On Its Ultimate Punisher Tease, & 1 Writer is Perfect For the Job

Marvel Comics recently launched an all-new Ultimate Universe, and within that universe are variants of a number of familiar Marvel characters, including the Punisher. Earth-6160 is an alternate reality taken over by the Maker, who used time travel to shape it to his liking. So far in this continuity, fans have gotten stories featuring the Ultimates (Avengers), Black Panther, and Spider-Man – but it’s missing one more: the Punisher. And there’s one comic writer who’d be perfect to tackle an Ultimate Punisher series.

In The Ultimates #2 by Deniz Camp and Juan Frigeri, Captain America is preparing for his first mission since being unfrozen. He decides to catch up on the history of the Ultimate Universe and learn about everything he missed between the 1940s and the present day. Standing in a high-tech Stark device, Cap gets a virtual history lesson, and in the 1970s, there’s one person who’s particularly noteworthy: the Punisher.

The Punisher’s inclusion in the Ultimate Universe amounts to little more than a cameo, but it’s enough to pique one’s interest. The image Captain America sees is that of a man with the iconic Punisher skull insignia on his chest, wielding two guns. Bodies litter his path on the streets of New York, while others cower in fear before him. As if a mashup of Paul Kersey, Travis Bickle, and John Rambo, this version of Frank Castle is the epitome of a ‘70s vigilante. And now, it’s time Marvel told his story.

Marvel’s New Ultimate Universe Perfectly Sets Up a Self-Contained Punisher Series

The Maker Created the Perfect Landscape for Amazing Punisher Stories

While the Punisher does exist within the wider Marvel Universe, meaning he canonically operates in the same world as the likes of costumed heroes like Spider-Man and the Avengers, Punisher’s best stories have always been those that were self-contained. The Punisher is a grounded and brutal character, an antihero with no superhuman abilities, and absolutely no qualms about killing those he believes deserve it. Marvel’s superheroes don’t like him, and he doesn’t like them, so they naturally tend to avoid each other whenever possible – giving the Punisher and his stories room to be as hardcore as possible.

Given that the Punisher’s best stories are superhero-free, the Ultimate Universe is the perfect setting for an all-new series. The Maker was able to conquer Earth-6160 by traveling to different points in the universe’s history, systematically erasing the existence of every superhero. The Maker either killed, depowered, or found a way to control every superhero in this Marvel Universe, leaving no one to stand in his way. While that would later change with the rise of the Ultimates, that didn’t happen until the present day, meaning there were decades where the world was without superheroes altogether.

In the ‘70s, the Punisher was the only thing that even resembled a ‘costumed vigilante’, which basically meant that he existed in his own continuity. Punisher stories that take place in Earth-616 have to basically just pretend that other superheroes aren’t around, but in Earth-6160, there’s really no one else except for the Punisher. Not only does this mean there’s limitless storytelling potential within this new continuity, but this setup is also perfect for one comic creator who is no stranger to the Punisher: Garth Ennis.

Garth Ennis has Already Proven that He’s the Best Writer for an Ultimate Punisher

Ennis is the Obvious Choice to Shape the Punisher’s Continuity in the Ultimate Universe

Garth Ennis is famously the co-creator of The Boys, which is perhaps how most comic book fans are familiar with him. However, Ennis has also consistently written Punisher comics for more than two decades, and is arguably the best Punisher writer in history.

Garth Ennis always manages to capture the Punisher’s indomitable brutality, while also applying the perfect level of black comedy to his books in the form of over-the-top death scenes and mature humor. And another thing all these books have in common? No superheroes. And if there are superheroes, the Punisher is either unceremoniously killing them (like in Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe), or utterly dominating them (like in Punisher (2000) when Frank chains up Daredevil).

Garth Ennis famously hates superheroes, something the comic creator has admitted himself and something that’s painfully obvious in series like Hitman and The Boys – and The Punisher. When Ennis wrote the Punisher in Marvel’s main continuity, he avoided including superheroes at all cost. And when Ennis tackled the Punisher in Marvel’s MAX continuity, he didn’t have to worry about superheroes, as that world was without them. Now, the same is true for the Ultimate Universe, making it perfect for Garth Ennis to craft an all-new superhero-free Punisher series.

The Ultimate Universe perfectly set up an Ultimate Punisher series with its Frank Castle cameo in The Ultimates #2, and since the established continuity of Earth-6160 already explained that no superheroes existed during Castle’s time as the Punisher, that makes this proposed new series perfect for Garth Ennis to tackle.