Punisher writer David Pepose has described the new Marvel Comics series as a cross between the John Wick franchise and the ’90s action-thriller The Fugitive.
Pepose sat down with The Beat ahead of Punisher #1’s release this Wednesday. During the interview, the writer opened up about Joe Garrison, Frank Castle’s successor as the Punisher. “Joe is the kind of guy who’s kind of buried the past, and unfortunately, nothing really stays buried forever. He wasn’t just a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, he was a S.H.I.E.L.D. wetworks agent, Black Ops,” Pepose said. “He was tasked with performing all sorts of lethal business as the Gravedigger of S.H.I.E.L.D. And over the course of his career, he found another way to take his life, another path forward, and that was the path of family, the path of peace.”
The writer continued, “And so what winds up happening is, somebody blows up Joe’s house with his family still inside. The police, not knowing anything about Joe’s record, because it’s been so heavily redacted, they think, ‘Well, we can’t find the husband, the husband must be involved. He’s a person of interest at minimum, prime suspect at best, we need to bring him in.’ And so I’ve pitched this Punisher series as John Wick meets The Fugitive, where Joe’s opening mission, and sort of our origin story with him, is him trying to figure out who set him up and why.”
A new Punisher for a new era
Elsewhere in the interview, Pepose discussed how the current sociopolitical climate informed his approach to writing the Punisher (especially given how the character’s iconography has been misappropriated over the years). “I think the cool thing about doing a legacy Punisher is you get to kind of wipe the slate clean a little bit and start thinking, ‘What does the Punisher look like in the year 2023? How do you tell the story in as responsible a way as possible?'” he said.
“…The Punisher as a symbol is kind of thumbing its nose at due process. It’s very much a symbol for extra-judicial vigilantism. So yeah, when you see law enforcement with that, that does kind of make your hair stand on end a little bit,” Pepose continued. “[Punisher co-creator] Gerry Conway talked about [how] the Punisher represents a failure of society, that something is wrong with society if a character like the Punisher has to exist, and I think a lot of the conversation back then was talking about due process and whether or not due process ties the authorities’ hands. I think the conversation to have today is that, the system seems so hopelessly rigged against the little guy, just systemically, structurally … I really wanted to make ‘The People’s Punisher,’ somebody who can fight for the little guy, which is really what the initial intent was for The Punisher…”
Marvel announced Pepose’s new Punisher series at San Diego Comic-Con 2023. The fast-approaching relaunch teams the former Savage Avengers writer with X-Men Legends artist Dave Wachter.
Punisher #1 goes on sale this Wednesday, November 8 from Marvel Comics.
