You're like a wildfire, Frank. Nobody likes a wildfire, but they're necessary. They clean the forest out.
—Microchip
The Punisher is a 2026 series published by Marvel Comics and the 15th volume of The Punisher. The series is written by Benjamin Percy with art by José Luis.
Punisher (2022) saw Frank Castle decide I Will Fight No More Forever and retire to Weirdworld, leaving the Punisher name behind for potential successors. However, after being forced back to Earth by Kingpin in The Punisher: Red Band with no memories, he's left to pick up the pieces of the life he tried to leave behind while hunting both answers and criminals.
The first issue released February 25, 2026.
The Punisher provides examples of:
- Amnesiac Hero: The Mind Control Kingpin had Frank under in Red Band robbed him of his memories. By the start of the first issue he's mostly recovered them, but still feels like a jumbled mess.
- Asshole Victim: As per usual, Frank’s victims have it coming.
- Career-Ending Injury: The hasty surgery Frank had performed on him in Red Band to remove Kingpin's Mind-Control Device seemingly left him with brain damage that results in him collapsing every time he gets too worked up. Microchip then asks Frank if maybe it's time to call it quits, but later confesses that it was a failed attempt at Heel–Face Brainwashing and gives him the cure.
- Dented Iron: As Frank collapses in the first issue, the narrator makes sure to remind the audience that unlike most other heroes he's "just a man". When Microchip takes Frank to a doctor, the man states Frank's endured so many blast-induced traumatic brain injuries, aneurysms, and shrapnel that he should've been a drooling mess a long time ago.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Jigsaw attempts to extort Tombstone by threatening his family.
- Evil Power Vacuum: With Kingpin (probably) dead and Tombstone Put on a Prison Bus, the first arc revolves around Jigsaw trying to take over NYC's underworld in their absence.
- Mugging the Monster: The first issue opens with a thug trying to rob Frank at gunpoint, only for Frank to open his trenchcoat and show the guy who he's messing with. He runs off in a panic, but Frank collapses from his head injury before he can go after him.
- Not Quite Dead: Frank seemingly killed Jigsaw in the previous volume's Spin-Off War Journal: Brother, but after revealing himself to Tombstone, Jigsaw explains that he narrowly survived the Impromptu Tracheotomy Frank gave him and had been plotting his comeback ever since.
- Pet the Dog: Microchip is initially convinced Frank plans to kill him again for betraying him previously. After locking him up, Frank wordlessly enters the room, reaches into his coat... and gives him the chocolate bar he got from the convenience store.
- Terrifying Rescuer: Frank blows the brains out of a masked thug robbing a convenience store, and when he returns the money the terrified clerk begs him to leave. Frank ignores him and tries to buy a chocolate bar, but the clerk tells him to just take it.