Punisher’s New Marvel Series Comes With a Warning for Bloody, Explicit Content

Punisher is back from the dead and on a blood revenge tour in his new Marvel series. Frank Castle is back in the public eye after Jon Bernthal reprised his role as the street-level vigilante in Daredevil: Born Again. Bernthal is also starring in and writing a Punisher Special Presentation for Disney+, so there’s more Punisher on the way on the small screen. As for the comics, Marvel is bringing Frank Castle back from the dead in Punisher: Red Band, a five-issue limited series by writer Benjamin Percy and artist Julius Ohta, the current creative team on Hellverine.

Each issue of Punisher: Red Band will come polybagged for explicit content, as Marvel promises that the comic will be the most violent in Punisher history. Frank Castle will also return to his classic costume, ready to unleash his brutal brand of justice on the criminal underworld.

“Frank Castle—that dark-hearted, vengeance machine, that monster who fights monsters—is one of my all-time favorite characters, and Punisher is a series I’ve been gunning to write for a long, long time,” Percy shared. “Not only is Frank back in black, but this is a Red Band book. You know what that means. I’m going to lean in fully and push the very limits of my favorite genre: hairy psychopaths. This is going to be as gritty and bloody as it gets. Street-level mayhem awaits you. And Julius Ohta—who I collaborated with previously on Hellverine—is bringing all the blood and fire and rage to the page with his beautiful, terrifying art.”

[RELATED: Jon Bernthal Refused to Return as the Punisher Before Daredevil: Born Again Creative Overhaul]

Marvel also provided a lettered preview of Punisher: Red Band #1, where we get Punisher’s inner monologue as he awakens in a fiery battlefield. He has blood dribbling down his face and dead bodies littered around him, which have been censored for the general audience. However, readers will see all of the uncensored content when Punisher: Red Band #1 goes on sale in September.

PUNISHER: RED BAND #1 (OF 5)

• Written by BENJAMIN PERCY
• Art by JULIUS OHTA
• Cover by MARCO CHECCHETTO
• Variant Cover by E.M. GIST
• Hidden Gem Variant Cover by MIKE ZECK
• On Sale 9/10
• Reread and reload, True Believers – Frank Castle is BACK. With no memories, a full clip and a thirst for wrathful vengeance, his violent search for answers could only be chronicled in a Red Band series! Bullets will fly, blood will flow, and the citizens and criminals of New York City alike will fear the name THE PUNISHER!

Collider spoke to Jon Bernthal at CinemaCon, where he was asked about Marvel’s The Punisher Special Presentation. “I’ve said it a million times: Frank is in my bones, is in my heart. I care about him,” he said.

“In discussing what this thing could be and this sort of version of Frank that I really felt that the audience was hungry for, that the military community was hungry for it, the first responder community, the comic book fans, they were really hungry for it,” Bernthal continued. “I presented that version to them, and they encouraged me. They encouraged me to keep coming to the table. As we were talking with different writers, the ideas that we were coming up with started to resonate, and I think they saw how much they resonated with me. I got a great group of vets that I work with. One in particular, my friend Nick, he’s just been incredible. I hope that it goes alright. I don’t like talking about these things because it’s a little bit of bark before there’s a bite, you know? I’m honored and I’m grateful. It’s an incredible group of people that we’re assembling.”

Are you excited for some Punisher: Red Band action? Let us know in the comments below!