Punisher 2099 Gets Awesome New Costume

Marvel is taking fans back to the future this November with a story they're calling 2099. A number of fan-favorite characters will be participating in this return to the popular timeline, including The Punisher. He's getting a sick costume redesign to go along with it, and the results are pretty radical. The trademark skull is here to stay and the mask has been made to resemble the chest symbol.

Whoever is behind that mask is rocking some seriously intimidating threads as they fight to take back the streets of Nueva York. All those pads and pouches feel like nods to the 1990s origins of the previous 2099 line. Color scheme is classic and restrained compared to the garish nature of the original Punisher 2099 costume. There is no doubt there is a lot to like about the visual design here.

2099 was unveiled back at San Diego Comic-Con when the company released a teaser. More and more solicits are trickling out about the books and what characters will be getting new 2099 versions as a part of the event. This signals a return to mainstream comics for a universe that is sometimes regarded by fans as a sort of relic of "everything wrong" about 1990s comics.

Marvel's 2099 first appeared in 1992 where it was initially supposed to portray the future of Earth-616. Now, the reality where the action happens has been clarified to Earth-928. Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic revisited the 2009-verse in 2015 during the Secret Wars event. That was the first time the characters had been used since wrapping things up in 1998.

2099's version of Spider-Man, Miguel O'Hara, is the most popular character to spin out of the universe and probably the thing most fans remember from the imprint. O'Hara proved popular enough to make it into Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse with a surprise cameo at the last second.

Now that the cover is out, I think I can reveal my design sheet for the new Punisher 2099: pic.twitter.com/xrVHSN3epE

— Patch Zircher (@PatrickZircher) August 22, 2019

Comicbook.com spoke with Into the Spider-Verse's producers Chris Miller and Phil Lord leading up to the premiere of that film and they think that fans can expect more cameos like that in future Spider-Verse properties.

"I think there's a bunch [of possible characters], and I don't want to say too much because there's a wide breadth of characters that are coming out of the Spider-Man universes right now," Miller explained. "And it's really fun to be able to sort of think about plucking ones that you haven't seen before or have something interesting thematic to say."

Those words ring true for that franchise and the larger Marvel Comics output. Everything old is new again and the creative teams behind 2099 obviously saw a reason and a story to reinvigorate these characters. Time will tell if they will be sticking around for good.

PUNISHER 2099 #1
Lonnie Nadler & Zac Thompson (W) • Matt Horak (A)
Cover by Patch Zircher
Variant Cover by Steve Epting
VARIANT COVER BY RON LIM
The future has arrived, but world peace certainly hasn't! In fact, with the streets of Nueva York more crime-ridden than ever, who will rise up to defend the vulnerable population from the corruption? Looks like it's up to Punisher 2099 to clean up the block – the only question is, who's behind the mask?
Don't miss out on your glimpse into the future from rising stars, LONNIE NADLER & ZAC THOMPSON (Age of X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy Annual)!
40 PGS./ONE-SHOT/Rated T …$4.99