Marvel Makes Major Change to The Punisher

Just when you think The Punisher can't get any crazier, Marvel changes up the whole status quo. Traditionally a street-level, gun-toting anti-hero, the House of Ideas made one of the biggest changes to the character fans have ever seen this week, even though it was super brief and may or may not have been part of some kind of reality-altering fever dream. Heads up, full spoilers for Amazing Spider-Man: Full Circle #1 below.

One of Marvel's most ambitious projects hit the shelves this week in Amazing Spider-Man: Full Circle, a super-sized comic featuring work from seven different creative teams. Essentially each creative team was charged with carrying on an over-arching story throughout each issue, but the teams were only able to read the story from the creative team directly ahead of their own story. Suffice to say, this lead to plenty of wacky scenarios including one in which Frank Castle, The Punisher himself, was paired with Marvel's Ultimate Nullifier.

In short, the Ultimate Nullifier is generally regarded as the Marvel Universe's most destructive weapon. In fact, it's a long-running plot that it's the only weapon or device in the universe that strikes fear into Galactus. Suffice to say, The Punisher could do some major damage with it, and damage he sure did. After having turned into the ultimate cosmic badass, The Punisher turned heel and destroyed the universe as we know it.

Because of the unique structure of how this particular comic one-shot was written, The Punisher's doings were soon reversed and written off as an anomaly before everything managed to fix itself. Regardless, Frank Castle was briefly the most powerful character the Marvel Universe has ever seen — for a moment. Overall, it was an incredibly powerful moment in one of the zaniest comics you'll read this month. If you're a Punisher fan, it's most certainly a must-read if for nothing but this single moment alone.

I also reviewed Full Circle earlier this week, giving the comic a near-perfect 4 out of 5 stars. You can read my full review of the issue here.

Amazing Spider-Man: Full Circle #1 is on sale now.