Near Mint Condition announced the final Marvel omnibus due in the first half of 2027, though this is not the last one to be released. This is an April 2027 book, and the reason Omar saved it for last is because it has placed in the Top 60 of the Tigereyes Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus poll for the past ten years, including spending the past three years in the Top 10. That makes it one of the most-wanted Marvel collected editions of this millennium… and now we’re finally going to see it in print: Punisher: Enter the War Zone AKA Punisher by Greg Rucka!
THIS IS A BIG DEAL, Y’ALL. Marvel has not published a mainstream, non-MAX continuity Punisher omnibus since 2017, and we only have three books in total for a character with hundreds of issues: Punisher: Back to the War Omnibus collecting his earliest issues, Punisher by Garth Ennis Omnibus collecting his more mature (but not MAX) early-00s run, and Punisher by Rick Remender Omnibus with his somewhat pulpy adventures as a monster.
Fans absolutely revere this Greg Rucka run and with good reason. Rucka would never treat Punisher as a deliciously transgressive murder machine so we could root for his vengeful ways. Instead, Rucka reckoned with Frank Castle as a real human being existing in this super universe, and what that would mean both for his motivations and for the ramifications of his actions.
Also, much of this run was drawn by Marco Checchetto (and, subsequently Carmine Di Giandomenico in the second series), making it one of the most-gorgeous Punisher runs of all time.
This a brief omnibus because there is nothing extra to collect outside of The Punisher (2011) and Punisher: War Zone (2012) other than a brief crossover with Spider-Man and Daredevil and a Spider-Island story. From here, Punisher continues into Marvel Now, where he was first a member of Thunderbolts (2012) AKA “Thunderbolts Red” from Daniel Way (already in omnibus), followed by his more militaristic run from Nathan Edmonson in Punisher (2014).
You can see the full reading contents of this period in my Punisher Collecting Guide & Reading Order. Did you have this book on your Marvel Omnibus 2027 Fantasy Draft ballot? I foolishly assumed that Marvel would opt for classic Punisher material instead since Greg Rucka doesn’t have a relationship with them right now. In fact, he was taken completely by surprise by this announcement! That means no points for me.
Leave a Reply