Punisher: Red Band #1 sets the stage for a new era of Punisher stories that demand attention. It is violent, uncompromising, and impossible to put down. Read Full Review

Punisher Red Band Issue 1 brings the main man back where he belongs - in a world filled with blood and gore. Read Full Review

Punisher: Red Band #1 is the start of what looks to be a great Punisher story. The creative team is locked in, and clearly understands the assignment. Between this and next month'sPunisher: The World to Come miniseries, it's a good time to be a Punisher fan. Read Full Review

I sound dismissive, but I did enjoy the experience of reading Punisher: Red Band #1 even if I dont necessarily feel the need to return to it anytime soon. The creative team of writing Benjamin Percy and the aforementioned Ohta is well-picked, following up on their Hellverine run together, and their sensibilities match not only each others but Punishers as well. Its actually extremely surprising to learn this is Percys first go with the character, given his prolific back catalog with Marvel and overall aptitude for this sort of material. Fans of the character will definitely see value in this series, and it could prove to be a pretty decent seller for Marvel with legs for the future if they stick the landing. (Also, great coloring from Yen Nitro. Just wanted to shout that out.) Read Full Review

Plot
This new series begins with Frank Castle waking up covered in blood on a burning boat filled with slaughtered people. Without knowing his name or what's happening, he escapes from the police by swimming, even though he's seriously injured.

Meanwhile, Tombstone tortures police officers and others to get them to tell him who was responsible for the attack on his boat carrying expensive illegal merchandise. Tombstone tortures them by cutting off parts of their bodies, but no one knows what happened.

The Kingpin, on the other hand, is behind all the criminal activities that aren't his own, threatening a priest who engaged in human trafficking.

The Punisher is rescued by an elderly woman whom he asks to take him home, and there he begins to heal. However, he discovers a scar on his neck where a device that controls his actions is located, and the Kingpin is the one who activates it.

A powerful start to a new saga featuring a dizzying narrative at an electrifying pace that spares no expense in depicting the super-explicit violence necessary to chronicle the Punisher's everyday life.

Art
With details elevated to another level of quality with different textures, it showcases super-violent action sequences with interesting camera angles and mesmerizing dynamism.

Summary
The Punisher doesn't remember who he is, but his killer instinct is intact as he is manipulated for the lethal agenda of a demented enemy. Vertiginous, shocking, and mesmerizing more

Great issue. Good art, great writing and great start to the plot. The foundation isn't totally original, but the details surrounding it are original enough. And I love the Kingpin being compatible with the current Daredevil run's Kingpin. That scene was great, and the whole setup for the premise of this book looks like it's going to be very interesting.

This was a pretty awesome, cinematic read. Ohta and Nitro's artwork is phenomenal - I'm flabbergasted Marvel didn't let them draw the cover, which is solid, but not great. Sorry, Marco Checchetto.
There's a lot of gore indeed - justifying the Red Band designation - but it's not there for sensationalist purposes, but to emphasize the brutality of Frank Castle's world - and most of all his humanity and vulnerability.

(Spoiler Free Review) The Punisher: Red Band #1

It starts very well with non-stop action (as we saw in the previews). Julius Ohta brilliantly executes his artistic skills, making the violence feel truly violent... I would say visceral at certain points. This is no joke, and the Red Band title will likely be the most violent series in the Marvel Universe.
Ben Percy did a great job writing this issue. The story is well-constructed, and he makes the villains feel like genuine villains... real monsters. Another great job handling the big bad boys of this title. He handled the Punisher very well, but I have to say I was apprehensive about the last page. I really hate when they do this to Frank. I really do.
But still, I have high hopes that this will turn out to be good and that it will pay off. I'm still excited for issue #2, coming up in October. more

Solid 8, soft 8.5.

*Spoilers Below*

The one plot element that stood out to me most is the fact that Percy has taken Fisk as he was “Born Again” so to speak from Ahmed’s Daredevil run and is actually using him in an interesting portrayal.

That alone sold me, as this was something Ahmed could absolutely have done to make his run more interesting. But that’s Daredevil. This is Punisher, Frank Castle.

I do like how tropey this inaugural issue was. I mean that in a good way. Percy has taken the amnesia protagonist trope and applied it here and honestly I’m all for it. What’s more, he has the makings of a classic marvel and classic crime story (and therefore classic Pun tale) in this issue.

Percy’s prose was also very nicely written. Nothing in his script felt wasted. It was all very tight and deftly hit all the points to ultimately facilitate great pacing.

Ohta’s art is heavy and dramatic, and Nitro’s colors are equally so. I’d go as far as to say this has been the best single Red Band issue I have read from Marvel thus far. And hell was it flushed in red.

The violence made even someone as high tolerant of gore wince and go wide-eyes from the gore by surprise. There’s some ghastly stuff in here.

But it wasn’t over the top. Shocking in the right way. Also, this issue has been the first to really deliver on the Red Band idea so far. Other Red Bands I’ve read have still felt too tame (see Blood Hunt and Elektra Red Bands).

All in all very satisfying start and hope this keeps up. more

I thought this was pretty good. It was definitely a fast read but a bit of that is Percy’s approach to all of his books. I will read more.

There was zero special about The Punisher Red Band #1 - I didn’t know he was supposed to be dead so his “return” didn’t move the needle for me. The storytelling felt like a run of the mill action movie - which is fine I guess. The standouts were the scenes with Kingpin, but even then - I’m not sure I care where that is heading. The reason this book was “red band” for “mature content” was the abundance of blood, not language or nudity … just copious amounts of blood (and some torture). Frankly the story would have worked the same without it … so again - nothing to really make this issue stand out. If you are a Punisher fan, I’m sure you will like it - but there was nothing here for me. I do not recommend this book.

Didnt liked the art and where is Garth Ennis ?

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sad comics - Sep 16, 2025

Ennis's last return was in a (very good) miniseries called Get Fury, where he worked on the pre-Punisher concept for the Marvel MAX imprint. I think this was his farewell.

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Completely dispensable and unable to keep up, we know what happens next: the character's mind is messed up since a deconstruction run, and then the bloodthirsty villains will take advantage of this to turn him into a villain under the false pretense of bringing him back with his original symbol, all aimed at serving a progressive agenda. It's definitely not the Punisher who should be rebooted; Marvel doesn't have the guts for that... Without ENNIS, there won't be a Punisher for now, simple as that! Red Band is a label that only aims to strengthen the woke; there's nothing violent about it.

Hulk, Punisher, Spidey all Rip with Stan Lee.

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• bomp

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Bionder - Sep 10, 2025

I was here looking for a review, but got some Nostradamus from Temu.

sad comics - Sep 10, 2025 (edited)

If you thought Aaron, as a Marvel tool, destroyed the character, it's about to get even worse. It's not for you, and it's not for me; it's for an anti-Trump generation, those modernists who want the industry to speak their language and for the world to eternally embrace social equality. Percy is bad, as is Pepose. If he gets it right, it's only a matter of time before he becomes the same old thing, eventually becoming disinterested and sidelined like so many other series.

Bionder - Sep 10, 2025

I respect your opinion, but Marvel didn't bring back the Punisher to commit the same mistake. I will rather wait and see how they will develop this series. This will eventually retcon what Aaron did in 2022. Now, let's hope for the best.

sad comics - Sep 10, 2025 (edited)

If you're content with just the amnesiac Frank, who (SPOILERS AHEAD) starts shooting recklessly and putting the lives of innocent people at risk until an old lady shows up and becomes, according to the issue, his new sidekick since the old Microship, adding bloodthirsty scenes from Fisk and Tombstone as a pretext to be a "violent comic book," as well as bringing Frank back in his skull uniform to later activate a kind of chip in his brain, maybe you folow this to the end.

sad comics - Sep 10, 2025

Of course, in the end, when he overcomes this corruption in his mind, he will come with everything against these villains, but Fisk has the protection of an entire editorial, so we won't see anything serious happening to him, the kind of protection that made him knock out the Hulk easily.

sad comics - Sep 10, 2025

I hope for something good, I just hope, maybe in Knights, by Palmiotti, but it's just a small hope that brings Frank back in a dignified way in a universe other than 616, in 616 he will no longer be the same, unless he leaves Marvel or goes to an indie for example, like Titan.

Chris Y - Sep 14, 2025

I consider myself pretty anti-woke, but I can see nothing woke about this comic - at least not in this first issue. I'm not familiar with Percy, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Bionder - Sep 14, 2025

I got to say that the final cliffhanger, I was apprehensive. I hate when they put Frank in that "condition". But I will wait to see how they will handle this before shouting out that it's crap.

sad comics - Sep 15, 2025

If I'm jumping the gun, I wish it were possible, but not with the predictability these books have become. The fact that The Hand solution was even considered is already something that leaves me feeling completely negative. I can't see the Punisher acting at the behest of criminals, and it's pretty clear that Fisk will be protected even as he recovers from his amnesia and gradually regains his memory.

sad comics - Sep 15, 2025

As for Percy, I haven't read anything good from him, his Red Hulk is very boring and his stories are so red that it's impossible not to connect them to the woke.

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