The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe is a 1995 one-shot comic book written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Doug Braithwaite. It was recommended to me by Lee who looks after the Quit Your Day Job blog. The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe is one of the "What If...?" story lines, which hypothesise what would happen to various Marvel characters had some thing gone differently in their lives, they had taken a different path, were born with different powers, or had no powers at all. The "What If...?" stories are considered to exist separately from the mainstream Marvel Universe continuity. With that out of the way, lets get back to The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe...

The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe asks the question, what would happen if Frank Castle blamed the deaths of his family on the Marvel super powered community, and if so, how would he go about "punishing" them. The story begins with young Frank standing up for a young Matt Murdock, protecting him from some local bullies.

Skip forward some 20-30 years, Frank Castle's family are alive and well, and Frank has joined the NYPD SWAT team since leaving the marines. Cut to Central Park where some of Marvel's biggest names, X-Men and Avengers included, are battling some intergalactic bad guys. While the good guys win, the victory is not without consequences as a number of innocent civilians are killed in the cross fire. Among them, Frank Castle's wife and child. When Frank arrives on the scene he is finally met with a half hearted apology from the X-Men's Cyclops, which sets Frank off, shooting Cyclops from point blank range, before turning the gun on some of the other 'heroes'. He is then attacked by Wolverine, before being taken into custody.

In the court case that follows, Matt Murdock represents Frank, but is unable to stop him from being sentenced to prison. On his way to prison, Frank is rescued and taken to a mansion where he meets the rich, old, and disfigured old man called Kesselring. Kesselring and his associates have all be disfigured or hurt in some way due to being caught in the crossfire of super powered battles. Kesselring, tells Frank that he and his associates will provide Frank with everything that he will need to destroy every superhuman on earth if Frank agrees to work for them. Eager for revenge, Castles accepts the offer and becomes... The Punisher.

As the title suggests, the one-shot basically follows Frank Castle as he kills every superhero and supervillain in the Marvel Universe, and the interest for me was in how he went about dispatching heroes and villains alike, even though on paper he often appears outmatched. His method of dispatching the Hulk is so simple it makes you wonder why no one else has tried it.

What did I learn?

That Frank Castle's a bad muttha... [shut your mouth]... hey, I'm only talkin' bout Frank.

The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe is a solid little story that also gives you a greater appreciation of why and how the Punisher can still mix it with the best of the Marvel Universe. The first run of this one-shot initially snuck out of the gate and it wasn't until Garth Ennis grew in popularity thanks to his work on DC Comics "Preacher" series, and then later on the revival of the Punisher franchise, that The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe became harder to come by. Marvel then reprinted the one-shot, with a new cover by Steve Dillon, and included it in the first hardcover reprinting of Ennis's Punisher run.