Punisher

The iconic character's logo was spotted among rioters at the Capitol last week.

Every month, comic publishers release their solicitation announcements to provide information to readers and retailers on comics that are coming out in three months’ time, but there’s so much information dropped at once that a lot can slip through the cracks. This month in Marvel's June solicitations, there are some big returns of forgotten characters and costumes, a surprising-yet-welcome guest artist worth talking about, and two big debuts of mystery characters in familiar roles.

It didn't take long for Hot Toys to jump all over the Marvel Netflix license when it was made available. We've already seen Daredevil in sixth-scale form, and now his season two rival, The Punisher, is getting his chance to prove his mettle. At least now you'll be able to set your Netlix heroes against your Marvel Cinematic Heroes, even if Marvel is taking a spectacularly long time to figure out how to make that happen in real life.

You voted to see who the ultimate Punisher villain was, and we’ve tabulated the results and assembled a video counting down the definitive top 10. Did your favorite make this list? There’s only one way to find out!

Daredevil star Vincent D’Onofrio has been reasonably clear about Kingpin’s absence from The Defenders, though some have certainly held out hope for Wilson Fisk’s return in Jon Bernthal’s Punisher spinoff, given their past chemistry. Allow D’Onofrio to dash your hopes even further, debunking any suggestion he might show up in the 2017 Daredevil spinoff.

When you cross The Punisher, the odds are good that you aren't going to stick around too long to be considered an arch-nemesis, but there are some resourceful and down-right lucky bad guys who have managed to get away by the skin of their teeth and live to talk about it. With a surprisingly strong roster of bad guys to choose from, who is The Punisher's number one nemesis?

Those two Marvel guys you like with the guns are in one book together this spring. Deadpool Versus The Punisher is a five-issue miniseries written by Fred Van Lente with art by Pere Perez. It seems like this is something that should have already happened by now, but I'm sure there's an appetite for it either way. The guy with all the weapons and the sense of humor who can't be killed, versus the guy with even more weapons and no sense of humor, who can be killed but somehow never dies. It's a match made in gun-based-crossover heaven.

We don’t yet have the clearest picture of how Marvel’s Netflix Punisher spinoff will fit in with the other Defenders series (beyond a 2017 premiere), but at least its cast is hard at work. See for yourself, as the full assembled roster behind The Punisher stands tall, not punishing things in a new cast photo.

Greg Rucka was born on this day in 1969, and over the course of his career in comics and novels he's made his name as one of the go-to authors for gripping and tense thriller stories, as well as bold statements on the nature of superheroes, and careful and nuanced examinations of iconic characters.

When Steve Dillon passed away on October 22, 2016, comics lost one of its greatest masters of the invisible art. In a long and storied career, Dillon's work was characterized by concise layouts, subtle manipulations of time and space, and a remarkably expressive cartooning style that gave his comics an emotional resonance unlike any other. Let's take a moment to appreciate the gifts of a uniquely talented artist.