Punisher Max by Garth Ennis Omnibus Vol. 1

Garth Ennis wrote the Punisher across two very different series: a black comedy for Marvel Knights and then a crime book with no jokes at all. The Marvel Knights run is Ennis at his funniest — Daredevil, Wolverine and Spider-Man all humiliated in sequence — and the later series is where he drops the comedy entirely. Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe is the notorious one, and it is far bleaker than its reputation suggests.

PRH frames this as Jason Aaron and Steve Dillon's uncensored Punisher MAX run in oversized format. The story drops Frank Castle into a crime war where Kingpin is not just a target, but a force capable of dragging him lower than usual. This is Punisher for readers who want the harsher MAX version rather than a superhero crossover shelf. Aaron and Dillon treat Frank's war as ugly, direct and psychologically punishing, with Kingpin acting as the pressure point for the whole run.

Thunderbolts Red is Daniel Way's run on the team, in which General Ross recruits Marvel's most violent characters and runs them as a black-ops unit. The roster is the joke and the point: Red Hulk, Punisher, Deadpool, Elektra and Venom on the same team, all of whom kill and none of whom take orders well. Way writes it as a war comic rather than a superhero book, and the tension comes from Ross being the only one with any interest in restraint.

PRH describes Rick Remender's Punisher run as one of the character's wildest. It begins in the Dark Reign atmosphere, where Norman Osborn's world puts Frank in the crosshairs, and then pushes the premise far past a standard crime-war setup. This is the Punisher shelf for readers who want the strange Marvel version, not the grounded MAX version. Remender turns Frank's death and reconstruction into a grotesque, high-concept detour that still asks whether anything human is left under the mission.

Punisher MAX by Garth Ennis Omnibus Vol. 2 collects the later half of Ennis's MAX run, including the Barracuda material and closing one-shots, with a much bleaker crime-fiction focus than a conventional superhero book. A hard, adult-readers Punisher volume for collectors completing the Ennis MAX shelf.

Greg Rucka writes Frank Castle as a force moving through other people’s lives. Detectives hunt the Exchange, wounded Marine Rachel Cole is pulled into his war, and a grounded crime story keeps widening until Spider-Man, Daredevil and the Avengers can no longer ignore what the Punisher is doing to New York.

Greg Rucka writes Frank Castle as a force moving through other people’s lives. Detectives hunt the Exchange, wounded Marine Rachel Cole is pulled into his war, and a grounded crime story keeps widening until Spider-Man, Daredevil and the Avengers can no longer ignore what the Punisher is doing to New York.

Legendary PUNISHER scribe Garth Ennis reveals the secret, bloody history of Frank Castle and Nick Fury! Before the Punisher was born in Vietnam, Frank Castle had already become a dark legend of the battlefield. Now learn the truth about Castle’s first command — and his first kill. It’s the answer to the question: What made the Punisher?

Garth Ennis wrote Hellblazer for three years in the early nineties and produced the run most people mean when they talk about John Constantine. Dangerous Habits is the story where Constantine cons three lords of Hell into saving his life because none of them will let the others have his soul, and it is the single best trick the character has ever pulled. Ennis also writes his friendships better than anyone: the pub scenes are the reason the horror lands.

Jesse Custer is a small town preacher who loses his congregation, his church and most of his town in one night, and comes out of it with the voice of God and a reason to go looking for the real one. Ennis and Dillon open Preacher with the Saint of Killers on his trail and never slow down.

Preacher 25th Anniversary, collected as a pack of 2 oversized omnibus volumes and cheaper than buying them one by one. Jesse Custer is a small town preacher who loses his congregation, his church and most of his town in one night, and comes out of it with the voice of God and a reason to go looking for the real one. Ennis and Dillon open Preacher with the Saint of Killers on his trail and never slow down. Jesse Custer keeps walking across America looking for a God who abandoned his own creation, and the further he gets the less the joke protects anybody. The second omnibus is where Ennis and Dillon stop playing and the friendships, the Saint of Killers and the Grail all come due at once.

Hitman by Garth Ennis and John McCrea, collected as a pack of 2 oversized omnibus volumes and cheaper than buying them one by one. Hitman by Garth Ennis and John McCrea Omnibus Vol. 1 collects one of DC's great hidden-gem runs. Tommy Monaghan is a Gulf War veteran turned contract killer in the Cauldron, a rough Irish corner of Gotham; a alien bite leaves him with X-ray vision and telepathy, and he sets himself up as the hitman who specializes in killing super-people. Ennis and McCrea, years before their creator-owned fame, blend savage dark comedy with genuine pathos and one of comics' great supporting casts, the regulars of Noonan's bar. Brutal, funny and unexpectedly moving. Hitman by Garth Ennis and John McCrea Omnibus Vol. 2 collects the second half of the run, where the jokes stop being free. Tommy Monaghan is a contract killer in Gotham with minor psychic powers and a bar full of friends, and Ennis spends this volume methodically taking them away. It contains 'Of Thee I Sing', widely considered one of the finest Superman stories ever written.

Collects the entire Tangled Web anthology (2001-2003), the series that handed Spider-Man to some of comics' strongest voices and let them look away from the hero. Garth Ennis and John McCrea's Rhino two-parter, Greg Rucka and Eduardo Risso's noir, and Peter Milligan and Duncan Fegredo's tales sit alongside work by Brian Azzarello, Darwyn Cooke and Paul Pope, all in one hardcover.

Garth Ennis wrote the Punisher across two very different series: a black comedy for Marvel Knights and then a crime book with no jokes at all. The Marvel Knights run is Ennis at his funniest — Daredevil, Wolverine and Spider-Man all humiliated in sequence — and the later series is where he drops the comedy entirely. Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe is the notorious one, and it is far bleaker than its reputation suggests.

Punisher MAX by Garth Ennis Omnibus Vol. 2 collects the later half of Ennis's MAX run, including the Barracuda material and closing one-shots, with a much bleaker crime-fiction focus than a conventional superhero book. A hard, adult-readers Punisher volume for collectors completing the Ennis MAX shelf.

Legendary PUNISHER scribe Garth Ennis reveals the secret, bloody history of Frank Castle and Nick Fury! Before the Punisher was born in Vietnam, Frank Castle had already become a dark legend of the battlefield. Now learn the truth about Castle’s first command — and his first kill. It’s the answer to the question: What made the Punisher?