Frank Castle has a new target in Predator Vs. Punisher #1, which Marvel Comics released this week. The 4-issue miniseries is the first time the Punisher has fought a Predator, with Frank Tieri writing and Jesús Saiz on pencils, inks and colors. Tieri shared the release yesterday afternoon. Check out the official post down below:
Marvel's solicitation reads: "For the first time ever! The Punisher takes on the Predator! New York City becomes a hunting ground when a Predator arrives looking for worthy prey and finds Frank Castle! As crime bosses fall, the body count rises and the streets run red." The solicitation bills the series as a showdown "decades in the making."
Frank Castle Against A 7-Foot Hunter
Tieri laid out the odds plainly before launch. "If you look strictly at the tale of the tape, the Punisher would have no chance," he said. "The Predator is 7 feet tall, has superhuman strength, has better weaponry and is invisible half the time. And the Punisher... is just a dude. A very deadly dude, but a dude nonetheless." He followed that by naming Dutch, Mike Harrigan, Naru and the cast of Predator: Killer of Killers as humans who have beaten Predators before.
Frank has no powers. He is a Marine Corps veteran who went to war with New York's crime families after his wife and 2 children were killed by the mob for witnessing a murder in Central Park, and he fights with his military training and his own arsenal.
A Mob War In The Middle
The Predator arrives in New York and starts killing crime bosses, the same men Frank hunts. Marvel names Kingpin, Jigsaw, Silvermane and The Owl among the villains in the book. The first issue opens with a flashback to Silvermane's first encounter with a Predator, then builds to a sit-down between the Owl and Jigsaw that Silvermane brokers. Frank plans to hit the meeting, and the Predator shows up with the same idea.
Jigsaw, Billy Russo, is Frank's archenemy and has been since his first full appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #162 in 1976. He was played by Dominic West in Punisher: War Zone and by Ben Barnes in Netflix's The Punisher. Wilson Fisk's Kingpin first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #50 in 1967, Silvermane runs a branch of the Maggia crime syndicate, and the Owl, Leland Owlsley, was played by Bob Gunton in Netflix's Daredevil.
Tieri has said Silvermane knows more about the hunter than the other bosses because the 2 share a past, and that Frank does as well. The pair do not meet face to face until issue #2, which goes on sale December 16.
Issue Details
- Writer: Frank Tieri
- Pencils, inks and colors: Jesús Saiz
- Letterer: VC's Travis Lanham
- Main cover: Dustin Weaver
- Page count: 31
- Price: $5.99, with variant covers at $8.99
- Rating: Parental Advisory
The Punisher On Screen
Frank Castle has been played by 4 actors in live action. Dolph Lundgren starred in The Punisher in 1989, Thomas Jane took the role in the 2004 film of the same name, and Ray Stevenson led Punisher: War Zone in 2008. Jon Bernthal debuted as Frank in the second season of Daredevil and headlined 2 seasons of The Punisher from 2017 to 2019.
Bernthal has since returned in Daredevil: Born Again, and 2026 brings him back in The Punisher: One Last Kill, a Marvel Television Special Presentation for Disney+, and in the theatrical film Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
The Predator side of the fight comes from the film series that started with Arnold Schwarzenegger's Predator in 1987 and continued most recently with Predator: Killer of Killers and Predator: Badlands in 2025. Marvel has also sent the hunter after Wolverine, Black Panther and Spider-Man in earlier crossovers written by Benjamin Percy.
Who walks away from this fight in your book, Frank Castle or the Predator?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.