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NEWS
‘PUNISHER SHOWDOWNS’ PITS FRANK CASTLE AGAINST OTHER MARVEL CHARACTERS
Black Widow, Wolverine, Winter Soldier
Posted by Brigid Alverson on July 21, 2026 @ 8:30 pm CT
Frank Castle will go one-on-one with Black Widow, Wolverine, and Winter Soldier later this year in three one-shots dubbed the Punisher Showdowns. All three are written by Tom Waltz, working with different artists. Punisher Showdowns: Black Widow #1, with art and a main cover by Greg Land, sends the two to Las Vegas to head off a terrorist attack, working separately and with different agendas that soon collide. The issue will be released on October 21, 2026, with variant covers by Mark Bagley and Joe Jusko.
Punisher Showdowns: Wolverine #1 is set in New York City, where a Yakuza gang have released a lethal drug that causes the users to become violent. Castle is on the trail of the drug dealers when an encounter with Wolverine shakes things up. Bruno Büll is the artist for this comic, which will be released on November 4 with a main cover by Whilce Portacio and a variant by Jusko.
Punisher Showdowns: Winter Soldier #1 pits the Punisher against the Soviet asset when he sets out to take down a murderer who’s politically connected and has to deal with interference from the Winter Solider. This issue, with art by Edgar Salazar, a main cover by Ian Churchill, and a variant by Jusko, will be released on December 2.
“The Punisher has always been one of my favorite comic-book characters, all the way back to the first time I witnessed him doing battle with Daredevil in the classic Daredevil #183,” Waltz said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “And now I get to showcase untold Punisher missions, culling from some of my favorite Marvel lore, and featuring three other fascinating super heroes with dark histories: Black Widow, Wolverine, and Winter Soldier. Rest assured, widows will sting, claws will slash, and bullets will fly.”
The Punisher will also go clash with Deadpool in a four-issue crossover in September and October (see “Punisher and Deadpool Go Face-to-Face in ‘Big Guns’”).
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brigid Alverson
Contributing Editor. Alverson has been writing about comics since she launched MangaBlog in 2005. She wrote the Comics A.M. column for Robot 6 (now part of CBR), and currently edits the Good Comics for Kids blog at School Library Journal. In her earlier life, she had roles at magazine and book publishers.
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