Garth Ennis ends the MKP series with an anti-superhero story, which comes at a time when Ennis was beginning to move away from Marvel and DC due to his general distaste with superheroes, so this story represents his own views…In a way.
Ennis continued to write his edgier Punisher MAX title, but he’d cap off his Marvel superhero work here. At least for a while.
In the story, Daredevil, Wolverine and Spider-man team up to take down Frank.
He evades them by getting a burger and creatively ditching them.
The three heroes are the titular Confederacy of Dunces. The way Ennis writes it, the CoD is motivated more by personal revenge than justice: Punisher ran Wolverine over with a steamroller, humiliated Daredevil multiple times, and used Spider-Man as a human shield during a recent encounter.
The three go after Punisher, who, of course, outfoxes them. Over and over. Like here, when he blows Wolverine up with a rocket launcher.
And then in the end, when he finally stops the three heroes from hunting him by turning Hulk on them. Hulk literally punches Wolverine into Boston. Daredevil ends up being the last man standing, but he decides to abandon his efforts to arrest Punisher after Frank tells him that arresting him just means he’ll kill everyone who he is in prison with.
Then Detective Soap shows up. Through this arc, he’s had his own story moving along. He tries to arrest Punisher, fails, and then goes to L.A. to be a porn star. So Ennis.
We also get to say goodbye to Spacker Dave, who has a mini-arc in this story.
Marvel Knights Punisher ends how Welcome Back Frank began: With Punisher throwing someone off a roof, and vowing to protect the city from crime.
One thing Ennis does especially well is end things. His last issues/arcs of Hitman, The Boys, and each of his Punisher runs are perfect.
This is a really good, cynical ending to a really good, cynical series that was instrumental in lifting Marvel out of the bankruptcy (both literal and creatively) of the ‘90s and into a new kind of comic book company.
It marks the ending of Ennis’ attempts to fit Punisher into the greater Marvel Universe. From here, he launched into PunisherMAX, which may be the single greatest run on a comic of all time.