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Punisher, believe it or not, was experiencing low sales and Marvel was being horribly mismanaged, so in 1995 all three of his books got the axe. I like that they tied it across all of them, giving a solid conclusion to the books.
The story is pretty good, too. Microchip is now working for a copycat Punisher (real name: Carlos Cruz)–who also calls himself Punisher–and he’s tearing through the underworld. In the void, Kingpin decides to reassert himself as the head honcho.
Kingpin’s assassin, Bullseye, has a run in with the new Punisher.
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Bullseye hasn’t been around for a while. Good to see him again. Later, he kills Phalanx and steals his armor, then faces off with Punisher.
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The story proceeds and Cruz and Castle are warring against each other.
![](https://earthsmightiestblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/cruz-punisher.jpg)
They end up in Central Park.
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Stone Cold is also running around trying to foil Microchip–and he kills Cruz Punisher. Frank Castle, still looking for Cruz, accidentally kills a family.
![](https://earthsmightiestblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/pun-kills-famly-816x1024.png)
Yeah, it’s sledgehammer irony. It leads Punisher to consider killing himself. But instead he turns himself in (which is where the Edge event will begin.
This is a really good arc–it wraps up a lot of the themes of Chuck Dixon’s work with the character, and serves as a nice conclusion for the early ’90s Punisher era.
The final panels have another lowlife swearing revenge on Punisher.
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Not the best ending. I think ending with Punisher reflecting on the accidental death of a family at his own hands would have been stronger.