Punisher has been trying to make that crime family legit, and on this page we finally get a very clear statement of why…
Basically, in some twisted way, Frank believes that he can “save” a generation born into a crime family and in some way make up for his failure to protect his own family.
But he encounters a bunch of hard violence: Tombstone kills one of crime lord Punisher’s underbosses. Some other assassins pop up and start killing various other organized crime figures. One of them is Firefox–a former Soviet Super Soldier who became a free agent after the fall of the USSR. Turns out, the father of the Geraci family–the very guy who put Punisher at the head–hired these people to kill his own bosses, after those bosses agreed to Punisher’s rule. Dude. He told them to follow Frank but then got jealous when they did.
Actually, that kind of makes sense.
And also Jigsaw is running around wearing Punisher’s old costume.
So, all the chaos of the preceding issues comes to a head. Time for Punisher to get back to what he does best.
He chains Tombstone to a wrecking ball, crashes him through a few brick walls, and then drowns him in the Hudson.
Then he takes down the other assassins. And, finally, he shoots Jigsaw in the head.
Of course, neither of these villains is actually dead.
And so we get the end of the “crime boss” story. I’m eager to see what Ostrander does next–this has been a really good run.