Daredevil and Punisher to Face Off in Mini-Series

It’s a little over a week until the release of the second season of Marvel’s Daredevil on Netflix, and a major story element will be Daredevil combating (and possibly becoming allies with) The Punisher. Marvel Comics will be building off that duo by releasing a four-issue mini-series titled Daredevil/Punisher, starting in May 2016. The series will be written by current Daredevil comic book writer Charles Soule and illustrated by Szymon Kudranski, with covers by Reilly Brown.     The story begins involving one of Matt Murdock’s cases. The preview synopsis starts, “A simple change of venues for one of Matt Murdock's cases becomes more complicated when The Punisher attempts to send the defendant away...permanently!” It also states that Daredevil’s new ally, Blindspot, will be involved in the story.   In his “Axel-in-Charge” column at Comic Book Resources, Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso discussed the upcoming Daredevil/Punisher mini-series, stating, “Daredevil and Punisher have a very unique relationship with each other and with the scales of justice, as the Netflix trailer aptly points out. With Daredevil Season 2 about to drop, we thought it was perfect timing to remind people of that relationship. It's funny, but every Daredevil/Punisher story poses a ‘who's side are you on?’ question to the reader…”     In an interview with CBR, Soule added, “It's a Daredevil-centric story, and we see it through his P.O.V., but that doesn't mean the Punisher is the "villain." As always when Frank Castle gets involved, things get complicated very quickly. The main story here is that Matt Murdock is trying to get a certain individual -- a Russian mob boss -- to a spot where he can stand trial for his crimes. The Punisher feels that it would be so much simpler if the mob boss never got there. He wants to cut out the middleman, basically. Murdock, however, is very much a part of the system, especially since he's a prosecutor these days. He wants to make sure that justice comes from the justice system, and this guy gets a fair trial. So, conflict!”   Although it certainly seems that this upcoming Daredevil/Punisher mini-series is motivated by the Netflix TV show, Murdock and Castle actually have a long history of facing each other, which is why injecting The Punisher into the Daredevil show made sense. So this mini-series will also be branching off the many showdowns the two characters have had over the years. While the public doesn’t know Daredevil’s identity in Soule’s series, Castle will certainly remember the many times he’s tackled with Daredevil.     In an interesting distribution choice, the series will first be published digitally through the Infinite Comics line and then printed with May comics. The list price of the hard copy of Daredevil/Punisher #1 (40 pages) is $4.99.