Marvel has officially pulled back the curtain on who will be writing the new Punisher series under the "Big Shots" banner. That man is none other than Greg Rucka. Following the announcement at C2E2, we caught up with Greg to chat about his plans for the character of Frank Castle. We cover everything from how the project got started, to Rucka's return to mainstream comics, to the tricky task of making Frank Castle fit in the main Marvel U., to handling violence in a mainstream Punisher book, and much more.
IGN Comics: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, Greg. Now that the cat's out of the bag and you have officially been named the writer of the new Punisher series under Marvel's "Big Shots" initiative, I guess the best place to start is the genesis of this project; how did you get involved in taking over the Punisher?
Greg Rucka: Well, I wasn't actually initially approached to be part of the initiative as far as I know. Steve Wacker and I worked together on 52 and he has been in touch over the last year. There was this short story that I did, which Mike Hark drew, for I Am An Avenger and Steve edited that. Then he came back around a couple weeks later and basically said, "Look, we're doing a new Punisher book starting at #1 and I think you'd be really good at it."
And, you know, other people have called me, or suggested books to me, but every pitch just wasn't for me. My initial plan was to just take a year off. I just needed the time off. But it was a combination of Steve coming to me with the right offer, the right project at the right time. It wasn't until we were well into the process that I understood other stuff was going on with the "Big Shots" initiative.
IGN Comics: So how long ago did The Punisher project get started?
Greg Rucka: Steve and I have been talking about it for like 3-4 months now. He originally came to me with the pitch in December. I told him I had to think about it. So Steve being Steve, he kept asking about it [laughs]. I was really leery at the start of this project because there are certain difficulties in putting Frank in the mainstream Marvel universe, especially after you've had these Marvel MAX runs, which Jason Aaron is wrapping up now, and Garth [Ennis] did before him.
So there was a lot of conversation that happened beforehand where I figured out how to make this work for me.
IGN Comics: You've been away from the superhero game for a while now, especially in regards to Marvel, so it must have taken a seriously interesting project to bring you back full-swing.
Greg Rucka: Yes, it was like a year ago that I stopped working in mainstream comics. But it's been about seven years since I did anything consistent for Marvel. I did a few issues of Daredevil, but that was by invitation from Ed Brubaker. And even still, that was less working for a publisher, more working for a friend.
IGN Comics: So what was it about the pitch for Punisher that was really appealing to you?
Greg Rucka: One of the things I love about Frank is that he's simple to the point of elegance, in that there's a lot of nuance to the character. He's not a terribly difficult character to understand at first look. You take a look at him and he makes perfect sense. He's got no secret pain. He's not carrying this deep, dark anything. He's exactly as he appears. He is at war with crime and everything he does is so beautifully and elegantly directed towards one end. And when a character is that clean they actually become this wonderful source for stories about their world and the people around them.
I have no interest in fixing Frank. He doesn't need it. My only job is to give him people that really, really need to die. [laughs] There's something really delightful to go into something as fully realized as the Punisher is.
But the complication is that as beautifully realized as he is, he doesn't really fit into a universe of Marvel heroes.
IGN Comics: That's a great place to go next. How do you plan to make Frank Castle seem, for lack of a better word, relevant in a world where characters like Thor and Galactus exist?
Greg Rucka: Well, frankly, I'm not sure he needs to be "relevant." I have no interest in doing a Punisher slaughters the Marvel Universe storyline, or Punisher vs. Galactus one-off. You know, eventually I would like to write a Punisher vs. Wolverine showdown because that's something people would love to see.
There's a basic story question that's, how long can someone like Frank operate in the Marvel universe before someone like Thor says, "What art thou doing? [laughs] You're killing bad people and this is not appropriate behavior for a hero and we're putting a stop to it." When that happens it will be its own story. And that's something Steve and I are still wrestling with how to handle. And we'll deal with it when the time comes. That's not where we're starting from.
IGN Comics: So we should expect some really gritty, street-level drama stories from the start of this new Punisher series?
Greg Rucka: Yes, and that's where he works best. That's also the reason why he can survive. If you think about it in the grander scale of the Marvel universe, there's Fear Itself going on right now, there's not a lot of time for the heroes to spare on Frank Castle for shooting people in the face who really had it coming.[laughs]
You know, the moon might be crashing down to the Earth, I think they have to deal with that before they turn around and decide they need to take care of the Punisher.
IGN Comics: Now you mentioned earlier that when you and Steve were drafting up this Punisher series, you didn't know about this whole "Big Shots" initiative with the other street-level characters like Moon Knight and Daredevil. Now that you are aware, are there plans to cross-over the titles?
Greg Rucka: I think everyone is staying the hell out of each other's way. With all the people involved and knowing who they are, I think we're all giving each other enough room to run. It would be interesting to see if there's a time and place for that later though.
Honestly, I think it's kind of a cheap thing to do to your audience. You know, introduce a new book and tell them they need to buy all these other stories to get the whole picture. You should be able to buy Punisher #1 and know that, for at least the next half dozen issues, that the story will be told in full right there. You are not going to be required to pick up other books.
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