Originally part of our Soliciting Multiversity: Marvel’s September 2013 article, we realized that a story like this probably shouldn’t get buried in a countdown-type post. It needed its own legs since nobody was talking about it. Not that its really “a thing” to talk about, but its still interesting from a “this is the weird way comics work” stand point.
Alright, so what is “The Trial of the Punisher” by Marc Guggenheim and Francis Leinil Yu? Most people are assuming that it is some kind of follow-up to Rucka’s “Punisher” run, seguing into “Thunderbolts” and how Frank got loose again — but its a bit more complicated than that.
See, this isn’t just some random two-issue mini-series — this is a comic from 2006 that was never released. Not only that, but this is the first thing Guggenheim ever wrote for Marvel.
I’m not kidding — originally titled “The People Vs. Castle” and a one-shot with the same creative team, the book was announced and then shelved with little to no announcement. Don’t believe me? Look at this, from 2006:
THE PULSE: What is the title of your Punisher one-shot and what is it about?
MARC GUGGENHEIM: This is an extra-sized one-shot called “People v. Castle.” I’d also toyed around with calling it “Crime & Punishment,” but that felt a little too obvious. Basically, the story is the Punisher on trial for his crimes. That’s something we’ve never seen before. We’ve seen him in prison, but we haven’t gotten an idea of how the criminal justice system would attempt to put him on trial. Moreover, we haven’t gotten a sense of how any attorney would try to defend him. Is he legally insane? Perhaps. It’s an interesting question. How would Castle react to the suggestion that he’s insane? What if the suggestion were made in the context of trying to keep him out of prison? There are just a lot of cool questions, I thought, and oftentimes those make for the best stories. There’s also more going on than just the Punisher on trial. But I don’t want to spoil any plot points. All that having been said, even though it hasn’t been released yet — it’s still being illustrated — it was my first work for Marvel and opened the door to my subsequent projects, such as Wolverine.
So, yeah, that’s weird. And nobody is really talking about it. Unless they are and I’ve missed it all, but at the time of writing I’ve seen no “Marvel Publishes Seven-Years Old Punisher Story” headlines (and nothing on Bleeding Cool, since Rich is usually good about pointing out weird stuff like this), so there you have it.
It’s tough to find out too much about it because really, at 2006 the Internet was not as huge as it is today. Not that it wasn’t massive and full of people chatting with strangers and spreading news like we’re doing today, but, well, you get it. There was some chatter about it at the time, mind you, and people were still waiting for it a year later, but since then the story has just faded into the good night.
But now it’s back. And it is two-issues? So you have to wonder — did Marvel just stretch out the content (are we going to get two 16-page issues with 16 pages of ads?) or have Guggenheim and Yu come back to update the story in some way? Guggenheim describes it as “extra-sized” so I suppose it could be easily spread out over two-issues (extra-sized today would be over 20 pages at Marvel, so it was probably a bit more seven years ago), as that is clearly a good way to make it worth more monetarily. That means it’ll just be arbitrarily cut in half, though, so that will perhaps hurt its story potential upon release. I’d assume, anyway.
At the very least it can pocket roughly $8 bucks from fans who have been waiting seven years for the comic, as opposed to … well, you can probably assume $3.99 as the 2006 extra-sized equivalent. Laying it out like that just makes it sound so sinister! Or at the very least rather capitalist of Marvel. No need to act too surprised here.
Continued belowBecause that’s just the way things work, right? Or rather, this is just the silly way that comics work: you do a work-for-hire gig that may never see the light of day, and then nearly a decade later it is put out for more money. Why? No idea. There’s no “Punisher” ongoing today so that might have something to do with it, but there seems little reason to put out the book now that there may not have been in 2006. Either way, Guggenheim and Yu got paid for the work; probably not as much as they make today, but again, this is just the weird way things work.
And it’s not like this is some isolated case, especially not in Marvel’s September solicits. Did you see that trade paperback Marvel is releasing of the Ellis/Dodson “Storm” mini-series, a book that was $2.95 (times four, so $11.80) when it came out and is now listed for $19.99 collected? That’s for a book that actually came out! And you know Ellis and Dodson aren’t seeing a dime from this sudden and seemingly random re-release (although Ellis has explained that he gets how these things work, so no need to get all up in arms about it any more than usual). These things happen, I suppose.
It’s just good to be aware of where your money is going when you buy from Marvel and DC. This isn’t to really say anything too surprising or revolutionary, and its not even meant to be particularly riotous or angry. It is very easy to understand how Marvel works as a company, has always worked and will continue to work. Just, you know, be aware that you’re not supporting the creators of the title too much if you choose to pick it up.
The silver lining to this, in my book anyway, would be that this ostensibly gives you some slight mild hope for other shelved projects seeing the light of day. I’m still holding out for that Spencer/Cloonan “Doom” series getting finished/released in some fashion.
Never the less it’ll be an interesting read when it comes out regardless, to see if it holds up and to maybe get an idea of why the book was just suddenly and uneventfully shelved. And a comic with early Leinil Yu art? That’s worth something in and of itself, for sure.
Here’s the solicit:
PUNISHER: TRIAL OF THE PUNISHER #1 (of 2)
MARC GUGGENHEIM (W) • LEINIL YU (A/C)
• The unthinkable happens when the Punisher surrenders himself to police!
• The trial of the century begins as Frank Castle admits to murdering a district attorney!
• Is this the end of the Punisher’s war on crime?
32 PGS./Parental Advisory…$3.99
We’ll update accordingly should something new come to light regarding the decision to release the book in 2013.
