10 Marvel Graphic Novels You Must Read Before You Die
10. Punisher Max: In The Beginning
Marvel Comics
Garth Ennis' stint on the Punisher might've given us some kooky moments over the years, but there's no denying it carried a sense of gravity when it had to.
One story-arc that best exemplifies this actually takes place in the first volume of Punisher Max. Said arc, called 'In the Beginning', features Frank Castle as he attempts to outmanoeuvre both the mob and an off-the-books black ops team, one that features Micro in a somewhat antagonistic role.
Ennis is afforded plenty of room to manoeuvre too, as the book is set outside of the typical 616 timeline. Not only did this allow him to depict violence in a heavily-stylised manner, it also allowed him to tell the Punisher story that he wanted to - one that revisited the character's origins and fundamentally rewrote the sense of pathos that had carried him so diligently since that first meeting with Spider-Man in 1973.
It's a really important book, and while other storylines like Born and Valley Forge, Valley Forge undoubtedly have their merits, you have to go back to the beginning, to get a sense for where it all started.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
