Amazing Spider-Man #129

Amazing Spider-Man #129 (1974)
by Gerry Conway & Ross Andru

Since it’s about to come up in the Anniversary, let’s jump ahead in the hero origins for a character who is DEFINITELY not a hero.

And it’s also a villain origin, because this is the first appearance of another character: the Jackal, who has hired the Punisher to kill Spider-Man.

This is way too early to consider the Punisher an anti-hero, but it should be noted that he’s not represented to be as villainous as the Jackal.

Speaking of Spider-Man, he’s doing his thing.

It should be noted that this is just EIGHT ISSUES since Gwen Stacy died.
This should be when I learned that she died, but I don’t remember picking this up AT ALL. Possibly because Gwen had a role in just one of the other stories I had.

Peter’s attempt to put up a happy face is, uhm… not going great.

You would expect the Daily Bugle to be the one breaking the news about the Punisher, but nope, it’s a rival newspaper: the New York Star.
Which is another unexpected detail, as whenever we need to see one of the Bugle’s rivals it’s always the Daily Globe.

Yeah I’m kind on Jonah’s side this time, Peter.

And then SUDDEN BAZOOKA!!!

It’s clear that the Punisher’s twisted moral code hasn’t been established yet, because I don’t think nowadays he’d run the risk of killing innocent civilians like that.

Punisher’s tricks and his giant eyebrows manage to be surprisingly successful against Spider-Man…

…but he’s slightly out of his weight class.

Also possibly superhuman, considering that instead of having a concussion he still keeps fighting after THIS blow.

It’s quite clear that Spider-Man would have mopped the floor with him if it wasn’t for the Jackal.

Spider-Man escapes by crashing into a nearby office building…

…but at least he gets some clues out of this.

Isn’t it great that this storyline introduces the gritty Punisher, the nutty Jackal and the insane Spider-Mobile?

Meanwhile Mary Jane is talking to Professor Warren. This feels like a throwaway scene, but it’s quite significant as he’ll eventually be revealed to be the Jackal. He’s actually a much older character, debuting all the way back in Amazing Spider-Man #65, but he hasn’t done anything noteworthy so far.

You wouldn’t tell Conway inserted that scene to keep the professor in our minds, since the scene also continues the progression of Mary Jane’s relationship with Peter.

Back to the Punisher, he’s having an odd discussion with the Jackal. He doesn’t agree with letting Spider-Man die by falling to his death… which is a bit weird, considering he thinks he’s a criminal.
So blowing him up with a bazooka is more honorable?

The Punisher then leaves to meet with “the mechanic” who gave him the Wire-Gun™.
For a moment I wondered if we should retroactively consider this his future sidekick Microchip…

…but considering Spider-Man finds him dead, definitely not.

So naturally the Punisher assumes Spider-Man is the killer.

And once again: different weight class.

Instead of bringing the Punisher to the police, Spider-Man decides to talk things though… probably because he wants to know who the Jackal is.

Considering Punisher tried to murder him at the beginning of the story, it’s weird that he just LETS HIM GO.

And the story ends without telling us anything substantial about either the Punisher or the Jackal.

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Historical significance: 10/10
Both for the Jackal AND for the Punisher.

Silver Age-ness: 0/10
It’s not like the Jackal seen here is any more ridiculous than the OTHER Spider-Man villains!

Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
Not exactly an amazing outing. If you don’t know these characters will eventually have important roles, it would be easy to mistake them for minor one-off villains.

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How close is this to the modern Jackal? 2/10
We will learn the Jackal’s real identity in Amazing Spider-Man #148. It’s pretty random, considering Professor Warren was a VERY minor recurring character.

He’s the ultimate stalker, falling for Gwen Stacy SO much that after she dies he decides to create a clone of her.

Because he just saw her as a surrogate daughter. Riiiiiiight.

The Jackal is presumed dead in 1975, in what is today called the original Clone Saga.
It’s not until 1988’s “Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #8” that Gerry Conway thought to cover a glaring weakness of the original Jackal: how the heck did a college professor come up with cloning technology?
The answer came courtesy of Marvel’s favorite way to connect rectons: the High Evolutionary.

Because while it was silly to think that a college professor could clone a human being, the explanation was that a college professor created a virus can change a person into a duplicate of another one.
Sounds legit, I don’t know why they retconned this explanation into oblivion.

And that was it for the Jackal. Mostly forgotten by everyone and without Marvel resurrecting him with new clones over and over and over and over again with increasingly disappointing results.
That would just be silly.

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How close is this to the modern Punisher? 3 /
Gerry Conway is on record saying that the Punisher is directly influenced by the character Mack Bolan from the Executioner series.

I was fascinated by the Don Pendleton Executioner character, which was fairly popular at the time, and I wanted to do something that was inspired by that, although not to my mind a copy of it. And while I was doing the Jackal storyline, the opportunity came for a character who would be used by the Jackal to make Spider-Man’s life miserable. The Punisher seemed to fit.
GERRY CONWAY

Gerry Conway had envisioned the Punisher has having his skull logo way smaller and on one side of his chest, almost like a badge. Turning the skull into a symbol covering the whole torso was a John Romita idea, and Stan Lee came up with the name.

Gerry Conway was writing a script and he wanted a character that would turn out to be a hero later on, and he came up with the name the Assassin. And I mentioned that I didn’t think we could ever have a comic book where the hero would be called the Assassin, because there’s just too much of a negative connotation to that word. And I remembered that, some time ago, I had had a relatively unimportant character… was one of Galactus’ robots, and I had called him the Punisher, and it seemed to me that that was a good name for the character Gerry wanted to write—so I said, ‘Why not call him the Punisher?
STAN LEE

The idea of Conway wanting to eventually turn the Punisher into a good guy is somewhat supported by Spider-Man weird decision to let him go at the end of the story.

The Punisher had a few appearances on the Spider-Man books in the 70s. One of the most influential appearances was in Frank Miller’s Daredevil in 1982: it pretty much sets the standard on how the Punisher and regular superheroes interact.

Unfortunately Bill Mantlo had a less serious image of the Punisher, making him into a joke in Spectacular Spider-Man #82.
He shoots people for littering!

The Punisher’s big break came in 1986 with a critically acclaimed miniseries by Steven Grant and Mike Zeck.
It’s where he gets his origin story AND where we learn his name is Frank Castle.

And that’s when the Punisher becomes RIDICULOUSLY popular.
As of 2025 he’s had NINETEEN series!!! Notice there was a period in the 90s where he had THREE regular books.
1) Punisher vol.1, the mentioned 5 part miniseries
2) Punisher vol.2, lasting 104 issues from 1987 to 1995
3) Punisher War Journal vol.1, 80 issues lasting from 1988 to 1995
4) Punisher vol.3, lasting 18 issues from 1995 to 1997
5) Punisher War Zone vol.1, 41 issues lasting from 1992 to 1995
6) Punisher vol.4, the maligned “Angel Punisher” one, lasting a merciful 4 issues in 1998/99
7) Punisher vol.5, the Garth Ennis relaunch, lasting 12 issues in 2000/2001
8) Punisher vol.6, lasting 37 issues from 20001 to 2004
9) Punisher vol.7, lasting 65 issues from 2004 to 2009
10) Punisher War Journal vol.2, 26 issues lasting from 2006 to 2009
11) Punisher War Zone vol.2, 6 issues in 2009
12) Punisher vol.8, lasting 16 issues from 2009 to 2010
13) Punisher vol.9, again 16 issues, from 2011 to 2012
14) Punisher War Zone vol.3, 6 issues in 2013
15) Punisher vol.10, lasting 20 issues from 2014 to 2015
16) Punisher vol.11, lasting 17 issues from 2016 to 2017
17) Punisher vol.12, lasting 16 issues from 2018 to 2019
18) Punisher vol.13, lasting 12 issues from 2022 to 2023
19) Punisher vol.14, lasting 4 issues in 2024

So by regular series ALONE, that’s over 500 appearances! And that’s not even counting his frequent team-ups with other heroes and antiheroes.
Considering the average Punisher story has him kill a couple dozen criminals at the very least, he’s responsible for more deaths than several wars.

But you might also have noticed that, if we esclude his insane popularity in the 90s, he has struggled to keep a series that doesn’t close after 12 or 16 issues.
That’s why Marvel has repeatedly tried to make him more super.
He’s been an angel, a Frankenstein Monster, War Machine…

…but he always reverts to being a badass that shoots criminals.
And it’s not like he can’t be silly: to name just one, he has one of the most hilarious covers ever.

You would think a guy who just shoots criminals wouldn’t be able to sustain so many stories, but he can be shockingly complex. Gerry Conway nailed the reason why:

He’s a great Rorschach test. What’s given him some sustainability is, you can put into him whatever you want, as opposed to Spider-Man, who truly is who he is and shouldn’t be changed. The Punisher is a thin character on his own merits, but that allows for a lot of interpretations and different angles of approach.
GERRY CONWAY

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But the Punisher’s popularity has a darker side: his symbol has been adopted in real life by… let’s just say law enforcement people who the Punisher would gladly punish.
Gerry Conway has something to say about that:

To me, it’s disturbing whenever I see authority figures embracing Punisher iconography because the Punisher represents a failure of the Justice system. … The vigilante anti-hero is fundamentally a critique of the justice system, an example of social failure, so when cops put the Punisher’s skulls on their cars or members of the military wear Punisher’s skull patches, they’re basically siding with an enemy of the system.
GERRY CONWAY

As does the Punisher:

I don’t like bringing real life important topics into the escapism of my silly reviews, but I couldn’t let that aspect completely unaddressed.
When THE PUNISHER thinks you’ve gone too far, there’s definitely a problem.