Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #201, Amazing Spider-Man #202
Cover Date: Feb-Mar 80
Title: "Man-hunt!" / "One for those long gone!"
Credits:
Marv Wolfman - Writer
Keith Pollard - Penciler
Jim Mooney - Inker

Review/plot:
Someone finally figures out that no one is actually around when all these pictures of Spider-Man that wind up in the newspapers are being taken. Luckily, the person who figures it out is the Punisher, and he's a little unhinged. So after Peter Parker 'explains' that he and Spider-Man have an arrangement, the Punisher decides not to kill him. It was a cute little scene though, with a cliffhanger leaving the audience thinking that the Punisher has figured out that Peter is Spider-Man.

Beyond that, Spidey and the Punisher team up to fight some criminals. The Punisher is still using mercy bullets, but he's definitely psycho.

So is J. Jonah Jameson, who is running around accusing everyone of being against him and not making much progress at the psychiatrist's.

Helping fuel his paranoia is the fact that Joe Robertson has been put in charge of the Bugle.

I dunno, i guess my complaint about this arc is that everyone's a little too crazy.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Jameson confirms that he did not get a chance to see Spider-Man's identity when they were handcuffed together in Amazing Spider-Man #192

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Tales #218, Marvel Tales #219

This is the last appearance the Punisher makes in Amazing Spider-Man for a while. His next few appearances in Marvel continuity eventually show him to be just plain bonkers, and in a Bill Mantlo-written "Peter Parker" story, he actually gets committed. I suspect this was a sort-of disposing of another "disposable character" at the time, and he probably would have stayed disposed if Frank Miller hadn't wanted to use him in Daredevil. Hard to believe these days, but the Punisher wasn't always a total fan favorite--for example, the b&w Marvel Super-Action #1 ran letters on the Punisher's first solo story in Marvel Preview #2 from 1975, and about half the letters stated he was a repulsive, unheroic homicidal lunatic. Since there was no solo continuing Punisher series during the 1970s, I'm guessing a majority of readers felt the same way.

sad how people change. i guess back in the 70s people were not as inundated with "vigelante killer heros" as now so an anti-hero like the punisher can become a "good guy"

According to Comics Journal #51, there were supposed to be further Marv Wolfman stories here drawn by Steve Leialoha(with the Vulture), Marie Severin, and Will Meugniot, but Wolfman instead quit for DC over Jim Shooter overruling Marv's editing decisions(most notably removing his editorship of the B&W Tomb of Dracula backup features).

fnord12. I have the Marvel Tales version of this (I didn't know that Marvel Tales was reprints at the time) and the splash is different to the 1st panel you have. It's at a completely different angle (you don't see Parker face on) and he says "What in the World?" instead of "wha--?the Punisher! Do you, or anyone else know why it has been redrawn and has this happened in other Marvel Tales.?

I can answer that. the first panel fnord posted is not the splash of #202 but the final panel of #201 (or vise versa, i'd have to get out my comics to check) The same cliffhanger scene in the final panel and the splash of the subsequent issue.

Duhh! Makes total sense, now. Thank you, Kveto.