Joe Garrison (Marvel)
Joe Garrison is a male comic character who features in Marvel Comics.
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Biography
Joe Garrison
Garrison was originally an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. gaining a reputation as the agency's 'gravedigger' during his time there. Among his assignments included assassinating Hydra generals and wiping out Latverian splinter cells. After a while, he left the agency and fell in love with a woman named Stephanie. The two would marry and have two kids: a son named Danny and a daughter named Laura. (Punisher v14 #1) At some point, Stephanie came to work at a company as a secretary where she was involved in some of its financial affairs. (Punisher v14 #2) Tragically, Joe's peaceful life came to an end at the hands of Sergei Federov, an operative known as the Sokovian, who planted numerous explosives within the Garrison house. When Joe returned home with groceries one day, the explosives went off, killing Stephanie, Danny and Laura. Determined to avenge his family, Joe went on the run, enlisting the help of his former S.H.I.E.L.D. handler Triple-A. (Punisher v14 #1)
In his search for the Sokovian, he tracked his quarry to The Black Dragon Club that was a popular haunt of the Inner Demons gang and had been a haven for all sorts of criminals. Taking out the lights, Garrison demanded that Federov be handed over to him for his crimes but the Inner Demons revealed that they had been hired to protect the Sokovian. A fight erupted where Garrison killed the Inner Demon gang members but the Sokovian managed to escape during the chaos. Joe then decided to rendezvous back at the bunker with Triple-A. By this point, the incident at the bar had attracted the attention of the media where eye-witnesses mistook Garrison's armor for having a skull symbol on it. Thus, the public thought that this marked the return of either the Punisher or someone new who had taken on the mantle. Meanwhile, police investigation of Garrison's home led to the authorities to conclude that Joe had been responsible for the death of his own family. This resulted in a large manhunt being deployed for him. (Punisher v14 #1)
Following The Sokovian's signal, Joe found him in the midst of a deal with Doctor Calvin Zabo, who had promised the assassin passage out of the country in exchange for ten million dollars in Mutant Growth Hormone. Discovering Doctor Zabo's hidden base within a maintenance tunnel, Joe disrupted the deal, forcing Zabo to mutate into his alter ego: Mister Hyde. With his superhuman abilities, Zabo managed to maintain the upper hand against Joe until he was force-fed the Mutant Growth Hormone he'd been after all at once, causing the criminal doctor to seemingly die from his overdose. With Zabo incapacitated, Joe continued his pursuit of The Sokovian, who took an innocent woman hostage at knifepoint in an attempt to escape from his would-be killer. Nevertheless, Joe still managed to put an end to his family's killer, managing to safely fire a bullet through a passing train into The Sokovian's skull. Unable to take solace in his death, Joe continued in his quest to avenge his family, now seeking to track down the person who had hired The Sokovian to kill them. (Punisher v14 #1)
Seeking further leads, he decided to approach the crime lord known as the Offer. He came to locate the villain to his lair and snuck into the building where he easily dealt with the guards. After being sighted by security cameras, the Offer dispatched the Night Shift against what he believed to be was the Punisher. Quickly sighting the supervillains, Joe came to take each down one by one starting with the Eel. He next fought against Finesse who he defeated by using Eel's electric discharge gloves to render her unconscious. Garrison was then ambushed by the new Doughboy but Joe used his ballistic armor to defeat the shapeshifting enemy. Continuing through the building, he was then confronted by Bushwacker. From Triple-A, Garrison learnt that his foes body involved heavy use of plastics and he switched to incendiary rounds as a result. Joe was nearly cornered but triggered pre-placed explosives that buried Bushwacker under debris. This allowed Garrison to finally confront the Offer who was well aware of the Gravedigger of S.H.I.E.L.D. In exchange for his life, the new Punisher wanted to know information about who was responsible for killing his family. From there, he discovered it was a covert unit funded through the dark web for 10 million dollars but the target was actually Joe's wife. In her secretarial work, she had flagged some unusual payments that brought her to the attention of some bad people. Despite giving this information, Garrison threw the Offer out the window where he survived after falling on a car where despite being badly injured came to live from this encounter. (Punisher v14 #2)
From the Offer, Garrison learnt that the people responsible did some of their operations from an industrial estate by the pier. Thus, he came to head to the location when he was attacked by Fearmaster who infected Joe with her terror compounds. This forced him to go on the run whilst the police were also looking to arrest him. At the time, the authorities resources were limited as the city was in the grip of a Gang War. The entire time, Joe experienced horri (Punisher v14 #3)
Overview
Personality and attributes
Whilst working for S.H.I.E.L.D., he operated as a black-ops agent where he came to be referred to as the Gravedigger. Following the Black Dragon Club massacre, the public came to mistake the S.H.I.E.L.D. ballistic chest plate for being a skull symbol and came to refer to Garrison as the new Punisher. (Punisher v14 #1)
As the Gravedigger of S.H.I.E.L.D., he was noted to have had 84 confirmed kills. (Punisher v14 #2)
He saw every opportunity as being a weapon he could use to achieve his goals. (Punisher v14 #1)
Garrison believed that he could never escape the blood that he had on his hands. After his family's death, he believed that the punishment for his crimes had only just begun. (Punisher v14 #1) He blamed himself as he thought he had been responsible for the death of his family. However, he later came to learn that the true reason his family died was because his wife was doing the right thing which made her the target of a hit. Joe had believed that the truth would free him of his demons but this revelation simply tormented him even more so. (Punisher v14 #2)
Joe Garrison was married with his wife being Stephanie Garrison with the couple having two children. They were a son named Danny Garrison and a daughter named Laura Garrison. According to Joe, Laura had an adventurous spirit that she took after her mother. Stephanie deeply loved her husband and believed him to be a good man. (Punisher v14 #1) She was said to had been a secretary who watched over the accounts of a company. (Punisher v14 #2)
Among his closest associates was his fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Triple-A who handled his equipment and provided support for him. She continued to aid him even after S.H.I.E.L.D. had disbanded and Garrison went on his crusade to avenge his family. (Punisher v14 #1)
Powers and abilities
Joe Garrison was a human being born with all the natural traits of the species. (Punisher v14 #1)
He could wear smart lens that appeared as contacts over his eyes. These fed a visual HUD and data over to the support team monitoring him. In addition, he wore an earpiece so that he could remain in constant communication with his support team. (Punisher v14 #1)
For battle, he wore a special S.H.I.E.L.D. ballistic chest plate whose features had a vague resemblance to a human skull. (Punisher v14 #1) The ballistic armor could be triggered to explode outwards to deal with enemies near him without harming Garrison himself. (Punisher v14 #2)
One particular ammunition were reaper bullets where each round emitted a tracking signal. (Punisher v14 #1) He could switch his ammunition to incendiary rounds to put his target on fire. (Punisher v14 #2)
Another weapon in his arsenal was a rail gun which when operating at a full magnetic charge could punch a hole through a tank. However, if modulated, the frequency of each round could instead magnetise any nearby metal. (Punisher v14 #1)
It was shown that he made use of explosives that he could plant on walls to remove obstacles from his path. (Punisher v14 #1)
Garrison was a member of S.H.I.E.L.D. where he was kept off the books. (Punisher v14 #1)
Notes
- Joe Garrison was created by David Pepose and Dave Wachter where he made his first appearance in Punisher v14 #1 (November, 2023).
- On Comicsbeat, Pepose wrote in an interview, "Joe is the kind of guy who’s kind of buried the past, and unfortunately, nothing really stays buried forever. He wasn’t just a SHIELD agent, he was a SHIELD wetworks agent, Black Ops. He was tasked with performing all sorts of lethal business as the Gravedigger of SHIELD. And over the course of his career, he found another way to take his life, another path forward, and that was the path of family, the path of peace. And so what winds up happening is, somebody blows up Joe’s house with his family still inside. The police, not knowing anything about Joe’s record, because it’s been so heavily redacted, they think, ‘Well, we can’t find the husband, the husband must be involved. He’s a person of interest at minimum, prime suspect at best, we need to bring him in.’ And so I’ve pitched this Punisher series as John Wick meets The Fugitive, where Joe’s opening mission, and sort of our origin story with him, is him trying to figure out who set him up and why."
- In an interview on CBR, Pepose commented on the differences between Joe Garrison and Frank Castle, "Joe is certainly no stranger to death and destruction, given the bloody jobs he used to execute for S.H.I.E.L.D. back in the day, but I'd say, unlike Frank Castle, Joe hasn't had the time to marinate in his tragedy. That allows readers to really follow Joe's mindset as he undertakes this mission. By the time we met Frank Castle, he'd already decided to become the Punisher. For Joe, this decision might take some time... But I think even the way Joe approaches a situation tactically might differ from how Frank might have done it. I liken Frank to a wrecking ball, whereas Joe is all about finesse. Joe is the kind of guy who darts through crowds of enemies, meticulously picking them off one at a time in what looks almost like a beautifully choreographed way -- I mean, if you're not on the receiving end of those S.H.I.E.L.D. guns, of course."
Appearances
- Punisher v14: (2023)
- Daredevil: Woman Without Fear v2:
External Links
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