I just arrived at work today when I learned that the 2015 version of Secret Wars, a major storyline Marvel Comics is planning to release in May will also have a tie-in storyline set to be released in June called The Last Days where various Marvel Characters will experience their “last days” before several worlds collide to form Battleworld. Guess who’ll be among those experience their last days? Punisher!!

Cover to Punisher #19 by Mitch Gerads

That’s right! The Punisher of Earth 616 will be among those who will experience their “last days” before they face impending doom when various worlds collide to form BattleWorld. I became sadden and depressed about the news the moment I saw it on Comic Vine when I arrived at work today. Seriously, I honestly do not want to see Punisher get killed off for good. I’m with a lot of people who are die hard fans of The Punisher who wants Frank to live, survive, and continue his personal war against the Criminal Mob. Here’s what the short summary says about Punisher #19.

Written by NATHAN EDMONDSON
Art & Cover by MITCH GERADS
THE END IS NIGH!

• · One of the Punisher’s allies falls. Someone’s picked the wrong fight.
• · The Punisher steps back into a War Zone.
• · Frank Castle is out for punishment, but the clock is ticking…

The clock is ticking all right. But here’s my way of dealing with “The Last Days” tie-in in which I made up a different scenario that reveals what will happen to The Punisher of Earth 616 when the end of the Marvel Universe as we know it comes. Instead of being killed, he’ll be rescued at the last minute… by Brainiac from The DC Universe along with various other Marvel characters when Brainiac arrives to salvage a city with everyone inside it including Punisher, Electra, and various others Marvel Heroes and Villains and get transported to an area outside time, space, and dimensions where they’ll end up participating in the DC comics’ upcoming Convergence storyline where Brainiac has been going around salvaging 40 cities from various worlds and universes on the brink of destruction and subjected them to an experiment to see how will the citizens react when they see different versions of each other for the first time, only to face off against a powerful villain named Telos who takes advantage of the whole situation later on. Then it will be all out war for The Punisher and the rest of the heroes and villains from both Marvel and DC Universes as they fight to defeat both Brainiac and Telos and save the day! Then the Marvel characters will find a way to return back to their own universe where they belong and resume their everyday lives– on BattleWorld.
The Convergence storyline takes place at the same time as The Secret Wars storyline which is how I got the idea for that particular scenario I made up to salvage Frank of Earth 616 along with various other characters of Earth 616 from the impending doom. It may not be what the guys at Marvel and DC Comics had in mind, but this is what I imagine if I was making up the Secret Wars storyline myself.
The concept of killing off a comics character is nothing new. Over the years, Marvel killed off various characters such as Captain America and Wolverine and brought them all back to life. Even The Punisher of Earth 616 experience this unpleasant ordeal when Marvel killed off the character and brought him back to life as Franken Castle before reverting him back to his normal human self after they received a major backlash from those who hated the Franken Castle character and would rather have Punisher be back to exactly what he was before he was killed by Daken. They killed off various incarnations of The Punisher as well, including the Max version of The Punisher. But they also spared and created more incarnations of The Punisher, keeping him and his image and legacy alive. That’s what I want to see Marvel Comics do– salvage Punisher from Earth 616! Rescue him from the impending doom. Don’t kill him off. Just keep him, Ms. Marvel, and Spider man alive and pull them though!