Punisher 2099 was co-created by Pat Mills, one of the men behind the creation of Judge Dredd and the co-creator of Marshal Law. When Pat creates superheroes, he has a tendency to create them for satirical purpose and go over the top sowing what a bad idea the character would be in real life. And then hundreds of thousands of folk flock to celebrate the character, not realising they are missing the point.

To some extent that had already happened with The Punisher. Created as a bad guy for the Spider-Man books, but with a more morally grey area of justification than his other villains had, the character became more and more popular over time, regarded by the readers as a genuine hero

So Punisher 2099 had to be much more over the top than that to make the point. He was and it was still missed. Subsequent creators also failed to see much of the irony. As Marshal Law often said "I hunt heroes. Haven't found one."

Well, today, you have another chance. Punisher 2099 returns in today's Spider-Man 2099.

Aside from an appearance in the 2009 mini-series Timestorm, he hasn't been seen for almost two decades…

I do hope this isn't just a flying visit.