By John Nugent | Posted 5 Sep 2017

With a brand new issue of Empire nearing the horizon, here's another little taste of what you can expect inside its mighty pages. Marvel's The Punisher arrives on Netflix this Autumn, and as well as visiting the Brooklyn set of the new series, we managed to get our hands on a brand new and world exclusive image. Take a look below, and click to embiggen.

Taken from a flashback, the image shows Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle in his pre-Punisher days, geared up to the nines in tactical sniper gear as a veteran of the US Marine Corps. It suggests we'll get to know a little more about Frank's backstory and how he became the ruthless murdering vigilante we all know and love.

The 13-episode series, largely separate from the Defenders storylines, will focus on Castle's vengeful killing, a habit prompted by watching his wife and child brutally murdered. “It’s the only thing that silences the demons, temporarily,” says Bernthal of Castle's killing sprees. “There’s going to be an attempt to move beyond the Punisher, but that’s something he can’t shake. There’s part of me that’s hungry to get back into the darkness, that’s excited to see it fall apart."

For more on The Punisher, plus a metric tonne of other movie and TV exclusives, make sure you pick up a copy of Empire issue #341, on sale this Thursday. Get your copy before everyone else by subscribing to Empire here.