Key Issue Notes
First appearance of Microchip
First appearance of Microchip Jr.
First appearance of Church of the Saved
First appearance of Samuel Smith
First appearance of Keena
First appearance of Ray White
First appearance of Vickie White
First appearance of Melissa White
As most of us already know, The Punisher is going to be coming out on Netflix, hopefully, anytime now, although there has been no official release date as of yet. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing how they will have Mr. Castle portrayed and am more excited to see this Netflix series more than I have been for the past few that they have released.
But I digress.
Looking over the key issue notes above, you'd think that there's a lot that make this a worthy key issue, but there is really only one real reason that this comic has any significance at this time. The reason being the first appearance of Microchip. All of the other appearances are very minor, but they are first appearances, and no matter how minor they might be, they still make up a key issue status and therefore, I will make mention of them.
I'm not going to go too in depth for these minor characters. Most of them don't really make any appearances outside of this story line, so there really isn't much to talk about anyway.
The Punisher, Microchip Jr and Microchip |
Up next we have the first appearance of Louis Frohike. No relation to Frohike from the Lone Gunmen I'm sure. Louis is the bastard son of David Lieberman, and he is also great with computer programming and hacking, and he took his place by his fathers side as Microchip Jr. Junior only has a handful of appearances in comics so I don't seem making an appearance on the small, or big screen anytime soon.
Ray White |
Now, what is the Church of the Saved? When I was reading the story, I could only think about the events that happened in Waco Tx. in early 1993. I'll get into why in a second.
The leader of the Church of the Saved is Rev. Samuel Smith. He is a man with a gift. He has a silver tongue, but he also has "abilities". They call it The Touch. It's never really explain what The Touch is, but from what I read, it would seem that Smith has the power of persuasion, as well as the ability to heal others. I know, I know, he doesn't really sound like that bad of a guy, but here's where I got a connection to Waco.
Rev. Samuel Smith |
Anyway, the Punisher goes up against Rev. Smith and the the Church of the Saved and in the end the, the church is disbanded.
Oops, I almost forgot to talk about Keena. He was a troubled, drug abusing kid that found his way to the Church of the Saved with the intent to rob them. Smith got to him, probably using the "Touch", and eventually Keena joined the church and became Rev. Smith's right hand man and body guard, seeing as how big the dude is.
Keena |
Variants
To the best of my knowledge, there are only direct and newsstand versions of this comic. I couldn't find anything on foreign editions. That doesn't mean they don't exist though.
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Even before I looked at the CGC census, I knew that the numbers for this issue were going to be low. This is a relatively minor key issue after all. However, of the 56 copies that are listed, well over half (34) have been graded at 9.8 NM/M. If you're looking for an already graded, high grade copy of this comic, there are some out there, but I would think that your best be would be to find a nice high grade raw copy. Maybe hold onto it for a little while and see if this comic takes off and gets a nice bump in value or not. Because, as of right now, they are not doing much of anything as you will see in the next section.
Values
Values for Punisher #4 on GoCollect |
So, if you're looking for a sleeper for a quick flip for a profit, you may want to look for another comic at this time. But, if you want a very high grade key issue comic just to have in your collection, this might be a comic that you could consider. Either way, I wish you luck on your hunt.
Find a copy here
eBay - ComicLink - MyComicShop - ComicConnect
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