WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for The Amazing Spider-Man: Full Circle #1 by Jonathan Hickman, Gerry Duggan, Nick Spencer, Kelly Thompson, Al Ewing, Chip Zdarsky, Jason Aaron, Chris Bachalo, Greg Smallwood, Michael Allred, Valerio Schiti, Chris Sprouse, Rachael Stott, Cameron Stewart, Mark Bagley, Tim Townsend, Al Vey, Karl Story, John Dell, Laura Allred, Mattia Iacono, Dave McCaig, Triona Farrell, Nathan Fairbairn, Frank D'Armata and VC's Joe Caramagna, on sale now.
The Amazing Spider-Man: Full Circle throws a lot of wild elements at the titular superhero. From an international conspiracy based out of a family theme park to a werewolf curse spreading around the world and the darkest version of Spider-Ham ever, this issue chronicles one of the most head-spinning days of Spider-Man's life.
However, the most shocking addition to the book might also be the most monumentally powerful: the issue introduces the greatest weapon on Earth, a Punisher who's been bonded with the Ultimate Nullifier.
Bringing A Nullifier To A Werewolf Fight
Throughout Spider-Man: Full Circle, attention is drawn to a mysterious crate that is held by A.I.M. scientists and apparently contains some kind of doomsday weapon. The weapon is hinted to be A.I.M.'s fail-safe to turn to in case something went wrong with their plan to infect the world with a werewolf curse, and Nick Fury openly believes it could be the end of the world. After dealing with an onslaught of absurdity, Fury and Spider-Man are two of the only people left on a crashing helicarrier.
With A.I.M. forces on their way to reclaim the weapon, Spider-Man accidentally ends up opening the crate and revealing that the doomsday weapon is a version of Frank Castle, the Punisher. Specifically, this version of the character has been fused with the Ultimate Nullifier.
Introduced in Fantastic Four #50 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the Ultimate Nullifier is one of the most powerful, devastating weapons in the entire Marvel Universe. It has the ability to completely destroy anything or anyone, regardless of power, and the Fantastic Four effectively used it to ward off Galactus. However, it also comes with the potential downside of also annihilating the user in the act if they aren't focused enough. Still, the Nullifier could even wipe out entire universes in the right hands.
Naturally, a trigger-happy, nihilistic vigilante like the Punisher is the last person you'd want to wield the Nullifier. Naturally, the Punisher promptly uses the Nullifier, engulfing the crashing helicarrier (and seemingly a large part of New York City) in a massive blast of light. Spider-Man only survives because of the time-bending aspects of this story, which end up sending Peter Parker all the way to the A.I.M. base before the crate was ever opened.
Thanks to characters like Cosmic Ghost Rider, different versions of Frank Castle have gotten some pretty big power upgrades over the past few years. Even though he has the power of a few different Marvel icons, he's nowhere near as strong as the Punisher with an Ultimate Nullifier.
The idea of Punisher, a one-man war machine with a singular drive and state of mind, getting a hold of the Ultimate Nullifier is a terrifying concept. It makes him capable of stopping any threat, or potentially even just wiping out all life in existence on a whim. Even though Spider-Man was able to keep the events of this issue from ever happening, the Punisher still carried out his final act of ultimate punishment in this issue, wiping out scores of lives in an instant.